Salem wanted their signature Christian "Word" format to be on what they believed to be their strongest signal.
Remember, sports wasn't/isn't really a format in Salem's wheelhouse, and WKNR was the proverbial exception to the rule.
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WHK change-up
- Thread starter johnbasalla
- Start date
Remember, sports wasn't/isn't really a format in Salem's wheelhouse, and WKNR was the proverbial exception to the rule.
I find it bizarre that stations like 850 and142O still need to adjust their nighttime pattern so significantly to protect stations hundreds of miles away, yet aren't even covering the Cleveland area. Yeah, I know back in the 1940s Cleveland metro population was more condensed than it is now. I get it. But AM radio is no longer the king that it was back then. And AM radio listeners are a fraction of what they were then. And I doubt the FCC really gives a rat's *ss about AM radio now. So it seems like these station should be able to tweak their nighttime pattern for better coverage.
Salem originally wanted WHK on 1000 out of Parma before they decided to get rid of WRMR and move WKNR and WHK to 850 and 1220 respectively.
You can't just upgrade your own pattern wantonly. At night, AM skywave carries long distances. Just because you don't notice the interference, it doesn't mean someone else won't.
The WHK calls on AM 1000 was just a temporary place holder until all the legalities from the big frequency swap fell into place in 2001.
Interestingly though in 2003, Salem was going to put their conservatalk format on AM 1000 under the call letters WVVC, but the following year Salem repurchased AM 1420 from Robert Conrad, set up shop with conservatalk, and the reinstated WHK call letters, and it's still there nearly 2 decades later.
Salem would then sell AM 1000 to Darrell Scott a year after that, and - just to show it's a small world after all - now he's trying to set up WCCD on WHK's tower after his own tower was taken down due to the land owner redeveloping the real estate the WCCD transmitter was sitting on.
Wasn't WCCD just sold to a different owner recently?
Well, I suppose it's a moot point since it's likely that AM radio's days are numbered.
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"They've" been saying that for decades, and it hasn't happened. You'd think that if AM radio was really dying, you wouldn't hear so much interference from other stations at night on smaller signals because no other stations would be on the air to interfere in the first place.
I don't know the exact number, but a huge percentage of AMs are on the air because they got an FM translator based on keeping the AM. Were the FCC to allow translators to remain on the air without the AM, I'll bet that about half of all AMs would close.
I don't know about that. The translator powers and coverage leaves much to be desired. Take WHK. Their translator can only be picked up clearly right in the downtown Cleveland area. That leaves most of Cuyahoga County out of being able to listen to the station over the air.
WHK and WHKW have nearly non-existent translators due to the FM band in Cleveland being deeply congested (as it had been even before the translator explosion). iHeart had to ask the FCC to move a planned translator for WNCO Ashland be moved up to Cleveland for WTAM after their initial application failed.
That being said, WHK and WHKW don’t have anywhere close to mass appeal formats or could be considered a de facto FM station. (Heck, WHK’s been a non-factor in the ratings books since 1986!)
However, WJMO, with their 250w translator on the 1300 AM tower site, could be considered as such and, if the opportunity presented itself for Urban One to hand in the 1300 AM license … I can totally see that happening. Same with suburban AMs with translators that are even better than the class C or D graveyard signals they currently have.
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Urban One (Before: Radio One) moved WJMO from 1490 am to 1300 am because the signal on 1300 is/was better for the expanding urban audience. They moved WERE to 1490 am. Given that they see value in the Gospel format, I would be surprised if they would just hand in the license for 1300 am, unless there is something bad going on that we don't know about.
1300’s signal is too compromised to be viable in the entire market but it was a massive upgrade for the gospel format over the graveyard 1490. I just don’t see how 1490, with a pitiful signal and nearly no unique programming to speak of (let alone running Al Sharpton in a loop with any unsold timeslots), is able to turn a profit.
I'd rather see WERE returned to 1300 (with a better format), then they could hand in the license for 1490.
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What would be a “better format”? I’m not being snarky, I’m just trying to envision what format could work on an AM signal that can’t even cover the whole market. They tried urban talk on 1300 in 2006 and it just didn’t work.
WERE would dump its format if it had an FM translator. WJMO doesn't even mention the AM except for TOH IDs.
Then there would have to be a new FM signal for Praise. I have a feeling if Urban One acquired one of the other FM stations in Cleveland, it would be the new home for Gospel.
Bring back Bill Randle, Howie Lund, Pete Franklin, ... oh wait, they're gone. Well, there has to be something better than Al Sharpton. I think WTAM is the only AM signal that covers the whole market.
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