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1110 New Format

vchimpanzee said:
I was listening to 1150 AM and because I was close to China Grove, I was hearing a lot of interference.

It might have helped extend the 1150 AM range to have the programming on 1140, since during the day on weekdays it was just the same as 1460, which I thought wouldn't be allowed. The owners of 1150 AM had 1410 AM to simulcast for a while but sold it.
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I think I understand and won't rehash it to clarify, I'll just go with it. Didn't know 1150 and 1410 were owned by the same folk. Speaking of Ford Broadcasting, years ago, they were 'RNA, 'RKB, 'LTC and 'DEX. I believe out of the last two, 'LTC may have been the first to go, with Dave Harvell (sp) buying it, then maybe someone else, because it went Black Gospel (DH was still SGM), then 'DEX, dunno much about them.

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
 
Bgd1974 said:
What if all this is a set up to sell 1110 to Beasley or iHeart? I’m sure iHeart would launch a talker or Beasley using it for one of their hd channels (Fox Sports or Spanish).
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Beasley is not in the financial condition to buy a station; they are working on refinancing. When is the last time iHeart bought just an AM in a transaction?
 
101tm said:
Sell WBT? I highly doubt that was ever in the cards for Radio One. They moved a decently performing station from a dinosaur band with a signal disadvantage to an FM. What happened with the replacement programming for the AM we don’t know, but I highly doubt they EVER considered selling the WBT brand. Radio One wants stations like WIBC (highly successful)
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WIBC is running its AM off a low power rooftop. Its audience likely comes over 90% from the FM.
101tm said:
and WBT. As a company they’re trying to diversify away from stations targeted solely at African-Americans, and this helps them do just that.
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Your guess is as good as mine. Neither of us... none of us... are in the meetings with Mr Liggins.
 
SCMcKinney said:
The lack of an establishment of a new format on 1110 has to be deadly. I think stunting can only work for a brief period of time, and after that it is not much different than signing off the air. Once that happens, it has to be very difficult, without a lot of billboard, or in the modern age, social media promotion to get an audience back. On the San Francisco board that has been following a silent full market AM, KZAC 560, I had made a suggestion that a new format be created, Entertainment Radio. Several experienced people brought me down to earth with the realities of funding a radio station startup and the problems of working with an empty street that is AM. But I still think the idea has merit, and in the hands of a cluster that can spread some of the cost out, it could be tested for not too much risk.

My idea for Entertainment Radio is that there has to be a decent number of people for who 24/7 Political Shouting is a tune out, for who Sports/Guy talk is not their thing, and for who Music with Commercials has been replaced with Internet sources that are uninterrupted. What would be new is Entertainment, initially in the form of Old Time Radio. The programming would run in the daytime, radio's prime time, not buried in the evening or overnight. The internet archive has many, many hours of programming there free for the listening, so I am assuming it would be available to a broadcaster for free or at least not much. There are modern day producers, such as Imagination Theater that might welcome making their programs available for a price, but also making allowances for the exposure a signal like 560 or 1110 would offer.

There were a number of critiques to the idea:

Too Old - Only 70+ would listen. To which I say, how do we know? Nothing like it has been tried in at least 40 years. I would bet most 40 years olds have never heard Suspense. The programming would have to be carefully selected - nothing that is too dated or corny. The job of the program director would be to dig through the mounds of programs to find the acceptable ones, much like a music director has to find the right tunes to spin.

The language and how we speak has changed. To which I say, the OTR programs could test the concept. Eventually modern programs would be needed. But if audience is there, advertisers with money might follow (?). Another idea might be to get college and/or high school theatrical groups to re-record the scripts in modern American-ese. That would cost something, but could it be affordable?

A solid point was made about the Cumeless empty street that AM has become. I don't have a good response to that except to suggest that maybe the street is empty of pedestrians because the storefronts are all faceless warehouses, fundamentalist churches, and small time bodegas. If somebody took one of those empty warehouses and put in a Craft Brewery maybe that would generate traffic?

Another solid point was the cost of operating a radio station, a question I had often wondered about, but had never got a complete answer. To this I don't have a good response, except to suggest a cluster might be able to spread out the costs a bit (?). A knowledgeable estimate (for San Francisco) suggested a broadcaster better be thinking of having $50K a month available just to get off the ground. That kind of explains why New York's WLIB 1190 has been on the market for so long (and probably will remain so).

Someone on the San Francisco board suggested that a new format might better be tried on an internet 'proving ground'. That's a good idea and could certainly be done, and since Entertainment Radio would be new to the 21st Century, it might get ears even if there are thousands of other choices on the 'Internet band'. But at some point it would have to be tried on a real radio station in a real market to see how it plays in Peoria. A difference between San Francisco and Charlotte is that KZAC is counting down the days to FCC delisting with a short-of-cash Cumulus owning it, and 1110 is alive and kicking. If 1110 is doing nothing now, the facilities may already be there.
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Your idea is good but way too outside of the box for most to agree on and too far out for owners to try. So instead they will contnue to beat us over the head with conservative talk and sports, wondering why we stopped listening.

1110 WBT with 50,000 watts is only directional at night. The daytime signal is decent. You have to ask, how many people listen at night?

