Okay, somebody has to recognize that reference......LOL. Made my first drive across the country this week. Boy, Memphis doesn't offer much to listen to for middle-aged white people. A classic rock with a weak signal, an okay rock station, no classic hits, no BOB or JACK. Yeah, I get it. Just saying I wouldn't be able to fill 5 of my presets. I liked the classic rock in Tupelo thought.
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8 Miles out of Memphis and I got no spare........
- Thread starter PRyanR
- Start date
You forgot the country stations, unless that’s not your thing. I grew up in and around Memphis, have a special place in my heart for the city, but I’m glad I didn’t decide to stay there for the bulk of my broadcast career. In the 70’s, Memphis was a larger market than Nashville. Guess which one grew and which one didn’t? I worked in Tupelo when I was in college, 40+ years ago. Nice place and it’s grown a lot too. It was one of the many places people moved to when Memphis became less livable.
Didn't have much for college students 30+ years ago either. I still wouldn't think it would have much to offer for them. I had six presets on my car radio. I can't remember what they were anymore, but I'm thinking at least one of them was dedicated to an out of market station. I mostly flipped between WEGR, Oldies 98.1, and FM 100, though, and my alarm was set to The River. I remember I could get quite-a-few more stations on the home stereo in my dorm near the top of Richardson Towers. Having a 70+ foot antenna made a bit of a difference!
Like you mention, the middle-aged white audience in Memphis can only be sliced so much and remain profitable. You'd think, with Memphis's history with rock n'roll and the blues, that classic hits/oldies would do well there, but it never has. Every effort to launch such a station has landed with a thud, and I don't think any FM effort has lasted longer than five years. I was only there one semester, but Oldies 98.1 shifted to a 70's-based focus a few months after I left. It then evolved to more of a classic rock format under a couple different handles before going rock as 98.1 The Max.
The 98.9 frequency is a good candidate for Classic Hits, but it must make enough money as it is to keep Cumulus happy.
98.9 is one of the worst stations in Memphis about flipping formats every few years so even if they went to classic hits, I don't believe Cumulus could be trusted to stay with it. But I definitely would like to see them stop doing news/talk.
They have the rights to University of Memphis sports, which I wish would be picked up by someone else and drop news talk completely.
I left this time 30 years ago and my 6 presets were - 94.1, 95.7, 99.7, 102.7, 104.5, 105.9. No CHR stations at that time since FM100 had segued over to Hot AC. As it has been mentioned many times before - CHR has never survived in Memphis.
I recall KIM being Hot AC this time 15 years ago where Seacrest was parked in Memphis for a short time until landing in his final resting place of Now/Kiss in 2010.
Go 18 miles from Memphis, and you'll find the Stray Cats there!LOL!! I played "Just Dropped In......" this past weekend on my Part 15 station !!
There is a JACK in Dyersburg, and a classic rock in Jackson, TN, but yes, Memphis is just far enough away that neither of them would be listenable there. Maybe if you ventured out into one of the bedroom communities in rural west TN.
Also noticed an oldies station over in Arkansas. Again, not a great signal, but I remember listening to them on a visit to Memphis. Also reminded of it because someone recently posted about it on one of the Memphis Facebook pages.
“and now the song that describes the management of this radio station…”
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