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1250 "The River"?

cyberdad

cyberdad

Another week, Another mystery....

About 4am CDT this morning, I was on 1250, when I heard country music break through the slop, followed by a branding slogan "The River", then whatever I was hearing faded back into the mess. So later today, I went online to see if I could determine what I had heard. When I googled "1250 The River" what came up was WGL, Fort Wayne Indiana. No website. But what amounted to sketchy and potentially conflicting information.

From what I could gather, WGL had been running a news-talk and/or sports format until it "temporarily" went dark last year due to Covid (according to the Wikipedia article). Whether WGL is actually back on the air, and if so, with what sort of format, was somewhat unclear from what I was able to find out. There was no mention of "country" among the various formats ascribed to WGL at one time or another, and no mention of "The River" in anything I read. Yet the search term "The River 1250" resulted in WGL coming up twice. Along with a nugget seeming to indicate that WGL had in the not too distant past run a news-talk format, but with satellite delivered music overnights.

So that's my dead end. Do any of you guys know what might be going on with WGL? Is it even on the air? Does "The River" branding on 1250 even exist for WGL (or anywhere else? Or what else might I have heard? Complicating things is the fact is that WGL's 1,500-watt night pattern has a deep null in my direction. Which would explain why I've never heard this station before.

If I DID hear WGL, the distance would have been 177 miles.
 
WGL would have to protect WEMP/WSSP 1250 quite well in your general direction. With translators, many AMs are trying music formats again, adding to the confusion.
 
cyberdad said:
Another week, Another mystery....

About 4am CDT this morning, I was on 1250, when I heard country music break through the slop, followed by a branding slogan "The River", then whatever I was hearing faded back into the mess. So later today, I went online to see if I could determine what I had heard. When I googled "1250 The River" what came up was WGL, Fort Wayne Indiana. No website. But what amounted to sketchy and potentially conflicting information.

From what I could gather, WGL had been running a news-talk and/or sports format until it "temporarily" went dark last year due to Covid (according to the Wikipedia article). Whether WGL is actually back on the air, and if so, with what sort of format, was somewhat unclear from what I was able to find out. There was no mention of "country" among the various formats ascribed to WGL at one time or another, and no mention of "The River" in anything I read. Yet the search term "The River 1250" resulted in WGL coming up twice. Along with a nugget seeming to indicate that WGL had in the not too distant past run a news-talk format, but with satellite delivered music overnights.

So that's my dead end. Do any of you guys know what might be going on with WGL? Is it even on the air? Does "The River" branding on 1250 even exist for WGL (or anywhere else? Or what else might I have heard? Complicating things is the fact is that WGL's 1,500-watt night pattern has a deep null in my direction. Which would explain why I've never heard this station before.

If I DID hear WGL, the distance would have been 177 miles.
Click to expand...
WGL hasn't been "The River" for many years now. That was a soft AC format a decade or so ago.

The station was sold last year to Brian Walsh, who moved it from the site south of Fort Wayne where it had been since the 1940s. That facility was also the studio for WGL and its sister stations under Adams Broadcasting, and Adams stayed at that facility after selling WGL.

WGL is operating under an STA (BSTA - 20210322AAN) with 580 watts day, 250 watts night, diplexed from the site of Walsh's other station, WIOE 1450 (ex-WLYV, and another former Adams station.) Eventually it will be licensed from that WIOE tower, probably with even less than 250 watts at night.

The format is mostly news (a simulcast of the CBSN streaming channel) with some talk as well. It has a translator, W288EI, on 105.5. The AM is just there to keep the translator alive.
 
Probably WGL running “The River” during the night since that was their prior format and no other station has that branding on 1250 AM. There is no way to tell since they don’t stream online so unless someone on here is in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area and can confirm, this might remain a mystery.
 
I'll be there tomorrow night and will check, but I have no reason to believe there's any music or "River" branding running on WGL now. Walsh bought only the license and callsign from Adams.
 
If it's not WGL, another one you might want to look into is WLEM in Emporium, PA. They are indeed called "The River" and broadcast at 2.5 KW during the day. So it's possible they had started up early... sunrise there is about 4:45 CDT. The format is listed as classic hits though.
 
MichaelTheZ said:
If it's not WGL, another one you might want to look into is WLEM in Emporium, PA. They are indeed called "The River" and broadcast at 2.5 KW during the day. So it's possible they had started up early... sunrise there is about 4:45 CDT. The format is listed as classic hits though.
Click to expand...
I concur that its likely WLEM Emporium, PA. I lived 25 miles away in Ridgway for 4 years and never knew WLEM to mis behave, powering up early or powering down late. (Lived on the hill south of Ridgway when i was on air for country giant 97.5 The Hound WDDH)

sister station WQKY 98.9 is actually the one called The River and all references to their online presence for both stations is theriver989.com .

BUT WLEM runs seperate programming.. and you may have heard a reference to The River on WLEM, last i knew.. I thought WLEM ran country music. WQKY is a rock based classic hits station, @cyberdad
 
Thanks, guys, for your responses. I concur that WLEM may be the most plausible explanation. Even though my Google search of "The River" and "1250" brought up WGL. I did suspect that WGL might be on STA, as well as the only reason for the AM even being operational was to drive a translator. But what other shreds of info I was able to gather just didn't seem to add up. The lack of a website also didn't help me. As for nighttime operation, the authorized pattern appears designed to not only protect WEMP/WSSP as well as whatever the Pittsburgh 1250 is calling itself theres days. Maybe also even the Toronto area 1250 (ex-CHWO).

