• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Multiple "Formats" on 1 Station (depends on time of day/week)

If you're talking about a certain station in Nashville that was the sister to another AM dollar a holler station in Memphis I always got the impression that if somebody had flashed enough money in their faces they might have done something with music, no matter what the style.

The last time I heard their Memphis station they had preachers in the morning, Alex Jones in the early afternoon and sports talk in the later afternoon, and had gone to simulcasting with their former sports talk station. I always wondered if even though they claimed to be a "Christian" station if someone had offered to buy airtimr for a Muslim, Hindu, or even Satanist program if they would have let them have the airtime. :rolleyes:
I was told by their then-ops. mgr. that they would indeed sell to B'nai B'rith (I have almost certainly misspelled that) if they offered them the money for it. (He told me this at the time that he was interviewing me.)

I believe that the station here has programming similar to what they offer you there in Memphis, but I have never seen anything even remotely resembling a programming guide on their website. Yeah, plenty there for their shortwave stations, but nothing for the local AM station.

On the flip side of all of this is the station formerly known as WNAZ. They never actually changed their format while Trevecca owned them (as far as I know), but gradually added more talk shows into their programming, and gradually shifted their focus away from C.C.M. I was getting their newsletter at the time, and they actually printed comments from listeners who were at least mildly critical of their programming changes. Previously, they would not have done that. Not only that, but their remaining music gradually skewed younger and younger, and I was already aging out of their format, anyway. This only accelerated the process.
 
I used to listen to WLAC at times at night when they were doing top 40 radio, although I mostly listened to WLS. When they started doing dollar a holler preachers at night is when I first ran into RG Stair. :rolleyes:
I am convinced that at least some stations would likely have had to sign off during overnight hours if they didn't have Stair to keep them afloat.

I once had to monitor Stair (more than usual) because our Knoxville station carried him overnights, and since we had to fill out the BMI logs for them, I had to monitor Stair for "music." (The Knoxville station evidently sat empty during overnights, at least at that time.)
 
If you're talking about a certain station in Nashville that was the sister to another AM dollar a holler station in Memphis I always got the impression that if somebody had flashed enough money in their faces they might have done something with music, no matter what the style.

The last time I heard their Memphis station they had preachers in the morning, Alex Jones in the early afternoon and sports talk in the later afternoon, and had gone to simulcasting with their former sports talk station. I always wondered if even though they claimed to be a "Christian" station if someone had offered to buy airtime for a Muslim, Hindu, or even Satanist program if they would have let them have the airtime. :rolleyes:

Money talks. 15 or so years ago, I programmed an independent television station in a large market. The owner was a big-time fundamentalist Christian and he was adamant that this station was going to be about family-friendly programming. It launched with reruns of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, I LOVE LUCY and MY THREE SONS, and ran infomercials late nights and weekends and paid preachers most of the morning to bring in money.

One day, the male sexual enhancement folks wanted to buy a 30-minute infomercial complete with some, shall we say, rather graphic animations of what their product could do. Sold! I don't think any of them ever actually outbid a religious program for one of their timeslots, but if they had...

As he began to realize that ANDY, LUCY and the boys weren't bringing eyeballs to the screen, they were retired---in favor of Jerry Springer.
 
I was told by their then-ops. mgr. that they would indeed sell to B'nai B'rith (I have almost certainly misspelled that) if they offered them the money for it. (He told me this at the time that he was interviewing me.)

I believe that the station here has programming similar to what they offer you there in Memphis, but I have never seen anything even remotely resembling a programming guide on their website. Yeah, plenty there for their shortwave stations, but nothing for the local AM station.

On the flip side of all of this is the station formerly known as WNAZ. They never actually changed their format while Trevecca owned them (as far as I know), but gradually added more talk shows into their programming, and gradually shifted their focus away from C.C.M. I was getting their newsletter at the time, and they actually printed comments from listeners who were at least mildly critical of their programming changes. Previously, they would not have done that. Not only that, but their remaining music gradually skewed younger and younger, and I was already aging out of their format, anyway. This only accelerated the process.
We have another sister station to the aforementioned stations in Memphis and Nashville in Knoxville, though only 1kW. It's got religious/political programming (God appointed Trump but not Obama or Biden) and this guy who calls himself "The Ol' Trailblazer" who refers to himself in the third person "The Ol Trailblazer picked up his Bible". I don't remember much of the rest of the schedule except long-dead revivalist Oliver B. Green
 
We have another sister station to the aforementioned stations in Memphis and Nashville in Knoxville, though only 1kW. It's got religious/political programming (God appointed Trump but not Obama or Biden) and this guy who calls himself "The Ol' Trailblazer" who refers to himself in the third person "The Ol Trailblazer picked up his Bible". I don't remember much of the rest of the schedule except long-dead revivalist Oliver B. Green
Yep, mentioned that one in my next reply.
 
