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106.3 The Mountain is now The Zone
- Thread starter RMarino
- Start date
E
Elkhosen
Guest
Great. ANOTHER sports talk station. To me, a bad choice, but probably cheaper to run. Oh well.
Then, I wish they would have kept 930 WSEV. "The Mountain" was great listening when we visited Pigeon Forge....emphasis on "was".
E
Elkhosen
Guest
It is truly amazing how many sports oriented talk stations we have around here.
The Sports Animal is on AM 990, FM 99.1 and 99.3. Then you have ESPN in Spanish on AM 1120 (for the 15 people that can pick up that lousy signal out of Seymour) and then ESPN 1180 out of South Knoxville. And now, ESPN 106.3 out of Sevier County. Those are all full-time sports.
Plus, our other talk stations (FM 100.3, AM 670, 760, 850, etc.) all spend a TON of time on sports talk. Sheesh.
What a saturated format! Maybe terrestrial radio is moving to all-talk, no music. I will stop listening when that happens.
The Sports Animal is on AM 990, FM 99.1 and 99.3. Then you have ESPN in Spanish on AM 1120 (for the 15 people that can pick up that lousy signal out of Seymour) and then ESPN 1180 out of South Knoxville. And now, ESPN 106.3 out of Sevier County. Those are all full-time sports.
Plus, our other talk stations (FM 100.3, AM 670, 760, 850, etc.) all spend a TON of time on sports talk. Sheesh.
What a saturated format! Maybe terrestrial radio is moving to all-talk, no music. I will stop listening when that happens.
S
SchlitzBeer
Guest
Couldve told you a change was coming. Didnt you notice they removed stereo a couple of weeks ago? They have a few more tricks up their sleeves before it's all said and done. Don't think it's going to amount to much though in terms of taking away from the other sports stations.
S
SchlitzBeer
Guest
Expect someone to leave the Sports Animal and go work there.
Elkhosen said:
Actually most markets have more than one sports station now. Usually one will program ESPN and one will program Fox. Sometimes there will be a third sports station in the market which will run one of the smaller networks such as Sporting News Radio. It's a popular format these days and it makes good money.
And although I liked The Mountain, this move actually makes sense in a combo sell with WSEV-FM. I always thought maybe The Mountain overlaped audience with Mix 105.5 a little too much. This will solve the problem.
I agree.. For crying out loud, we ONLY have UT sports..
We don't have an NBA team (the closest one to us sucks---the Hawks)
We don't have an NFL team (the Titans might as well be Nashville's team)
We don't have a major league baseball team (as far as minors, the Smokies are exciting only towards the end of the season..
We don't have a major league hockey team (again, the Predators are Nashville).
True, the all-sports format is among the cheapest to run (talk radio is the cheapest), but now, it's spreading like the
H-!-N-1..
106.3 is doomed to mediocrity. Why doesn't everybody just switch to all sports? They can't compete with the Frog Station anyway.
We don't have an NBA team (the closest one to us sucks---the Hawks)
We don't have an NFL team (the Titans might as well be Nashville's team)
We don't have a major league baseball team (as far as minors, the Smokies are exciting only towards the end of the season..
We don't have a major league hockey team (again, the Predators are Nashville).
True, the all-sports format is among the cheapest to run (talk radio is the cheapest), but now, it's spreading like the
H-!-N-1..
106.3 is doomed to mediocrity. Why doesn't everybody just switch to all sports? They can't compete with the Frog Station anyway.
I was hoping someone would notice the change or even cared. Burkett's finally got the all-timers. Yeah it must be cheaper to run. Too much work to program music on a Scott computer as if they were useless anyway. Like Pigeon Forge vacationers coudn't find the Sports Animal on 99.3. Oldies may not be a money maker and were just left with the daytimers in Newport and Morristown. At least it would be nice if the goobers on ESPN Radio knew anything about southern sports. "Where the **** is Tusculum, Bristol Motor Speedway,what is a Vol?" I swear I heard them say it when I worked for Citadel. I'm getting old.
No, No wait, Mixx 105.5 will go Polka!!!!!
99.1 is a dying dog in the Knoxville market ... if you could see the morning show's numbers you would wonder how they are even still in business. 106, with the correct players in place, will not only give the sports animal a run for their money, but will take them down. They have a golden opportunity to fill the void that 99.1 is self-creating. Most of the listeners have grown tired of the 'state run radio' that is the animal.