As for new innovative programing I don't have the solution, however I won't shoot down anyone's idea unless I have a better one. Sadly no matter what, building an audience or as some would say "brand" from scratch will be very difficult and will take a ton of promotion as well as people on the inside committed to making it work . Anything less and It may be better to turn off 1110 rather than watch it die a not so slow death.
 
Hmm...WGNC is airing Clay and Buck right now. Which means the new schedule with no Premiere shows hasn't taken effect yet. The new schedule has Fox Sports starting at 3 pm instead of Hannity

I'm more convinced than ever, this is the reason for the holdup at 1110.
 
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I spoke directly with the owner of WGNC this afternoon. He confirmed they have not been approached by Premiere about any changes and said operations and programming are business as usual.
 
I suppose things do happen, but I still can't imagine R1 isn't executing the plan they've had all along. It does seem to be an awfully long running redirect loop, though. I would think if national talk were in the works there would be zero reason to blow up 1110. As I said before, even with the primary local news-talk outlet at 107.9, if there was to be a secondary national news-talk at 1110 why go to the trouble of blowing up 1110. They could have simply run redirect announcements several times an hour. I think whatever is coming to 1110 will be totally different from what it used to be. I've guessed urban talk, but of course that's only a guess. A Charlotte version of WOL? It could be anything. How about a format similar to WDIA in Memphis. Rockin' Ray would be groovin' in the grave! Serious question: have there been other redirect loops that ran over a month long? I don't know of any, and it just seems to me that by now even the most passive listener has discovered that they've moved.
 
KilowattKat said:
Hmm...WGNC is airing Clay and Buck right now. Which means the new schedule with no Premiere shows hasn't taken effect yet. The new schedule has Fox Sports starting at 3 pm instead of Hannity

I'm more convinced than ever, this is the reason for the holdup at 1110.
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Interesting and very possibly hit the nail on the head. I haven't found a chance to look at the Programs link versus the Program Log per say, yet, but I gotta get a round tuit LOL.
 
caudleweather said:
I spoke directly with the owner of WGNC this afternoon. He confirmed they have not been approached by Premiere about any changes and said operations and programming are business as usual.
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Roger on that, Johnny. Remember when they were part of The Network, or The Net, for short? It was the old 'OHS, 'LON, 'GNC and 'CSL. Later on, they became The BOSS, your Beach, Oldies and Sports Stations, same list as before. AKA Hometown in full or in part. I remember, they had a guy named Andy working for them years ago, had a good voice, he worked for a friend who was at least part-owner of a station in Spindale, boy, that narrows it down LOL.
 
amos1001 said:
I suppose things do happen, but I still can't imagine R1 isn't executing the plan they've had all along. It does seem to be an awfully long running redirect loop, though. I would think if national talk were in the works there would be zero reason to blow up 1110. As I said before, even with the primary local news-talk outlet at 107.9, if there was to be a secondary national news-talk at 1110 why go to the trouble of blowing up 1110. They could have simply run redirect announcements several times an hour. I think whatever is coming to 1110 will be totally different from what it used to be. I've guessed urban talk, but of course that's only a guess. A Charlotte version of WOL? It could be anything. How about a format similar to WDIA in Memphis. Rockin' Ray would be groovin' in the grave! Serious question: have there been other redirect loops that ran over a month long? I don't know of any, and it just seems to me that by now even the most passive listener has discovered that they've moved.
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I don't know of any redirect loops that have run this long. I remember some stunts back in the day, namely the one from 'MO to 'BIG on 102.1 and context therewith and the one from 'BIG to 'JM<H, same song for several days, with announcements thrown in every few minutes about 102 Jams, but none this long. Wow, that sentence was about as long as this stunt, sorry.
 
amos1001 said:
I would think if national talk were in the works there would be zero reason to blow up 1110.
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I think that observation is right on the mark. Whatever they have planned, they obviously wanted to blow off every single 1110 listener before proceeding and get them all to embrace the format moving to FM.

Which means that, whatever the new format is, it's probably going to be unexpected and therefore not predictable by the radiofans segment of this board's audience. (Likely not by us pros, either, to be fair.)
 
K.M. Richards said:
I think that observation is right on the mark. Whatever they have planned, they obviously wanted to blow off every single 1110 listener before proceeding and get them all to embrace the format moving to FM.

Which means that, whatever the new format is, it's probably going to be unexpected and therefore not predictable by the radiofans segment of this board's audience. (Likely not by us pros, either, to be fair.)
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Good points/observations. Oh and Amos, just saw that long list of stations, must have been after I quoted your post. I recognize several of those. Reminds me of that old Hank Snow song, actually written by an Australian, I've Been Everywhere.
 
K.M. Richards said:
I think that observation is right on the mark. Whatever they have planned, they obviously wanted to blow off every single 1110 listener before proceeding and get them all to embrace the format moving to FM.

Which means that, whatever the new format is, it's probably going to be unexpected and therefore not predictable by the radiofans segment of this board's audience. (Likely not by us pros, either, to be fair.)
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But replacing conservative talk with conservative talk makes no sense.
 


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