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Bigfoot sighting in Asheville

V

vchimpanzee

radioinsight.com

WBRM & WZGM Merge Into Bigfoot Country

Signal Hill Media Partners has combined its two Classic Country stations in Western North Carolina into one. "96.1 The Bear"
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

Why did no one report this on this site at the time?

I made my annual trip to the mountains and apparently The Bear is gone. The station is no longer in Black Mountain but Marion and simulcasting the station that was already there. The music is about the same, classic country with some new songs, despite what the article I linked to says.

I could do without the really bad songs. I'm not sure what criteria they use to choose which new songs to play. I looked up one of the songs and it's by Jason Aldean. He was somehow accepted by "real country" stations some time back.

This station does have local hosts and they did repeatedly mention a live remote by one of them from a McDonald's that is reopening.

There are plenty of advertisers, from what I can tell. Most of the focus is on Marion.

I even heard a traffic report, but it was for Marion, population 7700 in 2020. Wouldn't a traffic report for Asheville, population 95,000, be more useful?
 
vchimpanzee said:
radioinsight.com

WBRM & WZGM Merge Into Bigfoot Country

Signal Hill Media Partners has combined its two Classic Country stations in Western North Carolina into one. "96.1 The Bear"
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

Why did no one report this on this site at the time?

I made my annual trip to the mountains and apparently The Bear is gone. The station is no longer in Black Mountain but Marion and simulcasting the station that was already there. The music is about the same, classic country with some new songs, despite what the article I linked to says.

I could do without the really bad songs. I'm not sure what criteria they use to choose which new songs to play. I looked up one of the songs and it's by Jason Aldean. He was somehow accepted by "real country" stations some time back.

This station does have local hosts and they did repeatedly mention a live remote by one of them from a McDonald's that is reopening.

There are plenty of advertisers, from what I can tell. Most of the focus is on Marion.

I even heard a traffic report, but it was for Marion, population 7700 in 2020. Wouldn't a traffic report for Asheville, population 95,000, be more useful?
Click to expand...
Not when your coverage area doesn't cover Asheville.
 
vchimpanzee said:
radioinsight.com

WBRM & WZGM Merge Into Bigfoot Country

Signal Hill Media Partners has combined its two Classic Country stations in Western North Carolina into one. "96.1 The Bear"
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

Why did no one report this on this site at the time?

I made my annual trip to the mountains and apparently The Bear is gone. The station is no longer in Black Mountain but Marion and simulcasting the station that was already there. The music is about the same, classic country with some new songs, despite what the article I linked to says.

I could do without the really bad songs. I'm not sure what criteria they use to choose which new songs to play. I looked up one of the songs and it's by Jason Aldean. He was somehow accepted by "real country" stations some time back.

This station does have local hosts and they did repeatedly mention a live remote by one of them from a McDonald's that is reopening.

There are plenty of advertisers, from what I can tell. Most of the focus is on Marion.

I even heard a traffic report, but it was for Marion, population 7700 in 2020. Wouldn't a traffic report for Asheville, population 95,000, be more useful?
Click to expand...
I 40 going up the mountain to the Ashville area is prone to accidents. If you lived in McDowell county (population 44,578 2020 census) you usually try to avoid Asheville except for "big shopping trips". I believe most folks in Eastern Buncombe Country will shop in Asheville if there isn't a local merchant in Black Mountain that is closer. They might shop for a car or other big ticket item in Marion if they think they can get a better deal "in the country".

The combo should be attractive car dealers. With the recent Hurricane, a lot of shopping patterns are / were disrupted. With a little work and two commercial servers they should be able to offer either Marion, Black Mountain, or both commercials to clients..
 
gr8oldies said:
Not when your coverage area doesn't cover Asheville.
Click to expand...
Only at night, and the city of license in the legal station ID for the Black Mountain translator is Asheville.

There is a listenable signal all the way into Haywood County as long as the power lines aren't bad.

Edit: Oh, wait, if it's on both stations, the primary station is in Marion.
 
vchimpanzee said:
Only at night, and the city of license in the legal station ID for the Black Mountain translator is Asheville.
Click to expand...
They don't have a "freq shift" box for the translator? That way the FCC is happy and you shorten the ID to: WBRM Marion, WZGM Black Mountain. Then you work it into the Big Foot branding at the top of the hour.

IIRC it's not a PPM market so something easy to recall aways helps.
 
vchimpanzee said:
Only at night, and the city of license in the legal station ID for the Black Mountain translator is Asheville.

There is a listenable signal all the way into Haywood County as long as the power lines aren't bad.

Edit: Oh, wait, if it's on both stations, the primary station is in Marion.
Click to expand...
I'm aware of the primary station in Marion, I have family there and know exactly where it is. We parked right by there for the Bigfoot Festival several years ago (Marion is the Bigfoot City).
 
