99.1 is on the air

[taylorengineer]

It's all Macon out here in Douglasville. Sporadic 99X reception on I-20 until you get to 6 Flags.
97.9 is mostly clear through that same area. 93.7 suffers from moderate co-channel interference but is basically listenable.
I still think the Dickeys pulled off the business deal of the century with these translators. For less than 1 million dollars they have 3 reasonably decent signals in market number 7! I think Cumulus has been doing the same thing in many other markets.
Someone at Cumulus was ahead of the curve on this one and brought the company a big payoff.

I have to agree with you on this one. Like him or not, Lew Dickey has pulled off some amazing things, including getting both Susquehanna and now Citadel.

GO even further back to Lew Sr. and his purchase of 104.7 and 680 for a mere 6 Million $$. Charlie Smithgall III and Kim King had just finished losing north of $20 million if I remember correctly on a failed 104.7 move in. (The new 1000 foot tower was destroyed by the construction contractor just as they were almost finished erecting the tower. Just days before the station was to premiere!) Lew Sr. moved in and was the only one shrewd enough to see the value. He turned the station Urban, hired Rick Caffey, and proceeded to make a boatload of money. He later sold 104.7 to Cox for 282 Million!! That's after many years of billing over $10M/yearly. On a station he bought for $6M. I would think this was the seed money for what is now Cumulus.
If you remember, in it's original incarnation, Cumulus almost folded. You have to admire a guy (Lew Jr.) who had ice water running through his veins and kept cool when most others crumbled.
Cumulus has done some amazing deals - you're right, Roddy! But I still think maximizing return on investment is not always in the public interest when it comes to the media and I'm not convinced that business acumen is the only measuring stick for success as a broadcaster......

 

[BarryATL]

Georgia Public Broadcasting did a translator years ago on 99.1 in the Atlanta area. It lasted about a month until Macon's 99.1 made a formal complaint to the FCC. The translator was immediately taken off the air. I don't see how the translator in Atlanta could be licensed.

 

[FLjack2]

You have to admire a guy (Lew Jr.) who had ice water running through his veins and kept cool when most others crumbled.

Remember, he is the guy who left his soon to be wife (I forget her name, but she was good friends with Vicki Locke of "Steve & Vicki") at the engagement party. I think the story was that he didn't show up and his brother made the announcement. Then, he and his brother used the honeymoon tickets to take a vacation.

COLD. VERY COLD.

So, no. I DO NOT admire a guy like that -- in business or otherwise.

(plus, the bastard fired me!)

 

[taylorengineer]

Georgia Public Broadcasting did a translator years ago on 99.1 in the Atlanta area. It lasted about a month until Macon's 99.1 made a formal complaint to the FCC. The translator was immediately taken off the air. I don't see how the translator in Atlanta could be licensed.

I'm fairly sure Cumulus now owns the 99.1 facility. If so, I don't think they will complain.......

 

[taylorengineer]

You have to admire a guy (Lew Jr.) who had ice water running through his veins and kept cool when most others crumbled.

Remember, he is the guy who left his soon to be wife (I forget her name, but she was good friends with Vicki Locke of "Steve & Vicki") at the engagement party. I think the story was that he didn't show up and his brother made the announcement. Then, he and his brother used the honeymoon tickets to take a vacation.

COLD. VERY COLD.

So, no. I DO NOT admire a guy like that -- in business or otherwise.

(plus, the bastard fired me!)

I only said I admire his ability to put together business deals.
I only met him once. That was long ago.....practically another lifetime. I was the contract engineer for WIGO when Ron Sailor was running it as a LMA - the owner was in New Hampshire. The Dickeys cut a deal with the owner to take over the LMA, and later buy, WIGO. All this was done without Sailor's knowledge.
Now the Dickeys did absolutely nothing wrong in this transaction. I have no knowledge of the relationship between Sailor and the owner but the "switchover" was rather , shall we say, abrupt! Ron didn't take this "gracefully" and called for a transmitter site "sit-in."
So here we were.....three white engineers......and Lew Dickey Jr......in this sea of black folk. Angry black folk I might add! But Lew held his ground and told the crowd the story. He left the site later.....in one piece.
So at least in that one occasion, Lew "manned up" and faced a potentially bad situation....and handled it fairly well I might add.
As far as the Kimberly Kennedy deal......who knows what that was all about. But if I were Lew I would want an iron clad prenup......no way I would want to share that fortune with an ex-wife. I would also imagine he has a wide variety of choice for female company so I doubt he's in much of a hurry to get tied up.
I have been told to not bother putting in an application to work for the company........so I feel your pain!!

