AM Stations firing it up tonight? Message from FCC Monitor Powell Way!

[firepoint525]

Delta69, I read the rest of your message after posting a reply to the question you asked. So now I will reply to the rest of it. SMSA is not really a term you would associate with broadcasting. It's more of a government thing. But ADI is a media-driven term. I learned it when I lived in Clarksville. It is "area of dominant influence." And it's a little more of a gray area than SMSA. Clarksville couldn't do much mediawise because we were in the Nashville ADI. The top seven stations in Clarksville were all Nashville stations. Q-108 was #8.

Having said all that, Scott's apparent hero, Lon Sosh, had the "brain-trust" to program high school football over WDXN while he was there. I had left the station by the time football started, so I don't know how that went, or even IF it went! But I remember it being promoted while I was still there. I believe they were going to cover Clarksville High School. (Interesting side note that Clarksville is probably the largest city in Tennessee to have a "namesake" high school!) How he decided on them (other than their name), I don't know. But the legal ID at the time billed "Clarksville-Fort Campbell," and Clarksville High School is on the opposite side of town from the base, not to mention that it is not the only high school in town, and not even the only one in WDXN's night-time coverage area! So not only was Clarksville the largest city to have a high school named after itself, it was apparently (for a time, at least) the largest city to have play-by-play high school football.

 

[deltas69]

Nashville ADI lol..so what the he!! is this term ? i don't know the average age on this board, but i'd guess younger than me (57)..won't guess at oldbuds age...lol..but seems to me all this research, etc, has made stations get away from entertaining the listeners, no matter what the format..used to be two formats in my, and buds day..rock and country..and you did the best to attract as many listeners as possible ..from then roughly 1977 to now...too many consultants telling a station 1500 miles away what to play......and way too many people listening to them..

 

[firepoint525]

When the PD at WDXN (not Lon Sosh) dropped the term "ADI" on me, I, too, had to ask what it meant. I had never heard that term before, so naturally, I didn't know what it meant. But once he explained it to me, I understood perfectly.

Another head scratching decision Lon Sosh made was to carry the 13-year-old Clarksville all-star baseball team in the tournament, which meant he traveled to Athens, Georgia, and covered the team from there. I remember all this because I ran the board back at the station for the games. Further confusing was his decision to carry them over all three stations he had at the time (simulcast), even though one of them had a stick an hour away from Clarksville, and their signal was not even aimed at Clarksville. (It was on the other side of the Tennessee Ridge, and could be heard in Clarksville, but the signal was weak, and had to be manually tuned in.) And the decision to carry the all-stars even meant pre-empting Atlanta Braves baseball, which annoyed some of our listeners! So we were carrying baseball from Georgia, it just wasn't the Braves! :

I mentioned earlier that the top seven stations in the Clarksville ratings were Nashville-area stations, and that Q-108 was #8. (Other than the showing of Q-108, the Clarksville ratings probably mirrored the Nashville ratings. Remember, Clarksville is in the Nashville ADI!) Well, Lon had the bright idea of wanting to take WDXN to #1 in the ratings in Clarksville! : Not a bad goal, I suppose, but highly unrealistic, given that it was an AM station, but this was 1993, and AM radio had not been at the top of the heap for many years! He bought billboards all over town promoting WDXN, and it generated some buzz, including from advertisers, from what I understand, but at the end of the day, I seriously doubt that WDXN ever really moved in the ratings. Despite going to AM stereo, and upgrading with new equipment, a new studio, new jingles, and even updating the country format, I never really heard anything around town to indicate that anyone had really changed their listening habits.

 

[Evangelist]

Some interesting discussion on this thread once it got to this page.

I should clarify a few things:

1) Gallatin is in the Nashville SMSA, so a discussion of Gallatin radio is fine on the Nashville board, just so long as rinky-dink AM stations there don't become the only topic we discuss here! However, Russellville-Logan County, Kentucky, is NOT part of the greater Nashville SMSA, no matter how much Scott might want you to believe it! Just because an outside station's signal reaches into the outer ranges of our SMSA doesn't mean that those of us who live at the opposite end of the SMSA give a damn about listening to them! :

But (and there's always a "but" there, isn't there? ;D)

2) Discussion of high school football play-by-play is of extremely limited interest to the average Nashvillian. How many radio stations can you name within metro Nashville/Davidson County that actually carry high school football? I can't think of a one! High school football (and basketball, too, for that matter) is the domain of small-town stations, in which nearly all their listenership (listening area) is made up of boosters and supporters of the local high school in the same town! If you are a station in a big city, and you want to cover high school football, the first question you ask yourself is, "which team do I cover?" The most obvious answer might be the school closest to your transmitter or studio, but even then, you still risk reaching listeners who might not be interested in following the team whose broadcasts you decide to carry! Even though your signal may only reach a few miles at night, the geographical area in which students are zoned to any given school is likely to be even smaller than your station's night-time coverage area.

If you're a small-town station, your night-time AM signal might be strong enough to cover the high school in your town. However, if you're covering a county-wide high school's team, you might want to consider covering them over your FM station.