How is the W248DD signal in Asheville? Seems a bit far east of town. 📶

103.9 is a pretty strong signal in Mcdowell County, I've heard them down to about the SC State Line above Chesnee, and west past Old Fort on I-40
 
Well the "Bigfoot" partnership between WBRM and WZGM has ended as of Oct 1. I cannot get WZGM (1350) Black Mountain nor its translator at 96.1 but I can only assume both are off the air at this time. I thought Billy Buck Blevins had bought WZGM outright a year or two ago (after his then-recent purchase of WCAB Rutherfordton and WBRM Marion), but it now appears it was only a lease with Lincolnton-based HRN Broadcasting. Initially - after Billy Buck's involvement - WZGM was independent of WBRM and I think they even had a Black Mountain studio. That was short-lived as they started the WBRM simulcast just a few months ago -- which may have signaled the end anyway. When I look back through WZGM's history, it would take an accountant to keep track of all the format changes over the past 20 years.
 
vchimpanzee said:
radioinsight.com

WBRM & WZGM Merge Into Bigfoot Country

Signal Hill Media Partners has combined its two Classic Country stations in Western North Carolina into one. "96.1 The Bear"
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

Why did no one report this on this site at the time?

I made my annual trip to the mountains and apparently The Bear is gone. The station is no longer in Black Mountain but Marion and simulcasting the station that was already there. The music is about the same, classic country with some new songs, despite what the article I linked to says.

I could do without the really bad songs. I'm not sure what criteria they use to choose which new songs to play. I looked up one of the songs and it's by Jason Aldean. He was somehow accepted by "real country" stations some time back.

This station does have local hosts and they did repeatedly mention a live remote by one of them from a McDonald's that is reopening.

There are plenty of advertisers, from what I can tell. Most of the focus is on Marion.

I even heard a traffic report, but it was for Marion, population 7700 in 2020. Wouldn't a traffic report for Asheville, population 95,000, be more useful?If you're in Marion, a traffic report for Asheville wouldn't be more useful. I had no idea 'ZGM was still around. I believe they had tried a Myriad of formats/owners over the past few years. I even heard one time, somewhere, that IBOM, who owned WKJV/WKJW, was airing their programming on 'ZGM, but reckon that didn't last long. I also heard, they were on 1590 in Bryson City (can't remember the callsign), but reckon that didn't last long either and besides, that's for another thread.
Click to expand...

Romans 11:33-36 KJB

Josh

Church Podcast: Pleasant View Baptist Church | SermonAudio
Personal Podcast: Back To The Old Paths
TIBPF Podcast: https://www.tibpf.sermon.net
 
secondchoice said:
I worked there 2 owners ago.
Click to expand...
I had a friend who lived in Thomasville (not sure if he's still around, need to check) who, before living there, was from Marion. He said there was an older gentleman who did mornings there and he'd inform the listeners to not call the station, to ask if school was on or not, reckon he'd let them know when he knew. They also had a turntable which needle was messed up. One day, while he (my friend) was at the station as a kid, he figured out or knew which one it was and fixed it. He also said the acronym for the callsign (they say of course, Wonderful Blue Ridge Mountains) was We Bootleggers Run Marion.

Romans 11:33-36 KJB

Josh

Church Podcast: Pleasant View Baptist Church | SermonAudio
Personal Podcast: Back To The Old Paths
TIBPF Podcast: https://www.tibpf.sermon.net
 
eacalhoun1 said:
Well the "Bigfoot" partnership between WBRM and WZGM has ended as of Oct 1. I cannot get WZGM (1350) Black Mountain nor its translator at 96.1 but I can only assume both are off the air at this time. I thought Billy Buck Blevins had bought WZGM outright a year or two ago (after his then-recent purchase of WCAB Rutherfordton and WBRM Marion), but it now appears it was only a lease with Lincolnton-based HRN Broadcasting. Initially - after Billy Buck's involvement - WZGM was independent of WBRM and I think they even had a Black Mountain studio. That was short-lived as they started the WBRM simulcast just a few months ago -- which may have signaled the end anyway. When I look back through WZGM's history, it would take an accountant to keep track of all the format changes over the past 20 years.
Click to expand...
WOW, that didn't last long...
HRN is still around? What stations do they have now, 'LON and 'CSL? Anybody remember The Net, consisting of 'OHS, 'GNC, 'LON and CSL, I believe it was?

Romans 11:33-36 KJB

Josh

Church Podcast: Pleasant View Baptist Church | SermonAudio
Personal Podcast: Back To The Old Paths
TIBPF Podcast: https://www.tibpf.sermon.net
 
I believe 1380 is silent. Who knows if the FCC data is correct. I remember back in 1980 or 81 I was offered a job there. This was when they were playing Top 40 against WISE. I forgot the name of the PD or acting PD but 1380 had a really bad ratings book. He told me the job would be there until they hired a new "operations manager". I liked his honesty. He said he didn't know if any of the existing staff would have a job in 3 months. I thanked him for his cander but didn't take the job.
 
Their daytime signal might allow them to extend a translator signal. Might is a big word and I would have an engeering study before I would even try to LMA or buy it. I know the ground conductivity wasn't as good as the maps said in 1980 thanks to the terrain and ancient underground faults. I couldn't even guess how bad any AM station would do if you were taking actual measurements.
 


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