950 AM THE AVENUE?

[chuck hillier]

I can help a bit here. I'm Chuck Hillier, architect of the "Smokin' Pop Standards" format that enjoyed success in StL with "Red 104.1" (prior to its sale to Urban-owned Radio One) and in Phoenix with Jeff Trumper's "Star".

Much of the historical info talked about so far is pretty darn accurate. Additionally, however, as Sovereign City wanted to expand to at least 10 format offerings for syndication, I will say that one of the possibilities was them simply picking up the "Smokin" product. I had many fine communications with the then President, had great support from the then head of programming, and had signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement during our talks.

Meantime, the company had purchased our library (no consulting) for their tiny Appleton/Oshkosh facility where they were Beta Testing their new AC syndicated morning show. The station there was named "The Avenue".

Corporate reported terrific feedback and plans were made for me to fly to Green Bay and discuss the integration of "Smokin' Pop Standards" into their proposed expanding line-up of programming. The sudden, stunning decision, however, by Follett, to shutter Sov City caught everyone off guard...certainly their employees first and foremost. The people I had been communicating with were simply there one day & gone the next. Vaporized.

The parent company to Sov City, however, kept "The Avenue" in play. Yet with no consulting and no corporate oversight or support (remember, they're now all gone)...the sound there kept disintegrating to the point of virtual unrecognition on a trip through the area last fall. Fast forward: Relevant takes the Oshkosh library, hires another program guy with his own ideas, adding/changing music he sees fit, and barely commits to Chicago by plugging in the new sound in the evenings only, on a challenged signal, with an entirely different audience during the day. Talk about an uphill battle!

Meantime, I've recently joined the 24/7 internet radio station "Martini in the Morning" as its VP/General Mgr.

If you enjoy "The Lounge Sound", I encourage you to check us out at www.martiniinthemorning.com. It's where Classic Cool meets Contemporary Cool. "An intoxicating blend of Lounge, Swing, Jazz and Blues"

As a lifelong Chicagoan, and a modest part of its radio history, I'm always impressed with the knowledge & passion with which area listeners share their thoughts. This thread demonstrates that once again.

If you have any feedback or questions on "Martin", I'd love to hear from you. From this post, perhaps, or directly to me at: c.hillier@ comcast.net. Have a great New Year, and continued Good Listening! Chuck.

 

[cyberdad]

Great insightful post, Chuck. And best of luck to you with your new position!

Who knew that there'd be a connection....albeit an indirect one...between "Avenue" and "Martini".

I'm only one guy, but for whatever it might be worth, I'll give you my "one guy's personal perspective".

I've been a fan of what Brad Chambers has been doing since his days on KLAC. I'm a radio-TV "alum" who's still in media..(on the b to b side). I get into L.A. 2-3 times a year on business. That's where I first came across the "Martini" format....or at least the Clear Channel version of it. I followed it...Steve Tyrell voiceovers and all...up the dial/down the coast from 570 to 690, and then onto the web when Brad launched "Martini" online.

I think the format is really good. I know pop/jazz standards, aka "the great American songbook" is sometimes ridiculed as "dead peoples' music". But the "Martini" approach has a very fresh and bright quality. An expert blend of contemporary artists and "classic cool". It's high-quality, classy stuff....reeking of "upscale". Properly presented and marketed, my feeling is there should be a sweet spot for it somewhere....and that includes across multiple listener demos beyond what's normally associated other "vintage music" formats.

So, I'm a fan despite the fact that my positive response to Brad's first request for listener donations and my subsequent 2-3 encouraging emails were met with complete silence. I finally decided, okay fine, I'm just a hillbilly from Chicago, so who cares. But by all accounts Brad seems like a good guy with a great vision and a great product. I'm very much pulling for it to be a huge success.

"Avenue"? Worthy, interesting. But to my ears nowhere near as well-executed as "Martini". Seems a bit "disjointed" (for want of a better word) at times. Perhaps it's still in beta test.

Anyway, I listened to the Green Bay stream for a couple of days to get a feel for it. I'm in the far Northwest suburbs of Chicago, so the 950 signal is unlistenable for me at night. Meanwhile the sister stick on 930...which does considerably better here...stays with the religion programming 24/7. I am able to pick up "Avenue" over the air (barely) during the daytime on WZRK (1550) out of Lake Geneva, WI.

Hard to imagine Sov City getting any listener or advertiser notice for the format....well-executed or otherwise....when they're seemingly doing their best to keep it invisible.

