WEW - AM 770 Expansion

[RF101]

Birach in the past has proposed expansion and movement of several of his properties. For example, WDMV Walkersville (Frederick), Maryland had a filing to upgrade to 50 kw and four towers from its three-tower 5 kw configuration. It never happen and the permit was allowed to expire. Stations in Hampton Roads also expired despite an attempt to save them after a tower was dropped by vandals.

I noticed WEW has a proposed upgrade to 10 kw days (115 watts night) with three-towers instead of its 1 kw non-directional days.

Any signs this upgrade may happen? Afterall, the Overcomer has been renting some airtime on this station..

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Birach in the past has proposed expansion and movement of several of his properties. For example, WDMV Walkersville (Frederick), Maryland had a filing to upgrade to 50 kw and four towers from its three-tower 5 kw configuration. It never happen and the permit was allowed to expire. Stations in Hampton Roads also expired despite an attempt to save them after a tower was dropped by vandals.

I noticed WEW has a proposed upgrade to 10 kw days (115 watts night) with three-towers instead of its 1 kw non-directional days.

Any signs this upgrade may happen? Afterall, the Overcomer has been renting some airtime on this station..

Theyve had this CP twice before and it'[s gone unbuilt each time......as a daytimer any value it had was lost when it went all overcomer all the time. no one wanted some full time licenses on AM in the market when they went up for auction.. 1430, 1190, et all..... this ones cooked, it doesnt even have a translator

 

[kevtronics]

Not sure who it belongs to, but the proposed site for the upgrade already exists. So it would be a lot easier than building it from scratch.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Theyve had this CP twice before and it'[s gone unbuilt each time......as a daytimer any value it had was lost when it went all overcomer all the time. no one wanted some full time licenses on AM in the market when they went up for auction.. 1430, 1190, et all..... this ones cooked, it doesnt even have a translator

Note that WEW doesn’t currently operate at night. By the way, 1190 was a move-in from DeSoto; 1430 had weak coverage in the west and northwest parts of the metro, which happen to be where there’s been a lot of population growth in recent years.

WEW hasn’t had much value for decades. A KXOK radio news announcer, real name Aubrey Reid, air name Bruce Barrington, bought WEW from St. Louis University in 1955. In 1961, he sold WEW so that he could buy a 250-watt daytimer at 1580 in a much smaller market, Columbia, 125 miles to the west of St. Louis. Odd move, one might think, but at the time Columbia had only one other AM station (KFRU), no FMs, and nearby Jefferson City stations (also two) generally held off from selling time in or programming to Columbia, even if Columbia was then, as it is now, the largest city in central Missouri. WEW may have been in a major market, but Reid/Barrington must have found or perceived greener opportunities in the much smaller market to the west.

Repeating, this was in 1961.

Not sure who it belongs to, but the proposed site for the upgrade already exists. So it would be a lot easier than building it from scratch.

Why bother? KMOX’s success over the years covered up the fact that most St. Louis AMs were not doing so well, starting as early as the late 1970s. KSD (550) was the last AM station to have at least some success, and even that went away quickly after 1977 or 1978, though there were some bright spots for it in the mid-1980s as a country station. KXOK was mortally wounded by KSLQ(FM). I could go on and on.

Far be it from me to discourage someone from setting their money afire.

 

[b-turner]

Ethnic programming is the way to go. WEW had been doing pretty well with that before Brother Stair. I can only speculate Covid took it's toll on those programmers. I can see that going back to selling to several clients buying blocks of time.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Ethnic programming is the way to go. WEW had been doing pretty well with that before Brother Stair. I can only speculate Covid took it's toll on those programmers. I can see that going back to selling to several clients buying blocks of time.

Historically, KSTL had the most ethnic programming, but I’m going back decades with that recollection. WEW was a nostalgia station for the longest time. The challenge now in that area would be to find a cohesive ethnic group to program to. Bosnians, maybe. But the old-line “Dutchman” Germans have all passed on, the Hispanic portion of the population is relatively low (<4%) and the main non-white identity is black (>17%), a community that already has quite a bit of programming targeted to it, in some cases (KATZ) with a long history to back it up. (see datausa.io for various breakdowns)

 

[Mark Roberts]

Here's a new one: someone on Facebook claimed in his post that, until a year ago, WEW was staying on the air until Albuquerque sunset. That seems strange to me because the station on the channel that gets protection is WABC. KKOB would not be entitled to protection from the St. Louis direction. That leaves aside the matter of why that would have stopped a year ago.

I never recall that WEW had additional limited-time operation. KFUO did, with sign-off at Denver sunset. Possibly this person has confused the two.

Could anyone in or near St. Louis confirm or debunk the claim regarding WEW? I'm skeptical.

 

[spiritof67]

Mark, WEW signs off at local sunset now. The only programming the station carries is Brother Stair. My understanding was that more money came from that than the airing of ethnic programming. Prior to Brother Stair, WEW aired a lot of Bosnian programming throughout the day, and during that era, was on up to two hours after local sunset.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Mark, WEW signs off at local sunset now. The only programming the station carries is Brother Stair.

The Overcomer broadcasts are supposedly ending on June 30, as they are dropping all radio distribution. Wonder what WEW will do? Also a major blow to several U.S. private shortwave stations, as discussed on other threads.

