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

[oldies5161]

Like Rush, Hannity, Glen Beck and the other drunks at the end of the bar allow opposing viewpoints................So much for tolerance [EDIT]preach to others. Opposing viewpoints have been tried over and over in the form of liberal talk radio and it fails every time. So now liberals want the government to force stations to run failed liberal talk. If radio stations are FORCED to give air time to liberals, are [EDIT] going to demand that ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and PBS give both sides to their news stories?? Of course not. In the eyes of [EDIT], it should only work ONE WAY!


[EDIT-inflammatory]

 

[Journeyman]

[EDIT-post removed due to inflammatory content]

Really? Give me some examples. With links. If you can.

 

[Tom Wells]

Audioguy: I was the Amen chorus to everytunkg you've written in this thread.
Yet WLAC certainly did boom into Chicagoland in the 60s, I listened on my 1965 6-transistor pocket radio and it boomed.
So what's happened to the frequency? What's been added to 1510 in the last 40 years?

WSM is one of the few stations that seems to be aware of their greater role to a far wider audiece than stations that do not
acknowledge listeners out of market.

I've listened now for 40 years, and will feel wounded if WSM should depart from classic opry material, the 78s, the bluegrass, the gospel,
and the forgotten also-ran hits. It is to me a far more honorable station, in realizing where, who and what they are.
Gaylord has every right to be happy with using it as a 50kw advertisement on 650 for Nashville and the Orpy.
I'm suggesting their hotels and the opry do well attracting country music fans within 6-700 hundred miles, who would also be
Branson MO target audience. Don't judge their success by looking at what the station appears to make or lose.
I was greatly alarmed back when change was suggested. I still was working for a company that had an office in Nashville for 10 years,
and I've probably spent 5-6 months in Nashville, off and on.
From my perspective they have achieved integrity, and they are being true unto themselves.
I appreciate by valuing them greatly over many other stations for respecting and not just changing with any whim.
In 1972, my dad, who worked in a steel mill in Gary, IN, had a chance to get a transfer to Provo Utah.
We went out and looked around. I thought it was too much of a change, they proabably thought it was too much of a change.
I'm sure glad we didn't change and we stayed near Chicago.
My whole world have been way different, or actually "differnt".

God bless WSM and don't ever change unless it's on accounta diggin deeper.


Oldies5161 What the heck? I can't figure out what you think politically with the edits and my sworn objectivity with truth, which
keeps me from being led astray. I think you're angry but I'm just not sure who at.
Perhaps there is another phrasing you could use to keep the inflammatories out and I can mebbe figure out
if I wants ta agree or argy.

 

[nmoore6676]

WSM during most of it's years was not a "Country Music" station. It was an NBC radio affiliate and was programmed much as any other medium to big city major independently owned superpowered network affiliate would have been (WLW, KFI, etc.) The Opry was a Saturday night program that because of the tremendous skywave coverage was enjoyed over a large part of the country. It was also for a time carried over the NBC network and a transcribed syndicated version was distributed all over as well.

The Opry can survive with or without WSM and whatever they decide to surround it with on whatever radio station might broadcast it. I think that Gaylord has not necessarily been the best keeper of the flame but what would it be if Clear Channel held the keys to the store? Just look to WWVA and “ The Jamboree” to get a clue.

I grew listening to The Opry with my parents on Saturday nights. As I grew older and my musical tastes became more “sophisticated” I fell away. Now that I am old and the popular music stations are playing trash I am back to the country. I listen to the Opry on line and Classic Country Radio out of Xenia, Ohio also on line. I listen to and support my local country station, KKGO, so I think that there will be an even bigger market for Country Music as more adults fall in with me. The problem with Oldies and “Classic Rock” is that as we go along they shift the music closer to the present so it too will drop out the old (and the newer) fogies like me.

I think that the biggest problem is music of any kind on AM radio. As IBOC splashes all over and bandwidth restriction along with all of the modern technical gadgets generating interference it gets less and less attractive, even to the old listeners like me. Then there is the fidelity issue, I recall that when FM first became more than a medium for the techno geeks (yes that was me) that I did not hear that much difference in sound from AM. It was easy to make a comparison because in my youth a lot of FM’s duplicated their sister AM programming so you could just cut back and forth. The main advantage was the lack of static and when you lived in the Miami Valley in Ohio where the summer time brought a lot of thunderstorms that was a major plus.

