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1550 AM - What's Next?

MarcB

MarcB

Last year I made a post about certain Radio Disney stations being sold. And I speculated whether or not WDZK 1550 would be one of them. Now it comes out that they are.

Scott Fybush mentioned on his Facebook page that Radio Disney Stations WDZK 1550 along with WDDZ 550 in Rhode Island and a station in Florida would be going dark on September 30th until they find a buyer for the stations.
 
Betcha they'll reassign those nice call letters to other existing Radio Disney outlets (1250 in Pittsburgh?) if they do move them, though...
 
WDDZ-AM 550, licensed to Pawtucket, RI. You can see their office door from I-95 near exit 26, to the left heading northbound, IF there isn't a freight train in front of the little office strip! :p
 
MarcB said:
DToTheJ said:
Betcha they'll reassign those nice call letters to other existing Radio Disney outlets (1250 in Pittsburgh?) if they do move them, though...
Click to expand...

WDDZ from the Rhode Island station, but not WDZK. WDZK stands for Disney Connecticut. (DiZney Konnecticut).
Click to expand...

I thought WDZK means Walt Disney Kids
 
WDZK doesnt stand for anything except Disney. All their call signs have some sort of Disney or Mickey to them somehow..
But that's all it is.

I think WIKIPEDIA has it was DiZney Konnecticut, but it's just hearsay and unsupported Wiki info.
 
Getting back to the question: what is next for 1550 AM? In all its many forms over the years, they've never been what you'd call a heavy hitter in the Hartford market. You'd have to go back to their WEXT/WMLB country days to see some documented audience. They've tried just about everything since then. Are they now totally irrelevant? It's hard to imagine a new player coming in paying that much in hopes of making even bigger bucks. The only thing harder to imagine, though, is this 5000-watt station going away permanently while much weaker signals remain. WKND 1480 is one example - a 500-watt urban/gospel station in Windsor that's always had a signal null south toward Hartford and barely makes it north past Bradley Airport. 1550 AM could be heard more clearly in Hartford and beyond, and even has some night coverage. AM is in enough trouble. At least give an existing station a better chance to be heard. There are weaker stations that could upgrade by moving to 1550.
 
On to my opinion for whats next for 1550 AM. Just turn the signal off and go dark. One less AM station. Its not like this station will be worth much money.
 
If the revenue stream for 1480 is now nonexistent, then it's hard to imagine starting from scratch selling that format on another AM even if it can be heard better. Some Hartford County listeners find it less of a struggle to pull in adult urban on New Haven's WYBC 94.3 than a directional AM daytimer. A generation ago, there were some real efforts to improve lower powered signals like WKND or WCCC-AM. Unlike them, 1550 actually went through with it.
 
Here in New Britain's south end, I don't get a trace of 1480 AM. Hell, sometimes I'm lucky if I can hear 1470 AM from Meriden without the bleedover from 1410 AM! 1290 AM is so-so. I can only get a decent daytime signal at best with 1360 AM and 1550 AM, due to those transmitters being in Bloomfield.
 
When WKND was on 1230 when Freedom owned the 3 stations - (WLAT, WNEZ, and WKND) there were some (not alot) commercials on WKND. A couple of them however were English dubs of commercials airing in Spanish on WLAT.

GOIS Broadcasting put a lot of money into 1480 AM after they bought it. They fixed the frequency drift. - I had heard they were broadcasting on 1482 rather than 1480. They also fixed the signal so the 500 watts actually goes out further than it used to. And they began making use of the flea-powered night time signal.
 
MarcB said:
Gois Broadcasting put a lot of money into 1480 AM after they bought it. They fixed the frequency drift. I had heard they were broadcasting on 1482 rather than 1480...
Click to expand...

1482 AM? Isn't that only possible in places like Europe, where the FM frequencies end with an even number?
 
European signals don't end in even numbers, many do, but they end in numbers divisable by 9 starting at 531, sometimes they will match Western Hemisphere frequencies, but only a few (next channel up for example is 540, but then it's 549, 558, 567, 576 ect.)
 
DJKraze said:
European signals don't end in even numbers, many do, but they end in numbers divisable by 9 starting at 531, sometimes they will match Western Hemisphere frequencies, but only a few (next channel up for example is 540, but then it's 549, 558, 567, 576 ect.)
Click to expand...

They do have FM's with frequencies like 98.2, though, which is what the original poster was referencing.
 
That would be a smart move for 1550 to dump "Radio Disney" off the air for good. I remember back in the spring when Poughkeepsie's WEOK at 1390 AM dumped "Radio Disney" and flipped to "True Oldies Channel", this station would be getting oldies listeners from the defunct "Cool 92.9". And now, this is going to happen when these two "Radio Disney" stations are pulling the plug starting at midnight.

As for WQEW in New York City, it's been running "Radio Disney" for 12 years after dumping adult standards back in late December 1998. But I don't really see WQEW dumping "Radio Disney" anytime soon.
 
disney fanatic said:
That would be a smart move for 1550 to dump "Radio Disney" off the air for good. I remember back in the spring when Poughkeepsie's WEOK at 1390 AM dumped "Radio Disney" and flipped to "True Oldies Channel", this station would be getting oldies listeners from the defunct "Cool 92.9". And now, this is going to happen when these two "Radio Disney" stations are pulling the plug starting at midnight.

As for WQEW in New York City, it's been running "Radio Disney" for 12 years after dumping adult standards back in late December 1998. But I don't really see WQEW dumping "Radio Disney" anytime soon.
Click to expand...

Selling to kids and soccer moms is easier than selling to long-in-the-tooth oldies fans. The gullibility factor is what Madison Avenue thrives on, which is why it covets the young and stupid.
 
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