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1390 Burlington Oldies Instead of Fox Sports

A

am_directional

Sometime last week 1390 started simulcasting Crusin' 93.7
I'm sure this can't be a format change but rather a technical difficulty (web site says nothing)?

It's funny, two people at a holiday party last week were complaining about no sports talk on 1390... they listen to, and apparently prefer Dan Patrick and Pat O'Brian.

Regards,
Joe
 
They may have struck true "retro gold" by accident... Listening to oldies on AM radio is satisfying and comforting like listening to old tunes on vinyl every once in a while... Is say let it stay!

Season's Greetings,

Louie
 
I agree Louie, many older tunes sound better on AM.

One techno-gripe... however:

Their signal needs to be truly mono instead of only one channel of the stereo mix going to air.
With some of those older really wide stereo mixes, like many Beatle tunes, the lead solo is completely missing.

Hey, maybe they can turn the AM Stereo back on ?

Happy Holidays !
 
Louie:

I just remembered a promo that you guys ran on 1390... <paraphrasing>
Something about why AM was better than FM.. reason 7; when you go into a parking garage the audio fades... giving you time to pause and reflect on what you've just heard...

great stuff...
 
While the Wikipedia entry for WCAT still lists them as being Fox Sports, someone added the following further down:
"This station is no longer Fox Sports Radio. It is some local, outdated AM radio station playing old AM music.
Again, no notice of change. Needs new ownership, someone who cares and can compete. Poorly run outfit, always has been!"

The WCAT/WRSA/WFAD site still lists them as being sports on 1390 though...for now.
http://foxsportsvermont.com/
 
Yes AM-D I rember that one... that was from our "Reasons to love AM" promo series... Another one reasoned "You already have 2 ears so 2 speakers are overkill". and the tagline was "AM radio-Good enough to listen to"!
 
I, for one, would WELCOME a Drake-formatted AM oldies station with old style jingles, live drives, and the processing of the 1970's.

Hard to imagine it could be profitable, though. Sadly.
 
oldies 93.7 // on 1420, 1490 too

I am now in the Burl. area and note that not only is 1390 oldies, so is WRSA 1420 St Albans and WFAD 1490 Middlebury.
All seem to be simulcasting the 93.7 from Addison, WIFY

http://foxsportsvermont.com/ site still up but now oldies not Fox Sports?
No mention of the 3 AM freqs on Crusin 93.7 site
 
Pretty sure the same company owns WIFY (FM), WRSA, WCAT, and WFAD. So you have Cruisin 93.7
on all 4 stations. WIFY does pretty well--why bother simulcasting the FM? Nothing else to put on
there? Or maybe they figure people will stumble across them, hear the "Cruisin 93.7" reference, and think, hey this is on FM too! I'll go there!

So now you have Cruisin 93.7 WIFY Addison/Middlebury; plus FAD 1490 (Red Sox rights for years),
CAT 1390, and RSA 1420 (Red Sox rights for years). Pretty sure the 93.7 can cover Midd. and
Burlington well, and poss. St. Albans too.
What I'm wondering is, will the owner(s) consider putting Red Sox games on 93.7? A nice solid
FM signal. Of course it would "interrupt the oldies" but I'd think a station running oldies/
classic pop could also run baseball at night or on weekends. Sox fans would hear promos
saying "when the game's over, stay tuned for great oldies".

I'm gathering that the Sox have affiliates in Middlebury AND Burlington (WJOY, not same company?),
AND ST Albans because the AM signals stink at night. Now, 'JOY may not be happy but imagine
the Sox on 93.7...
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WIFY&service=FM&status=L&hours=U

(Coverage map--St. A is just beyond the distant range)
Just curious.
 
raccoonradio said:
Nothing else to put on there?
Click to expand...

Bingo! The trimulcast lost ESPN, gained an FM competitor (that gained the ESPN affil away) and tried to keep the format by going to the second tier network in FSR. apparently it didn't work.

