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850AM Raleigh going TALK!

One other question about the lineup on 850: It shows the station as playing "Hall of Fame Music" during overnights and weekends. Are they talking about smooth jazz like WZTK played on weekends or the older "oldies" that 850 was playing before the flip?
 
berlin201 said:
One other question about the lineup on 850: It shows the station as playing "Hall of Fame Music" during overnights and weekends. Are they talking about smooth jazz like WZTK played on weekends or the older "oldies" that 850 was playing before the flip?
Click to expand...
"Hall of Fame" is a term that would be used for oldies.

What WZTK played more correctly belongs in a hall of shame, though there was the occasional gem like "Front Seat" by Sadao Watanabe.
 
Wasn't "Hall of Fame Music" what Don Curtis used to call his Sunday afternoon (6-8ish) show on WPTF where they played songs from the 1940s and big band type stuff?
 
If "Channel 85" starts playing Chad and Jeremy, Dave Clark Five, the Cowsills, etc. again, I'll tune in. Otherwise it's just 21st Century media masturbation. We're in the age of the one-night-stand, massive whoredom. It's a race to the bottom and nobody cares.

Scoop
 
It amazes me that anybody is banking on the viability of anything on AM radio. Folks, it was a good party, but the party's over. Even the big 50,000 watt major market news stations are simulcasting or have totally moved to FM. WTOP, KSL, KCBS, WBBM, WIBC, WMAL, and many more. Those who haven't are depending more and more on internet delivery.

The one guy in our office that listens to AM radio hasn't spent a nickel on anything since he bought his 92 Impala. He's a loyal listener, but of absolutely no interest to advertisers.
 
I respectfully disagree with you outsider and I used to feel the same way you do...A little over 3 years ago I was presented with an opportunity to do music on AM and I too shook my head and smirked but it was an oportunity to do mornings on a station that reaches around 6 counties and it was a format that no one was doing so we started and I put forth the same effort to detail as if it were a 100,000 FM and slowly but surely we've built a decent audience and I also realized what a great partner the internet could be for an AM station..When you listen to 1070 online it sounds great and it keeps a night audience when we have to reduce power.
We offer affordable advertizing to small businesses and also do some combo packages with our FM and things are headed in a positive direction. I'm not blind to the challenges of playing music on AM in 2012 but when you offer something different,give it a fair amount of time to grow, and treat it like a real radio station and not just the "AM" you can get peoples attention. We are now close to 10,000 hits a month on the web and we have gotten some numbers..1070 has a long way to go but alot of progress has been made because the station has people that pay attention to the AM in the building and believe little things mean everything.
Things like fresh weather,updated promos,true unique music variety and superserving your clients is what you have to do.Its all about also having people that now realize 1070 is a radio station by itself and treating it as such. After 3 years of doing this the station is growing slowly and in today's world that's about all you can ask. I have people stopping me at dinner and saying I love your station..Its happened several times over the last month and its an AM in Eastern NC playing music in 2012..Its like the old saying "If you build it they will come". It really has been very rewarding & quite humbling and most importantly it has been fun.
Who knows it may end tommorrow??? but its the most fun I've ever had in radio.
 
outsider said:
It amazes me that anybody is banking on the viability of anything on AM radio. Folks, it was a good party, but the party's over. Even the big 50,000 watt major market news stations are simulcasting or have totally moved to FM. WTOP, KSL, KCBS, WBBM, WIBC, WMAL, and many more. Those who haven't are depending more and more on internet delivery.

The one guy in our office that listens to AM radio hasn't spent a nickel on anything since he bought his 92 Impala. He's a loyal listener, but of absolutely no interest to advertisers.
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I guess this post is the official announcement that AM Radio is DEAD! Don Curtis must be a complete idiot for even attempting to do anything with any of his AM stations. Maybe the FCC and the current administration should mandate that all AM stations sign off by July 1st of this year. After all, according to Outsider, no one is listening or cares. And Allenv, you must be living in a dream world down in Greenville thinking anybody is listening to 1070 WNCT. Just think how good it will be for the environment if all AM stations go dark and stop wasting precious electricity. AM is such old technology from the last century, lets get rid of it and be done with it! I'm sure Outsider has sold off all of his/her AMs and is now focusing on their FMs, and Don Curtis should follow Outsider's advice. Outsider didn't get where he is today by being stupid like Don Curtis. What we need are more cookie cutter FM formats. The sad thing is what will the guy who owns the 92 Impala going to listen to? Has anyone thought about him?
 