As for WLEM, The classic rock format could fit what I heard. I only had the signal for less than a minute and it was weak. Under those circumstances, a snippet of a classic rock track could easily sound similar to a riff from a modern or outlaw country tune. Also, if WLEM was on 2.5 kw, it could have easily made the hop to my location. Especially with WSSP missing for whatever reason. Something that's actually not all that uncommon.

Or, as Radioman suggested, I could just pick up the phone and call WGL...and/or WLEM. ......Nah! Too easy! :)

I did visit 1250 again this morning around 4:30 CDT. This time I mostly heard WSSP. There WAS music underneath from time to time, but there were also other signals, and I couldn't ID any of it.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
Sounds like the tower site was sold, and it would be just 580 watts Day, but nondirectional from the WANE...WIOE 1450 site.
Click to expand...
Answered above - but it's not the tower site that was sold, in this case. The former tower (and studio) site stayed with Adams, which kept the rest of the cluster that's based there. Only the WGL AM license was sold to Brian Walsh, and yes, it's a 580 day/250 night ND STA from the 1450 site east of downtown.
 
cyberdad said:
Thanks, guys, for your responses. I concur that WLEM may be the most plausible explanation. Even though my Google search of "The River" and "1250" brought up WGL. I did suspect that WGL might be on STA, as well as the only reason for the AM even being operational was to drive a translator. But what other shreds of info I was able to gather just didn't seem to add up. The lack of a website also didn't help me. As for nighttime operation, the authorized pattern appears designed to not only protect WEMP/WSSP as well as whatever the Pittsburgh 1250 is calling itself theres days. Maybe also even the Toronto area 1250 (ex-CHWO).

As for WLEM, The classic rock format could fit what I heard. I only had the signal for less than a minute and it was weak. Under those circumstances, a snippet of a classic rock track could easily sound similar to a riff from a modern or outlaw country tune. Also, if WLEM was on 2.5 kw, it could have easily made the hop to my location. Especially with WSSP missing for whatever reason. Something that's actually not all that uncommon.

Or, as Radioman suggested, I could just pick up the phone and call WGL...and/or WLEM. ......Nah! Too easy! :)

I did visit 1250 again this morning around 4:30 CDT. This time I mostly heard WSSP. There WAS music underneath from time to time, but there were also other signals, and I couldn't ID any of it.
Click to expand...

Simple, email them [email protected] John Salter runs the ship there and if you can tell him what song you heard, he can tell you if it was them

Dont understand why Dxers have to make things so hard sometimes and not contact the station.
 
On hearing unexpected programming-

1. If the station is on automation and it happens right after midnight, some automation systems may play a default log if the intended log for the day was not loaded into the system. If the default log is an old format and the old format sound files are intact in the system, the old format will play out on the air. I have heard this happen.

2. Could be an audio routing issue within the local cluster.

3. Let's say the station you are listening to is an affiliate broadcasting a syndicated show, and the show audio is coming from the program line of the radio station originating the syndicated show. If affiliate break away closures are inadvertently not sent, affiliate station will broadcast whatever the originating station does during the break. In most cases engineering has routing in place to prevent this, but it can happen.

4. On automation anything can happen with a play out log and sound file numbers. If an imaging liner file number on the log happens to be an older imaging liner audio file on the hard drive, that would do it.
 
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SomeRadioGuy said:
Simple, email them [email protected] John Salter runs the ship there and if you can tell him what song you heard, he can tell you if it was them

Dont understand why Dxers have to make things so hard sometimes and not contact the station.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Paul. I may wind up doing just that. To each his own, but first, I personally enjoy the challenge of seeing if I can unravel a mystery. Having people here on this board who might be able to provide clues just adds to the fun. I;
'd also see what might turn up on the channel over the course of the days ahead. Conditions on 1250 today were quite a bit different than they were yesterdaty. Which to me adds to the "intrigue". But hey...that's just me. Also, I couldn't give someone the name of the song I heard, since it was only a few seconds worth of fragment....which I didn't recognize. Also, I wouldn't rule out that what I heard was one station quickly fading out, then another popping i

Also, a question..... John Salter. Do you know if he's from the Salter family that was (or perhaps still is) a multi-station operator here in Northern Illinois?
 
cyberdad said:
Thanks, Paul. I may wind up doing just that. To each his own, but first, I personally enjoy the challenge of seeing if I can unravel a mystery. Having people here on this board who might be able to provide clues just adds to the fun. I;
'd also see what might turn up on the channel over the course of the days ahead. Conditions on 1250 today were quite a bit different than they were yesterdaty. Which to me adds to the "intrigue". But hey...that's just me. Also, I couldn't give someone the name of the song I heard, since it was only a few seconds worth of fragment....which I didn't recognize. Also, I wouldn't rule out that what I heard was one station quickly fading out, then another popping i

Also, a question..... John Salter. Do you know if he's from the Salter family that was (or perhaps still is) a multi-station operator here in Northern Illinois?
Click to expand...

Record what you hear, and use shazam and soundhound.. there you go. i do it all the time

And no, John Salter is an Elk county, PA native.
 
fybush said:
Answered above - but it's not the tower site that was sold, in this case. The former tower (and studio) site stayed with Adams, which kept the rest of the cluster that's based there. Only the WGL AM license was sold to Brian Walsh, and yes, it's a 580 day/250 night ND STA from the 1450 site east of downtown.
Click to expand...
Brian Walsh has since purchased the old WGL transmitter site/building.
 
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