A fifth grade kid would have had enough sense to make 650 News/Talk!

[A#1]

And yeah, years ago it probably should have been done. Is it too late? Probably not. I don't have a thing against Country Classics, but it might do a whole lot better on 97.1 or 102.5. Man, they really missed their chance on 650 years back.

 

[radioboy]

Maybe they figure WLAC's got you covered.

Talk may be several tiers down at this point and news is an expensive format to operate.

 

[A#1]

Alan, you make good sense regarding the "second-tier" programming comment, but even with it's 50kw blowtorch, WLAC ain't exactly burnin' up the dial during the daytime hours. I have a great car radio and WLAC's groundwave signal starts getting a little fuzzy south of Clarksville, while 650 just keeps going, going and going. At night, here in southwest Indiana, WLAC fades in and out while WSM is steady as she goes, for the most part. I'm just saying that it's a shame someone didn't recognize what 650 could do as a NewsTalker years ago. Maybe it is too late for WSM now. You never know until you try, right. If Gaylord saw it fit, move WTN's programming to 650 and insert Classic Country into the 99.7 slot to protect the heritage programming Gaylord so covets. Otherwise, leave things as they are and someday someone over at 97.1, 102.5 or to a lesser degree, 106.7 will wise up and go country oldies. Where will that leave AM 650 then? Hey, I'm no programmer by any stretch of the imagination, but I did work in radio for many years. Basically, I'm just wondering. Have a good day!

 

[radiorob2.0]

You might have a chance if you did live, local and lots of sports around the clock, but that cost money; a factor we forget in our armchair quarterback world.

 

[deltas69]

WLAC's groundwave signal starts getting a little fuzzy i drive 300 iles per day..and wlac is "gone" 15 miles south of lebanon tn, between watertown and alexandria..static and can't hear well enough to acertain speach..dial position has something to do with it i'm sure..but still 50k ought to go farther than that..

 

[oldies5161]

Watt Hairston........Why doesnt WLAC get out any better than it does in the day?

 

[firepoint525]

WSM tried to go all-sports back in 2002, but they completely fumbled that attempt at a transition, and people all over the country howled in protest!    I remember them basically hijacking channel 4's Speaker's Corner message board (which was still going at that time) and just flooded it with messages, until Gaylord backed down!  (Apparently, those folks thought that WSM and WSMV were still jointly owned!   : ) At any rate, the Gaylord cave-in, despite the PR nightmare a format change would have been for them, was a major mistake!  After all, it only postponed the eventual day of reckoning for them, which WILL come!  :  I don't see why they couldn't carry the Opry in addition to all the sports programming that they would have been carrying, because they certainly haven't been wall-to-wall country all these years!  They have carried numerous sports and talk broadcasts over the years.

And when the sports talkers weren't able to get WSM, they came after our FM stations! 

 

[romer979fm]

(Apparently, those folks thought that WSM and WSMV were still jointly owned! :

these same people think channel 5 is still WLAC-TV...and call WLAC radio countless times a day:
WLAC-TV became WTVF in 1975!

 

[w9wi]

Watt Hairston........Why doesnt WLAC get out any better than it does in the day?

Watt can answer better than I, but basically, the high frequency is a problem. Groundwave coverage drops DRAMATICALLY with increasing frequency. Add to that the fact that ground conductivity isn't the best around here.

WLAC's night signal doesn't do very well locally either, in many directions. They're useless up here in Pleasant View; many evenings around sunset WLAC is the station interfering with the local-quality reception of Joliet, Illinois... and I've heard Spokane on 1510 with WLAC on the air... I'd bet they have similar problems in Sumner Co..

_________________________________________________

WSM has probably missed the boat, with regard to flipping to any form of talk. I suppose the one option still open is for Clear Channel to swap WLAC and some cash to Gaylord for WSM; move most of the WLAC programming to the better 650 signal; let Gaylord do what they will with the 1510 facility. (probably broker it out. Or give it to WPLN who could really use a useful night signal.....)

The Opry was, for most of its life, just a program on a station that didn't air much country music at any other time. The purists will scream, but a WSM that's talk radio outside Opry time is not a break with tradition.

_________________________________________________

I'd say about 20-30% of the folks who call channel 4 still call us "WSM".