T
tnlucky13
Guest
radiogangbanger said:
Hmmmm....lets see. 106.3: 500 watts ERP, no major sports team affiliations. Can't get UT, can't get Titans (Sports Animal's sister station has that). Might get Braves baseball. One signal, relatively low power.
Sports Animal: THREE signals. All of which run more power. 99.3 is the closest with 1,000 watts. Multiple sports affiliations. Ability to do more than one event at the same time (TWO High School Football games every Friday Night). Flagship station of UT Sports. Like them or not, has 8 local personalities. Has longest running afternoon Sports show in the State of Tennessee, winning multiple AP awards. Has the ability to carry live events such as press conferences, UT Media day live, live practice reports, local high school events, etc.
Yeah, right. No contest.
P
pollyesther
Guest
I LOVED the oldies format. I could not believe it when they changed to another sports channel.
I'm not sure, but didn't the old 99 WNOX have 10kw in its music days? I could get it in Greene Co. wide open day or night back in the 70's and early 80's. Now even as the Sports Animal it doesn't have the signal it used to have. On I-40E you lose it about Dandrige after dark, even in the summer during Smokies baseball. I've talked a few times with Tim Berry, Cheif Engineer for Citadel on 2 meters(WB4GBI,145.47) and always forgot to ask him if 990 has ever changed antenna patern....
A
ARDONAVINDA
Guest
It seems to be the trend these days for some FM's to go sports talk. As for why The Mountain switched I don't know for sure but my guess would be one of two reasons and both would have to do with saving money.
1...Possibly they are worried about the NAB thing that is in court right now to fight the RIAA from having to pay the record labels an extra $5 grand a year on top of paying the anual BMI ASCAP fees that music stations have to pay. You add in 5 grand anually with that and most small market and minority owned stations will unfortunatly have to either fold or go talk.
2...It is simply easier to run a piped in talk/sports format than a maintained music format.
I'm going with number two. It's ashame they couldn't make a go at the Classic Hits format, but they didn't ever promote it either. The sales folks did try and sell it as far as I know, but it's hard to sell any format since the economy tanked last year. Mix 105.5 is so heritage now that it doesn't need to be pushed or even promoted. A lot of people didn't even know that The Mountain even existed unless they stumbled upon it.
To me an oldies type of format on FM in Sevierville or Gatlinburg should be good because that area is so perfect for it. You have got constant car shows in the spring and summer, you've got old retro diners, car lots that sell muscle cars from the 60's and 70's. You would think it would work.
What has happened to Bill & Tammy in the morning? Did they both go back to their old time slots on Mix? Tammy mid days and Bill afternoons? If so at least the pressure is off of them to do voice tracking.
1...Possibly they are worried about the NAB thing that is in court right now to fight the RIAA from having to pay the record labels an extra $5 grand a year on top of paying the anual BMI ASCAP fees that music stations have to pay. You add in 5 grand anually with that and most small market and minority owned stations will unfortunatly have to either fold or go talk.
2...It is simply easier to run a piped in talk/sports format than a maintained music format.
I'm going with number two. It's ashame they couldn't make a go at the Classic Hits format, but they didn't ever promote it either. The sales folks did try and sell it as far as I know, but it's hard to sell any format since the economy tanked last year. Mix 105.5 is so heritage now that it doesn't need to be pushed or even promoted. A lot of people didn't even know that The Mountain even existed unless they stumbled upon it.
To me an oldies type of format on FM in Sevierville or Gatlinburg should be good because that area is so perfect for it. You have got constant car shows in the spring and summer, you've got old retro diners, car lots that sell muscle cars from the 60's and 70's. You would think it would work.
What has happened to Bill & Tammy in the morning? Did they both go back to their old time slots on Mix? Tammy mid days and Bill afternoons? If so at least the pressure is off of them to do voice tracking.
ARDONAVINDA said:
As expected, both are back on Mix. Tammy in middays and Bill on afternoon drive.
As I mentioned before, I think Mix and Mountain may have overlapped too much. Many times Mix would be playing an older song than Mountain. Now Mix can have more "room to breathe" so-to-speak and The Zone can get the male demos.
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