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107.3 Hit Music "NOW" losing STEAM?
- Thread starter Rob
- Start date
M
mediawatch22
Guest
Rob-42 said:
Market???
Of course, Rob. I saw this for awhile. When you have a station that barely has no local flavor, eventually it will lose "steam." I think CC knows this so it's quite possible a new format will happen sometime this year. But the question is: What format will replace it and most importantly will itsucceed...
BRING CLASSIC HITS BACK!
BRING CLASSIC HITS BACK!
Pensacola's 107.3 is going down the same path that Panama City's Great 108 went down 20+ years ago... From WOWW to forgotten.
Sports makes perfect sense for this signal now. Bama games on 107.3 with Auburn games promoted on 107.3 but airing on sister station WKSJ or the Rocket. I guess Saints games and NASCAR should also be aired along with a high school football game of the week on Friday.
They would just need to find a local sports talk host for a morning show and the station should be able to run on cruise control the rest of the day. Maybe Clear Channel has enough clout to get that Fort Walton sports guy out of jail... or maybe Roy Jones Jr. would like to get into the morning radio host business? That HBO gig can't be taking up all his time. CC could develop a new Roy Jones Jr in the morning show in Mobile/Pensacola to syndicate to other markets! Get Emmit Smith to co-host or as a frequent guest host while Roy is on the road with HBO Boxing. Nah, that would cost way to much money. What a waste of a brainstorm.
Sports makes perfect sense for this signal now. Bama games on 107.3 with Auburn games promoted on 107.3 but airing on sister station WKSJ or the Rocket. I guess Saints games and NASCAR should also be aired along with a high school football game of the week on Friday.
They would just need to find a local sports talk host for a morning show and the station should be able to run on cruise control the rest of the day. Maybe Clear Channel has enough clout to get that Fort Walton sports guy out of jail... or maybe Roy Jones Jr. would like to get into the morning radio host business? That HBO gig can't be taking up all his time. CC could develop a new Roy Jones Jr in the morning show in Mobile/Pensacola to syndicate to other markets! Get Emmit Smith to co-host or as a frequent guest host while Roy is on the road with HBO Boxing. Nah, that would cost way to much money. What a waste of a brainstorm.
Louis_009 said:
When it's on, it's a straight ESPN feed. I don't know if they ever carried local Pensacola Ice Flyers hockey like they claimed they would, but if so I've never heard it.
The HD is troubled on 107.3 to say the least. It spends more time off than on. Last time I checked, earlier this week, it was still off.
For whatever reason, 107.3's HD doesn't perform nearly as well as the other stations in the market. I don't think it reliably reaches Mobile OR most of Pensacola.
Don't be shocked to see 107.3 stay in CHR for quite a while. They've got another book (Fall 11) coming out in a few days, don't they? But beyond that, they've suddenly got more room to breath now in CHR with Cumulus bailing out to the Journey thing. FWIW, it took Clear Channel several years to get traction with their CHR up in DC, but now it's a Top 3 station (in a Top 10 market). Given the positioning of the rest of CC's Mobile-Pcola cluster, this isn't a bad spot for 107.3--even if it takes some time to catch on.
The problem is that CHR doesn't make sense on the weakest of the dual market Mobile/Pensacola signals and none of the other Clear Channel properties are "under performing". 107.3 would be the best candidate for a mono format or at least a niche format that people might accept a little static mixed in. Talk/Sports/Classic Country/Oldies/Hip Hop/some type of christian format or gospel... maybe even Alt Rock or AAA. The new transmitter location doesn't even serve downtown Pensacola (the COL) very well.. much less Mobile (the target), and the HD is simply worthless from the Baldwin county tower farm.
If CC can't re-engineer or upgrade 107.3 from it's current location could 107.3 move to Spanish Fort and downgrade to a C2 and become a Mobile/Eastern Shore only station?
Something ain't right with the whole 107.3 situation. The Cantonment, FL transmitter location served the Pensacola and Fort Walton markets very well with spillover into Mobile that was good enough when they were the market's only Alt Rock station. The current site serves Zach, a bunch of timberland and livestock very well. The area's population centers are not served.
If CC can't re-engineer or upgrade 107.3 from it's current location could 107.3 move to Spanish Fort and downgrade to a C2 and become a Mobile/Eastern Shore only station?
Something ain't right with the whole 107.3 situation. The Cantonment, FL transmitter location served the Pensacola and Fort Walton markets very well with spillover into Mobile that was good enough when they were the market's only Alt Rock station. The current site serves Zach, a bunch of timberland and livestock very well. The area's population centers are not served.
jmtillery said:
I'd be curious to know about that, myself. I note the change was approved in 2005 but not the reason for moving. I know the station lost some fringe coverage towards FWB but Pensacola still gets a decent signal, at least in analog. Maybe Clear Channel figured they got enough weak Mobile coverage on the west side to justify the loss to the east with the downgrade.
