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All-Access : WLFP (94.1 The Wolf)/Memphis To Move To 99.7, 'Sunsetting' Hot AC WMC (FM 100)

The WMC, or whatever it is now signal, is not that much more effective than Kix. Someone on another thread actually mentioned their old style bay system actually made the signal have some issues on the fringes. I don’t know what is on their tower. Remember when you get “so far out” that you aren’t selling any advertising to cows, and it’s all agency territory, so who would be selling out that far anyway.

Hard to say, like we have discussed call letters, which still to me could have mattered here, if played right, could help listeners stick with the station because its the “winner.” You have to play that way. Even if its not. Saying you are 300,000 watts and kicking the other guys wimpy 1/3 of the signal-type fun and hype wouldn’t hurt in creating some enthusiasm. Yeah, that is old school, but you have just left many listeners is a pickle, so gimmicks may ease the pain. If anyone is around.

Anyone been listening to see how they sounded today? Are their personalities going to help them?

My other question is WHO is the exact person or team that made this decision to flip and go this route and how long have they been in the market or in the corporate ivory tower. Anyone know?
 
jon21 said:
It’s funny you mentioned Little Rock Koll Cool 95. That signal is one of the furthest reaching I think in this area. I believe it is KHKN now. I believe their tower is almost 1900 ft. Before K love in Memphis Cool 95 was easy to listen to here. I can remember even with K love on the air there were days that you could still hear Cool 95 during the summer. I know you used to regularly hear Fm100 pretty clear up to almost Union City before it started to fade out. I believe they have a local translator on 99.7 now that prob affects the signal in that area. If Audacy is wanting listeners outside of Memphis they were better off with Fm100 and the Hot AC format than a format that there is an abundance of in the areas outside of the Memphis area.
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Yes, WCMT of Martin, TN, now has a translator at 99.7 in the South Fulton area. Not sure how that would have affected my reception of FM 100 back in the day when I lived in n.w.TN.
 
Kent said:
I suppose that could be, but few diaries ever end up in the rural areas. Even fewer PPM's do. If Audacy thinks the rural areas will make up a huge difference, it’s going to be disappointed.
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The Metro Survey Area is Fayette, Shelby, Tipton in TN, Crittenden and Mississippi in AR and De Soto in MS.

While nearly all the population is in Shelby and DeSoto, there is something to be gained with a better signal in the outer areas of all the counties.

95% At home and At work listening occurs in the 65 dbu contour area. Kix covers 95% of what WMC-FM covers, so there is no real metro survey area difference.
 
On a trip to St. Louis in the 80's I was able to get FM 100 to between Sikeston and Cape Girardeau MO, but that may have been at a time when conditions were good. On the other hand when I lived in Dyersburg it was nothing unusual for them to be blown out by WWTN in Nashville at times in the Summer.
 
firepoint525 said:
Then that only leaves the sinister notion that Audacy made this change SPECIFICALLY to torpedo FM 100. Although as they put it, they merely "sunsetted" FM 100.
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I don't think it was a sinister decision so much as an incredibly stupid one.

While I have no inside information, I can't imagine the decision was made locally. Management courses at most colleges and universities teach that, to be a good manager, you only need to know how to manage. They teach that great managers can walk into any operation and manage exclusively by the numbers. They don't teach much about learning how the company works, how the industry works, nor how people work together. I suspect someone was trying to manage that way and thought, "We can get that FM 100 audience to The River, not lose our country audience, and cut the payroll dramatically." I don't see it working that way, but I can see how someone might conclude that. I also don't see how Audacy wouldn't know revenue would go down in Memphis after this. I think it's going to be down more than it would be if it had just let the country format go, but the corporate office clearly didn't think so.
 
anotherguyTN said:
On a trip to St. Louis in the 80's I was able to get FM 100 to between Sikeston and Cape Girardeau MO, but that may have been at a time when conditions were good. On the other hand when I lived in Dyersburg it was nothing unusual for them to be blown out by WWTN in Nashville at times in the Summer.
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My late sister once claimed to be able to pick up FM 100 all the way to Dickson, TN, along I-40. I did well to get 92.3 from Jackson all the way to Dickson (yes, it broke up there).
 
Tibbs4 said:
Hard to say, like we have discussed call letters, which still to me could have mattered here, if played right, could help listeners stick with the station because its the “winner.” You have to play that way. Even if its not. Saying you are 300,000 watts and kicking the other guys wimpy 1/3 of the signal-type fun and hype wouldn’t hurt in creating some enthusiasm. Yeah, that is old school, but you have just left many listeners is a pickle, so gimmicks may ease the pain. If anyone is around.
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Was just now looking at radio-locator, and I see that 94.1 pumps out 50,000 watts, so now at 99.7, they are (supposedly) pumping out SIX times the power!

Also noticed that they are giving out their legal ID as "Germantown" now. Don't remember FM 100 ever doing that.
 
FM 100 definitely has the best signal on 55 towards St. Louis. I've often picked them up at Sikeston, even in recent years.