Anyone who is defending AM radio is absolutely insane....There are a few legendary stations that are still raking in cash on the AM Band but it's because of the quality of the news department/talk programming. I got ripped by some people for saying that this board is a bunch of people posting in a nursing home but is honestly....triadradionewsman you summed it up perfectly

In this high definition, best quality, Bose Headphones world we live in...who in the good lords name would want to listen to scratchy, fuzzy, crappy AM radio? I mean...music on the AM band? On top of just horrible playlists, you have horrible audio quality and commercials? Even Talk Radio is switching over to FM and this is the transition period for audiences to realize the switch. Anyone I know that likes AM Radio also has a HAM Radio operation in the backyard. This audience is so gone and advertisers have realized that.

Curtis is GRASPING at straws because he knows how screwed he is after buying these AM signals....they're useless, nobody wants them, and he's jumbling around shows that get ZERO ratings...as really the only option because they clearly aren't going to pay people. Guaranteed they're hurting for cash and that's why the sold WZTK...now they're probably doing Indian rain dances every night hoping this "new" lineup works with WSJS & 680/850 in Raleigh...

You can't make money on AM Radio. PERIOD. Unless you have a great reputation and a top notch news department. Music is GONEEEEEEEEEE on the AM Band. I love reading the "As long as you direct people to the internet" what the heck does that tell you????

Satellite Radio, iPods, iPhones, mp3 players, factory built interfaces with push button technology to pandora, this stuff isn't the future anymore. It's NOW. AM Radio is DEAD
 
This always seems to stir up some emotions, but facts are facts. In 1972, 75% of radios in use were tuned to AM stations. Today, 40 years later, that number has dwindled to around 5%. The fact that FCC hasn't gotten involved is that medium wave frequencies are simply really crappy RF real estate and they simply don't really care.

My car radio does a terrible job with AM. Most do. I do remember listening to the big 50,000 watt top 40 stations cruising around in my 65 mustang convertible with the top down listening to the Big 8, Super CFL, et al. You won't pick up many chicks these days tuned to Christian Sports Talk in Spanish. Just sayin' ;)
 
I don't want to enter the argument. So, I'll post a fact (as much as you might consider Arbitron accurate).
I can't post exact figures, it's copyrighted material.

In Raleigh-Durham, out of a Metro population of 1,530,000 people age 6+, over 12% listen to AM radio a week (cume).
That's almost 200,000 people. (stats from a recent monthly survey)

(ding) Round Three!!!
 
surfdude said:
I don't want to enter the argument. So, I'll post a fact (as much as you might consider Arbitron accurate).
I can't post exact figures, it's copyrighted material.

In Raleigh-Durham, out of a Metro population of 1,530,000 people age 6+, over 12% listen to AM radio a week (cume).
That's almost 200,000 people. (stats from a recent monthly survey)

(ding) Round Three!!!
Click to expand...

Is that considered good?....These books get ridiculous at times...so tedious

Ask the average 30 year old (who advertisers target) what they're listening to. It's either podcasts, satellite, mp3, and some sort of FM.

I know the ratings do have clout but I don't even understand some of the numbers they pump out. They seem arbitrary. Knowing how old the technology is, knowing how it's a dying breed, knowing that the programming and/or music on AM radio is so dead, why do you even need these numbers? It's BS in my book.
 
By the way, I just dug out my trusty old Sony SRF-A100 AM Stereo Radio, and tuned to 850 and caught Brad & Britt for a few minutes. Can't be 10 miles from the transmitter, but there is so much RF noise floating around it was simply not listenable. The fidelity on that radio on the AM band was/is remarkable.
 
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