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WOWQ "105.1 The Wolf" (Waverly, TN) flips to Variety Hits
- Thread starter AMFMKYTN
- Start date
Maybe WLFN represents "wolfin'." I got nothing here.
Kind of a shame for a 50Kw FM station. In kind of a rural area, but covers Clarksville fairly well. I listened to it a lot back when I lived there, 30-ish years ago.
Hello Everyone-this is Bryan Fowler. I am the Managing Partner for Consolidated Media. We own and operate 105.1FM The Wolf (WLFN) I wanted to chime in and give an update since there was interest and concern with what we are doing. I, 12 months ago in the middle of an attempted minor mod to move the station north to completely cover the Clarksville/Hopkinsville Market just about died with Covid. I’m still relatively young (45) but have struggled with health issues this last year. In the midnight hour and for reasons that cannot be disclosed we voluntarily asked to dismiss the application for the minor mod this past spring.
We have moved, sold and been exchanging call signs for quite some time as we sold 5 properties last year and were compensated for giving up a couple of sets, etc. We have never branded with call signs.
The end game is continuing to grow our audience and run the station. We’ve been very blessed and fortunate to have some very strong books, we’ve been accepted very well in the business community and look forward being a strong outlet to the rural counties as well as an alternative in Clarksville for businesses like we have been. Our brand and my country format has afforded the station to become a dominant station regionally and to be accepted as a true commercial entity in Clarksville for really the first time in history. I am humbly grateful for that.
My wife and I live here in middle Tennessee in the heart of our coverage area. I am a Broker and Consultant as well which is what led me to this station in 2015. I specialize in hyper format/branding flips for Secular/Commercial and Christian/Non-Coms. (Surprised? Haha)
I am recovering and I am very engaged on a daily basis and everything we have done has been carefully calculated for purposes of growing the audience and sales for our Company in a 2022 environment.
If anyone has additional questions or would please feel free to drop me a line.
I am thrilled at your interest in our station.
[email protected]
God Bless you and my best for you!
We have moved, sold and been exchanging call signs for quite some time as we sold 5 properties last year and were compensated for giving up a couple of sets, etc. We have never branded with call signs.
The end game is continuing to grow our audience and run the station. We’ve been very blessed and fortunate to have some very strong books, we’ve been accepted very well in the business community and look forward being a strong outlet to the rural counties as well as an alternative in Clarksville for businesses like we have been. Our brand and my country format has afforded the station to become a dominant station regionally and to be accepted as a true commercial entity in Clarksville for really the first time in history. I am humbly grateful for that.
My wife and I live here in middle Tennessee in the heart of our coverage area. I am a Broker and Consultant as well which is what led me to this station in 2015. I specialize in hyper format/branding flips for Secular/Commercial and Christian/Non-Coms. (Surprised? Haha)
I am recovering and I am very engaged on a daily basis and everything we have done has been carefully calculated for purposes of growing the audience and sales for our Company in a 2022 environment.
If anyone has additional questions or would please feel free to drop me a line.
I am thrilled at your interest in our station.
[email protected]
God Bless you and my best for you!
Thank you Bryan for that finely composed response. There are so many things that can affect a radio station from the obvious to the undetectable. It might be fair to state the average person has no clue until they sit in that chair as owner or General Manager assigned to operate and report directly to the owner. That perspective shows many possibilities that are not perceived by the average radio station employee much less the listener.
I am fortunate to have worked on air and in programming before being placed in sales. This knowledge of both sides of the building has led me to label programming and sales as the chicken and the egg. There's a way for sales to complement programming and vice versa.
Smart broadcasters find their niche, usually an uncrowded field, dominate and succeed. Your route as a regional signal opens up opportunities many fail to see. It's a good plan that will likely eclipse what many stations can bill meaning your station(s) are well funded and primed to coast through tough economic times with relative ease while growing the overall value of the license.
I appreciate and applaud what you're doing and hope for the return of better health for you as time goes on. And much success to you and your team.
I am fortunate to have worked on air and in programming before being placed in sales. This knowledge of both sides of the building has led me to label programming and sales as the chicken and the egg. There's a way for sales to complement programming and vice versa.
Smart broadcasters find their niche, usually an uncrowded field, dominate and succeed. Your route as a regional signal opens up opportunities many fail to see. It's a good plan that will likely eclipse what many stations can bill meaning your station(s) are well funded and primed to coast through tough economic times with relative ease while growing the overall value of the license.
I appreciate and applaud what you're doing and hope for the return of better health for you as time goes on. And much success to you and your team.
WoLF Nashville?
I like "wolfin'" better, and as I (and others) have said here previously, this station simply does NOT reach Nashville. I live in Pegram, just west of Nashville, and I am literally at the very edge of their coverage area. It is iffy for me here at home, but I can pick it up from the wife's daycare, which is only about two miles away.
It is also worth noting (again, as I and others have said here) that there is a hispanic frequency broadcasting at 105.1 in metro Nashville. That station's signal also overruns the Waverly station's signal from right here in my own driveway.
And it is further worth noting that the local Ashland City station has a translator at 104.9, so that is only a single adjacent from 105.1. The Ashland City station's translator appears to cover Cheatham County, but little else.
So 105.1 covers from ALMOST Nashville to ALMOST Jackson, but apparently doesn't actually cover either.
The “N” in WLFN has no significance. Just the WLF. With their being so many stations across the country having “Wolf” branding, this is the best I could find.
The "Wolves" up here in my new location on the VT/NH border are WZLF Bellows Falls VT and WXLF Lebanon NH, so I realize the extra letter may be meaningless, but figured that, with Nashville being the nearest major city, the N on WLFN may have been a reference, but your explanation does make sense.
