98.1 WHWI Fort Walton - The NEW Highway 98 Country

[Poledo]

Yes, it deserves a new topic.


Highway 98 signed on sometime after 10 this morning.

Now with the biggest signal in the market, 98.1, takes on Country 105.5 (which happens to be one of the worst signals in the market.)

98.1 should gobble up all the listeners to "out-of-market" country stations but will they make a significant dent into the long established 105.5?

Will Cumulus move 105.5 to one of the stronger signals to protect their brand?

Is cceng working on upgrades at WAAZ 104.7 so they can join in to make it a 3 station race?

 

[Rob]

WILL 104.7 be in full stereo?? (there in mono)
but besides that, this move by quantum will crush 105.5 to it's knees.

what's next, apply for a 100KW C.P.? RIP country 105.5 we look forward to the new format.. in (6 months give or take)

 

[icycool7227]

Ok I would like to know something. Does this station have a website anywhere being it Highway Country?> I cannot find anything online.

 

[Tibbs4]

And the saga of why this will NOT kill 105.5 begins...two wrongs, don't make a right.

Half-ass from the get go....and down hill after that. You reach hell and then somewhere
worse than that Cru....

Crunch Time?

Rob ~ My Mapquest doesn't show Highway 981.

 

[Poledo]

But the New Highway 98 Country is playing 9,810 more songs than the other 105 country stations.

http://whois.domaintools.com/highway98country.com

http://highway98country.com/

Looks like he named the station on or before December 16th.

Has Qantam launched any stations in other markets that are worth noting? All we really have to compare this to is the launch of Fly 92.1.

 

[Louis_009]

the website for the new Hwy 98 Country shows Go Daddy.com and Ad's recheck the website again when u get a chance.

 

[C Murder]

the website for the new Hwy 98 Country shows Go Daddy.com and Ad's recheck the website again when u get a chance.

The site shows GoDaddy.com and other ads because Qantum hasn't pointed the domain to their servers yet. The whois shows the domain as being owned by Qantum.

 

[cceng1]

it takes more than 100kw to make a station sucessful...everyone keeps talking about the BIG signal that 98.1 has compared to 105.....they both are loud and clear in FWB/Destin...and that is where it counts......there are PLENTY of 100kw stations that are dogs....look at PFM What matters is what they modulate (Rob that means program) that 100kw signal with.....

Jimmy at WAAZ could give a rat's ass about Highway 98.....he will continue to do what he does in psuedo stereo and he will enjoy himself AND make money at the same time.

Tibbs, can I get an AMEN?

cceng

 

[Tibbs4]

teach it and preach it, schoolgirl.

CW, you remember that 98.1 tin can did okay with a crappy signal back as 98one classic rock against powerhouse (50kw) 99 Rock.

I always thought an urban-leaning Top 40 would have worked on 98.1. I seriously thought it made sense
and so did Steve Riggs who originally flipped it from 98 Surf back in (I think) 1993 or 1994. That was long
before people would have thought that format would work in lilly FWB.

I seem to recall WXBM was the country station outta P-Cola that cranked in some numbers and K-92 (WMMK)
was a 25kw Country giant in Destin. WBLX was pushing some 4+ numbers in the market too. I may be wrong on the call letters at this stage of life.

You're spot on correct on the waste of a 100kw signal at the most to the right of the FM dial. WHY is this
still happening. Hasn't dudedude run out of money yet??? They ain't as smart as CC, Crumy or Chitty.

Legit querstion Jenny Woo's husband ~ is that 98.1 signal crankin 100% now and blastin well past the bridge?

 

[cceng1]

don't know if they are doing full tilt boogie or not..... (rob, that means 100%).....I don't know who is handling the engineering for the "New Highway 98" Tibbs....hopefully they brought someone in to make the big switch and clean that transmitter plant up....it needed some quality time spent with it from my recollection the last time I saw it.

 

[phr8trayn]

Jeff Baxter

 

[trock]

don't know if they are doing full tilt boogie or not..... (rob, that means 100%).....I don't know who is handling the engineering for the "New Highway 98" Tibbs....hopefully they brought someone in to make the big switch and clean that transmitter plant up....it needed some quality time spent with it from my recollection the last time I saw it.

It sounds great. On par with the other Qantum stations.

 

[Tibbs4]

don't know if they are doing full tilt boogie or not..... (rob, that means 100%).....I don't know who is handling the engineering for the "New Highway 98" Tibbs....hopefully they brought someone in to make the big switch and clean that transmitter plant up....it needed some quality time spent with it from my recollection the last time I saw it.

It sounds great. On par with the other Qantum stations.

That has to be the most ambiguous sentence written so far in 2010.

 

[trock]

don't know if they are doing full tilt boogie or not..... (rob, that means 100%).....I don't know who is handling the engineering for the "New Highway 98" Tibbs....hopefully they brought someone in to make the big switch and clean that transmitter plant up....it needed some quality time spent with it from my recollection the last time I saw it.

It sounds great. On par with the other Qantum stations.

That has to be the most ambiguous sentence written so far in 2010.

LOL Sorry Tibbs. Not a radio engineer nor do I pretend to be. Just an ex jock. How about this. The station has no pops or hisses and I live 20 miles north of Fort Walton. The processing sounds a whole lot cleaner than at any point it was The ticket. I can pick it up in my office building without any degradation in the signal. I can't say the same for 105.5, in fact I can barely pick them up at all. Now is that better Tibbs.

 

[redneckriviera]

Hey, where do I send my consulting bill? Didn't some ol' redneck tell these bastards right here on this very board to do what they wound up doing? (I'll take all of the credit and none of the blame. Isn't that what consultants do)? LOL!!!

On The Other Hand, as Randy Travis would say, Charlie (as usual) is right on the money. Depends what they modulate the SOB with. Can't tackle an established format & market leader with shit programming and expect them to fall over daid. Gotta invest Big $$$ in marketing it, too--and not just for the first few months (the way radio companies usually do it). To knock off 105.5 it will take years. Two? Three? Five?

Ain't as easy as it used to be. And it never was all that easy.

 

[Tibbs4]

RNR ~ You are the man! I'd still like to have set up the old skool ROCK WARS though. Not having access to the REAL #'s, maybe it's futile. I just cant see 98.1 being a Country format. Just seems like it's a frequency
meant to rock. Like another special frequency to the East. Imagine if that wasn't some for of rock. It's close
to being not real rock, now. (107.9 PFM).

Country does make sense, though.

Trock ~ i was LMAO. That was a classic comment. I would imagine anything would sound better than the
band-aide on the cheap repairs that were probably going on. what they could have done with that damn
signal if they had given it TLC.

What, if anything does RON HALE or some form of his million family members or LMA-ing partners own, rent ,lease, etc. All these threads have run together.

 

[Rob]

It will make me wonder what will become of 105.5 as it will lose it's core audience.

-Rob

 

[romer979fm]

It will make me wonder what will become of 105.5 as it will lose it's core audience.

-Rob

unless 98.1 gives them a reason to leave...the 105.5 core audience won't go anywhere for long

 

[Poledo]

I haven't listened much, but I'm a little confused. What's supposed to happen after 9810 songs?

They say they're "commercial free"... then they play a message from their "sponsor".

How long does it take to play 9810 songs?

 

[trock]

It will make me wonder what will become of 105.5 as it will lose it's core audience.

-Rob

unless 98.1 gives them a reason to leave...the 105.5 core audience won't go anywhere for long

I've talked to several people who listen to 105.5 and they said they were tired of the repetitive nature of their play list. So there is an opening. The problem is no one i talked to even new Highway 98.1 existed.