What about the stations with less drastic changes? For example, an AC station that airs more upbeat/newer music in the daytime and slower/older music at night?
 
bigic said...What about the stations with less drastic changes? For example, an AC station that airs more upbeat/newer music in the daytime and slower/older music at night?

I would refer to that as 'dayparting'. I worked a small town top 40 that was void of the hard stuff during the day and by 10pm was void of any of the easy songs. Such stations are simply adapting the music flow for their audience at a certain time of day.
 
bigic said...What about the stations with less drastic changes? For example, an AC station that airs more upbeat/newer music in the daytime and slower/older music at night?

I would refer to that as 'dayparting'. I worked a small town top 40 that was void of the hard stuff during the day and by 10pm was void of any of the easy songs. Such stations are simply adapting the music flow for their audience at a certain time of day.

That was very common. I left KIBS for KSLY, San Luis Obispo, a Top 40 station, in 1974. The town was 30,000 people instead of 3,000. Harder rock or R&B was dayparted 3:00 p.m.-3:00 a.m. SLO is a college town, so the late cutoff for the rockers made sense.

Conversely, any hit that had MOR appeal (John Denver, Carpenters, Olivia Newton-John) was dayparted 3:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Exceptions were made for monster hits of both genres. We weren't going to not play a Top 5 record 12 hours out of every day.

Even major market stations engaged in some dayparting on records they were easing into rotation. And, though it's not discussed much, a lot of big top 40 stations absolutely dayparted their gold, even if it was anything goes on currents.
 
I would refer to that as 'dayparting'. I worked a small town top 40 that was void of the hard stuff during the day and by 10pm was void of any of the easy songs. Such stations are simply adapting the music flow for their audience at a certain time of day.
A station in the town where I grew up took it a bit further than that. From sign-on until about 7:00 a.m. they played country music, with a gospel inspirational song at about 6:50 a.m. Then from 7:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., they were A.C.-ish, then top 40 from 3:00 p.m. until signoff. (There was also an FM station in town whose format went back and forth from country to easy listening, but I am guessing that at that time, not everyone had FM radios in their cars just yet.)
 
That was very common. I left KIBS for KSLY, San Luis Obispo, a Top 40 station, in 1974. The town was 30,000 people instead of 3,000. Harder rock or R&B was dayparted 3:00 p.m.-3:00 a.m. SLO is a college town, so the late cutoff for the rockers made sense.

Conversely, any hit that had MOR appeal (John Denver, Carpenters, Olivia Newton-John) was dayparted 3:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Exceptions were made for monster hits of both genres. We weren't going to not play a Top 5 record 12 hours out of every day.

Even major market stations engaged in some dayparting on records they were easing into rotation. And, though it's not discussed much, a lot of big top 40 stations absolutely dayparted their gold, even if it was anything goes on currents.
Years before I ever heard the word "dayparting", while I was in junior high, I knew if I was home sick from school, the music on CKLW wasn't going to be quite as good. Airchecks include quite a bit of MOR gold, even when they were playing the latest hit from The Doors. Sunday morning after "Canada Now" was the home of early Motown and R&B dayparted in.
 
Years before I ever heard the word "dayparting", while I was in junior high, I knew if I was home sick from school, the music on CKLW wasn't going to be quite as good. Airchecks include quite a bit of MOR gold, even when they were playing the latest hit from The Doors. Sunday morning after "Canada Now" was the home of early Motown and R&B dayparted in.
Yep. And during summer vacation, you’d hear more rock in middays, because school was out. KHJ in Los Angeles was the same way.
 
I am convinced that at least some stations would likely have had to sign off during overnight hours if they didn't have Stair to keep them afloat.
I don't know if this would have actually been true for WCKY or whatever it was called, but the adult standards station in Cincinnati which was 50,000 watts on 1530 had religious programming after midnight. I don't remember how many years ago that was.
 
A station in the town where I grew up took it a bit further than that. From sign-on until about 7:00 a.m. they played country music, with a gospel inspirational song at about 6:50 a.m. Then from 7:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., they were A.C.-ish, then top 40 from 3:00 p.m. until signoff. (There was also an FM station in town whose format went back and forth from country to easy listening, but I am guessing that at that time, not everyone had FM radios in their cars just yet.)
I am reminded of a small daytime-only AM station in the Charlotte NC area which had no set schedule. There was just an old man running the place and he had one man doing commercials, and there were no DJs. There was classic country, big band, easy listening, and soft oldies, and at some point during the schedule "Hymns of the Church", which was more conservative than even BBN or WMUU.
 
