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104.9 THE GUMP

S

sflaboy

Day 2.

So far, so good. THE GUMP is on the air. Initial reaction is good. Lots of Facebook and Twitter talk. Listening to it in real time makes me realize how OLD all the other rock stations - including my own - sound to real New Rock partisans. Frankly, for an "old guy", I find the music a refreshing change from another Pink Floyd or Beatles song. Since this is a "radio board" i'll offer this perspective:

If radio is losing a whole generation (or two) of listeners to new media - it's our own fault. Gotta give it at least one last try before we decay into a 45+ medium.

I know THE GUMP is on a translator, but I'm sitting on my patio listening to The Gump in Millbrook (12 miles from the transmitter) on a Bose portable - solid as a rock...and there's always the streams. For those inquiring minds....there are no plans to move this format to 96.1 or 97.9 or 98.9 or 107.9. Every one of those stations is successful from a revenue standpoint ratings be damned. This is a case of being able to use a "dead' frequency (1170), and offer the market something that may not be mass appeal enough for the Clear Channels and Cumulus' of the world, but can easily be worthwhile trying with the translator. This is my shot at giving a forgotten and ignored demographic something to listen to on old media (radio), new media (streaming on computer) and come soon....the iphone and android apps (also on the web with buzzmontgomery.com - the River Regions first "community portal").

I feel blessed to not have to ask permission or justification for trying something "out of the box". I have the best job in radio. We'll see if The Gump is embraced by the market. It's always been about shaking things up.
 
Good luck with THE GUMP. This is exciting, and from this rock fan .. I'm glad someone finally did this. Enjoying the webstream here in Tallassee.

Other than the dearly departed Alice 96.1, the last time Montgomery signed on a rock station was 95.1 The Fox in the summer of 1989. Prior to that time, there had been a rock station on AM 950 called "95 Rock" that had a loyal following. I know the young rock fans of today who have been craving a station like this will enjoy THE GUMP - a uniquely named station for a unique place to live and work.

Congratulations.
 
I'm glad the signal is good in Millbrook. I live in Deatsvillenow, about 7 miles North of 14, and it usually takes a couple of miles closer to town to really pull it in.

You're right, it's not about winning in the book. It's about offering something everybody else doesn't have. 95.1 was a spectacular station when I was growing up, and I loved it from 1989 to the late 90's. I started working there in late 2000, and it began its decline a year or two later. I love Classic Rock, and you used to hear stuff you'd never find on another station. Sadly, the format has been squeezed to a handful of the classic songs, and just a bunch of short rotation repeats and a few new rock bits scattered about. It bothers me less today than when I left, since now I have Sirius and an MP3 card reader in my car (and 107.9 to listen to sometimes). I'll definitely give 104.9 some ear time, too.
 
The station still rocks man! 

Although I'll have to listen to it online, the presentation does make 95.1 The Fox and 102.9 Jack FM (Marion/Tuscaloosa) sound very staled.

And this is coming from the mouth of a 40 year old person.

R.D.P. <><

P.S. How will this affect 95.1 The Fox?  :D
 
I no longer listen to AM, unless I need my fix for Rush Limbaugh. 

Outside of that, when I have a need for the radio, I listen to the FM side.

My CD collection comes in handy, for those times when I get tired of the radio and need something else to listen to.

R.D.P. <><

P.S. To Mr. Zach, your post rocked!
 
I don't feel that AM is totally dead, just that there aren't usable AM frequencies in the Montgomery area. Many decades before I existed, Oscar Covington decided to put up a radio station. He had his choice of (almost) every radio channel available at the time. For reasons I'll probably never understand, he chose 1170KHz. Granted, it's not a total daytimer, but let's face it, the night signal sucks. 1,000 watts pushed to six towers makes it hard to pick up at night, especially in Winter, when all you hear is "The Mexican Radio". When The Greg Show aired only on 1170, I usually had to catch the encore broadcast, and stream it to listen (which I did). Interestingly enough, when Oscar Covington put a TV station on the air, he did the same thing, and put it on Channel 20, requring a 78-foot UHF pylon antenna that needed tons of forward power to drive. A VHF channel would have required far less power to propagate. The transmitter was massive, and I think they had to replace 8-10 vacuum tubes each day before they could sign on in the morning.

I can still listen (when conditions allow) to WSM in Nashville, though they ruined the station. I can also listen to WSB in Atlanta, but why would I when I can stream it in crystal clear stereo on the web? For the record, when I was much younger, I DID listen to it on my shortwave from Jackson, Mississippi.

Not everybody can have a 500,000 watt "Nation Station" like WLW. Actually, they don't have it anymore, and neither can anybody else. 50,000 watts on AM is hard to come by, and we don't have it here. Don't like it? Figure out a way to change the laws of physics.

Also, let's not forget that at one time, FM was the "trash" signal back in Armstrong's day before they moved the band from 40Mhz to where it exists today.
 
I did listen to the 1170 version for a few minutes.
It was like the old WLSQ-AM 95 Rock. Funny no one seemed to mind it was on a crappy AM signal then.
 
Every once in a while you can see an OLD OLD car in the Gump with that gray bumper sticker - "95 Rock - (and in small letters underneath) Finally some GOOD rock on AM". I know I still have one somewheres.

As one who started in college radio - I hope the GUMP does well. Although I have to admit I was kinda fond of once or twice a week switching over to the Good Time Oldies. For whatever reason, the signal of 94.7 WTBF (the other oldies station in the area, loosely defined), seems to be worse than ever - from occasionally acceptable to rarely audible now.
 
StrayKats, I know the bumper sticker of which you speak; and as an ex-employee of Troy Broadcasting Corporation (WTBF), it seems that the hills of Pine Level mark the outside reach of WTBF's FM signal. It's great up and down 231 and all around the Wiregrass, but somewhere in southern Montgomery County the signal starts breaking up. Interestingly, WTBF's AM 970 reaches further into Montgomery proper during the daytime. I have heard WTBF-AM while driving around downtown Montgomery.
 
The Gump is fantastic. Finally we have a New/Alternative Rock Station in Montgomery. It's about time. I listened to Q because I V.O. on the station, when I can Greg's show on 107 in the afternoon... the rest of the time XM for Alt. Nation or New Rock. I don't think I've listened to anything else since Gump hit air last Friday. I stream it at the house and listen to it in the car.
 
This is a record. Nothing trashing, damning or negative. Certain companies would have pulled the plug after reading this post.
 
Day 4 starts...we are going to have to stop reading the comments and posts about the Buzz or start believing that we are into something. 4 days and almost as many Facebook fans as The Fox - who's "been on the air for 20 years". Proves there was a hole foe this format. Today, more music to go in. More production and liners. Working on the translator upgrade. Who would have thought that the "B" team would hit on this.
 
...And yes I was able to get this station, (104.9 FM) right outside of Tyler, a few minutes ago. 

This station almost sounded like a local one. 

It was coming in real well.

Amazing isn't it, for a translator rebroadcast. 

R.D.P. <><

P.S. How will this affect 95.1 The Fox. :D

B.T.W. This station still makes those like 95.1 The Fox and Jack FM from Marion/Tuscaloosa sound staled.  Rock on Gump!  ;)
 
The Bluewater PR campaign keeps moving on. It is interesting reading. Why is WACV off the air for days now? Time will tell if things work out for the gump. Remember Cumulus can always change directions if alternative gets hot in town. Remember all the PR hype from the Bluewater PR department on the Oldies on the 104.9 leased translator some months back??
 
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