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Stock Show on WHK

Who would want to buy WHK? Hopefully not another religious/Christian broadcaster. There are enough of those in NE Ohio already. A format that is missing from the OTA airwaves would be nice, maybe smooth jazz or soft hits.
Your two suggestions are fine, but only if the owners can make money airing one of them. Hey! What about if the owners of AM850, WKNR, would be interested in re-starting KNR-2 which used to be on the former home of WABQ at 1540 AM? They'd have a 24-operation availability. 1540 in Cleveland was a daytimer.
 
Just throwing out some ideas.
Your two suggestions are fine, but only if the owners can make money airing one of them. Hey! What about if the owners of AM850, WKNR, would be interested in re-starting KNR-2 which used to be on the former home of WABQ at 1540 AM? They'd have a 24-operation availability. 1540 in Cleveland was a daytimer.
Another sports station? Ugh.
 
Are there any major sports teams in Cleveland that would be interested in being on another sports station?

cleveland/akron needs more sports stations like i need holes in my head
 
cleveland/akron needs more sports stations like i need holes in my head
I agree, but what else can be successful? Maybe brokered foreign language (but what to air if there's not enough buyers for half-hours or hour long shows? Brokered Religion yields the same question. WCRF is the long-standing granddaddy of mostly Christian spoken-word broadcasting in Cleveland. My sister has listened to WCRF for a long time. Even bought some of their Christian books and A/V offerings. She's ok with WCCR AM1260, but rarely listens. Trouble picking it up is a factor.
 
I agree, but what else can be successful? Maybe brokered foreign language (but what to air if there's not enough buyers for half-hours or hour long shows? Brokered Religion yields the same question. WCRF is the long-standing granddaddy of mostly Christian spoken-word broadcasting in Cleveland. My sister has listened to WCRF for a long time. Even bought some of their Christian books and A/V offerings. She's ok with WCCR AM1260, but rarely listens. Trouble picking it up is a factor.

Who says an am still has to exist? Maybe 1420 has worn out its welcome.. take down the towers and sell the land? Juyst because it leaves a whle, doesnt mean it needs to be filled
 
The WHK antenna is on the same site as WMMS, so it's unlikely they can sell the land.
I certainly wouldn't assume that. WMMS already has a licensed aux site on the same tower as WQHS-TV and WMJI, with equivalent or perhaps better coverage due to a taller tower.
If WHK's land was sold, it would be very easy for iHeart to make the aux the main and, if the budget allowed, to place a new aux.
 
I certainly wouldn't assume that. WMMS already has a licensed aux site on the same tower as WQHS-TV and WMJI, with equivalent or perhaps better coverage due to a taller tower.
If WHK's land was sold, it would be very easy for iHeart to make the aux the main and, if the budget allowed, to place a new aux.
WMJI has, by far, the best FM signal of all the Cleveland FMs. They have the golden combination of grandfathered power and a high tower. Next best is probably WNCX which isn't quite as high up as WMJI, but has grandfathered power as well.
 
WAKR is soft hits.... and jazz on AM, an inferior signal at that?

I dont think ive ever heard a worse idea for a format on a marginal am than that
WAKR is soft hits because they also have an FM translator at 93.5. If they didn't have that, I have a feeling WAKR might have gone back to talk/sports or just gone dark. And if they had gone dark, that would have left Akron with no AM station carrying local content. WHLO I believe is all piped in and I'm discountinung WNIR since they're technically in Kent.
 
IMHO: There will NOT be any major changes at the Cleveland Salem operations until Salem gets it's finances in order.

I still don't know why Salem didn't take a "prepackaged bankruptcy" before they sold their Fish Stations. There would have been a lot more cash flow to work with. If you hire the correct law firm there is an excellent chance current management stays in place once the dust settles.
 
Who would want to buy WHK? Hopefully not another religious/Christian broadcaster. There are enough of those in NE Ohio already.
The only people would would want WHK would be the likes of Relevant Radio (who still do not have a Cleveland station) or someone desiring to surrender the license and subdivide the transmitter land for a bunch of McMansions. And that's if the land is included with the deal (it probably isn't).
A format that is missing from the OTA airwaves would be nice, maybe smooth jazz or soft hits.
There's a reason why Rubber City finally gave in to reality and bailed on smooth jazz at the end of 2019. The demos do not exist. And WNWV is a standalone FM.

Try telling someone that a standalone AM playing smooth jazz would work.
 
Not sure it matters if smooth jazz is on AM. Years ago, a lot of businesses had WNWV playing in their offices as background music. Maybe the format could be tweaked a bit from what they were playing then. I'm sure it would attract a decent number of listeners, more than what Salem is attracting.

I wish Bob Conrad had not sold 1420. Perhaps he could have kept it going from a server in a closet without any announcers similar to what 106.5 is doing. But sadly, money talks.

If Ideastream were to acquire 1420, they can operate it as a non-profit.
 
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Not sure it matters if smooth jazz is on AM. Years ago, a lot of businesses had WNWV playing in their offices as background music. Maybe the format could be tweaked a bit from what they were playing then. I'm sure it would attract a decent number of listeners, more than what Salem is attracting.
Thom Mandel tried that already with "smooth AC" when he revived The Wave. It only lasted as long as it did because it was basically a personal plaything (which is totally his prerogative) but even then he had to bow to reality.
I wish Bob Conrad had not sold 1420. Perhaps he could have kept it going from a server in a closet without any announcers similar to what 106.5 is doing. But sadly, money talks.
Conrad saw the writing on the wall. WRMR 1420 could not reliably sell advertising and the standards format skewed as old as classical. Difference was WCLV had reliable clientele and a very faithful, high-income audience. Even if 1420 had simulcast 104.9, as was Conrad's original intent, it would not have lasted for long and whatever listeners it had would've been directed over to 104.9 or online.
If Ideastream were to acquire 1420, they can operate it as a non-profit.
Public broadcasters that still have AMs are shedding them. Look at Columbus and Buffalo for starters. Even if Salem offered 1420 to Ideastream for free and as a tax deductible donation, Ideastream would more than likely turn it down.
 
Whatever listeners WJZA has are doing so on the translator and rimshot, and absolutely not on the AM.
Correct. I wish IBOC AM would have worked but that's another thread. In a lot of markets the AM band does not have an AM station that gets a whole point (6+) without a FM signal. I personally been listening to smooth jazz 101 / 100 a couple of hours a day for some relaxation and to get away from the political attack ads the last couple of months. I can count the actual revenue commercials on one hand I have heard in the last in the last month.

IIMHO Smooth Jazz has a hard time in PPM markets.
 
Correct. I wish IBOC AM would have worked but that's another thread. In a lot of markets the AM band does not have an AM station that gets a whole point (6+) without a FM signal. I personally been listening to smooth jazz 101 / 100 a couple of hours a day for some relaxation and to get away from the political attack ads the last couple of months. I can count the actual revenue commercials on one hand I have heard in the last in the last month.

IIMHO Smooth Jazz has a hard time in PPM markets.
Even the big 50k flamethrowers like WBBM, KNX, KYW, WGY, WBT and others now have FM simulcasts. WINS in New York went to #1 total audience after they started simlucasting on 92.3 FM (helped a bit by WCBS-AM's demise).
 


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