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660 WXQW flips to news/talk

Mobile really has a great rock dial with:
92.1 Zew - AAA
96.1 The Rocket - Classic Rock
Jet 100.7 - Classic Hits
TK 101.5 - Active Rock
Also, Mobile county gets some out-of-market rock from Biloxi.

I really don't expect anything to change on the FM dial unless it's decided that Mobile-Pensacola needs a class C News Talk station. Since the AMs don't cover a whole lot of people and I don't see internet listening of news/talk radio, I wouldn't be surprised to wake up one day and find out someone flipped.

There's really nothing else "needed" on the local dial, hence its long term stability of everything but 100.7 and 104.1 (and 104.1 is now the #1 station in the market.)

iHeart would need to stumble across a damn good reason to flip or move Kiss 107.3. Putting serious effort into competing with the WABB heritage of WABD would be too expensive.

Alternative would need Pensacola coverage to be successful, no signals are available, so we aren't going to get alt rock.


Hey Groovy, Do you believe the new 250 mile proposal would take translators from our metros or move in more and completely fill the dial?
 
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I don't see how a class C talker could work, it would have to have the biggest names from a station in each market and then some local talk, which would only appeal to one market at a time.

Maybe I'm wrong about this but the logic here seems to be that there's more money to be made from formats on two smaller stations in each market than one common format on a multi market station.

That's the only reason that explains Cumulus keeping urban AC on 106.1 whilst having 100% signal overlap with 104.1... Even the programming is the same during certain hours.

If anything, I think the smart move talk wise would be putting WCOA's lineup on 106.1, but with talk's dismal numbers lately even that might be a dumb move.

Speaking of dumb, how has Cumulus managed to NOT screw up 97.5 yet?
 
My understanding is the original plan was for WCOA to launch on 106.1 some 15 years ago. At the last minute the fine crew at Cumulus Pensacola was informed WCOA would stay at 1370 and 106.1 was going to Rock. I think most of the sales staff quit at this time.
Cumulus signed Lex & Terry and Rock 106 became a hit, so they made the right move... then.
After TK signed Lex and Terry away from Rock 106, Cumulus Pensacola really went downhill and lost most of their "heritage" air talent too.

I agree that separate Strong FM talkers would work best for Mobile-Pen, but Pensacola doesn't have any frequencies available. Talk on 98.3 in Mobile combined with 106.1 in P'cola with WDLT moving to 104.1 would have been perfect. Now urban 106.1 is too popular in P'cola to kill it.

Ft Walton doesn't have any broadcast news except a little on WFTW AM. Pensacola and FWB could easily get away sharing a news talk radio station. If only Apex, Cumulus or WAAZ would do it.
 
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tomservo said:
Speaking of dumb, how has Cumulus managed to NOT screw up 97.5 yet?
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I think 97.5 would pull numbers with dead air at this point.
The only way Cumulus could screw up WABD would be if they flipped it to Nash Mobile (don't worry, they would leave 102.7 Nash Pensacola alone).

I don't think iHeart believes they can take the #1 CHR spot from 97.5 which is why it always seems Kiss 107.3 could do better.
 
seedless said:
I think 97.5 would pull numbers with dead air at this point.
The only way Cumulus could screw up WABD would be if they flipped it to Nash Mobile (don't worry, they would leave 102.7 Nash Pensacola alone).

I don't think iHeart believes they can take the #1 CHR spot from 97.5 which is why it always seems Kiss 107.3 could do better.
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As for WABD, I might be the lone wolf in trying to understand the reasoning of ressurecting the former WABB. I mean, WABD to begin with was on 104.1FM and then they decided to move to 97.5 FM which leads to my question, "What really was the point of that signal swap in the first place?" If the reason was because WABB was on 97.5, then that's a little sad and off putting....(alright folks, just my personal opinion here no need to get defensive) Once a station dies, let it die. Don't ressurect it. In theory I do not think the PPM #s would have been greatly different if they kept it on 104.1FM. Just curious on how that played out because it happened so quick when WABB went off air. Anyways, there is a lack of local talent on WABD to say the least but according to All Access, Jan Jefferies before his oust, hired long time air personailitity from Mobile. They are calling it his "homecoming". A big and yet a positive hire on Cumulus' part here because apparently Kelly knows the Mobile market. We will see how this plays out.

And if I think iHeart wanted to compete head on with WABD, they would do anything they could do increase their signal stick or swap. But it does not look like a huge concern for them which tells me that their #s will not make a huge change following a name change.
 
Alex, the way I understand the WABB/WABD thing (and I didn't grow up here so I could be wrong on something) is that Dittman did not want to sell WABB to Cumulus or any other big corporation no matter what, and his family adhered to that wish after he passed. Cumulus saw the writing on the wall and wanted to capitalize on one of the most beloved CHRs in the south and the (one of the) last of the independently owned, well programmed heritage stations of that type.

So Cumulus engineered a switcharoo with the K-Love folks, letting them buy the big class C and then paying them extra to swap it with 98.3. K-Love wound up still covering both markets (98.3 in Mobile and 95.7 in Pensacola) and Cumulus got their hands on the frequency that everyone in Mobile associates with top 40 music since forever.

Cumulus' end run got them what they wanted, and the Dittmans couldn't do anything about it. The only think they didn't appear to get was the actual WABB calls, which remained on 1480 long enough to keep Cumulus from snatching them for the FM after K-Love changed them.

104.1 was strictly temporary to fill in the time while K-Love was on 97.5.