 

[Rick Rose 2.0]

Staying in Stockbridge and the weird thing for me is that since 99.1 signed on I am getting 99.3 Cornelia and that 98.9 pirate in Dekalb clearer with spotty 99.1 reception. Since 99x has never been my style of format it does not bother me that 99.1 is a lesser signal.

 

[buddysomeday]

Georgia Public Broadcasting did a translator years ago on 99.1 in the Atlanta area. It lasted about a month until Macon's 99.1 made a formal complaint to the FCC. The translator was immediately taken off the air. I don't see how the translator in Atlanta could be licensed.

I'm fairly sure Cumulus now owns the 99.1 facility. If so, I don't think they will complain.......

They do Country 99, WDEN Macon.

 

[jabba17]

I tried out both 97.9 and 99.1 on the way in (Gwinnett). 97.9 was clear as a bell and they had the stereo back on. 99.1 was getting a lot of spit from somebody (good, well-processed signal otherwise). Would Cumulus dare downgrade WDEN to enable 99.1 to go to a full 250W? Although, as Rick Rose mentioned, you do have WCON as a first-adjacent on 99.3 (which comes in great in Gwinnett).

Obviously, Cumulus has bigger and better plans for 97.9. Although, I would be surprised if they really want to go hot AC against Star, unless it's to flank Q100, which is how this would affect Q100. Then again, two hot AC's may finally do some damage to B98.5, and depending on how it is formatted, B98.5 might be the real target.

 

[trig]

It's all Macon out here in Douglasville. Sporadic 99X reception on I-20 until you get to 6 Flags.
97.9 is mostly clear through that same area. 93.7 suffers from moderate co-channel interference but is basically listenable.
I still think the Dickeys pulled off the business deal of the century with these translators. For less than 1 million dollars they have 3 reasonably decent signals in market number 7! I think Cumulus has been doing the same thing in many other markets.
Someone at Cumulus was ahead of the curve on this one and brought the company a big payoff.

I have to agree with you on this one. Like him or not, Lew Dickey has pulled off some amazing things, including getting both Susquehanna and now Citadel.

Yes, it is amazing, I give them that....

And on page 358 of the Guinness Book of World Records, he is listed as having the World's largest cookie cutter. ;D

And on page 359, he is also listed as having the World's largest pile of Cookie Crumbs.

Some may not like my sarcasm about towards companies and the how they run this way, and some may argue that they now own a very nice pile of cookie crumbs. It is really just sad that its come to so many public companies paying a premium for radio stations, then have to wipe out so many people's jobs and livelyhoods just to turn a profit like Citadel already did (but ultimately lost that gamble). The "If it works at one station in BF somewhere, it has to work in Atlanta mentality," or vice versa.

It's too bad that there weren't more corporate type companies run more like COX Broadcasting, who seem to put their people first, at least more than most of today's broadcast companies do.

Though I believe it is still years and years away, unlike newspaper, it could also be argued that Radio will be ultimately be the cause of their own downfall after it is all said and done, because of all of this.

 

[danman425]

Sorry, but Cox is the worst company in programming and imaging I've ever seen. Everything about their stations seem so fake..... Almost all feedback on cox radio stations is they have very small and constantly repeated playlist. And they don't change little (but required things) example the NEW 971 the river. That didn't just happen in Atlanta. Their idea of programming is very poor and doesn't last long. Also they try to find the cheapest ways out of everything. I find it rare to find one of their radio stations to have more than 3 DJs. Half of them don't even have any.

 

[atlantaboy]

Obviously, Cumulus has bigger and better plans for 97.9. Although, I would be surprised if they really want to go hot AC against Star

Going Hot AC on 97.9 would be competing against Q100 (essentially, cause it leans that way) - can't imagine they'd want to do that

 

[agentUrge]

No reception on 99.1 in the henry county area. 97.9 is at least clear enough, though some mornings there's a little competition from an RnB station.

So, they're going perm with 99x on 99.1 and using 97.9 for something else?

 

[radioworld]

Obviously, Cumulus has bigger and better plans for 97.9. Although, I would be surprised if they really want to go hot AC against Star

I wonder how an "All Traffic and Weather" format would do? If done right, it would cut into WSB-AM's TSL. The positioning statement could be, "Because you don't have six minutes to wait for a traffic report." Just a thought...

 

[jabba17]

Obviously, Cumulus has bigger and better plans for 97.9. Although, I would be surprised if they really want to go hot AC against Star

I wonder how an "All Traffic and Weather" format would do? If done right, it would cut into WSB-AM's TSL. The positioning statement could be, "Because you don't have six minutes to wait for a traffic report." Just a thought...

My suggestion? Of Cumulus's three translators, 93.7 sounds the worst, at least in Gwinnett. Put 680 on 97.9 and try something new on 93.7.

How about a "Headline News" all news/traffic/weather format that has traffic and weather every 5 minutes and headlines between? And cut the spot load to something more reasonable, and 86 the promos for the rest of the schedule.

 

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

No reception on 99.1 in the henry county area. 97.9 is at least clear enough, though some mornings there's a little competition from an RnB station.

So, they're going perm with 99x on 99.1 and using 97.9 for something else?

97.9 WIBB outta Macon is the R&B station you're talking about.

 

[BIGSTICK]

No reception on 99.1 in the henry county area. 97.9 is at least clear enough, though some mornings there's a little competition from an RnB station.

So, they're going perm with 99x on 99.1 and using 97.9 for something else?

97.9 WIBB outta Macon is the R&B station you're talking about.

WIBB can have a punch sometimes too if the conditions are right.


http://www.radio-locator.com/info/WIBB-FM

 

[agentUrge]

No reception on 99.1 in the henry county area. 97.9 is at least clear enough, though some mornings there's a little competition from an RnB station.

So, they're going perm with 99x on 99.1 and using 97.9 for something else?

97.9 WIBB outta Macon is the R&B station you're talking about.

WIBB can have a punch sometimes too if the conditions are right.


http://www.radio-locator.com/info/WIBB-FM

Yeah...either way, there's a zero chance of getting 99x OTA after this transition is finished.

Back to Sirius, I go.

 

[MRFLASHPORT]

How about some signal reports on 99.1.
I listened from downtown to Douglasville last night. Signal was sold until Thorton Rd. (just past Six Flags - outside I-285) and tthen there was some occasional 99.1/Macon overrides. It was still listenable, for the most part, all the way out to Hyw 5 in Douglasville.
97.9 seems to be the real jewel of all the translators in Atlanta. It has a stellar signal everywhere - you would mistake it for a class A. 93.7 is not so good - same for 99.1. 102.9 is the worst - but it seems others on the board have had better listening than me.
Your opinions?

Much weaker in Cobb than 97/9. When I left work @Kennestone yesterday morning, it was getting torn up by Macon (ducting). My Kenwood car stereo which has a great FM front end, fights to keep it in full stereo while riding around most of the county whereas 97.9 has full quieting saturation. At home in Smyrna near Wade Ford, my Bose Wave Radio has trouble with 99.1 unlike 97.9.

I think this will hurt 99X in the long run.

 

[StoneGT]

Axel posted on Facebook about a hour ago that the new signal at 99.1 will be full power in 30 days. Don't know what that means. (?)

 

[jabba17]

Axel posted on Facebook about a hour ago that the new signal at 99.1 will be full power in 30 days. Don't know what that means. (?)

Maybe Cumulus plans on reducing the power of WDEN, or going directional. From what I understand 99.1 can't up the power above 99 watts because of harmonics (?) with Album 88.