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It's July. Where's WMEX?

I wonder if Ed is having second thoughts about the format he is expected to place on this station -- oldies from the '60s (or before) and '70s. The most recent songs played would be 40 years old, which means that only a tiny sliver of the station's potential listeners would have positive memories of it from their teenage years. Who is going to advertise on such a station. I can't imagine he'll be selling spots on WMEX as a package with WATD, first because the stations will serve different areas, second because who has any idea how many people listen to the musical hodgepodge that WATD programs anyway?

Seeing as how the original WMEX call was history in Boston well before the end of the '70s, what's the point of this whole bizarre endeavor?
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
im not questioning the legalties.. im just saying.. these stations will never amount to much, if they even ever get back on
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If there was any chance of them being anything close to break even, they would not have gone belly up by the previous seven or eight owners.

Ed Perry has always marched to a different drum, and he has done great things with WATD FM and the T.I.C., just getting 95.9 on the air back in the 70's was a act of genius IMHO, I remember the first time I drove by the original studio on Ocean Street as a teenage radio geek I was happy to see a new radio station in town.

I have a lot of admiration for The Old Troll OF Rock And Roll, there is one thing he does that irks me to no end ( not paying some of the overnight talent) but otherwise he is up there with Simon Gellar in my book.

WBMS .... OK I understand that.... but WMEX? He can't keep one AM on the air and he tries to get two on the air simultaneously? Plus translators!

Sometimes me thinks there needs to be an intervention over there on Enterprise Drive
 
What's that old song?

"This is my quest, to follow that star ...
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ...
To fight for the right, without question or pause ...
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause …"

Everybody has a dream. Perhaps this will be the first song he'll play.
 
There's the nostalgic part of us, and the business reality. It's true there are more than a few of us who wouldn't mind getting back that old music and having it on "WMEX 1510" and the eventual 101.1 FM translator. It may do "OK", break even, but will
it make money? The previous owners had a conservative/libertarian talk format and were pretty excited about doing their thing but the tower rent was killing them. Now it, like KQV in Pittsburgh, is a "heritage AM station that went silent but
could make it back onto the air". Ed could well make it happen but time is running short. As I pointed out when WODS dumped oldies--2012 I think, "a day before the format change, one of the songs 103.3 was playing was I Want To Hold Your
Hand--that was from 1964"--and at that point, in 2012, someone who was 12 years old in '64 would have been 60 then. Yes, that was as far back as their music mix went and they did have a lot of 70s and even some 80s.

Are there enough of us old timers (OK, I'm 57) out there to make it work? And remember these days if you want the oldies there are other sources including stuff online if you want it. Youtube, satellite radio, streaming stations. God bless the
iconoclastic stations like WJIB that play what they want...and let's hope WMEX does make it back on but does oldies plus South Shore news and sports work out? You have stations like WBOQ and WROR updating themselves by going to the 80s
and dumping 60s music...time...marches on...

A friend gave me an aircheck of KLIV San Jose, playing classic country. I liked it. But it was recorded just before the station went silent (Jan. of this year). It had been sold and there were "additional financial losses and low ratings with the 'Country Gold' classic country format" (--Wikipedia). An announcement was heard saying they would soon be leaving the air and hated to do it. "We thank our fans. The problem is, there just aren't enough of you."
Oldies shows and stations are great! My WMWM has Uncle Henry's Basement playing doo wop and has been doing so since 1989. But would a revived WMEX work with oldies? I'm comparing a non-comm station here to a commercial one... IF anything maybe there would be the oldies shows, yes, but the focus may well be on "South Shore News and Sports" and maybe more recent music.
 
raccoonradio said:
There's the nostalgic part of us, and the business reality. Ed could well make it happen but time is running short. As I pointed out when WODS dumped oldies--2012 I think, "a day before the format change, one of the songs 103.3 was playing was I Want To Hold Your
Hand--that was from 1964"--and at that point, in 2012, someone who was 12 years old in '64 would have been 60 then. Yes, that was as far back as their music mix went and they did have a lot of 70s and even some 80s.
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This just made me think... but from a manager's perspective and not of the 12-year-old kid.

When I played "I Want To Hold Your Hand" for the first time, it was during the first day on the air of my own first radio station. I was 17, and all I knew was that I had wanted to run a top 40 station and suddenly we were on the air and I was scared that nobody would like the music or the station.

So the bond I have with that song is in the memory of having been so crazy as to have built a Top 40 station where there appeared to be no need for one, with no business knowledge and a suit I had bought to put on and try to sell advertising in. How could I have been so stupid?

Stupid or not, it's a memory of huge proportions.

But aren't all strong oldies songs the ones that each listener associates with a powerful, rich memory from the past? And that is why we don't understand when younger folks don't feel the same about the songs.... it's just that they don't have those vivid and marvelous memories that, for us, an older generation, are attached to every big song of the era.
 
CTListener said:
... I can't imagine he'll be selling spots on WMEX as a package with WATD, first because the stations will serve different areas, second because who has any idea how many people listen to the musical hodgepodge that WATD programs anyway?
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I'd think there will be a lot of signal overlap between the two. 1510 WMEX will transmit ND from the Milton/Quincy line, the from the WBIX site by the Neponset River. By day, the 10kW signal will cover all of the South Shore well, including all of WATD's coverage area.

