A change to 104.1 Mobile

[macab4490]

Well 107.3 is now referring to themselves as "The Gulf Coast Hit Music Station" as well as WABD/WABB.
Guys, this is ridiculous. WABB has never "left" Mobile, so we can stop mourning now. They are returning to 104.1 on Monday morning, so for a lot of y'all, this will be"wonderful" day. According to RadioInsight.com, Q-Tip is coming back. Then probably Blondie, Nick Fox, and the rest of the crew. Same old WABB is coming back just on a different dial. What a waste then to be saying goodbye's and all when you wait less than week for it to return. The tagline "Gulf Coast, We'll Miss You.." WOOFF! One word: rediculous. Grow up, people.. Are y'all that desperate? As mentioned, before -I'm fully against it with the approach Cumulus is taking 104.1, but whatever. Radio on the Gulf Coast just got a tad bit more confusing, especially when it comes this Monday morning.

I don't understand why you'd be against what Cumulus is doing. As far as I can see, they're doing something good for Mobile and the Gulf Coast. People were unhappy about losing WABB, and, now, they're getting it back. The whole point of radio is to do what your audience and/or potential audience wants. The fact that people were mourning WABB should tell you they didn't want to lose it. And, yes, now, they can stop mourning it because someone gave them what they wanted!

When it came down to WABB saying goodbye and whether or not they should've done it, I can't see anything wrong with it. Most of the staff probably didn't know they were going to get hired by Cumulus. They probably hoped they would and lobbied for it, but I doubt they knew exactly what would happen. Wouldn't you want to say goodbye to your listeners if you got the chance? Besides, even if they did, they did a good job getting everyone's attention, and, now, people know where to look. I'd call that good self-promotion, and it didn't cost anyone a dime. How could that be considered a bad thing?

On top of that, the staff at WABB was considered to be a good group of people who did their jobs well. Shouldn't they be rewarded for doing a good job? It sounds like they were; they got hired almost immediately after losing their jobs with Dittman. I don't see a single negative. Of course, if you do, you have every right not to listen, and it sounds like you won't.

Yes, Kent - I understand what you are saying but it just ails a funny vibe that does not seem to feel right to me. But, I recognize that I am one of the view people, however that might be against this method that Cumulus is attempting. I really do wish them the best luck. As well as 107.3 Hit Music Now. It's going to be a heated-competition.

 

[macab4490]

And I hope they leave the station name "WABD" for respect towards Bernie Dittman. WABB is history. Leave it. Retire those calls even though they're is probably no such thing in doing so.

 

[Tibbs4]

This is a great and entertaining post. First, Crums just can't magically snap their devilish fingers and force the old team at WABB over. They 'probably' couldn't really contact the old team in writing until after March 1. I would think the Dittman family gave some form of severance to everyone and honestly this was such a quick sell that there was a huge amount of chaos the quick turnaround is pretty amazing. Yes it will take a while to settle out the kinks. I am sure there will be pay issues, demands that won't or can't be met, issues between various factions and employees, budgets and even music and formatting issues. I can't think of any actual long term success stories of all being the same or better when Crudes attempts to pull their 'we copy everyone because we are clueless' game. Mark my words. It won't matter in the ratings. Bump will get them a 4 or 5 and then it will be back to a mid 3. Then everyone will get blamed and be run off. I wouldn't want to try to play a copycat CHR format in 2012 in the market. CC will not relent with the moniker. They will end up with it longterm and probably the win. A shell of a radio station was just born, on life support and feeds off of dead air and average programming. The sad thing is that I wish it wasn't written in the stars. I wish they could pull this team together and actually reproduce a product that can be even better....but there is little support to see what this could generate in momentum and money for this cluster. The many meetings, conference calls and suit visitas will ensure no progress. Same as it ever was....

 

[tomservo]

Well, they finally changed the RDS display on 104.1. It had kept showing Jack-FM during the switchover.

Here's what it says now:

PS: WABD The Gulf Coast's Hit Music Station!
CT: Present
R-Text:Welcome 97.5 listeners! The tradition continues on WABD!
PTY-Top 40
PI-WYOK-FM

WABB is still showing Top 40 and the phone number for the request line/Facebook page on their stream. Usually EMF is pretty quick about fixing that sort of thing.

 

[macab4490]

Well, they finally changed the RDS display on 104.1. It had kept showing Jack-FM during the switchover.

Here's what it says now:

PS: WABD The Gulf Coast's Hit Music Station!
CT: Present
R-Text:Welcome 97.5 listeners! The tradition continues on WABD!
PTY-Top 40
PI-WYOK-FM

WABB is still showing Top 40 and the phone number for the request line/Facebook page on their stream. Usually EMF is pretty quick about fixing that sort of thing.

What does PS. CT, R, PTY, and PI stand for? And I saw that WABB.com website is down.

 

[Nate Wesley]

Well 107.3 is now referring to themselves as "The Gulf Coast Hit Music Station" as well as WABD/WABB.
Guys, this is ridiculous. WABB has never "left" Mobile, so we can stop mourning now. They are returning to 104.1 on Monday morning, so for a lot of y'all, this will be"wonderful" day. According to RadioInsight.com, Q-Tip is coming back. Then probably Blondie, Nick Fox, and the rest of the crew. Same old WABB is coming back just on a different dial. What a waste then to be saying goodbye's and all when you wait less than week for it to return. The tagline "Gulf Coast, We'll Miss You.." WOOFF! One word: rediculous. Grow up, people.. Are y'all that desperate? As mentioned, before -I'm fully against it with the approach Cumulus is taking 104.1, but whatever. Radio on the Gulf Coast just got a tad bit more confusing, especially when it comes this Monday morning.