I think the reason for the move was simply that maintaining the separate site at Cantonment made no sense to the CC suits back in SA, when they could just slap it on the Baldwin stick.
The downgrade from a C to a C-0 undoubtedly relates to short-spacing with existing sticks in Lucedale at 106.9--just an A, but just west of Mobile--and the full C at 107.9 north of Biloxi. Can't just move a full Class C FM 15 or 16 miles without bumping into something else, these days.
And, frankly, on paper it looks like it should work, doesn't it? Trouble is, people don't listen to radio on paper.
Still, I think CC will stick with CHR on 107.3 longer than most of us think. It covers some demo holes in the portfolio, and gives them a chance to steal some bucks from both Cumulus & WABB.
The downgrade from a C to a C-0 undoubtedly relates to short-spacing with existing sticks in Lucedale at 106.9--just an A, but just west of Mobile--and the full C at 107.9 north of Biloxi. Can't just move a full Class C FM 15 or 16 miles without bumping into something else, these days.
And, frankly, on paper it looks like it should work, doesn't it? Trouble is, people don't listen to radio on paper.
Still, I think CC will stick with CHR on 107.3 longer than most of us think. It covers some demo holes in the portfolio, and gives them a chance to steal some bucks from both Cumulus & WABB.
Their mono signal does reach here, drop the HD feed and just carry 710 WTAM-FM serving the gulf coast.. or, let *** buy them out and carry WCOA-FM.
I do think the next station here to flip will be highway 98 country. The whole idea of duking it with Country 105.5 and 104.7 doesn't seem to go well. We also got your country on 102.7
-Rob
I do think the next station here to flip will be highway 98 country. The whole idea of duking it with Country 105.5 and 104.7 doesn't seem to go well. We also got your country on 102.7
-Rob
I think it's 107.1 "the Monkey" in Biloxi that's in the way of 107.3's move. And while it may look fine on paper, the new signal really does suck in downtown and east of Pensacola... HD and analog. Hope they have a good enough signal in Mobile now to justify the move to central Baldwin.
I know I'm just a listener, but, can't they just apply to go back to 100 or even 98KW with their current transmitter location? I never knew how crappy their signal was till I read this.
Dropping down to 50KW was a bad move, despite their height, which is awesome.
Then, their signal would blanket from Mississippi to San Destin and that's a lot..a land!
Station Status Licensed Class C0 FM Station
Effective Radiated Power 50,000 Watts
Height above Avg. Terrain 488 meters (1601 feet)
Height above Ground Level 488 meters (1601 feet)
Height above Sea Level 520 meters (1706 feet)
-Rob
Dropping down to 50KW was a bad move, despite their height, which is awesome.
Then, their signal would blanket from Mississippi to San Destin and that's a lot..a land!
Station Status Licensed Class C0 FM Station
Effective Radiated Power 50,000 Watts
Height above Avg. Terrain 488 meters (1601 feet)
Height above Ground Level 488 meters (1601 feet)
Height above Sea Level 520 meters (1706 feet)
-Rob
Rob, c'mon, it's not that simple. If CC could, they would have. They don't have incompetent engineers.
They have to protect existing facilities surrounding the area. There's WFXX in the Andalusia area (Georgiana) that's a second adjacent and WXYK in Gulfport that's a first adjacent. In fact when I did a quick spot check it looks like WRGV is actually short spaced a little to WXYK. So they could probably move back to the Cantonment tower (which is an aux for the station now). But with WFXX being a C2 they might be prevented from going back to 100 kW. Dunno. But putting more power out from where they are now is impossible as far as I can tell.
They have to protect existing facilities surrounding the area. There's WFXX in the Andalusia area (Georgiana) that's a second adjacent and WXYK in Gulfport that's a first adjacent. In fact when I did a quick spot check it looks like WRGV is actually short spaced a little to WXYK. So they could probably move back to the Cantonment tower (which is an aux for the station now). But with WFXX being a C2 they might be prevented from going back to 100 kW. Dunno. But putting more power out from where they are now is impossible as far as I can tell.
Bad news, Rob--"Hit Music Now" doubled its share in both Pensacola and Mobile in the just-released Fall 2011 book. Yeah, it's still early, but this is very positive movement in the right direction. (I'll open a new subject thread on this). Remember, guys, we're ALL out of the demo for WRGV, so we rightfully should all personally hate the station. Gotta look elsewhere--Arbitron--to get a good read...
- Status