Satellite seems to be having issues once internet providers go to some form of capping or pay for more bits scheme online listening may also get nipped in the bud. I am not sure how I feel about “HD” radio as I don’t own one but my gut feeling is that it will become the AM Stereo and/or Quadrophonic of the 21st century. So maybe some people will come up with a way to get listeners back to some form of over the air traditional radio thus making it a viable business. Until then we just have to be patient and support what we have a passion for wherever, whenever, and however we can.

 

[jy]

This is a very interesting thread and beneath the emotion & opinion what I'm taking away is a true passion of high expectation many have in reguard to what WSM AM and perhaps WLAC AM still have potential to do. And that speaks volumes about the true greats who laid the groundwork for them to be in such a special rare league. Let's don't loose sight of that.

I had the pleasure of working at WSM AM/FM/TV when the am had total access to the tv news room's resources and know very well what news meant to their image. And while Gaylord is not reguarded as a broadcaster, not really, they benefit from a purchased legacy. Gaylord isn't bad, they're just typical of corporations..if they have no use for something they dump it and don't loose sleep...( ie: TNN, the park, naming rights to the auditorium) ...but at least other Tenn cities have benefited from their primary role of running a hotel and a few side tourist traps/attractions.

Every major market has a home run excellent news talk format..from WSB to KDKA and KYW, to WBBM and WGN the major players do it correctly. It's not a dead format. It's usually #1 in town.
The danger here is to loop a station with Rick & Bubba doing part of morning drive followed with opinion talk (Gill and Valentine) and some local news mixed in the fox news and say "this is news talk radio." There's room for improvement perhaps but the current market owners proably dont have the vision or the resources...it is what it is for this market and I'm glad many of us have good memories.

 

[K4WRF]

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!

Complements always accepted and appreciated. For the record, I departed the employee of WSM almost a year ago now.

Thanks,
Watt

 

[spew]

You could pull the plug on any AM station right now and no one would know it. That's any AM station. There is a whole generation that knows not of it.

 

[One Who Knows]

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.

The problem with what you ask here is: virtually no one under age 50 bothers to listen to AM radio for any reason. So, putting a pop/rock on AM would be a waste of time, energy and watts.

 

[bigrobmjca]

Say all you want business wise about how you think that WSM AM should go talk, won't happen. That station is legendary and can't change format. That's the home of the Grand Ole Opry. Even if Gaylord wanted to change it, they would be offered millions for it by people like Dolly Parton, because they actually talked about it several years ago and several of the country legends said that they would pitch in and buy AM 650 to keep it from changing it's format.

 

[firepoint525]

Say all you want business wise about how you think that WSM AM should go talk, won't happen. That station is legendary and can't change format. That's the home of the Grand Ole Opry. Even if Gaylord wanted to change it, they would be offered millions for it by people like Dolly Parton, because they actually talked about it several years ago and several of the country legends said that they would pitch in and buy AM 650 to keep it from changing it's format.

That isn't the way I heard it. At the time (2002), the suggestion was made (by average, everyday, ordinary people) that country music people pool their resources and buy out the station. However, I never heard any country music star(s) say that they would step in and "save" the station. If they wanted to do that, they could have already done so. And let's be fair. The only "heritage" on that station is the Opry itself. The station has only been full-time country since sometime in the '80s. And even since then, they have carried sports, Dave Ramsey, and other non-music programming. They could be almost any format that they wanted, and still be able to carry the Opry.

 

[olebud]

That isn't the way I heard it. At the time (2002), the suggestion was made (by average, everyday, ordinary people) that country music people pool their resources and buy out the station. However, I never heard any country music star(s) say that they would step in and "save" the station. {edit} The only "heritage" on that station is the Opry itself. The station has only been full-time country since sometime in the '80s. And even since then, they have carried sports, Dave Ramsey, and other non-music programming. They could be almost any format that they wanted, and still be able to carry the Opry.