Though WATD is spotty in Boston proper, it still covers Quincy well. Its signal is good along the coastal South Shore most everywhere south of the Neponset Bridge .

The 1510 WMEX 100 watt night signal "testing" last year didn't get much out of Milton/Quincy (well), but its small coverage area is still within where WATD is heard, and the proposed WMEX translator on 101.1 FM in Weymouth will give WMEX another section of the South Shore closer within WATD's primary coverage area.
 
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raccoonradio said:
WMEX 1510 and WBMS 1460 haven't returned to air yet but "Larry Nelson (no relation to me) WATD" on facebook is sharing pictures of their studios under construction (at the ATD bldg in Marshfield, I'd think--Perry gave me a tour once)

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1748313105313419&id=302600619884682
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So finally, a certain someone will be able to broadcast from their beloved fair next summer(brockton? Marshfield? I forget) on the "new and I know it'll be a huge hit" WMEX?
 
raccoonradio said:
WMEX 1510 and WBMS 1460 haven't returned to air yet but "Larry Nelson (no relation to me) WATD" on facebook is sharing pictures of their studios under construction (at the ATD bldg in Marshfield, I'd think--Perry gave me a tour once)

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1748313105313419&id=302600619884682
Click to expand...

So all that's holding up the return of these two stations is studio construction? Why cant they just use the existing WATD studios, or phone shows in from home, or put Ed's 2,000 "oh wow" hits, near-hits and chart stiffs on a hard drive and let the music run 24/7 until the studios are ready? This is getting ridiculous.
 
CTListener said:
So all that's holding up the return of these two stations is studio construction? Why cant they just use the existing WATD studios, or phone shows in from home, or put Ed's 2,000 "oh wow" hits, near-hits and chart stiffs on a hard drive and let the music run 24/7 until the studios are ready? This is getting ridiculous.
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Why bother spending manpower and time (with a very small in-house crew, not spending money hiring contractors) to jerry-rig temporary facilities? That would only delay the final product even longer. All present WATD facilities are in use for WATD, there was no other studio to use. New studios are being built in the same building by repurposing other spaces.
 
CTListener said:
This is getting ridiculous.
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It's what you get when you don't have the finances of a big profit-making corporation behind you. I once worked for a small operator who spent over 5 years in temporary make shift facilities because they simply didn't have the bucks to take the next stop. The biggest challenge was paying the endless monthly bills and meeting payroll. Between the engineering, the equipment, the legal, and the insurance, it takes a while, and sometimes the wait becomes very frustrating.
 
TheBigA said:
It's what you get when you don't have the finances of a big profit-making corporation behind you.
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So after Ed Perry was up to his earlobes in delays and having to find a suitable transmitter site for the Brockton AM and the associated FM translator which has never gotten up to speed and is under frequent STA , he doubles down and buys the license of another failed AM, manages to get a translator approved for it, and can't get that one on the air either.

What happened to the FCC cracking down on endless STA's for stations that have little chance of getting back on the air in a reasonable length of time?

Marshfield Broadcasting has never been known as a big money station, it must be taking every extra dime to do this, and there are licenses that were bought that had to be paid for.... that have not made penny one in return.

The difference between a corporation with stock holders, or even privately held, and Marshfield Broadcasting is every other corporate entity expects to make a R.O.I. and in a reasonable length of time. Cripes you can take an operating loss for a while as long as it is not more than the costs associated with just shutting it down. I don't see how the additional AM's or their translators makes economic sense even as an asset you think may appreciate in the future.
 
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MRBIboredop said:
What happened to the FCC cracking down on endless STA's for stations that have little chance of getting back on the air in a reasonable length of time?
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Did they ever say they were going to "crack down" on these things? Consider the number of LPFMs that have gone unbuilt.

Truthfully, what choice does the FCC have? Not like there's a line of people wanting to build low power AMs. Most of them are either dark or on the verge. The FCC is just happy and thrilled that someone is still operating licensed stations rather than running a pirate.
 
MRBIboredop said:
What happened to the FCC cracking down on endless STA's for stations that have little chance of getting back on the air in a reasonable length of time?
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The FCC has always been quite tolerant and even supportive of licensees who are making significant efforts to return to the air or to return to licensed facilities.

There have been cases of stations losing transmitter sites through no fault of their own, such as land being seized through eminent domain or landowner refusal to renew a lease, where the FCC has waited years and years for such stations to get new locations, go through the often formidable and time consuming zoning process and then build a facility.
 
If and when they get on there will be a mix of oldies and South Shore news/talk/ sports.New studios being constructed for them, more than just a 95.9 simulcast. Maybe a couple oldies shows per day, not a full format but some want it..and the dial position and calls mean something to them.It's not like "coming soon, oldies on WLYN 1360 Lynn!" (not happening; just an example).

Nostalgia and desire by some fans.

As for donations, that's more like what Bittner does with his stations--commercial technically but they fundraise.That's how they put the FM translators on in Cambridge and Bath ME.
 
spt87 said:
Tired of waiting for what? They were just simulcasting WATD before they went dark again so you can hear the programming on WATD or online.
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Snappy Answer, but not much thought going into it.
Perry has different plans for WMEX 1510
 
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