ABM, you've copped to being several hundred miles away, listening on a computer in another state when a lot of us can actually pull the station on a nearby radio.

Respectfully, you might want to check the stitching in your own britches before telling others what is, what isn't, or telling anyone else to 'grow up'.

 

[macab4490]

Well 107.3 is now referring to themselves as "The Gulf Coast Hit Music Station" as well as WABD/WABB.
Guys, this is ridiculous. WABB has never "left" Mobile, so we can stop mourning now. They are returning to 104.1 on Monday morning, so for a lot of y'all, this will be"wonderful" day. According to RadioInsight.com, Q-Tip is coming back. Then probably Blondie, Nick Fox, and the rest of the crew. Same old WABB is coming back just on a different dial. What a waste then to be saying goodbye's and all when you wait less than week for it to return. The tagline "Gulf Coast, We'll Miss You.." WOOFF! One word: rediculous. Grow up, people.. Are y'all that desperate? As mentioned, before -I'm fully against it with the approach Cumulus is taking 104.1, but whatever. Radio on the Gulf Coast just got a tad bit more confusing, especially when it comes this Monday morning.

ABM, you've copped to being several hundred miles away, listening on a computer in another state when a lot of us can actually pull the station on a nearby radio.

Respectfully, you might want to check the stitching in your own britches before telling others what is, what isn't, or telling anyone else to 'grow up'.

I'll be returning to the area next Sunday and I'll be listening it to on a radio first thing Monday morning. And then I'll get back to you and tell you what I think. They could be something special but heck, it will take time.

 

[tomservo]

Well, they finally changed the RDS display on 104.1. It had kept showing Jack-FM during the switchover.

Here's what it says now:

PS: WABD The Gulf Coast's Hit Music Station!
CT: Present
R-Text:Welcome 97.5 listeners! The tradition continues on WABD!
PTY-Top 40
PI-WYOK-FM

WABB is still showing Top 40 and the phone number for the request line/Facebook page on their stream. Usually EMF is pretty quick about fixing that sort of thing.

What does PS. CT, R, PTY, and PI stand for? And I saw that WABB.com website is down.

PS is the program name, which is the 8-digit display most RDS radios carry. It's supposed to be static but few stations adhere to that guideline (WABB and WYCT being the exception here.)

CT is clock time, allowing RDS capable radios to automatically set the clock.

R-Text is the radio text field, which is a longer scrolling text field. Not every radio supports this, but most GM OEM radios do (the ones with the "music note" button) as does the Insignia HD portable.

PTY is the program type, or format. The RDS formats are limited so not every format type is represented. For example, WBLX is listed as "Rhythm and Blues".

PI is program identification and in the US is just the call letters. Clear Channel stations all have the wrong call letters for some reason I still don't understand. For example, WTKX shows KDAD-FM.

There are numerous other features of RDS I don't report on because I don't have a radio anymore that supports those features, like traffic data.

 

[rubberchicken]

I called it a week ago
"Q-Tip and Nick Fox come over for mornings? Blondie for workdays? Scott Adams afternoons? That would be the smart thing to do if they really want to capture the audience. The remaining WABB personalities made some strong relationships with their audience over the last 2 weeks."

All Access has the news today that Blondie has joined and Scott Adams will do PM Drive. The news of Q-Tip and Nick Fox came on Saturday. Since Saturday, the facebook page has gone from 400 fans to over 3,000 today. I'm happy to see Cumulus is doing things right.

 

[macab4490]

I called it a week ago
"Q-Tip and Nick Fox come over for mornings? Blondie for workdays? Scott Adams afternoons? That would be the smart thing to do if they really want to capture the audience. The remaining WABB personalities made some strong relationships with their audience over the last 2 weeks."

All Access has the news today that Blondie has joined and Scott Adams will do PM Drive. The news of Q-Tip and Nick Fox came on Saturday. Since Saturday, the facebook page has gone from 400 fans to over 3,000 today. I'm happy to see Cumulus is doing things right.

rubberchicken, nice name - anyways - I hear from sources through Q-Tip is handling mornings with Blondie and Nick Fox will "be hanging around." Blondie will also take over middays (10a-2/3pm) and Scott Adams will take over the PM Drive along with Nick Fox handling nights but seemed that was not permanent or certain. So, we have a homecoming in the works. Tune in Monday at 6am!

 

[fmradio1]

I'm happy to see Cumulus is doing things right.

Let's see if they're committed to it for the long haul. Right now they are paying a few small market salaries to move all the 97.5 listeners over. It's a cost effective way to quickly build cume and lay claim to the 40+ years of heritage the Dittmans left behind. Once they have the station established and chase 107.3 out of the format, will they start to "Cumul-ize" it? As it is, they'll be plenty of company syndicated crap on at night and the weekends. I can see them in a year or two wanting to automate middays or pipe in the Bert Show from Atlanta once they have a firm grip on the format. We'll see...