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Albany radio in the next 6 months

Halfway into 2012, and we have had WDCD 1540 go off the air, Anastos stations being sold, the launch of Hot 99.1, and a WTRY format tweak. What do the next 6 months bring us?

- What will become of the Anastos AMs in terms of formats? I can say now that Star 101.3 is definitely not changing, I'm mainly interested in 1160 (WABY actually has a great signal during the day, maybe for some kind of talk, ethnic or sports format) and 900/106.1 (will the TWC/YNN deal continue with the new owner, or not?)
- What will happen to 1540 WDCD? I'd like to see the station sold off (I've said that a new owner should consider moving the towers to the south a bit to help reception in Albany itself) if Crawford can't continue running it...
- Crush isn't doing so well, so what do you do? Try tweaking the format again, maybe flip-flop 99.1 and 105.7? Townsquare also has a translator coming on 94.9 IIRC, what's the latest on that?
- What about Christmas in Albany? Will it be River vs B95 in 2012? Christmas on WRVE would be more evenly matched (both B95 and River have about equal signals)
- Anything else (like the future of 1460 WDDY?) worth noting?
 
danikayser84 said:
- What will happen to 1540 WDCD? I'd like to see the station sold off (I've said that a new owner should consider moving the towers to the south a bit to help reception in Albany itself) if Crawford can't continue running it...
-/quote]


Moving the 1540 transmitter site is not cost effective. What would be the benefit? Better coverage in parts of Greene Co., Schoharie Co. and maybe Columbia Counties? Would this make the station viable? Nope. The signal is fine in Albany and has been ever since the boost to 50Kw in 1950. The problem is finding a format that advertisers will sign up to.
 
It is unfortunate that the real estate the studios and transmitter sit on are worth more than the station. It would be very costly, but if the transmitter was moved perhaps about 6 or 7 miles south and a bit west of the current site, hopefully with better ground conductivity than the current site, it might do something. Perhaps it would be better to operate at a lower power. The cost of maintaining and powering a 50 KW station is excessive. As for formats, we have enough news/talks and sports right now. It would probably have to be some niche music format not available in the area delivered by satellite to keep the overhead low.
 
I assume that Crawford's experiment at [more or less] resurrecting WPTR failed because of low ratings. Is that indeed true? If so, it's a bit surprising, because Joe Motto (Boom Boom Brannigan) was one of the best-known and best-loved personalities in Capital District broadcasting history. I'd love to see someone try the format again, perhaps tweaking it to sound more like 'PTR did in its '60s heyday. Other than that, does any station in the area have a jazz format? (I live in Maine, so I'm out of the loop . . . ) I would think there would be enough jazz aficionados to perhaps make that work.
 
As for AAA, could that format or a Radio 104.5 Philly type format work in Albany? Urban AC probably wouldn't stand a chance, maybe AAA would fare better :)
 
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