 

[olebud]

If Gaylord saw it fit, move WTN's programming to 650 and insert Classic Country into the 99.7 slot to protect the heritage programming Gaylord so covets

I know I'm repeating myself, but in my opinion, gaylord doesn't covet heritage programming or anything else to do with radio. It's a company all about hotels. radio is just something it got when all the new guys were brought in to run the PUBLIC company. WSM makes so little (as we were often told) in comparison to the hotel and even TNN when they still owned them. As far as WTN/99.7 -- gaylord doesn't own them any more. It only owns wsm.

WSM tried to go all-sports back in 2002, but they completely fumbled that attempt at a transition, and people all over the country howled in protest!

Colon Reed told me last year that then GM John Padgett advised him to change the AM over to sports and there wouldn't be any problem. Reed said he had no idea of the back lash it would cause. Another one of the folks who was in a position was not asked about what was about to happen...but was told what they were going to do and to take care of it, said, "you're going to have a P-R nightmare"....and you know the rest of that story.

I suppose the one option still open is for Clear Channel to swap WLAC and some cash to Gaylord for WSM; move most of the WLAC programming to the better 650 signal; let Gaylord do what they will with the 1510 facility. (probably broker it out. Or give it to WPLN who could really use a useful night signal.....)

You gotta be kidding.....right???
and along with this topic, last saturday morning WSM had a one or two hour talk show about home repair or something on in the morning.

 

[Evangelist]

(Apparently, those folks thought that WSM and WSMV were still jointly owned! :

these same people think channel 5 is still WLAC-TV...and call WLAC radio countless times a day:
WLAC-TV became WTVF in 1975!

I'll never forget telling that to a caller from Smyrna who called the 'LAC newsroom about something "you was filming this mornin'."

When I explained that we were separate entities and had been for 30 years, he said, "Well, didn't nobody tell me."

These people drive...vote....and in some cases, have also reproduced.

Scary.

 

[audioguy]

Well thank goodness we don't have a 5th grade kid running WSM! I would really be sad to see country music replaced by yet another "all news" station. WSM is a true living legend, and one of only two major radio signals broadcasting a music format that can be heard with any clarity in the eastern half of the U.S. at night... the other being AM 740.

I just hate these canned news/talk formats, like WBBM... the same crap over and over and over all day long... and all night long, with the same lousy commercials, repeating the same 800 number 4 times in a row. If that's what you think is the epitome of radio programming, you're entitled to your opinion, but I think it's crap. They never do any in-depth reporting; it's all superficial "fluff". You want news? Better tune into NPR or the BBC... thanks to our lousy media, the American public has no idea what is actually happening in the world.

As for why 1510 doesn't have a good local signal, that has to do with its dial position. The ground conductivity is much lower at 1510 than it is at 650. However, WLAC has a 1 mV/m signal up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at night... I know this because a friend measured it. The upper end of the AM dial is very suitable for skywave propagation, which is why it is a shame that the FCC has allowed it to become junked up so that all we get is a sea of noise after dark. It's too bad that people don't study radio propagation in school any more!

 

[Evangelist]

I'll respectfully have to disagree with you on the all-news format, audioguy. I don't want to see WSM turned to a talk station--I like WSM as a country station. But the all-news formats are very informative. Listen to KYW's "Reporters Roundup" program--there is some good reporting and insight on those two daily broadcasts as well as a lot of good information on KYW's regular newscasts. NPR has some nice features but also has reporters and anchors that talk down to the audience. The local affiliate, WPLN, does an excellent job and as I see it is as good as and sometimes better than its national counterparts.

 

[K4WRF]

As an example, 250 watts at 540 kHz gets out as good as or better than 50,000 watts at 1600 kHz.
A little over a kilowatt on 650 replicates the coverage of 1510 at 50,000 watts considering the 190 degree towers of each.

 

[roadrunner]

A fifth grade kid probably would have enough sense to do that...but a two-year-old would have
enough sense to change 97-1's format (I know, that's another topic).
However, low ratings or not, I wish there were more AM music (preferably pop/rock, not country) stations
with 50 thousand watts at night.

