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Palm Beaches 104.7 The Flame to be purchased by WLRN group

S

strangelove

The management company for WLRN will be purchasing WFLM 104.7 and will operate it at as a non-commercial station with programming from NPR. My question is whether WLRN will operate it as a standalone station serving Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast, or duplicate Miami's programming like they do on WKWM in the Keys. I know WLRN has a translator in West Palm, but isn't this the second attempt at a full power Palm Beach NPR station?

Press release here
 
The current arrangement sucks. WLRN leases someone else's HD2 in WPB as a base station for its 101.9(?) translator, and that guy is seriously underpowered for the large expanse of Palm Beach and Martin Counties that it covers. Pulling in 101.9 is a challenge, pulling in WLRN itself out of Miami is a challenge, and even the Fort Pierce NPR station is nearly impossible from anywhere south of WPB. Hopefully this arrangement will serve that area better.
 
WFLM and Urban format does really well in Palm Beach. Why would you want to sell? It would leave more audience listening to x102.3
 
This is terrific news for fans of NPR programming along the Treasure Coast and in the Palm Beaches!

I also suspect the new programming will attract considerably stronger ratings than the current format. So, this is a big win for the listening public.
 
onemusic said:
WFLM and Urban format does really well in Palm Beach. Why would you want to sell? It would leave more audience listening to x102.3
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Unless things changed more recently, WFLM never really made a dent in x102.3. The market really was not big enough to support two Urban outlets.
 
cdd
MarkW said:
This is terrific news for fans of NPR programming along the Treasure Coast and in the Palm Beaches!

I also suspect the new programming will attract considerably stronger ratings than the current format. So, this is a big win for the listening public.
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Why would someone on the Treasure Coast switch to a Miami NPR station when they already have a local 100kW station for over 40 years playing the same programming with content that is more relevant to them?
 
MarkW said:
I didn't mean to disrespect WQCS. Fair point.

This will be a good programming change for the Palm Beaches at least.
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Further clarification. WFLM may put a listenable signal into Martin County, but it does not really get into St. Lucie or Indian River Counties, the rest of the "Treasure Coast" where the majority of the population is. The Treasure Coast is WQCS territory -- the NPR station licensed to Fort Pierce.
 
strangelove said:
With WFLM becoming a non-commercial station, will Vic Canales' True Oldies on 104.7's HD signal have to find a new home?
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Since it is in the commercial portion of the band, shouldn't make a difference. Even though the channel will be occupied by a non-com, there are any numbers of commercial stations that don't make a profit. However, WLRN may want a commercial venture off their carrier.
 
This is good news that the Palm Beach/Treasure Coast market is getting a proper full power NPR station if that's the case. We desperately need it since the demise of WXEL 90.7 FM. Sometimes I wonder if this market is being purposefully ignored for public radio. With a significant portion of the populace coming from the north and immigrants from all over the world, I have no doubt it will be a success.
 
archiespanglo said:
I wonder if this market is being purposefully ignored for public radio.
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My take is the problem was getting a frequency. Once a religious broadcaster gets a signal, as happened with 90.7, they don't let it go. So they were fortunate a local owner was willing to sell a commercial frequency. But yes I agree that it will be a success. They're able to get a Top 10 station with a 250 watt translator.
 
TheBigA said:
They're able to get a Top 10 station with a 250 watt translator.
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No they aren't. Much of that listening is in the Middle and South County area on the main signal. Palm Beach County goes all the way to Boca and they do very well where you can hear 91.3. You can hear LRN pretty well north until at least downtown WPB. And FLMs signal is not good. I listened on 95 yesterday and 104.7 had interference on and off all the way South to Donald Ross and was pretty unlistenable in Stuart, even in the car. I was getting LRN better! Cramming the frequency on the Eiffel Tower looks good on paper but I wonder if LRNs engineers ever even drove up and listened to 104.7 and 91.3 or took readings? It's kind of silly to mention Martin County when there's almost no building penetration north of Hobe Sound.
6.45m for that signal? Yikes.
 


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