 

[Rusty Muck]

The Overcomer broadcasts are supposedly ending on June 30, as they are dropping all radio distribution. Wonder what WEW will do? Also a major blow to several U.S. private shortwave stations, as discussed on other threads.

Wait, that was actually confirmed? I'd be surprised if WEW even has any programming of any sort after July 1.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Wait, that was actually confirmed? I'd be surprised if WEW even has any programming of any sort after July 1.

Yes, came from WRMI'[s owner, Jeff White

 

[Mediafrog+]

Yes, came from WRMI'[s owner, Jeff White

Seems the Overcomer radio shutdown is actually happening, but I think a lot of us won’t fully believe it until July 1 comes around and Brother Stair is nowhere to be found on the airwaves.🤔😐

 

[Mark Roberts]

Mark, WEW signs off at local sunset now. The only programming the station carries is Brother Stair. My understanding was that more money came from that than the airing of ethnic programming. Prior to Brother Stair, WEW aired a lot of Bosnian programming throughout the day, and during that era, was on up to two hours after local sunset.

Interesting. It sounds like it was not a fully compliant operation when it was operating past local sunset.

If the Overcomer programming really does end, then it may be back to the Bosnians for WEW.

I'll be in the St. Louis area in mid-August...yeah, not such a great time to visit from a climatic standpoint, but that's when my high-school reunion is being held. It will be interesting to see how much the AM dial has changed from what I remember, particularly for the stations that always had been somewhat marginal.

 

[Rusty Muck]

If the Overcomer programming really does end, then it may be back to the Bosnians for WEW.

Does WEW even have a studio at this point? Their beyond-broken website lists Birach's Southfield, Michigan, offices which is also in the FCC public files. Wouldn't be a surprise if they are piping in R.G. Stair directly to the transmitter. Chances are the Bosnians—even if they were mildly interested in going back to WEW—have no means to broadcast.

Perhaps more telling, WEW's "issues and programs" folder has not been updated since January 4, 2022.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Does WEW even have a studio at this point? Their beyond-broken website lists Birach's Southfield, Michigan, offices which is also in the FCC public files. Wouldn't be a surprise if they are piping in R.G. Stair directly to the transmitter. Chances are the Bosnians—even if they were mildly interested in going back to WEW—have no means to broadcast.

I don't think it's that hard to set up a home studio and then pipe it directly to WEW. It might not sound good, but it's been done before.

 

[radiofan2023]

Seems the Overcomer radio shutdown is actually happening, but I think a lot of us won’t fully believe it until July 1 comes around and Brother Stair is nowhere to be found on the airwaves.🤔😐

Maybe someone else will buy the tapes and resurrect him!

 

[RF101]

Looking at the license and history cards, WEW's sign-on/sign-off times appear to indicate a true daytimer, no PSA/PSSA. Albuquerque KKOB is not listed as an extenuating factor.

 

[secondchoice]

I don't think it's that hard to set up a home studio and then pipe it directly to WEW. It might not sound good, but it's been done before.

Radio cloud or another cloud based service would be simpler. Plus you can use it anywhere there is Internet when you are on vacation.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Perhaps more telling, WEW's "issues and programs" folder has not been updated since January 4, 2022.

And even that entry, which covered a single issue addressed in one hour programs over only nine of the 13 weeks in the quarter (and the same issue was similarly covered for only eight weeks the previous quarter). I'm rather surprised that the Media Bureau didn't make at least a cursory check of the issues and programs folder before approving an upgrade in facilities.

In my view, they better deserve a NAL than a CP.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Looking at the license and history cards, WEW's sign-on/sign-off times appear to indicate a true daytimer, no PSA/PSSA. Albuquerque KKOB is not listed as an extenuating factor.

One reference I've found to nonstandard sign-on/sign-off times was in a Post-Dispatch article from 2005 about the programming it offered in multiple languages. The article started out this way:

WEW-AM is a small radio station with a signal that can only be heard for only a hundred miles or so. It broadcasts until two hours after sunset from the kitchen of a brick, two-family flat on the Hill in St. Louis.

The only other references to sign-on/sign-off times that I found were in the National Radio Club's AM Logbooks. Here is where it gets murky. From 2004 to 2013, the logbooks stated that WEW had a PSRA of 500 watts with sign-off at New York City local sunset. In 2014, this changed. Power for a PSRA was not stated and sign-off was given as Albuquerque local sunset. This continued in the logbooks from 2015 to 2018, inclusive. In 2019, sign-off was once again given as New York City local sunset. That continued into the 2020 logbook, which is the last one available at worldradiohistory.com. Conclusion: whatever source(s) the NRC was using for information about WEW turned out not to be reliable.

I also waded through references in Broadcasting's "For the Record", where the station was always listed as a daytimer. My own recollection dates back to the 1970s; I remember nothing unusual about WEW's operating hours (unlike KFUO). Those were the Charles Stanley years, when the station had found a small but stable niche with nostalgia programming.

Looking through the FCC's list of license-modification applications mostly turns up applications for higher power with the DA. There were no modification applications listed before 2004. There was one application relating to the station's current facilities where the "Modes/Hours of Operation" entry is given as "DayTime". (Draft Copy « Licensing and Management System « FCC) - but I'm not sure how much stock to put into that, either.

The Post article said the station charged $150 an hour for airtime (remember, this was 2005).

We'll see if all this becomes moot at the end of the month.