 

[catfishal]

As I said on here before, Gaylord operates WSM as a promotion tool for the Opry and other country music events at the Opry house and the Ryman. They own no other radio or TV stations. For this reason, I can't see them changing WSM to any other format, outside of adding more brokered programing. Again if WSM changes format it is because it got sold. With the declining ratings and aging demographics all AMs are facing, I can't see any major radio group buying WSM outside of the Christian broadcasters if it would be put up for sale. What will probably happen someday is that WSM's current format will go Internet only with a app for iPhones and iPods.

 

[audioguy]

A fifth grade kid probably would have enough sense to do that...but a two-year-old would have
enough sense to change 97-1's format (I know, that's another topic).
However, low ratings or not, I wish there were more AM music (preferably pop/rock, not country) stations
with 50 thousand watts at night.

I'll agree with that 100%! I would love to have more music choices on AM; a rock station would be great! Or even jazz! I am bored to death with talk, talk, talk on AM!

I'll note that there is an all-night jazz station on AM (perhaps the only one in the entire country?)-- it's WBAA, AM 920 from Purdue University. Unfortunately they don't have a very strong signal-- so I have to wait until the wind is blowing just right to hear them...

 

[K4WRF]

If the *fairness doctrine* or *localism* initiatives are imposed by the current administration, you might see the return of music or other programming to some AM outlets in whole or in part. Now how long that would last is anyone’s guess but some may opt for something like this to avoid all of the regulatory hassles and burdens. Those burdens and related cost were somewhat more digestible back when we lived under those conditions as the business was a LOT healthier then. The tactic may be to just park the signals until political and economic conditions cycle.

We are witnessing the thinning of the heard as it relates to AM stations. That process will become more visible as higher profile markets and signals succumb to the economic conditions that have ravaged the industry.

As long as WSM is owned by the hotel company, it will remain what it is. In the current market conditions, nobody is going to pony up the amount of cash that Colin Reed would consider worthwhile.

 

[radiorob2.0]

If the *fairness doctrine* or *localism* initiatives are imposed by the current administration, you might see the return of music or other programming to some AM outlets in whole or in part. Now how long that would last is anyone’s guess but some may opt for something like this to avoid all of the regulatory hassles and burdens. Those burdens and related cost were somewhat more digestible back when we lived under those conditions as the business was a LOT healthier then. The tactic may be to just park the signals until political and economic conditions cycle.

We are witnessing the thinning of the heard as it relates to AM stations. That process will become more visible as higher profile markets and signals succumb to the economic conditions that have ravaged the industry.

[EDIT-post removed for inflammatory content]

Like Rush, Hannity, Glen Beck and the other drunks at the end of the bar allow opposing viewpoints......but I'll save the rest of my comments for when this goes to TIO.....

Back to the topic, WSM sounds great through a wide band tuner. But I am a small percentage able to enjoy how WSM is suppose to sound. The rest of the world have narrowband receivers and WSM sounds like a phone receiver and that won't change. Plus, the part 15 monsters have totaled the band.

As far as thinning the heard, that may not be a bad thing. Many AM's are ghost ship on the band occupying bandwidth. Many are still on the air out of owner arrogance, if they can't have it no one will, so they keep the signal on the air. There are a few Nashville metro AM signals that could sign off tomorrow, the question is would anyone notice?

 

[audioguy]

We are witnessing the thinning of the heard as it relates to AM stations. That process will become more visible as higher profile markets and signals succumb to the economic conditions that have ravaged the industry.

The thinning of the "heard"? What a great Freudian slip!

Watt, you are to be commended for the fantastic job you do at the helm of "The Legend"! I love your station, and it sounds good here in Chicagoland! Now if we could just get 670 to shut off their darned IBOC interference generator, I wouldn't have to null them out in order to listen to WSM. In my location, noise from IBOC sidebands is a far more severe problem than "Part 15" noise from CFL's and other electrical devices.

People sell AM short insofar as audio quality is concerned... if you do it right, it can sound quite good even on pretty ordinary radios. I believe most people listen in the car, on a Walkman, or on small clock or kitchen radios... they're not expecting high fidelity from a radio they paid less than $15 for, with a 3" loudspeaker. Of course, if you do have a decent receiver, it's astonishing how good AM can sound. I do most of my listening at home on a GE Superadio III and I'm very satisfied with the experience.