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1060 WIXC - Changes

I don't believe a sales force is going to help much until they get the station straightened out. I tuned in today to hear Silent Night playing (January 4???). They are playing sweepers for "Brevard's Big Talker" and "News, talk and sports" while they are playing old music like "Sink the Bismark" with other sweepers saying "Real American Music". It looks like they are news/talk during the week and then music on weekends. But they are completely different audiences.

If they want to play music, at least they should play something contemporary that would appeal to the kinds of people who might listen to their news/talk. And what sports are they carrying? There's WINT with ESPN in the same market.

I've heard through the grapevine that a call to Genesis with an offer of $800k will buy you a 50kw AM station in Brevard. I hope someone buys this thing because it has real potential, but not with what they're doing. There's no local advertising at all, just PI spots and the network show ads. I wouldn't know how to go about selling advertising on the station the way it is right now in the Brevard market the way it is right now. It's tough enough for Cumulus and Clear Channel to sell in this market.
 
wow. i was in palm bay over the holidays and wixc's signal seems to have gotten worse over there. maybe it has always been like that.... i was in south west palm bay near bayside lakes. and silent night on jan 4? only wixc will do that :). there automation is way off... that is all i will say. that station is just aimlessly wandering... that is my thought.
 
It's shameful that a 50KW station is wasted like this. Up here in North Alabama there is 101.1 WYDE that is a 100 KW station w/ a 1500' Tower. Their ratings are almost last. Morings consists of Mancow and Laura Ingrham. The rest of the day is 60's - 80's AC/Oldies/Classic Hits.

If Genesis wants do be decent and cheap, I reccomend ABC's Real Country. It combines Today's Traditional Country and researched Classic Country. The programming is about 70% Classic Country, 30% Today. Or something like JRN Classic Hit Country. The only station that I know of in FL that carries Real Country is 100.9 WJAQ in Marianna. At one time, I heard WCFI 1290 on Ocala was Real Country before the Hurricanes came through and I heard 1420 WAOC in St. Augustine was also. I may not be too accurate though because I'm 18 and am not to familiar with those two previously mentioned AM's...

Does anybody know of any other Real Country Affiliates in FL?

Travis
 
WIXC had Country Classics plus the top ten. That sounds like what you're talking about. It was a great sounding station, carried local advertising, and was a real pleasure to listen to. The LMA people stopped paying on their LMA quite early on. It looks like they pulled the plug for some reason, because nobody would go into an LMA only intending to operate for a couple of months. Genesis ought to have figured out a way to keep the sound of the station even if it had to operate the station itself. How much could it cost just to play country music through an automation system? The live programming was just icing on the cake, but what they've done since then is impossible to figure out.

$800k and it's yours. Maybe less.
 
I'm not familiar with that particular St. Augustine AM station's format. Ocala's 1290
is now silent and the license has been deleted.

Real Country had a short run in Tallahassee on 1270 AM around 1992 or '93, mixed with sports.
They ultimately phased out the Real Country for all sports.

Sounds like WIXC needs direction and an engineer!
 
ABC, JRN, and the like are available via barter basis= just carry the network commercials and no fees whatsoever. Here in Alabama there once was a nearby Real Country affiliate. Sounded great, personalities were also. JRN's Classic Hit Country is good also. WOKC in Okeechobee used to carry them and another great one is JRN's True Country. If I wasn't in school, I'd love to do some programming....but then again I may bring the whole station down farther than it already is ;D

Travis
 
ABC, JRN, and the like are available via barter basis= just carry the network commercials and no fees whatsoever. Here in Alabama there once was a nearby Real Country affiliate. Sounded great, personalities were also. JRN's Classic Hit Country is good also. WOKC in Okeechobee used to carry them and another great one is JRN's True Country.
Click to expand...

Brevard isn't Alabama. It isn't even Okeechobee. Classic country is a bad idea in most markets and the WIXC fiasco proves it.
 
I wasn't trying to imply that Brevard and Okeechobee were similar in musicial tastes, because the selection in that area is very different. I was just saying that the syndicated personalities were good at their job and appeal to those who appreciate the legendary country music. It does sound like though that there were a few listeners who enjoyed the programming on WIXC before the problems arose. ;)

Travis
 
Kevin Fennessy named GM at WIXC

Monday's All Access had the item that Genesis had hired Kevin Fennessy as the new GM for WIXC. "FENNESSY commented, "I’m excited to lead AM 1060 to its rightful position as the leading 50KW News/Talk leader on the Central East Coast of FLORIDA." The story noted his management experience in northeast major markets.

So that clears that up. It's gonna be a news-talker. Hope they give him the resources and the time to make it work. It's going to take a tremendous amount of work and time to dig 1060 out of the hole it's now in. Most radio companies don't have the patience. I'll vote for two or three years before break-even and five years before any kind of predictable margin sets in.

Is this the guy who was running an Adult Standards AM up around The Villages?
 
It's rare on this board when a sitting general manager comments about his own radio station, but I wanted to assure anyone who's been tuning in and waiting to see what happens..is to place yourself in a position, where you've leased a radio station to a person or company...and get the station back with no revenues, no audience, and having to untangle the sort of nightmares you find, when there isn't solid competent day to day on premises management of the station for awhile. WIXC has a formidible strategy which we're gradually rolling out, a formidible competitor in WMMB, and just like a store that opens without fanfare, this is a soft rollout, and you'll hear WIXC improve over the next several weeks. Even considering all that came before, you make a starting point...and move a radio station forward from there.
 