You are absolutely right.

The "big boys" are of much more interest to radio people here in town and personally, I'd like to hear more news about them than I would one certain station in Gallatin with an owner who claims the world is out to get him.

 

[briancraig]

"And it's a little more of a gray area than SMSA."

No, actually it is not a gray area at all. Each county in the United States is assigned to one ADI based on what market they get local tv from. Since Arbitron is no longer in the TV business, the Nielsen equivalent DMA (Designated Market Area) is more commonly used today than ADI. Even Arbitron now uses the Nielsen definitions.

Nashville has always been the largest ADI in Tennessee even though Memphis is a bigger city and until the last decade was a bigger metropolitan area. Towns close to Memphis like Jackson, Jonesboro and Tupelo are their own markets because they have their own tv stations, so that limits the counties assigned to Memphis. Bowling Green is the only town close to Nashville that is considered its own market. Nashville's ADI has always included Clarksville, Murfreesboro, and Cookeville.

 

[firepoint525]

But aren't those TV markets, Brian? I have seen the maps that break down those TV markets that you are referring to. Clarksville-Hopkinsville, despite being their own SMSA, are not their own TV market because they do not have TV stations, other than cable TV stations. (Hoptown might have a UHF, but it's probably an indie.) So Bowling Green limits the size of the Nashville market, like you said, whereas Clarksville/Hopkinsville do not, despite Bowling Green being roughly the same distance from Nashville as Clarksville-Hopkinsville.

Nashville is a larger SMSA in Tennessee than Memphis, but some of the Memphis SMSA is in Mississippi and Arkansas. Only three counties of the Memphis SMSA are in Tennessee.

I hope this is clear as mud to everyone! ;D

 

[briancraig]

You are right, ADIs and DMAs are tv markets but these days they seem to be used for other purposes as well. I see all kinds of media usage demographic information that use the DMA as their market definition. I believe the weekly Billboard Soundscan music sales reports use the ADI/DMA.

I've heard it can even be hard to sell radio time in Arbitron markets that are not also DMAs exactly like your Clarksville example.

 

[bub]

How many radio stations can you name within metro Nashville/Davidson County that actually carry high school football?

To the best of my knowledge (full disclosure, I haven't been to Nashville in several years ):

- WAMB: David Lipscomb High School Mustangs http://www.mustangfanpage.com/lUradio.htm
- WNAH: Goodpasture Cougars http://goodpasturefootball.com/
- ESPN Radio 106.7 The Fan: Montgomery Bell Academy Big Red http://1067thefan.com/index.cfm

Anybody want to add to this?

 

[Evangelist]

Those are all private schools so I have to wonder if some wealthy benefactor isn't buying the time for his or her own personal entertainment.

 

[w9wi]

But aren't those TV markets, Brian? I have seen the maps that break down those TV markets that you are referring to. Clarksville-Hopkinsville, despite being their own SMSA, are not their own TV market because they do not have TV stations, other than cable TV stations. (Hoptown might have a UHF, but it's probably an indie.) So Bowling Green limits the size of the Nashville market, like you said, whereas Clarksville/Hopkinsville do not, despite Bowling Green being roughly the same distance from Nashville as Clarksville-Hopkinsville.

Nashville is a larger SMSA in Tennessee than Memphis, but some of the Memphis SMSA is in Mississippi and Arkansas. Only three counties of the Memphis SMSA are in Tennessee.

I hope this is clear as mud to everyone! ;D

FWIW there are no full-power TV stations in Clarksville or Hopkinsville. Channel 51 used to be allotted to Hopkinsville but nobody ever took out a permit & when DTV came along they wiped all the unused channels.

 

[firepoint525]

Those are all private schools so I have to wonder if some wealthy benefactor isn't buying the time for his or her own personal entertainment.

Aside from that, I must wonder if the airtime was available to them dirt cheap! After all, what else are they going to program?

I would have figured 106.7 would have had a sports talk show, but maybe MBA outbid them for that!

Guess I'm going to be listening to some high school football on the radio tonight! ;D

 

[firepoint525]

But aren't those TV markets, Brian? I have seen the maps that break down those TV markets that you are referring to. Clarksville-Hopkinsville, despite being their own SMSA, are not their own TV market because they do not have TV stations, other than cable TV stations. (Hoptown might have a UHF, but it's probably an indie.) So Bowling Green limits the size of the Nashville market, like you said, whereas Clarksville/Hopkinsville do not, despite Bowling Green being roughly the same distance from Nashville as Clarksville-Hopkinsville.

Nashville is a larger SMSA in Tennessee than Memphis, but some of the Memphis SMSA is in Mississippi and Arkansas. Only three counties of the Memphis SMSA are in Tennessee.

I hope this is clear as mud to everyone! ;D

FWIW there are no full-power TV stations in Clarksville or Hopkinsville. Channel 51 used to be allotted to Hopkinsville but nobody ever took out a permit & when DTV came along they wiped all the unused channels.

I didn't think there were any back when I lived there, but I wasn't sure about now.