That's not exactly right. To the best of my knowledge, Ramsey was not on WSM and sports, racing - vandy football has long been a part of the programming...long before my time there, 1980-2002. And they were already full time country when I arrived. When the announcement was made late 2001 or 02 the station was going full-time sports...that was factual. Both the Talk Pd and Colin Reed himself told me that.
The late Pastor Ausbrooks of the Radnor Baptist Church, a wealthy realtor and former Metro Councilman and a friend, told me he and some friends had made an offer to Opryland to buy the Opry, the Opry House, WSM AM and the Grand Ole Opry. He said he had put together a group that could carry it off. He said Reed asked him to wait. The deal with WSM FM and WWTN and it had not yet gotten final approval by the FCC and the other company operating them. The Pastor, who loved the Opry died before it could happen.
Gaylord is a Hotel Company. WSM is barely making budget. Give it some thought.

 

[firepoint525]

Ramsey at least briefly had a Sunday evening program over WSM. I heard it myself. This was in addition to his regular weekday program on WWTN. He took advantage of their night-time signal to be heard in 38 (or however many) states.

 

[NashRadio]

Far be it for me to question the venerable Ole Bud,

(and I stand to be corrected, chastised and reprimanded), but are you sure that pastor wasn't Paul Durham? This is, of course, vital to this discussion!

 

[jwk1979]

Re: Far be it for me to question the venerable Ole Bud,

(and I stand to be corrected, chastised and reprimanded), but are you sure that pastor wasn't Paul Durham? This is, of course, vital to this discussion!

Yes, it was Paul Durham. I attended Radnor Baptist Church for a number of years and Dr. Durham (or Bro. Paul, as he was called by the congergation) loved the Grand Ole Opry and was good friends with several of the Opry members and Opry announcers, namely Eddie Stubbs and Hairl Hensley.

 

[firepoint525]

I was curious about who "Pastor Ausbrooks" is/was. Meanwhile, Paul Durham's old station, his namesake WPFD, appears to be off the air completely. I don't think anyone misses them, other than my dad, who listened to them for their classic country and was disappointed when they went Spanish. (And I'm out here in Pegram, so if they were still on, I'd be able to hear them.)

 

[olebud]

(and I stand to be corrected, chastised and reprimanded), but are you sure that pastor wasn't Paul Durham?

If you'll please note...I started out writing "to the best of my knowledge." There's a good reason for that. At age 68 things will sometimes be off. Yes...there was a Pastor Lashbrook at Radnor before Pastor Durham. And we were friends, I often called him when he wa a Metro Councilman.
I knew when I wrote Ausbrooks..it didn't sound right.
Was not aware of Dave's show on Sunday nights on WTN.
The part about wanting to buy the Opry was correct though.
Do I still have to sit in the corner, or can I go out and play now?
Sorry for the partial wrong info.........thanks for the corrections. I do like to try and get it right.

 

[K4WRF]

There exists a magic number that buys the whole GOO, LLC in the low 9 digits. Emotion peaks buyer interest, but when you start to consider it from a pure business perspective, the emotional part starts to wane rather rapidly. Everett Lawson, a long term WSM employee once very accurately stated, “…cost a lot of money to talk on the radio; cost a whole HEAP of money if you want to talk loud.”

Now that I think about it, I believe Dave was on the AM a couple of times but don't recall the circumstances around that.

 

[courier37027]

Mr. Hairston, I remember and heard Dave Ramsey's show on WSM-AM a couple of Sunday nights very long ago. I think this was about time Ramsey began syndication or had picked up his first few affiliates. Don't know if he bought air time, or if this was a temporary programming move on station's part.

 

[Don78]

If I remember correctly Dave Ramseys sunday program on WSM was a "Best Of"

 

[firepoint525]

If I remember correctly Dave Ramseys sunday program on WSM was a "Best Of"

I remember him commenting specifically about being on "clear channel" (note the lack of caps) WSM, and being able to be heard over much of the country. Although there is the possibility that 'SM also aired a "best of" Ramsey at some point that I was unaware of.