Who are running these christian LP stations on 95.9 and 99.3 and how are they allowed to do it? Radio Locator says the parent channel for 99.3 is some station in Ashtabula county. Do we really need christian music on 91.5, 95.9, 99.3, 102.5, 104.9, 106.3, etc etc? I'm not anti religion necessarily, but it seems like complete overkill and waste of decent frequencies that could be commercial especially for a market our size.
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Christian LPFM's
- Thread starter ryan883
- Start date
You are forgetting a cardinal rule of broadcasting in the U.S., and that is you can never, ever, under any circumstances, have too many religious stations in a given market.
Regardless of how many religious stations are available, you will always have groups that want to add even more.
Regardless of how many religious stations are available, you will always have groups that want to add even more.
95.9 is owned by Salem, and it carries the audio from Salem Owned WTOH HD2
99.3 is owned by EMF and carries their Air 1 programming, the signal is from WODC HD3
And like in Beetlejuice, we have said Christian Station to many times and we now have a new LP station with a CP
95.1 WZMY-LP Columbus Ohio (Y95) From their web page "WZMY LPFM is a low power radio station that is licensed to the Columbus Ohio radio market. We air upbeat Christian music and community service programming for the Columbus Ohio area"
99.3 is owned by EMF and carries their Air 1 programming, the signal is from WODC HD3
And like in Beetlejuice, we have said Christian Station to many times and we now have a new LP station with a CP
95.1 WZMY-LP Columbus Ohio (Y95) From their web page "WZMY LPFM is a low power radio station that is licensed to the Columbus Ohio radio market. We air upbeat Christian music and community service programming for the Columbus Ohio area"
I’m curious about what you would play instead?
D
Deleted member 108832
Guest
Tibetan throat singing. An instant hit with every genius who possesses an eidetic memory.
Exactly how many of those exist in Columbus, Ohio, we may never know.
a loop of cows mooing and people farting. i once complained to a boss the mornign hosts at our daytimer were late, he said as long as something was on air at sunrise even if it was cows mooing and people farting"
so i tested that theory one morning at 7am
and he was right, he didnt care.. no one did.
It does seem like translators would be the perfect testing grounds for new formats. I know teenagers grew up on MTV, so maybe an 80's 90's 2000's MTV style classic hits. I figure if you're on a 100 w translator you really don't have anything to lose, but then again I don't know how much money is being made from being the 57th religious station. Honestly though if the stations are being leased I don't know how much money the parent company is making. It could be just not worth it to try anything adventurous, and lease it out instead.
Ding ding ding, we have a winner
Kind of what I figured. You try a new format, even if you think it's going to be great, then you have to try to convince advertisers and explain the new format lol probably better radio just continues it's slow death 🤣
They are not "LP stations" they are Translators. 99.3 is owned by K-Love, Inc and receives it's signal off an HD-3 channel of 93.3 WODC (rebroadcasting Air1). 95.9 is owned by Salem Media of Ohio and rebroadcasts 98.9 HD-2 WTOH airing Christian-FMs Today's Christian Music format.
This practice is no different than iHeart's translator at 105.3 rebroadcasting 106.7 HD-2 or NABCO's translator at 94.1 rebroadcasting 103.9 HD-2.
Also the fact is out of all the frequencies he quoted "91.5, 95.9, 99.3, 102.5, 104.9, 106.3" 91.5 rarely has music - it's mostly brokered preaching programs. 106.3 is Urban Gospel so you can't compare it to 95.9, 99.3, 102.5 and 104.9. I would say out of the stations quoted the ones that overlap format wise are 95.9, 102.5 and 104.9.
If one believes a better format can be put on 95.9 I would suggest coughing up the money and making Salem an offer. They are only running that station as a placeholder (since they exited the CCM format in January 2025) and I am sure if you are willing to pay enough for 95.9 they would be willing to sell it.
Also as a side note the OP missed the "religious' station at 88.7 with a Christian Rock format and the Translator for AM 880 WRFD at 104.5 airing preaching
That explains a lot about why they don't fix anything technical. I put it on there just to see how well the signal covers, and for at least the last few months whenever I put it on there it's computer glitches during the music every 10-15 seconds. I'm going to stop saying this after today, but anyone at Magic 95.5 that is reading this, 95.9 is probably up for sale, so Magic 95.5 and 95.9.....sounds like a real winner 🏆Also the fact is out of all the frequencies he quoted "91.5, 95.9, 99.3, 102.5, 104.9, 106.3" 91.5 rarely has music - it's mostly brokered preaching programs. 106.3 is Urban Gospel so you can't compare it to 95.9, 99.3, 102.5 and 104.9. I would say out of the stations quoted the ones that overlap format wise are 95.9, 102.5 and 104.9.
If one believes a better format can be put on 95.9 I would suggest coughing up the money and making Salem an offer. They are only running that station as a placeholder (since they exited the CCM format in January 2025) and I am sure if you are willing to pay enough for 95.9 they would be willing to sell it.
Also as a side note the OP missed the "religious' station at 88.7 with a Christian Rock format and the Translator for AM 880 WRFD at 104.5 airing preaching
Yeah not sure the STL path that they use to get their audio from Salem's studios off N. High St to the tower downtown. I feel like they are using some internet codec and there are glitches in it. It's also possible the glitches heard are in the "Christian-FM" network feed they receive. (the only thing local to 95.9 are the IDs and one or two ads I ever hear (and PSAs).
I am not sure when it happened but Salem has rebranded 95.9 from "Today's Christian Music" to "Your Columbus Worship Station 95.9 FM" The format has changed from traditional Christian AC (CCM) to a modern worship format (similar to the current 99.3 Air1 format).
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
There is a pesky little regulation problem standing in your way.
Translators are licensed to rebroadcast full power stations (even a HD subchannel counts). So you can't just lease a translator and put your adventuresome new concept on it. You also have to lease an originating station ... so your operating costs are going to have to include that.
Yeah that's true. It would be something where you have to hope that basically a brand new concept gets ratings while operating two stations. I honestly thought with HD radio maybe we'd get a bunch of cool formats, but it really hasn't been the case.
Car makers have no insentive to add HD Radio as a basic feature when they get $$$ from Apple/Android and Satellite Radio!