I am certain that if the K-Love deal had fallen through, we'd still have it on 97.5 and 95.7 in Pensacola would be Air1 right now, with WABD still on 104.1.
 
K-Love actually got a better deal than you presented. 98.3 has city grade coverage over the Mobile metro and 95.7 has city grade over the Pensacola and Fort Walton metros. 97.5 does not have city grade or even good coverage of Fort Walton. This works out fine for K-Love because these religious broadcasters don't seem to mind simulcasting on multiple signals and they got three DMAs instead of two, plus a C2 in Nashville, TN.
 
Has anyone else besides me been listening to "Doug Stephan's Good Day" on a regular basis through WXQW-AM recently? I enjoyed its variety of discussions, but wished its host would not occasionally use rude language involving the word "hell" (he and the program would be better off without any rude language at all).
 
Mario500,

Please file a complaint with the radio station rather than posting your complaint on a message board.
If you are offended by the use of the word "hell," perhaps you should find a new discussion group which shares your language sensitivity.

I am giving you a seven day vacation so that you may consider your future with the RadioDiscussions website.

Frank Berry
General Manager
 
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I have not listened to any program on the station since the flip to news/talk. I didn't recognize any of the names (beyond being B and C-list status shows) and the format no longer really appeals to me. I have not noticed any advertising for the station on the Eastern Shore or even in Mobile, so I wonder how they plan on getting listeners without telling anyone they exist? Aside from the WGOK gospel fans who woke up to a new format, no one is going to think to check this frequency because so few listen to AM anymore. As far as I can tell they don't even have a Facebook. When I searched for WXQW it came to a Wiki text page with a logo for WMOO Christian Radio!
 
I wonder if this station did an early launch?. Perhaps some advance knowledge that a popular talk show's contract comes available soon?
This seems almost as strange as Cumulus' flip of 100.7 to talk 2 years back when all their shows were also carried on other stations in Pensacola and Mobile.

I too have soured on talk radio. Aside from 10-20 minutes a week of Dave Ramsey everything else I listen to is local.
 
It's not really worth starting a new thread, but I just found out that Cumulus is going to make 660's two tower setup permanent.

Much to my embarrassment, I'd left off a bit of tower history for WXQW on my website, which has until today listed the station as still having three towers and 850 watts at night. It's not that I'm embarrassed that I failed to update an obscure bit of data with STA information, but that I've actually been to the site several times and took a picture showing just two towers but somehow I never noticed that I had three listed on my site even though it's been untrue for nearly six friggin' years. D'oh. Old age.

In 2010, they claimed a truck backed into the third tower, and it had to be taken down for safety reasons. They've been running 660 on STAs ever since. 10 kW days but only 180 watts night from the remaining two towers. They finally won a CP to make the two night towers permanent and cited the new AM revitalization rules as the kicker for making it happen. Not sure why that is important, but AM is still a mystery to me in many ways. Their STAs have more recently claimed the insurance company denied their claim so they could not rebuild.

This is another one of those Cumulus decisions that is both cheap but smart. They're too cheap to pony up the cost to put up a short tower on a site they already own, but smart because no one listens to AM at night, especially in this area. The coverage area even with three towers and higher power was best described as "pointless" and now it's only ever so slightly more so.
 
Maybe unrelated, but I've been able to pick up 660 in Pensacola durring the daytime since the flip to talk. Back before the WGOK simulcast I could never pick up 660.
 
Even at night with the previous 850 watts the noise level is so high it isn't listenable. So it really isn't a big deal, and yes with engineering, studies, and other costs it was a smart move financially.
 
seedless said:
Maybe unrelated, but I've been able to pick up 660 in Pensacola durring the daytime since the flip to talk. Back before the WGOK simulcast I could never pick up 660.
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One thing that improved with the flip to talk was the modulation levels. Under the WGOK simulcast, they were often so distorted and loud it was impossible to listen to. Seems like the audio feed to a second transmitter site would be a "set it and forget it" kind of thing but it was up and down at random every time I'd do a dial-spin. Now it's much more uniform.

Plus, it's funny you say that because reception for me in Foley actually seems worse. I am having a harder time nulling out the noise, but I guess it's just more noticeable on speech programming than music. There's something in my residence that cause a warbling chirpy sound all across the AM dial, and I have never been able to pinpoint exactly what it is. I've extensively hunted for noisemakers since I DX on shortwave a lot, but the AM warble is the one I haven't found yet. It completely covers WASG and WNVY and partially obscured WXQW, WNTM, WBHY and WLPR.
 
tomservo said:
Hmm… All day today they've been simulcasting WGOK again. Did they drop the news talk format already? :rolleyes:

Their website is still up and still shows talk programming all day, but all I've heard is gospel.
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Think about that again.
With the generic syndicated talk format on 660, running a simulcast of WGOK Sunday Gospel on a big daytime AM signal on the Easten Shore is probably the best option available at any reasonable cost.

This here armchair/keyboard programmer would run with Sunday Gospel on 660 for a minute.
 
seedless said:
Think about that again.
With the generic syndicated talk format on 660, running a simulcast of WGOK Sunday Gospel on a big daytime AM signal on the Easten Shore is probably the best option available at any reasonable cost.

This here armchair/keyboard programmer would run with Sunday Gospel on 660 for a minute.
Click to expand...

They need to update their dang website, then. It is showing several shows, and CBS Sports programming. Red Eye Radio is on now so I reckon it is just a Sunday thing. But gospel and talk together seems like a trainwreck.
 
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