KTNN would be very unique
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Small town stations with a more personalized sound.
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
Small town has different definitions to different people. I don't personally consider Vineland, NJ to be that small, but I think WVLT 92.1 sure fits in the category. Lots of "Philly-sound"/doo-wop, and nightime is a bit of everything depending on the day of the week.
I graduated from a Catholic University, but am not Catholic, so I'm not completely vested on the rosary, etc.
Again, record companies would offer small market radio stations big incentives to get the add. Like free air to Gavin conventions. Few refused. Payola? Yes and no.
It should be known that many small to
Mid market stations offered payola in a future world. No cash involved, but incentives by implied assistance with future promotions, very common in early 20.
It should be known that many small to
Mid market stations offered payola in a future world. No cash involved, but incentives by implied assistance with future promotions, very common in early 20.
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Sounds like a unique station indeed. Anyone happen to know if they stream their content, including the chants and other unique elements?
In my experience, small market stations got little or any record label attention as nobody in the big markets paid attention to Flagstaff or Sault St. Marie or Porterville.
I recall in one Gavin convention in the late 70's the most common opening conversation point by PDs was a complaint about the high cost of hotels in that city, usually saying that their GM had thrown a fit over it.
If you mean "small" as in "smaller rated markets" like Bakersfield or Grand Rapids or Augusta, then that is different. A few stations in such markets, like Augusta's WBBQ under PD Harley Drew, were hitmakers with huge shares and getting an add on such a station was noticed because other PDs in larger markets followed what Drew did. But in most cases stations in places like Reno or Medford or Paducah were pretty much ignored and many did not even get "free" record service from the labels.
KDIX (1230 AM) in Dickinson, ND has local owners. They own only that station. Mostly oldies(they reach back into the 50s at times unlike other modern oldies stations), maybe some country. They have Local DJs who read news updates periodically. They have their own sports updates as well as coverage of the two high schools and local university sports. (football, basketball and baseball) The only national programming that they carry is CBS news on the hour and Westwood One broadcasts of prime-time NFL games. (They used to also carry their NCAA tournament games but I don't know if they still do).
Back in the day if you reported to Gavin or Radio and Records it didn’t matter what your market size was. I worked in two markets around 300k and reported to the above mentioned. Did record companies pay attention to us? Hell Yes! Of course this was a different era, but the 90’s were fun!
For Radio and Records as I recall you had to be a rated market. Gavin I think was more a free-for-all. I remember a tip sheet that came out of Columbus, Ohio when I was working in the state.
But the R&R chart back to the 70's was weighted by market size and, later, by both market and station ratings.
But most of us did not look any too deeply at the chart rank... we looked at who added the songs.
Even today, we look at MediaBase and build our own "custom" sets of stations we trust and follow.
As an example, in my own world, if I am programming an independent Regional Mexican station in LA, I don't look at Houston and San Antonio and Denver and Albuquerque as they have a different heritage and taste. Nor do I look at small markets in my area like Palm Springs or Santa Barbara. I look at stations I know to have shown good judgement in picking new songs in the past.
By the 90's, we had the beginning of electronic monitoring and we saw exactly what was being played and in what dayparts.
Yep, and the results were weighted. Gavin, once they dropped the individual station moves, was just charts.
FMQB and others still had individual station adds, moves and drops and adds.
And as I have posted before there was manipulation on both sides of radio vs records. You could please a record rep with one or two plays, known as the lunar rotation, as in only played in the middle of the night. And many reps were ok with that! A numbers game for sure.
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KTNN - stream?
Whether or not all of the broadcast elements are streamed is an exercise left to the listener to discover.
The Pow Wow chanting and drumming played twice an hour makes it even more unique, and gives you a taste of the traditional culture of Navajo music.A really small town with a BIG signal.
KTNN 660 50 kw Windowrock AZ.
The Navajo Nation. Big on local programming.
Their FM 101.5 does a nice job filling in the AM's null to the east.
Ed and Carol De La Hunt's 100kw KDKK- FM Park Rapids, MN. They own about 8 stations in Minnesota, and are serious about maximizing revenue with their radio group, except for their property with the strongest signal KDKK. It is strictly programmed for Ed and Carol's enjoyment in playing their favorite music which is usually very old music... you'll hear back to back Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Rudy Vallee, Edye Gorme / Steve Lawrence, and for the youngsters a little Barbara Streisand. Complete with state and local news hourly from the De La Hunt Media News Bureau, and a simulcast of their "Coffee Talk" chit chat show. It's a real time warp, even signing off nightly around 11 or 12 with national anthem and official station information like AM daytimers used to do.
Not just daytimers. Fulltimers, most of which signed off around midnight even into the 60's, signed off with "official information" and the Star Spangled Banner or Dixie or some state song like "The Eyes of Texas are Upon You". Even most of the 24 hour stations were off at midnight on Sunday for maintenance and also did a sign-off announcement
I remember a daytimer in Arkansas in the late '70s that signed off with "Dixie." I can't imagine any stations do that now, and wonder what the last station to give up the practice was and when that happened.
Today, the only time I hear the anthem on the radio -- outside of sports broadcasts -- is at noon on one of the local country stations, WXLF. Back in Connecticut, WWYZ does it, too. Probably pretty common for country stations nationwide.
@CTListener
One of my old stations, WDDH 97.5 plays a 12 minute "the national anthem as never before heard" every day at 12noon
Listening to KTNN this morning, and a good portion of the Country music that was played were local Navajo Country artists and bands. The music and on air presentation is bilingual, speaking both Navajo and English. They even did a "Navajo word of the day" to teach Navajo traditional language to keep it alive. Nearby Gallup, NM has two Navajo language and music radio stations KYAT and KGAK. And this is a small town.
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