1540 WXEX Question

[chrisradioanimal]

I Thought WXEX Was Locally Owned And Operated With Local Programming. It Appears That Its A Satelite Feed Because I Listen To An Online Oldies Station Called WAMS Oldies And It Has The Same Exact Programming Just With A Short 1-2 Min Delay.

 

[jlehmann]

I believe WXEX has a local morning show, but then runs satellite oldies for the rest of the day.

 

[seacoastradio]

Thank you for your interest in WXEX which is locally owned and operated and features a weekday morning show with myself, co-owner, Steve Thomas. The station is not satellite fed but for the time being does use the services of Waitt Radio Networks (WRN). WRN was purchased a while back by Dial-Global. WXEX does use the services of WRN during many hours of the day and night to produce local customization including local information including weather, traffic, public service material...updated to within 10-15 minutes. Our goal is to add more local air talent as the station grows ('cause that's the way it was back when many of us started in radio and that's the way it should still be).

Do note that there is not a satellite feed coming into WXEX from WRN as everything that hits the airwaves is out of the WXEX studio...including the local Saturday morning music show "Tayles & The Doctor" from 9AM to Noon which is followed by local co-owner Andy Hartmann on the air from Noon to 4PM and then radio veteran Steve Michaels from 4-8PM (he's on-the-air "live" right now as I type this post).

In addition, WXEX has brought back local Exeter High school football broadcasts starting with last night's game from Gill Stadium in Manchester. To learn more and hear the station on-line click onto the station's website at http://www.1540WXEX.com to learn more.

Thank you,


Steve Thomas
Partner
AM 1540-WXEX
PO Box 1540
Exeter NH 03833

 

[Mainedude2007]

Do note that there is not a satellite feed coming into WXEX from WRN as everything that hits the airwaves is out of the WXEX studio...including the local Saturday morning music show "Tayles & The Doctor" from 9AM to Noon which is followed by local co-owner Andy Hartmann on the air from Noon to 4PM and then radio veteran Steve Michaels from 4-8PM (he's on-the-air "live" right now as I type this post).

I've had my experiences with WRN (the talent was much better before Dial-Global), You basically get a radio station in a box. They do the music scheduling, have the jocks voice track and it downloads to your computer, where everything is played locally. They were never fond of us doing ANYTHING local, they always had an issue with us carrying anything than there format-in-a-box.

Overall though, it's a better service than live from the bird programming thats out there, you don't get clipped liners or jocks talking into their prerecorded liners.

 

[seacoastradio]

Yes WRN certainly isn't the same as it was prior to Digital Global buying them from Waitt Media but please know they are for the most part a terrific bunch of radio folks that "get it". They are on top of whatever programming issues we have addressed and fully understand they aren't the licensee. They tune-in often to our on-line stream and hear how we have crafted their elements into our music schedules (our studio system every few seconds connects with a server in their studio they’re recording Seacoast weather and bits to, along with whatever we communicate to them locally that's going on...like a month or so ago when I-95 was shut down due to a fuel tanker truck roll-over in the middle of the day and they were on it in just a few minutes even before us cracking the mic open in our studio locally to alert southbound motorists that may have been tuned-in, they had recorded traffic updates our system was pulling down from them).

Oh, and there are moments that we do have pieces airing out of sync (probably less then 1% of the time) due to our programming errors. In order to make the station as local as we can, there are times that we make mistakes within an hourly clock and whoops...once it hits the air oh well (of course many times I'm sure the listener may not have picked up on anything being out of the norm...but us radioheads know when something didn't sound like it was suppose to).

Anyway, to make a long story short...both Andy Hartmann (whom many of you may recall was on the air back in the early '80s on WERZ-FM and WODS-FM) and I were fortunate to be able to do business with Clear Channel in buying this station licensee from them and bringing one of the radio stations licensed to Exeter NH home. We hope to be able to buy more of them in our area and bring them home to service their communities as well.


Steve Thomas
Partner
AM 1540-WXEX
PO Box 1540
Exeter NH 03833

 

[seacoastradio]

Whoops...meant "Dial" Global as opposed to "Digital"

Steve

 

[Mainedude2007]

Yes WRN certainly isn't the same as it was prior to Digital Global buying them from Waitt Media but please know they are for the most part a terrific bunch of radio folks that "get it". They are on top of whatever programming issues we have addressed and fully understand they aren't the licensee. They tune-in often to our on-line stream and hear how we have crafted their elements into our music schedules (our studio system every few seconds connects with a server in their studio they’re recording Seacoast weather and bits to, along with whatever we communicate to them locally that's going on...like a month or so ago when I-95 was shut down due to a fuel tanker truck roll-over in the middle of the day and they were on it in just a few minutes even before us cracking the mic open in our studio locally to alert southbound motorists that may have been tuned-in, they had recorded traffic updates our system was pulling down from them).

That they do good, unfortunately you only get a local break or 2 an hour for the jocks to do, but you can drop whatever you need into the schedule. When i was reffering to "anything local" I was talking more along the lines of third party programming, i.e a national morning show or football from a national network. That's where they were reluctant to help configure the computer.

 

[markwats]

It's great that Exeter once again has a local radio station. I've listened to WXEX in the car driving through the area and also occasionally on line, the music sounds great on the air. I did see on their website that they're airing Exeter High School football, but I didn't think that WXEX could get a night license due to being too close to co-channel WDCD in Albany. If they do have night power, I'm guessing it's very low power and does it even cover most or all of Exeter at night?

Mark

 

[seacoastradio]

Hello Mark and thank you for your comments and thoughts.

Night power for WXEX is a "blazing" 3 watts but I did find Post Sunset Authority documents within the paperwork we went through at the old building in Exeter that houses the AM transmitters. Exeter coverage at night with 3 watts is not more then about a couple miles in any direction…not a whole lot to crow about and it's almost comical the AM station in Albany NY was ever permitted many years ago to boost their power from 10 to 50kW. And to boot, when I communicated with the folks at WDCD in Albany to inquire if maybe their towers were in need of adjustments or ?? they told me they were running effectively towards Exeter 191kW of directional juice. Holy Cow...no wonder we get the living daylights beat out of us....even during the day say about 15-20 miles from our antenna tower site in Exeter.

Oh well, we knew this going in with purchasing the license from Clear Channel…thinking that the station should and could serve the Seacoast area communities closest to Exeter, and for the most part during the day it does, and then of course via the Internet and also it’s my understanding the local Exeter Cable TV Channel 22 uses our on-air audio most of the time for the background audio on what is referred to as “EXTV”.

Please note that we are in the hunt for a qualified licensed “on-air” FM Translator or CP to purchase at a reasonable price to place our AM on the FM band too. If you or anyone reading this has any suggestions, we welcome all constructive input. My station email address is [email protected]



Thanks again,


Steve Thomas
Partner
AM 1540-WXEX
PO Box 1540
Exeter NH 03833

 

[jlehmann]

Sorry about assuming it was satellite. I always take a listen when I'm passing through on 95, usually I get to catch the morning show, which is definitely very local. It's always nice to see a station go back to local owners after being under the control of one of the giants.