I miss the old days of FM DX, dial is too cluttered these days. But in the late 1970s/early 1980s (from my house near the Mall of Memphis in East Memphis) on my Panasonic RF-2200 portable radio just using the regular antenna, KKYK in Little Rock always came in great as did KFIN in Jonesboro. Later in the 80s, I could listen to 92.3 from Milan/Jackson and 103.5 from New Albany anytime. Now and then 95.5 in Nashville would come in, but I never got 103.3 or 97.9.
 
radioinsight.com

The Ramifications Of Audacy’s Buffalo & Memphis Spins - RadioInsight

The $15.5 million sale of Hot AC “Star 102.5” WTSS Buffalo NY and Country “94.1 The Wolf ” WLFP Germantown/Memphis TN will have effects in those markets well beyond those frequencies. Educational Media Foundation specifically sought out WTSS in Buffalo not only to expand in that city, but also...
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

So according to that radio insight article Fm100 was currently the top biller in the cluster and was number one in their target demo. It sounds more and more like someone at Audacy is just a Wolf fan.
 
briancraig said:
FM 100 definitely has the best signal on 55 towards St. Louis. I've often picked them up at Sikeston, even in recent years.
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Living near St. Louis now, I take I-55 into Memphis on those occasions when I go back. I used to find 101.9 from Jonesboro did the best as I could get as far north as Herculaneum. Now that it's a Memphis move-in, it doesn't do nearly as well. I've generally found Memphis stations due the best to the north. Somewhere between Sikeston and Kennett is where I start getting most of the C1 and better FM's.

briancraig said:
I miss the old days of FM DX, dial is too cluttered these days. But in the late 1970s/early 1980s (from my house near the Mall of Memphis in East Memphis) on my Panasonic RF-2200 portable radio just using the regular antenna, KKYK in Little Rock always came in great as did KFIN in Jonesboro. Later in the 80s, I could listen to 92.3 from Milan/Jackson and 103.5 from New Albany anytime. Now and then 95.5 in Nashville would come in, but I never got 103.3 or 97.9.
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As I mentioned before, I was able to get KKYK and KOLL in the dorm. Seems like I usually got KMJX 105.1, too. KJBR 101.9 and KFIN came in easily from Jonesboro. 92.3 from Jackson was an easy catch, too. I had no trouble getting WWKZ 103.5, 98.5 (whatever the calls were) and WSYE 93.3 from the Tupelo area. WOXD had signed on in Oxford a year or two before I arrived. So, that usually blocked WSM-FM. The 107.5 in Cleveland, MS signed on a month or two before I got there, which made WYHY a rare catch. About the only Nashville station I got regularly was WZEZ 92.9. I remember thinking it was better than The River, but it wasn't really my pace. A few months after I left, 92.9 and 107.5 in Bartlett and Germantown signed on, which obviously blocked those stations. 103.3 was always a country station from Arkansas. I think from somewhere around Batesville. At the time, KWYN 92.5 was in the last days of its AC format, and it used to sign off sometime around midnight. I was shocked to be up late one night and hearing 92.5 rocking. Turned out, it was 92.5 KZPS out of Dallas. I can't remember ever getting that catch again, though.
 
I believe the calls for 94.1 and 99.7 are set to change tommorrow according to radioinsight.com . So I assume the Wolf simlucast ends and whichever format EMF puts on 94.1 will begin. WMC-FM will be gone becoming WLFP and 94.1 is set to become WMLE. I wonder if it will happen at midnight or at noon or some other day.
 
Kent said:
I suspect someone was trying to manage that way and thought, "We can get that FM 100 audience to The River, not lose our country audience, and cut the payroll dramatically." I don't see it working that way, but I can see how someone might conclude that.
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To broaden the view, they're doing pretty much the same thing in Buffalo. They could have moved the Star IP and format to another property. They own a weak, low-performing country station there. They could have put the AC format there, but elected to instead let the Star name go to a competitor, and combine the assets on Kiss. There's no format they can combine with country. It's a very distinct format. You can't do a country/AC hybrid. It's oil & water. So if they're dedicated to keeping a country station in the market, this is their only choice.

From a competitive point of view, it sort of sticks it to Cumulus at a time when they might be doing business with them. Moving the country format to a stronger signal will be bad for Kix. If there is a trade in the works between Cumulus and Audacy (as was rumored at one point), we can see who's going to end up on top.
 
Per the PPM released today, FM100 went out at #5 6+. As far as WHBQ and WEGR it will likely take a few months to see if either station sees a benefit from WMC-FM’s “sunsetting.”

https://ratings.****************/content/arb075

(Edited as I didn’t realize iHeart didn’t swap the calls when WEGR and KWNW swapped frequencies).
 
Last edited:
101tm said:
Per the PPM released today, FM100 went out at #5 6+. As far as WHBQ and WEGR it will likely take a few months to see if either station sees a benefit from WMC-FM’s “sunsetting.”

https://ratings.****************/content/arb075

(Edited as I didn’t realize iHeart didn’t swap the calls when WEGR and KWNW swapped frequencies).
Click to expand...
Also, WHBQ's format is CHR-Pop.
 
RadioRonnie285 said:
I believe the calls for 94.1 and 99.7 are set to change tommorrow according to radioinsight.com . So I assume the Wolf simlucast ends and whichever format EMF puts on 94.1 will begin. WMC-FM will be gone becoming WLFP and 94.1 is set to become WMLE. I wonder if it will happen at midnight or at noon or some other day.
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I heard a "WLFP, Germantown" ID yesterday.
 
I listened to WKSE in Buffalo on line yesterday and heard two sets of legal ID since its simlucasting on 102.5 there so Audacy is doing things right there but maybe 99.7 aired a separate id for WMC-FM apart from the WLFP legal id.
 
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