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Best station in Southern Indiana?

While they don't always do what is considered textbook radio, I like the way that WITZ in Jasper is involved in the community. I appreciate a station that understands the importance of not trying to act bigger than the community it serves. Just a thought.
 
Well.. Depends on your 'score card'...
Community Service:
WITZ-AM/FM
WBNL-AM
WIKY-FM
WWPO-LP (By far the best little local news 'on site' coverage.. Fires to parades to free hot dogs at the nursing home.. Weather as it happens.. Chris the Manager lives above the station and is a volunteer EMT/Firefighter.. The University owns it and lets the community run it under their watch.. Great thing..)

POSH (Big City Facilities, Big Bucks, Well Paid Staff, Sales Out Of The Wazoo & Ratings To Boot)
WIKY-FM

Best Non-Metro Station & AM/FM combo based on success, ratings, facilities and air-sound..
WRAY-AM/FM....You can eat off the floor in the transmitter room, it's so clean...Ask Steve (GM) to show you the specs on his Optimod digital processor (he loves to do that)...

STREAMERS FAVORITES (without big ratings and why)
WBNL-AM (A throwback to community fullservice radio...Folks marvel at Ralph and the "Hometown Radio")
WYIR-LP (These kids gobble up bandwidth to listen to this non-profit coffee house FM that plays local and regional LOUD stuff, along with the national favorites)... Coffee, new rock and Johnny Cash painting on the wall with Elvis over the kamode in the restroom....Hip beyond words..

Best Local Sounding Automation/Live Assist
WBTO-FM (The voicer folks in STL make it sound like there fishin' off the Gil Hodges Bridge on Highway 57 in Petersburg...It's all in the hardrive and sent down daily...Talk ups, PSA's and general localism.. Cost's Mark Lange more up front, but makes him stand out from three or more Classic Rockers that cross the marketable path of this Class "A" between Vincennes/Washington/Jasper/Princeton/Mt.Carmel...

Best ENG FM......
Anything with South Central on it....And,
WJLT (Superhits of the 60's & 70's)...And
WRAY-FM

Best ENG AM.....
Frank Hertel set 1180/WGAB up so good for the past owner that I can't screw it up.. Clean and bright..
WBNL and WRAY..

Best AM......
WBNL is original...Ralph Turpen is MORE THAN ORIGINAL... IT SELLS...

Best Non-Com.....
The blue collars and white collars of Evansville love their JAZZ on WUEV at The University of Evansville...

MOST REBELLIOUS station, staff, and audience...
WGBF-FM is still as crass as it has been for 20 years.. Bare Bellied Ladies On Billboards and Thursday Thongs at Fast Eddy's...
 
Great review Skippert! I must admit – it changed my perception of Southern Indiana radio [aside from 1280 WGBF in the 70s which “cooked” with fuel more powerful than natural gas].

BTW; I noted from a prior post that you’re a ‘CIL-FM alum... Now there’s a first-chapter textbook-example of kick-booty small-market radio. 101.5 seemed SOOO out of place – smack-dab inbetween those two Withers “icons” :D
 
hipporadio said:
Great review Skippert! I must admit – it changed my perception of Southern Indiana radio [aside from 1280 WGBF in the 70s which “cooked” with fuel more powerful than natural gas].

BTW; I noted from a prior post that you’re a ‘CIL-FM alum... Now there’s a first-chapter textbook-example of kick-booty small-market radio. 101.5 seemed SOOO out of place – smack-dab inbetween those two Withers “icons” :D
Click to expand...

I know this is the Indiana board but I went to SIU from 1972 to 1976 and my favorite part about WCIL-FM was Jerry Bryant's "Jesus Solid Rock" program on Sunday nights. His call-in program, "Stump The Saints", was great. He was a very creative radio guy who happened to be a Christian too.
 
WUEV used to be a good station. Now Jazz is automated and their is limited student involvement. Remember how good Party Lights used to be? Station, when it had live Jazz announers, were named NAB Jazz Station of the Year finalists 7 times.
 
