• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

87.7 testing

The pirate on the near west side who was operating a pretty strong Spanish language station on 87.9 has shut down for now.

Hopefully, if they re-appear, they will pick a frequency like 94.3, or 94.5 or 101.5 and stay more than two frequencies away from any Cleveland station.
 
Last I heard, 87.7 (87.75) had a loud buzzing/hum sound to it making the sports fight songs and Michael Stanley song very hard to hear. The sound seemed to change every so many seconds, presumably when the slide show changed slides (I can get only a very snowy picture on my analog TV set here in Vermilion with rabbit ears and even the sound isn't very clear on the set but on my Tecsun PL-390 and on the car radio the signal comes in clear)
 
Buckeyes2001 said:
Last I heard, 87.7 (87.75) had a loud buzzing/hum sound to it making the sports fight songs and Michael Stanley song very hard to hear. The sound seemed to change every so many seconds, presumably when the slide show changed slides
Click to expand...

It almost sound like someone plugged one of those Red/White/Yellow RCA cables into the wrong jack.
 
My flat screen and DVR can no longer pick up Channel 6, since late Saturday. I tried a while ago on my little 5 inch B&W in the attic, and as others have reported, a loud buzz, with the sports fight songs barely audible in the loud hum. The picture is virtually non-existent, just an extremely snowy indication something is there visually, just very very light lines you would get like if your horizontal hold isn't set right. Just last week the picture was coming in fairly well on that set. Maybe the hum is messing the picture up? Prolly why the flat screen and DVR isn't getting them. I'm surprised if the FCC doesn't get involved with this and tell them to fix it or shut down. Does sound like a wrong plug in the wrong jack to me too.

I have to also say, even when the music was clearer, still sounded like it was being played off a cheap cassette deck, dropouts and all. I think I can understand the slide show, to have a relatively static picture to test.
 
My last check of 87.7 on Friday sounded awful. There was the buzz everyone else is talking about, and I can't even tell for sure if that was the fight song loop under it (I think it was, but it was barely audible).

Remember, though, folks...THEY ARE TESTING. This is no indication of what the station will sound like permanently. Heck, even the clearer testing may not be (but is more likely to be closer, of course).

Crain's Cleveland Business tweeted at me on Friday, telling me to watch their publication (online?) on Monday for some 87.7 news. Maybe that means Venture has an LMA partner?

I'm hearing big money, and faint rumors about who it might be. Nothing I can nail down.
 
Just read on Crain's that Tom Wilson (best known for his role in owning WDOK and WRMR) is planning a locally-oriented rock format with entertainment mixed in. It could start in late July. He wants to hire local personalities for the station, though it's not known what type of rock station it could be.

I guess Sports and Spanish is out. I wouldn't be surprised if it's AAA to fill the void left by V107.3's exit or maybe another Alternative to destroy 99X. We shall see in late July.
 
Maybe it won't be like V, but a completely different approach. Hopefully, way different. We'll see what happens in late July.
 
Forget younger-skewing rock music, if the article in the PD is to be believed or reflective of the current thought on 87.7's future:

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/06/new_cleveland_radio_station_ai.html

The still-in-the-works format of talk, a blend of "more mature" rock music and a team dedicated to everything Cleveland will fill a hole that Wilson said he sees in Cleveland's radio market.
Click to expand...

The article reveals that the Old Gang is riding again, with Tom Embrescia and Larry Pollock involved in this as well (Embrescia, Wilson and Pollock were the ownership group behind WDOK/WBBG/WRMR in the 1980s, and I believe they also owned WWWE/WTAM before Booth/Secret/Jacor/now Clear Channel).

Does anyone know if 87.7 has tested recently? I've picked up a buzz with a stereo pilot signal in the car a day or two back, but no programming material, even the fight song/MSB loop. I'm curious if they are continuing to tweak the signal.
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
Forget younger-skewing rock music, if the article in the PD is to be believed or reflective of the current thought on 87.7's future:

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/06/new_cleveland_radio_station_ai.html

The still-in-the-works format of talk, a blend of "more mature" rock music and a team dedicated to everything Cleveland will fill a hole that Wilson said he sees in Cleveland's radio market.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

The article also mentions that the programming will be geared toward the 25 to 44-year-old market. That is too old for pure Alternative (18-34), but that also does not sound like a classic-rock leaning station. That age market, plus terminology such as anti-corporate radio and "more mature" rock music sounds a whole lot like some kind of "AAA" format, probably a little more mainstream than what 107.3 tried. The thing with the AAA format is that there are some stations that a mostly light classic rock with a few current artists thrown in, and some others which are pretty much modern rock stations minus a few really heavy bands.

Does anyone know if 87.7 has tested recently? I've picked up a buzz with a stereo pilot signal in the car a day or two back, but no programming material, even the fight song/MSB loop. I'm curious if they are continuing to tweak the signal.
Click to expand...