Fennessy. I wish you luck with WIXC. I am frequent listener as I drive the I-95 corridor frequently. I must tell you the quality of the programming over the last few months has been awful. I hope you make some swift changes. I tune in now to hear how bad it is (train wreck syndrome) as opposed to hearing good radio. It really did sound like the station was someone's hobby as opposed to a serious business. I hope you are able to make a difference.
 
How to make WIXC into a top 5 station in the market. It is possible but realize it's going to take lots of hard work to get this station back to where it was before the various owners trashed it.
First, realize that your audience is really in two areas, the folks who work at the Cape, and the folks for work for the tech companies in Melbourne. The market is Melbourne, Titusville and Cocoa. The station put in a great signal daytime from the Jupiter Inlet to St. Augustine. That's with the old 10 KW pattern. Process and compress the signal. It has to leap out of the radio. Bring back the Fairchild Reverberation, its a big unit that used to sit in the rack next to the AM phasor. That will give you a few more dbs in loudness. See if you can find a Hnat Hindes multimaze AM tri bander. It's set up for 50 KW AM's that have god awful patterns. The original processing as old CBS labs stuff. It sucked then and if it's still there it sucks now.
Local News....you have to have it or you may as well put your resume out and look for work elsewhere. The news should come right after the network spot. You can also sell it.
You should want to do live launches from the Cape. Shuttle, unmanned stuff. And sell it. (it's a fast way to make some money) BCC basketball is something to think about also. It's niche sports but your a niche radio station and it might also bring in some cash.
Direct Mail, when you have the format and the sound tuned to where you want it, call DMR and get a great direct mail piece. Target the zips in Titusville, Merrit Island, Cocca Beach an, Sat Beach, Melbourne Beach. Also chucks on Melbourne. Get the Washington Nationals by carrying spring training games.m(Bonneville has the rights talk to Jim Farley)..
Weather, becomes Spacecoast Radar Weather, because everyone knows what radar is...your temps rotate among the different places you reach..three places per weather (if you really desperate sell the weather), the last temp should be on the beach its...degrees, and why not. You should be able to get the beach temp from the weather folks at Patrick.
Sweeper and hour ID's. Play up the 50 kw... This is the 50,000 watt voice of the Gators and Jaguars. Brevard's Big Talker AM 1060 WIXC.
The critical hours pattern is very interesting and it offers some interesting possibilities, as it goes as far north at Daytona Beach.
If the price drops to 350,000 or less....it could be an interesting buy.
 
fennessy said:
It's rare on this board when a sitting general manager comments about his own radio station, but I wanted to assure anyone who's been tuning in and waiting to see what happens..is to place yourself in a position, where you've leased a radio station to a person or company...and get the station back with no revenues, no audience, and having to untangle the sort of nightmares you find, when there isn't solid competent day to day on premises management of the station for awhile.
Click to expand...

Best wishes to you fennessy. Just a word to the wise, though. You might do well to exercise caution in your public comments because the version of reality pitched when someone takes a new job is not always accurate. I don't believe you leased any station to anyone, so you have no first hand knowledge of any representations that were made do you? You might consider that public comments can become part of litigation. Like I say, just a word to the wise.
 
WIXC has had a history of these issues for years, even when it was WAMT. Brevard has always been a tough sell especially for AM. Greg for years has been at WIXC the ole AMT, is he still there? I hope the best for you but at the same time keeping the overhead of maintenance and the Transmitter running at 50K is alot of overhead for over here. With the economy going to the dogs, hopefully the little guys can hang in there in this market. WIXC never needed 50KW, the signal coverage was great even with 10KW. who made that move?
 
I agree, 50kw doesn't really help WIXC any at all. And if you look at the Genesis stations in Orlando and Tampa, none of them really attract much of an audience but 0.8 of a 2.3 million market is better than a 0.8 of a 480,000 market. I suspect they'll come in at below that for the Brevard market next week. Too bad, because they really had something that sounded real good with the classic country and top ten. The automation was right, the sweepers sounded good, they live programming was okay, there was local content, and there were local advertisers. I heard that Ted Turner offered to stay and bring local advertisers with him more than enough to pay what he was asking, but Genesis turned it down. Since he was there for only a couple of months I have to think the problem was more than just a down economy because nobody goes into a brand new station lease expecting to cover costs in two months. Something turned them sour on the deal and they pulled out - that's my guess. I hope the news talk thing works for them, but it's tough going up against Limbaugh, Hannity, and Glenn Beck.
 
Wow, WIXC doesn't even show up in the latest Arbitron book. Lower than a .5. Good luck with the rebuild, I'm guessing it will take a good long while.
 
Barkley said:
Wow, WIXC doesn't even show up in the latest Arbitron book. Lower than a .5. Good luck with the rebuild, I'm guessing it will take a good long while.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is a classic non-ratings sell. Direct Local Advertisers Only. It's a slow process building up good working relationships and trust through great service, creative production (specs), community involvement (gotta be visible at every damn festival, carnival, fundraiser, high school football game--anywhere there's a crowd)--and real attractive advertising deals. Packaging WIXC with a solid local-news-based website could be smart. Snagging an FM translator to simulcast the AM would be smart, too.

But assuming Fennessy can't pull a magic wand out of his butt, the most important thing WIXC needs is time.
 
;D Hell, I'll buy it I reckon..I've jumped on every other POS in the world..Send Details and I'll fly down..Some of my old WRKT/WKKO buddy's have to be around Brevard somewhere to help!

Thanks Dave
 
Could it be that WIXC doesn't show up in the latest book because the owner canceled the Arbitron subscription? Perhaps they didn't want anyone seeing what kind of audience had been attracted in August through October. If you don't pay, you don't get listed.
 
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