Wow... A twisted web of indenity... I was at WEVC/WUEV '75-'77 and was the last jock to say WEVC and first to say WUEV on New Year's Eve and Early Morning of 1976-77....I worked at KGMO for four weird months under Mother Ruth and went back to school at WVC (WVJC's Live Top-40 days under Rick Ammon)...I was the weekend Lacky at 1280/WGBF doing AT-40, taped shows, writing news on Sunday's for Randy Wheeler (WIKY/South Central News Director), Did the 'Wolfman Jack' Show and was the kid giving away t-shirts and 10 dollar bills in the Cash (Crash) Cruiser-on the air... Worked 'CIL-FM from '79 to '82 and Jerry Bryant had the main part (conduit of GOD) in getting me back on track and getting into radio with Way-Fm's first station in 1987 and Radio-U in Columbus in 1996 and now at "Theocratic" WYIR-LP in Evansville (wyir.com).....The family tree is everywhere... :)
 
I agree about WUEV not being much any more. I would love to see it more like WGRE (DePauw University's 91.5) or WISU. In my view, a college radio station must be of interest to the students who attend the college. Smooth Jazz (or NPR :vomit:) does not do that. More students would be involved in WUEV if more students actually listened.

Question: was WCIL a college station, or a commercial one?
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
I agree about WUEV not being much any more. I would love to see it more like WGRE (DePauw University's 91.5) or WISU. In my view, a college radio station must be of interest to the students who attend the college. Smooth Jazz (or NPR :vomit:) does not do that. More students would be involved in WUEV if more students actually listened.

Question: was WCIL a college station, or a commercial one?
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WCIL AM-FM is a commercial operation. During the early & mid '70s there were 2 options on the SIU campus; a carrier current station, WIDB, which was actually very good. And 50,000 watt WSIU-FM. If you were willing to do the 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. shift you could play just about anything you wanted to on WSIU.
 
We did the first Arbitron in 1980 (four counties that ARB ended up making a legit numbered market)... Even though the three main commercial dominates were 'CIL-FM (CHR), WDDD (Country) and WTAO (AOR)... St. Louis FM's and AM's came down into three quarters of the market and Paducah and Cape had influence.. We nailed a 27 share 12+ for the whole book.. The night numbers when I was on were 49 share (along with Matt McCann)...Incredible time...Sold time, jocked, did asst. promotions and worked the clubs.. Great money and fun...Listened to 'CIL-FM today.. Still the best CHR in the Carbondale/Paducah and Cape areas (with a monster signal added, since my days)....They've been a fulltime Top-40/CHR for 31 years on FM....WOW! :)
 
skippertthomas said:
We did the first Arbitron in 1980 (four counties that ARB ended up making a legit numbered market)... Even though the three main commercial dominates were 'CIL-FM (CHR), WDDD (Country) and WTAO (AOR)... St. Louis FM's and AM's came down into three quarters of the market and Paducah and Cape had influence.. We nailed a 27 share 12+ for the whole book.. The night numbers when I was on were 49 share (along with Matt McCann)...Incredible time...Sold time, jocked, did asst. promotions and worked the clubs.. Great money and fun...Listened to 'CIL-FM today.. Still the best CHR in the Carbondale/Paducah and Cape areas (with a monster signal added, since my days)....They've been a fulltime Top-40/CHR for 31 years on FM....WOW! :)
Click to expand...

Great money. Radio. Still seems like a contradiction in terms. Especially in southern Illinois.
 
Back then, it was great money for a kid of 21 years... Got paid at minimum, plus a dollar or two more for the three hours air-work a weekday, plus one hour for prep and end of show stuff... If you did an hour of production a day, add the two for promotions stuff, you have 6 hours of that stuff.. Then add the 50 bucks cash for the teen night appearance on Monday night, 30 for the sidekick appearance at the live "Variety Show" on Tuesday and another 50 for the Friday night Country/Rock (Urban Cowboy thing) at the same club (after I got off at 9:pm) and the wet-t's and amateur nights at the dance/strip joint on Sunday (50 bucks, again).. Then we paid our talent 50 an hour to to the "Jam Van" mobile sound and light show (half of the hourly fee for the "Jam Van")...And 50 an hour for any commercial event remote.... That first 1.5 years there, I was pulling 30 hours on-air....10 in promotions....And the extra gigs through the station...Between $390 and $690 a week in 1980... Pretty good stuff.. SIU was like 'social time' between station work... When I went into Sales/Air/Promotions, It was more like $280 for the air/promotions a week and I billed (20% because I had outer counties and a $100 a month trade for gas/food) $5,000 to $10,000 grand on a great month...So, it came out: $1,120 for the non-sales and one to two grand a month for sales... What a life in a very affordable college town...At 23... I never should have gone to KINT-98 in El Paso... (finance wise)... ;D
 
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