I remember that when Piolín joined the KSSE trimulcast, Super Estrella, the station would go Regional Mexican during mornings (as per his Tricolor affiliates at the time). If the Facebook comments were any indication, people were quite bothered by the whiplash.

Of course, even with three regionals at the time, that music has more appeal in LA that Super Estrella's rock en español tinged-AC could ever dream of.
 
You jogged a memory! At KIBS, it was "Trading Post", and it aired after the 10:00 a.m. news, from 10:05-10:15. So "Radio Bingo" was 45 minutes. It just SEEMED like an hour.
The worst part about such programs is NOT the program itself, but whether or not they do a live "call-in" program, or just have the announcer read the cards that have been submitted or received in the mail. If they opt for the latter option, it is not as bad. But allowing the listeners to call in with their list of items, and putting those callers directly on the air just screams "podunk"! I know of at least TWO stations, including one that I formerly worked for, actually REGRESSING into these live, call-in programs! Ugh!
 
The worst part about such programs is NOT the program itself, but whether or not they do a live "call-in" program, or just have the announcer read the cards that have been submitted or received in the mail. If they opt for the latter option, it is not as bad. But allowing the listeners to call in with their list of items, and putting those callers directly on the air just screams "podunk"! I know of at least TWO stations, including one that I formerly worked for, actually REGRESSING into these live, call-in programs! Ugh!
And they also open the door for people with too much time on their hands (or the guys from the Howard Stern show who LOVE to call or write in to Swap Shop or Tradio programs) to spend an afternoon or two pranking them. At one AM/FM combo I worked at, the buy/sell program on the AM station was so dreadful and there were so few callers at times, that the FM guys used to call the show pretending to be listeners with stuff to sell, just to give it some life.
 
Last edited:
KCHK New Prague, MN 95.5/1350 (2 separate stations that simulcast...not a translator) in the southern part of the Twin Cities metro still has "block programming" but its done live and local (for most part)

M-F
5-9 news/polkas/talk (Fridays from 6:50-9:15ish they have live musician Friday where they have folks come in and play polkas/old tyme/country etc)
9-11:25 classic country
11:25-noon Trading Post (craigslist for old people) :)
noon-1 local/national news
1-3 POLKAS
3-6 50's, 60's, early 70s (they call it the dance party)
6p-5a satellite fed classic country

Saturday
5-9ish same as M-F
9-noon classic country (sometimes local, sometimes satellite)
noon-1 sports rewind (they talk about all the high school sports around the area, scores, schedules etc)
otherwise its satellite classic country

Sunday
6am-11pm polkas except for 3 church services at 9-9:30, 10-11 and 11:30-noon

1350 carries the MN Twins (95.5 does not)
both carry high school/amateur sports (they will split when necessary)

oh and its pronounced "New Preg" (like pregnant) or as they say in the Czech language "Nova Praha"
 
The worst part about such programs is NOT the program itself, but whether or not they do a live "call-in" program, or just have the announcer read the cards that have been submitted or received in the mail. If they opt for the latter option, it is not as bad. But allowing the listeners to call in with their list of items, and putting those callers directly on the air just screams "podunk"! I know of at least TWO stations, including one that I formerly worked for, actually REGRESSING into these live, call-in programs! Ugh!
At KIBS, we read the cards. But that was only because the owner was too cheap to pop for a delay system and we didn't want to risk live phone calls. Come to think of it, it was the same way at KUKI.
 
As and aside to the posts from @firepoint525 and @michael hagerty, I wonder if the "Swap Shop" or "Tradio" or "Trading Post" shows are even useful and effective in 2021? When those were most popular and were offered as a true "service" to the community, it was when many people bought and sold things by placing ads in print media like classified ads in the local newspaper, or trading post ads in free newspaper-style circulations. Now with Facebook Marketplace, Offerup, Craig's List and other online resources where you can post things and get instant exposure and response (and many more "hits"), aside from older folks or those with limited access to the internet (or those who aren't tech-savvy), I'm wondering who even calls in to those types of programs now? A few months ago I was driving through a more rural area where they had a female host taking calls from people looking to buy, sell or trade, and she'd put music on to fill the time between callers. Sometimes the music only played for a minute or two here and there, other times it lasted much longer.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom