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99 X Is Back

RadioDoogie said:
By the Northeast, you mean East of the Mississippi River and North of the Ohio River correct?
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I have never heard the NBC and CBS rumor, but with the exception of the most of West Virginia, most of the class B’s are in areas that had cities that were in the top 20 or 30 population in the 1950 or 60’s and were within a 150 or so miles of another big city. An example New York, Boston, Philly, Washington Baltimore. Parts of California are “B” county too. With only 80 commercial channels, limiting antenna height and power was the only way to give these areas “local” stations. Example: most of the FM’s on the Empire State Building could not increase their power even if class C, C0, or C1 was allowed without wrecking the signal other stations serving cities with significant populations.

I wonder why the FCC does not allow “tight” directional to solve on channel issues. 100.5 could go on the Fish (106.7) tower with 50 + KW with a super severe null towards WSSL. The FCC allows translators with funky patterns*

*W251CZ-FM Radio Station Coverage Map
 
RoddyFreeman said:
Most of the country is the land of the class C's. The exceptions are southern California and the Northeast. Supposedly, NBC and CBS wanted to protect their 50,000-watt AM's in New York and Los Angeles, and therefore wanted FM to fail. So they were able to influence the FCC to limit FM power in those areas. (At least, that's the story I read.)

In the 60's, though restricted to class B's, Los Angeles FM's were able to get around the power restriction by moving to Mount Wilson, which gave them incredible height and huge signals. KRTH-FM, for example, is 51KW and around 3,000 feet HAAT.

If Scott Fybush reads this, he can embellish/correct what I wrote.
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Some California FM's, however, are licensed prior to class regulations. Therefore, you have several signals equivalent to coverage of class C stations in Zone II. Class B spacing rules still apply, but given that the Mount Wilson stations are especially overpowered, there has yet to be a translator at 101.1 signing on in Ventura County. And the San Diego low-power FM at 101.1 (KVIB-LP) faces a great deal of interference from KRTH, from what I've heard, especially away from Downtown. Outside of grandfathered FMs, broadcasters kind of get around the rules by placing their transmitters in proximity to a higher mountain range, thereby complying with HAAT rules and providing signal coverage "beyond" a regular class B in lower lands. See FM stations like KATM and KSEQ.

Interestingly. all of California is within Zone II for television broadcasting.
 
mightynine said:
As someone who has zero connection to the personalities of 99X in its heyday, but loved the music mix so far, I’m hoping these talk segments will be cut down in the future. This “Remember When” stuff is a buzz kill for me but I imagine it’s catnip for the Atlanta audience.

Makes you wonder how much of that audience from back then still lives in the Atlanta area or are they are listening somewhere else.
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If you aren't from here, you can't appreciate the value of the brand. 99X wasn't just an automated box of tunes like today's iTunes instant gratification generation lives on, it was an experience. They had concerts, VIP celebrities randomly on the air, Organic X, the Freeloaders club. This was before the advent of an app for everything. The sound was from people not machines.

I applaud Cumulus for investing in putting SOUL and LOCAL back in radio. This is going out on a limb and I hope they are successful not just because it is something I love, but because I want them to make money and bring back radio from the dead of automated cookie cutter boring formats. If I want to listen to nothing but the same playlist with no personality, I have Apple Music for that. I like hearing the personalities, especially Barnes and Axel among others. Leslie Fram was on as well from her farm.

Let's just hope there are more than "7 listeners" as was mentioned and they can make this a good run.
 
WCDukenfield said:
Any experienced FM engineer will tell you that no matter how much planning goes into the design of the antenna, you never know how the signal will propagate until you light it up. The science that goes into the design is very precise, but results aren't. The antenna itself is only part of the equation. If it is mounted to the side of the tower the pattern can vary wildly depending on exactly where it is mounted. Move it up or down the tower or tilt it or rotate it a little and you can get very different results.
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The WAAF example in eastern MA immediately comes to mind for me.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
Most of the country is the land of the class C's. The exceptions are southern California and the Northeast. Supposedly, NBC and CBS wanted to protect their 50,000-watt AM's in New York and Los Angeles, and therefore wanted FM to fail. So they were able to influence the FCC to limit FM power in those areas. (At least, that's the story I read.)
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Probably mostly RCA-owned NBC. Sarnoff hated FM because he hated the idea of paying anyone royalties--RCA had a bad case of Not Invented Here--and he didn't want to pay Armstrong the royalties for FM. Sarnoff got the FCC to move the FM band from 42-50MHz to the current band, basically to obsolete all the current FM receivers. Ended very tragically for Armstrong.

Later this attitude bit them in the butt when they stuck with tubes for as long as they did because they didn't want to pay royalties to AT&T. RCA waited until the AT&T patents expired before really getting into solid state. Meanwhile, the Japanese government bought a transistor license from AT&T that any Japanese company could use.
 
Considering The River is doing so well, I don't understand why 100.5 wasn't turned into a mix between The River and B98. Ya'll are just letting Cox run away with these ratings.
 
inATLradio said:
I would have loved to have seen Fox FM on 100.5. That station sounds good. Except the jingles are way too fast/short.
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Fox FM now has a second Atlanta signal (in addition to 102.1) on 100.1. The antenna is on the 102.5 tower in Ben Hill, but you have to be on the west side of town to hear it.
 
The signal has been awful today. No HD or stereo. They must be on the aux tower now. I actually got WSSL’s HD signal this morning on my VW car radio.
 
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It's great that many of you are interested in the history of radio broadcasting. I think most of the historical accounts are accurate, but they may not tell the whole story. About the sound and signal, people make decisions and take action considering their resources and priorities, in the context of the era.

Much appreciation to David Gleason for making so many historical documents available for viewing at:

RADIO and BROADCAST HISTORY library with thousands of books and magazines

World Radio History documents radio and TV broadcasting in an electronic library of books, magazines and publications.
worldradiohistory.com
 
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American Tower manages the roof. The agency I work for has a lease with AT, we are on the bottom of the mast (public safety radio system) where WNNX has their antennas.

No cause. I know the Cumulus team has been back at the site today. Don't know what they were doing. I also cannot hear WNNX from my basement at 130 Peachtree anymore over the air, so I ASSume it was switched to an aux site not on the Westin. Lose it when I pull my G-ride into the parking garage now whereas even on their aux antenna it was lit up (which it should be as we are literally down the street from WPP).

The other day I almost lost control of my car when they played some classic Morning X episode where they clowned Clark Howard. I love hearing this stuff.
 
chad43358 said:
I'm a recent transplant to the area and have been enjoying the format. It was cool to hear the discussion this morning. To your point, they seem to be bringing back community involvement which is what has been missing from radio for years. Good music is important, but feeling like the DJ is a friend is more important. I can listen to good music anywhere.
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^^ This x 100000000.

They mentioned they’re going to start playing new music at some point. I think this would be a good idea, along with playing more stuff from 2000 to today over time, to keep things fresh and interesting.

In their first few days back they were taking calls on air: WOW! This is a thing called RADIO that I remember from the past! (Although a few stations, such as KROQ, still do this). Listener interaction, organic conversations and as mentioned in the quote above, community involvement.

Unfortunately I didn't hear calls on air after the first few days.

I really hope they keep taking calls. This makes a station sound ALIVE and not like a jukebox. YOU CAN GET A JUKEBOX ANYWHERE, AND WITH A BETTER MUSIC MIX (tailored specifically for you). Would be great to see radio get back to its roots including live listener interaction. Live listener interaction is a competitive advantage that Spotify, Apple Music etc. can NEVER match.

Unlike 99.99% of its terrestrial and internet competition, in its first few days with on air talent, 99X didn't sound "lazy." It sounded engaged and alive.

I hope they keep this spirit moving forward and serve as a model to not only reboot this station, but the radio medium as a whole.

On 1/5, the DJ gave out the station’s phone number, mentioned that they're going to be giving away concert tickets, then talked over the ramp for Everclear "Santa Monica." Add in the late great legendary voice guy and the renewed 99X is off to a great start.
 
When looking at the nationwide implications of this 99X revival, it's not outside the realm of possibility to imagine a forthcoming reboot modeling 99X in many markets, playing off of alternative rock heritage. The target audience for this is in their 30s, 40s and 50s. The issue would be dedicating resources to it.

But ownership seems completely all-in in Atlanta. If it works there, I'd predict a classic alternative-based format to return to places like Minneapolis on 105.1/3/7 and on at least the underperforming rock-based stations within that ownership group.

We all know how radio chases the dollar (rightly so) and maybe the format could catch on with other ownership groups as well. There is a curious attempt at the moment on 103.3 in Indianapolis with a lot of pop stuff.

I hope for art's sake, the experiment at 100.5 in Atlanta works.

With regard to 91X/San Diego, the results in 6+ ratings have certainly been mixed but this has been somewhat mitigated by the fact that there is already a commercial alternative station on 94.9 that siphons some of those listeners.

Like Party 93.1/Miami back in the day as a barometer for the commercial success of a Dance Hits station (however overplayed as the currents were there), Atlanta should be the barometer of success for classic alternative in 2023 as the only station even close to it formatically in that market is classic rock.

If - local DJs and all - live calls on air and all - great imaging and all - heritage and all - 100.5 Atlanta stays in the 1s 6+, in my view it will mean definitively that Classic-based Alternative is a non starter nationwide.
 
The only others I can think of are 103.1 The Wave/Salt Lake City and 97.7 TOSOTR/Atlanta

On the HD2 side of things there are stations like 106.7 KROQ HD2 Roq of the 80s and 105.3 KITS HD2 Classic Live 105 among others
 
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