THIS.. right here. Many people have no idea just what's involved, what a station is really billing, the daily issues a station faces... unless they were in upper management (and many making these remarks/comments about what a station could or should do werent!).... or like you .... and to a lesser extent me, worked for good owners. Two owners I've worked for in particular I can think of were very honest with me about troubles we faced, and had an open book policy.. any time i wanted to discuss station finances, had a question, whatever.. they answered and explained.
(I say to lesser extent me, because bill.. you've worked in upper management.. I've only gone as far as PD, but I've worked for small ma and pa owners where i see the owners every day.. so that tends to lend itself to different things)
That would be exciting for you if you would be able to move the station northward. I believe that when I lived in Clarksville, I was at the northern edge of their coverage area. Covering Hopkinsville, too, would likely give you a better chance of survival. I hope that you are (soon) able to do that. I remember that when I worked at the old WDXN, they were owned by TennAire Communications, who had an option at the time (1993) of buying 105.1. I know that all of that fell through after I moved away shortly thereafter. If you are able to move, it would almost certainly mean that I could no longer listen to your station, but moving would definitely be for the greater good.
I know of another Bryan Fowler, but he is almost certainly older than you, so I know that you are not him.
Best of luck with all that you do, carry on, and keep us up to date on what is happening. It is relatively rare for anyone actually associated with a given station to weigh in, and let us know the background of what is going on.
SomeRadioGuy, you know exactly what I mean because you have been there. It's not the title as much as the experience. In fact, I'd say as a salesperson at my poorer choices of stations to work for, the harsh reality of radio as a business raised it's head (ie: sell all you can but collect like crazy. We need $XXXX by Friday to meet payroll).
I worked at one station in it's 4th year in a big city.. It was originally a Class A in a small town and advertising just wasnt working there.. so they upgraded it to a C3 in a nearby bigger city. It had been BILLING enough to pay its own bills, barely.. but not collecting on it. in the 4th year, the year ui was there, we finally got to the point it was collecting enough to pay its own way.... but it just became too much and started not making money a year or two later. .and they sold it to a public radio outfit.
I've worked for some real shite holes signals.. one Fox Sports Station had a damaged satellite dish and weak satellite signal to begin with and when winds out in the prairies got to be more then 20mph, the dish would shake enough to kill the signal (there were no trees for ages). The tower also sat on top of a former mine shaft and parts of the yard, away from the tower were collapsing. I got paid so poorly I could've made more money as a bagger at the local grocery store.
Bryan. Thanks for the update. The main concern here is that you are getting stronger everyday. Number one priority. It is funny. I always said when I was still in my early 20’s that I would be old in radio at the age of 40. Ahh the memories of those days. I remember looking into 105.1, when it was for sale. A couple of us studied it and I remember the signal was actually decent to the south and west of downtown Nashville many years ago. You may have some standing about the signal interference. You sound like you are pushing through and being very proactive and positive. I have been in those weeds with signals that just were always “on the edge.” I have always believed that God intended kind and good people that own radio stations, to turn em into bold bad@$$es. It’s something you never can control or figure out. And if you do.... But, it sounds like you are on track and doing great, which is a testimony to your ability! Especially after Covid and having Covid. Would love to meet you and shake your hand sometime. Radio builds you up for continuous challenges, and maybe that helped you stay as strong as you could with Covid. Wow!
When I worked at WDXN, as I mentioned earlier, their signal was simulcast on what was then WTWL-FM, but their tower was way out there in McKinnon, TN, an hour away from Clarksville. Signal was useless in Clarksville. I had to manually tune it in because my seek/scan wouldn't stop on it. A year or two after I left there, WTWL was sold, and became a full-fledged Paris/Paris Landing station. That made more sense for them, given where the station was located.
It has been The Wolf since 2016 except 90 days earlier this year when it went Adult Hits as The Train.
Thank you so much for the kind words! Very much appreciated.
When the translator for WNVL-AM 1240 is turned off. (This is W294CY 105.1 licensed to Nashville), we have a seek/scan signal at Opryland and Bridgestone Arena. I know this as during the proceedings when the alleged interference issues came up they kindly agreed to turn it off one evening while I drove the coverage. It was better than it was when Salem owned it with an old Continental Transmitter that was running 65% of its TPO. We receive a lot of good consistent feedback from Brentwood and Franklin.
There was a long drawn out battle over the alleged interference. We were down to a determination being made when the commission made the new interference rules. Anything in the hopper had to be thrown out and started from scratch. It's very expensive to fight interference. While I won't tell you how much it cost us, I will tell you I pay monthly on the attorney bill, still.
While I am certain the owners of WNVL have nothing against our group, personally-we just happened to be the lucky folks who owned the frequency that they landed on. It should have never been granted. All of Nashville is in our 45dbu coverage area. It was turned on the day before I turned the all new 105.1 on the air in 2016 with new transmitter, antennas, coax-everything brand new. I never got to hear the new coverage until the alleged interference studies had to be conducted.
Every dollar I borrowed to fix the 105.1 Signal and to make it better when we purchased it was wasted because of that translator. I am so sad that no one has ever been able to hear what we were able to accomplish by rebuilding this big worthy signal.
The FCC listed their CP in Nashville on 95.1 and not 105.1 or we would have fought it before it was on the air. They had so many of these 250 mile move in signals that they could not keep up with the new frequencies and COL changes in their CDBS.
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Yes, it is my understanding that part of the shareholders from that station and our present station were common at one point in the 1990s.
Forever does a very nice job of making it a Paris station. They're very good radio people.
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