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100.3 The Beat

The market will not support another type Alternative format. Smooth Jazz is also a tough sell, most stations have converted over to vocals or urban AC (WDLT dropped most of their jazz titles, and KTWV in LA went thru the roof when they dropped their Jazz titles). My FM is very similar to WMXC (and is very successful). The beat only needs to shave a few points off off BLX to make a difference. It skews younger, and that is probably their objective. A very practical management decision. Usually, if something is not working, they will make a switch, and relatively quick. Most markets will give a format year before they switch. So the countdown is on.
 
If the 97.1 and 104.7 LPFMs even make it to air in Mobile, at least one of them will play hip college kid alternative music. They'll probably play plenty of EDM too. The coverage area will be tiny, but it's better than nothing.

I've been expecting (wishing) WBLZ 103.1 in Fort Walton would make a flip from Hard Active Rock to Alternative. ... but FWB/Destin is a whole different demo than Mobile.
On the other hand, I don't like most of the new music being played on XM Alternative channels, and I don't expect anyone would try Classic Alternative in this area, so I'm SOL.

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Active rock or AAA is about as close as you are going to get. I know Mediabase charts just dropped and merged some rock charts, so the station pool is going to get thinner. It is such a narrow demo format, and only works in selected markets.
 
WWAV Wave 102.1 from FWB is just about as close to AAA as a Variety Hits station can get. It's just not close enough for my taste. Heck, 92Zew has started playing an awful lot of songs that make me change the station.

It'd be pretty cool if the Mobile Arts Council LPFM and the USA LPFM could get good enough to buy HD equipment for WHIL so they could put out a full market OTA HD signal on mythical new signals 91.3 HD2 and HD3. I don't care how easy it is to stream radio on my iPhone, apparently I'm just not going to do it.

What's the state of Mobile's non-com dial? Are any stations becoming pitiful failures in need of a new daddy?

Dang, my thoughts are drifting all over the place tonight.
 
seedless said:
WWAV Wave 102.1 from FWB is just about as close to AAA as a Variety Hits station can get. It's just not close enough for my taste. Heck, 92Zew has started playing an awful lot of songs that make me change the station.

It'd be pretty cool if the Mobile Arts Council LPFM and the USA LPFM could get good enough to buy HD equipment for WHIL so they could put out a full market OTA HD signal on mythical new signals 91.3 HD2 and HD3. I don't care how easy it is to stream radio on my iPhone, apparently I'm just not going to do it.

What's the state of Mobile's non-com dial? Are any stations becoming pitiful failures in need of a new daddy?

Dang, my thoughts are drifting all over the place tonight.
Click to expand...

You mean I'm not the only one who tunes in ZEW and says, "This is AAA?"

I don't know of a single LPFM with HD, so don't count on it. 4 watts of digital ain't gonna go far, lol.

Dunno if it's necessarily non-comm, but Wilkins is still trying to sell 540 WASG. Great daytime signal on the low end of the dial, almost on par with 660 in Baldwin County. 540 + translator would be quite a little deal, but I think they want too much for it.
 
Nah Zach, I was suggesting locals fund a WHIL upgrade to HD and carry USA Jaguar Radio 97.1 on 91.3-HD2 and perhaps WHEX 104.7 on the HD3. That should give both LPFMs the ability to add a 250 watt translator, perhaps in Fairhope.

I know, ain't gonna happen.
 
One problem. $$ to keep all of this moving and operating. Alternative has a very narrow ad base. Night clubs, sports bars, strip joints and beer. Pensacola has a few. Mobile probably not many.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Groove1670 said:
One problem. $$ to keep all of this moving and operating. Alternative has a very narrow ad base. Night clubs, sports bars, strip joints and beer. Pensacola has a few. Mobile probably not many.
Click to expand...

You forgot the key clients: bail bondsmen and pawn shops.
 
R.D.P. said:
Just discovered this:

Edgewater Broadcasting’s 90.7 W214BW Citronelle/Mobile AL goes to Agape Educational Media for $28,000. W214BW will rebroadcast Agape’s Christian AC “Wow 90.9” WOWB Brewton AL.

Read More At: https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/95349/station-sales-week-of-1127/

Dan <><
Click to expand...

WOWB seems to be an interesting station. As far as I can tell it's a locally programmed Christian music station, which seems to be a rarity these days, especially in a smaller town like Brewton. When they first signed on with their current facility the website had a coverage map that greatly exaggerated their service area. I'm in Foley and can hear them occasionally during enhanced reception conditions but otherwise they are not a local to Pensacola, Mobile or even Bay Minette to the best of my knowledge.

The translator at 90.7 is currently off the air, although you'd be forgiven for missing it even if it was on. It is licensed at a cell phone tower in Semmes with a whopping 4 watts. Before this sale, the CP was to boost to 10 watts on 90.9 and pick up Freedom Radio FM from WLOG in Pennsylvania, but that never came to fruition. If it ever goes on from 90.9 it'll probably cover most of Mobile-proper but won't make the Eastern Shore, not least because of the 90.7 translator at the bluff in Spanish Fort that does CSN. Still, it will give WOWB a presence in a big city that they don't have at the moment.

WOWB at one time had a CP to do… something, I forget what… that would have seen them be a rimshot into Baldwin County and the upper Pensacola metro. But that expired unbuilt in 2012.
 
WOW has put a pretty good signal into Pensacola and FWB for maybe a decade now.
It's an odd bird on the almost all Christian non-com dial. I'm pretty sure WOW is the station that plays an awful lot of family friendly AC music mixed in with the standard CCM playlist. The most commercial sounding of the Christian non-coms.
I also think I remember something about WOW trying to boost their signal toward Pensacola, but it never/hasn't happened.

So will these new translator rules allow WOWB to simulcast its out of market signal on 90.7 in Mobile with any significant wattage? Couldn't this translator go commercial on 101.3 and move to West Mobile?
 
The WOW folks are local, and they are great organization (we have worked together on some projects). The programmer is a former AC programmer, and know AC/CCM well. The rules for Non commercial, and translators are more relaxed and can be move a lot further with no issues. With that said, who knows where it will end up :)

My prediction still is, most of the remaining translators will go to religious broadcasters, and AM's out of market (possibly).
 
Just took a quick look at radio-locator.
Pensacola has 2 NPRs and 7 Christians in the non-com band.
Mobile has 2 NPRs and 3 Christians in the non-com band.
How did Mobile get shafted on non-com allocations?
 
They didn't. It was based on what was available and allocated at the time, and what organizations applied for those channels.
 
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