It's been going on a couple of AMs in New England recently...Steve King's AM finally ditched sports to simulcast it's lib-talk FM, Allen Weiner's AM license 780 went from Channel X simulcasting, to simulcasting an AM oldies from Central Maine to news/talk on it's own back to simulcasting WEGP's talk from Presque Isle. Said AM oldies station in Central Maine (WSKW Skowhegan) went from sports to Oldies back to sports (Oldies to a co-owned FM) back to simulcasting the oldies of the FM and now are on an automated jockless classic country format. It's just the way AM is in New England in 2012, if you have an FM competitor you better have deep pockets because there's only so long you can throw money down a hole.
 
Very true and, as a radio buddy of mine in Ohio put it, Oldies seems to be the go-to format lately
for little AM stations (it was sports, and in some ways that's still popular). Now, as far as I know
WFAD and WRSA still have the Sox (with 'JOY airing them in Burlington) so perhaps it'll be oldies
across the trimulcast except Middlebury & St Albans go to Red Sox when they play? (Here on the
North Shore of Boston--I do come up to VT when I can, like last wknd--we have a classic hits/oldies
station WBOQ (on FM) which does run Red Sox and makes a big deal about it...
they still have Sox even though Sox flagship WEEI 850 is now on 93.7 as well and 93.7 comes in
fine all over the North Shore (they still have the affiliation though)

The WIFY 93.7 idea I had, to put Sox on there: pretty solid signal, on FM, no worries about fading.
Of course 550/96.1 has 'em too but I wonder if there are spots where either is weak..if they could put Sox on 93.7 (again, WJOY would be upset!)...but maybe just keep em all oldies. For now.

>>if you have an FM competitor you better have deep pockets because there's only so long you can throw money down a hole.

This is concerning a major market--Boston--but that's what happened with Entercom/WEEI which was
forced to put itself on FM sister station WMKK (now WEEI-FM) due to competition from
the similarly deep-pocketed CBS: WBZ-FM.
 
btw maybe it's too expensive for them but I wonder if they considered having 1390, 1420, and 1490
affiliate with the WEEI network? They would have the sports talk shows, and 2 of the 3 have
Red Sox already. (Overnight they'd have to run Fox Sports due to WCPV having WEEI; Yahoo!Sports also possible)

Oldies is prob a safe bet, and maybe they don't have enough $$ to pay fees to join the
WEEI network...but that network isn't on in the Champlain Valley. Of course I know many in the area could well by NY team fans, as well as Bos. team fans!

http://www.weei.com/weei/shows-schedules/network-stations
 
WJOY is owned by Hall, WIFY, WCAT etc are owned by Northeast Broadcasting.

As for Sox affils, last I knew the only protection you had was city of license..WIFY could pick up the Sox because they're licensed to Addison, but WCAT can't air them because they, along with WJOY are both licensed to Burlington. Here in Maine, it seems like everyone carries the Sox, even overlapping FM signals, but you have no protection in the contract (like you would if you carried Rush or Beck or ESPN) other than blocking the other stations that are licensed to the same city as you.

I don't know how much they charge but I know WEEI and ESPN both charge stations now for the programming, several stations (and small companies) have dropped ESPN because of this, either flipping formats or going with cheaper alternatives (Fox, Yahoo, etc.) So joining 'EEI is probably out of the question, WAEI mighty have cited "breach of contract" but in reality, it was probably the $$$.
 
Right, I knew 1390 would not be able to run Sox.
On the North Shore of Boston WBOQ (lic. to Gloucester) still carries Sox even though WEEI (their
FM 93.7 signal comes out of a stick in Peabody, just down 128) has them too. WEEI (which runs
the Sox network) must not mind. (And for the record WEEI-FM's city of license is Lawrence, even further away from Gloucester than Peabody...)

Agreed about WEEI and ESPN. IF they could have afforded it, then 1390/1420/1490 may have considered joining the WEEI "network". And as I've suggested, if the 93.7 in Addison, WIFY,
could run Sox games, you'd have a nice solid FM signal. (WFAD is 1 kW non directional)
 
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