 

[chuck hillier]

Thanks, "Dad". Appreciate your personal history and positive feedback. Keep listening and let me know what you think as we grow and evolve. Take good care. Chuck.

 

[cyberdad]

Apologies for the slight veer off-topic, but I wanted to pop in for a moment to retract/apologize for my earlier comment about Brad's lack of response to my support of "Martini". My misunderstanding. Let me put it this way....I always knew the "Martini" product was a "class act", and same goes for Brad! Again, here's wishing Brand, Chuck, & Co. every success.

 

[MarcB]

What does the sale of WNTD mean for the AVENUE 950 format?

http://www.rbr.com/radio/radio_deals/20295.html

 

[klutch00]

Could someone please explain how WJPC was able to broadcast at one-kilowatt daytime and five-kilowatt (albeit directional) nighttime before de-regulation took place?

Although AM's use of higher power at night than during the day has, in the last ten years or so, become more common than it used to be, such stations have been around in the US for many decades. Besides WNTD, two stations that I can think of that had such facilities back in the '70s or earlier were 1) what was then WHOT 1330 Campbell (Youngstown) OH, back then. a dual-site operation (500W-D six towers/1 kW-N five towers) and 2) KFMB 760 San Diego (5 kW ND-D/50 kW-N three towers). WHOT is no longer WHOT and it now operates from a single site with lower power than than it had back when it ran more power at night than during the day.

Two-site operations can be expensive, especially if one or both sites are leased. And maintaining two sites with their associated microwave links can consume twice the engineering time as maintaining one site. Managements don't like such expenses, especially if the station isn't making money (a common problem with AMs these days). So there is a lot of pressure to give up one of the sites. Downgrading from Class B to Class D is a common way out as Class Ds can operate at night with low power and are not required to cover any part of their CoL at night.

I've read conflicting reports on you have for WHOT. In the 1984 Broadcasting Yearbook (which I still have) in one section, it lists WHOT as having 500-watts day and 1,000 watts at night, as you indicate. In the frequencies list of the same publication, it's just the opposite. Now, regarding KFMB, once again I wonder when that change took place as in that same Yearbook, it lists the station as having 5-kilowatts unlimited time with a nighttime directional (then again, that too may be a misprint).

On what became of the old WHOT, as you may know, it moved to 1390 kHz and now broadcasts a nostalgia format using the calls WNIO. The 1330 frequency there is now a daytime only talk station with 500-watts directional. They now use the calls WGFT.

On different transmitter locations for day and night operations, Baltimore has such a station WVIE at 1370 which has a 50,000 watt daytime and 7,700 watt nighttime signal with alternating directional patterns. During the evening, it is impossible to receive the station where the daytime transmitters are located, and despite the strong signal from nighttime operations, you can still hear interference. Despite being a Fox sports affiliate, how they stay alive is anyone's guess as their ratings are in the toilet.

Digressions aside, Is the sale still on? I'm hoping The Avenue will continue on.

 

[DanStrassberg]

I've read conflicting reports on you have for WHOT. In the 1984 Broadcasting Yearbook (which I still have) in one section, it lists WHOT as having 500-watts day and 1,000 watts at night, as you indicate. In the frequencies list of the same publication, it's just the opposite. Now, regarding KFMB, once again I wonder when that change took place as in that same Yearbook, it lists the station as having 5-kilowatts unlimited time with a nighttime directional (then again, that too may be a misprint).

KFMB did indeed run 5 kW DA-N when it first moved to 760. But later (mid '80s, I believe), it added a third tower to its nighttime-only DA and increased night power to 50 kW, making the station 5 kW-D/50 kW-N DA-N. No increase in D power was possible because of second adjacent KBRT on Catalina Island with 10 kW-D DA-D on 740. There is big-time normally prohibited overlap between KFMB and KBRT. There are unique historic reasons why this overlap was allowed. You can read many posts on the subject in a thread that has been running for a while on the R-I Engineering board.

As for WHOT, the historic listing you found that showed the D power as 500W and the N power as 1 kW was the correct one. Most likely, someone who had never heard of higher power at night than during the day thought they had "fixed" the listing to show the higher power being used by day. WHOT used a six-tower array (east of Youngstown, IIRC) for its 500W daytime operation and five towers south of Youngstown for the 1 kW nighttime operation. I believe the station now operates from its former daytime-only site but I don't think the current day pattern is the same as the one it used with the two-site setup. The station also held a CP to run lower power (200 and <something> W) at night from its day site. Maybe that CP was never built and it lapsed. I wouldn't know about that.