Last time I checked about a week and a half ago, I heard silence. It was as it there was something there taking up the frequency, but there was sound coming out. Usually it would be white noise.
 
Torgo Johnson said:
That age market, plus terminology such as anti-corporate radio and "more mature" rock music sounds a whole lot like some kind of "AAA" format, probably a little more mainstream than what 107.3 tried.
Click to expand...

One of V's biggest problems was that it very much tried to be "too hip for the room", lavishing attention on obscure artists and trying to break new music. Is that a road Wilson and company can avoid?

The "look at all the cool music we can help you find" format at 107.3 ended up with the station having a core, but small, listener base. Most people just want to hear familiar music, or music that sounds like it.

You try that V107.3 approach on a "new" frequency like 87.7, you might as well set your money on fire before you open up the microphone. I suspect Wilson, Embrescia and Pollock are well aware of this.

One question, though...how does this fit with featuring "local artists", as promised by WLFM? That would seem to fit with what V was doing.
 
I knew it would be AAA or some type of Alternative. Glad to see those involved willing to take a risk to make Cleveland radio more creative again. Localism is desperately needed and highly missed. I do hope they have a plan for after three years when "Franken FMs" are expected to go dark.

If they want to do their planned format right, they must NOT follow the same road V went before they went bust. The Summit in Akron and Youngstown should be one of the models for a music approach 87.7 needs to take. Would be cool if it was like The End back in the 90's. Maybe get Pat the Producer involved and bring back "Inner Sanctum". The new station would be a perfect fit.

Speaking of jocks, I think the station should have fresh personalities involved instead of nothing but past voices. It can give those a shot at developing a new crop of talent that can freshen up the radio landscape. That's what helped doomed V - not a sign of newer voices involved.

Last, I'm curious as to what WJCU is going to do with their music. My suggestion is do what WBWC does, but for the East Side. With the new station soon to go on the air, and 99X around, but quite cutting it, the doors could now be open musically for 88.7.
 
OK, some of you wanted a "full cycle" aircheck of WLFM, I have it here. They are back testing today with the MSB and fight songs and slide show video. No hum/buzz, and the volume level seems more in line with other FM stations now on my car radio:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDQBqops6dg

This was flagged right away by Youtube as having "matching 3rd party content" cuz of the MSB tune. I believe this is fair use in this instance, and electronically signed so and stated I believe this is presented as a hobbyist-educational video about local TV/radio and I feel that editing it will undermine the integrity of what I'm trying to present. So I will prolly end up taking this down shortly, as if Youtube disagrees, they say they can terminate my account. Don't want to do any battle, but want to get this presented as a hobbyist aircheck. (RealPlayer will now let you download Youtube videos).
 
Thanks danny (and for the PM alert)..I'm grabbing it now.  I may try to put it up somewhere else-PM me if it's ok with you..This may be the only time I see the pictures and I like the songs..
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
One of V's biggest problems was that it very much tried to be "too hip for the room", lavishing attention on obscure artists and trying to break new music. Is that a road Wilson and company can avoid?

The "look at all the cool music we can help you find" format at 107.3 ended up with the station having a core, but small, listener base. Most people just want to hear familiar music, or music that sounds like it.
Click to expand...

funny, my biggest criticism of V-1073 was they didn't do enough of the breaking new artists/albums,etc. You take a CD1025 Columbus or the late 97X/woxy.com out of Cincy and I had wished V was more like them.


It looks like 87.7(5) has fixed their buzzing problem, you can hear the test/stunt again pretty clearly.
 
My dispute with Youtube/copyright has been rejected on my WLFM aircheck linked above. But doesn't sound like they are taking it down at this point. They said ads may appear - I haven't seen any yet though. Still contemplating whether I should yank the video or not, but to me, sounds like it's OK, they're allowing it and they may put ads, to make it OK. Anyone ever deal with this before? I figure if the "violation" is really that bad, they would have yanked the video.

"Your video may include the following copyrighted content:
Disputed claims

"Michael Stanley Band-My Town", sound recording administered by:
IODA Dispute rejected, claim has been reinstated.

What does this mean?

Your video is still available worldwide. In some cases ads may appear next to your video. Please note that the video's status can change, if the policies chosen by the content owners change. Learn more about copyright on YouTube.
This claim does not affect your account status. "
 
I had this happen with Jim Brickman's "After All These Years" related to an early YT post of the first part of WKYC-TV's 50th anniversary..This was several years ago, and the video is still up, though for some reason blocked in Germany. They gave the option of replacing the song with something else, but it would ruin the pace of the video..

In the last week, though I had two of my videos (Morning Exchange 12-17-97) flagged for violations from "Scripps Local News" First major violations ever, and I've been on YouTube 5 years..

I just took them off YouTube and put them somewhere else (DailyMotion)..Daily Motion is not as large or popular as YouTube but I've been told they don't the copyright issues that YouTube has..
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom