Clear Channel keeps WAKS

[kentuckymedia]

Okay, looks like Kevin Martin really is the worst FCC Commish in history. They approved for WAKS to stay because its now considered an Akron station.

If CC keeps it an Akron station, then they should be required to move it to Freedom Ave.

 

[SonoSational18]

Okay, looks like Kevin Martin really is the worst FCC Commish in history. They approved for WAKS to stay because its now considered an Akron station.

If CC keeps it an Akron station, then they should be required to move it to Freedom Ave.

Why? Freedom Avenue is in Stark County.... not in the Akron metro either. There is no longer a requirement to be in your city of license. If the old rule was in effect, they would also have the option of locating studios at the transmitter site which is in Brecksville.

 

[YEKIMI]

How the hell can it be called an Akron station when I can barely pick it up and when I do it's broken up, fades in and out, etc. I've picked it up way better when I am up in the Cleveland area. Hey, if you want to cal yourself an Akron station then have someone climb the tower and point the antenna south!

 

[HHH]

WAKS broadcasts from the same tower that supports Cleveland-licensed FM WZAK, which is the WTAM (also Cleveland license) tower. The WAKS studios are at the same location as all of their Cleveland stations.

So CC now skirts the ownership cap rules by declaring that this is actually an Akron station, and should not be counted in the Cleveland cap.

The CC lawyers are sleeping on the job! They should quickly change the city of license of WMJI to "Canton", change nothing else, and get even further under the Cleveland ownership cap.

What a friggin' joke.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Okay, looks like Kevin Martin really is the worst FCC Commish in history. They approved for WAKS to stay because its now considered an Akron station.

If CC keeps it an Akron station, then they should be required to move it to Freedom Ave.

By that logic, WCLV/104.9 should be required to relocate from their Warrensville Heights studios over to downtown Lorain (at the semi-condemmed Antlers Hotel, where predecessor CCM WZLE was once housed), and move the tx from Avon to the WDLW/1380 stick in Sheffield Township.

The 104.9 license hasn't techincally "served" Lorain since CC put the "Kiss FM" format and WAKS calls on there back in May 1999. It is, after all, "a Lorain station..."

 

[Rusty Muck]

Now, the move with WAKS likely had more to do with the collapse of the credit market than anything else. Not that CC would be losing millions of $$$ with a sale... but who in their right mind is willing to buy a potential stand-alone operation? I wouldn't. (And it's probably why CC is forced to stick with the Ashland/Mansfield, Wheeling, Defiance and Lima clusters for some time to come.)

Ergo... they go with the COL argument. And it may have worked because the current Brecksville site puts out a decent enough signal into Akron that proved their point. Programming-wise... it doesn't matter. WKDD is now licensed to Munroe Falls... not Canton... but its' tower is still there. And it serves both Akron and Canton.

 

[kentuckymedia]

There were talks about changing the COL for 96.5 to Cuyahoga Falls so it would serve as the city's first FM service.


I think the Munroe Falls move is a joke, seriously..why?

 

[SonoSational18]

WMJI could not be licensed to Canton because it does not put a city-grade signal into Canton. It could, theoretically, move to the Akron market by changing COL to a community in northern Summit County (e.g. Richfield) but there would be no advantage in doing that. WAKS' signal still puts the proper contour over Akron.

The WKDD COL move to Munroe Falls puts that facility solidly in the Akron market. I have never heard of a move to Cuyahoga Falls being planned, and that would be unlikely since CF already has a full-time radio station (WCUE). The real advantage of the COL change to Munroe Falls is that it positions the station for a possible move to the north in the future. Some adjacent channel issues would need to be addressed (short spacing with 97.5 and 98.5) but somehow Greater Media was able to pull off a similar move by moving 97.5 from Trenton NJ to Burlington NJ (right outside of Philly) despite the fact that Philadelphia has a station on 98.1.

As for the financial issue.... yes it's tough to peddle stations. If CC was planning on dumping the station they would have left it in Aloha limbo. It's no secret that CC had no intentions of selling any of the FM's housed at Oak Tree unless forced to do so.

 

[DJRobbioRobbio]

Honestly though, does this really surprise anybody?

First rule of radio business...

Thou shalt not undermine the Independence Radio Fortress (of, or lack thereof) Solitude.

It's funny though, because that same building Clear Channel has all their Cleveland stations based out of, my dad used to work in for a good part of the 90s.

 

[dannykewl]

There were talks about changing the COL for 96.5 to Cuyahoga Falls so it would serve as the city's first FM service.


I think the Munroe Falls move is a joke, seriously..why?

If I remember right, back around 1969-1970, 96.5 was WCUE-FM, the sister station to WCUE AM licensed to Cuyahoga Falls. That came in like a local when I lived in Garfield Hts. Also 97.5 was WAKR-FM and came in like a local. 97.5 WONE now is so weak compared to the old signal in Cleveland.

 

[SonoSational18]

There were talks about changing the COL for 96.5 to Cuyahoga Falls so it would serve as the city's first FM service.


I think the Munroe Falls move is a joke, seriously..why?

If I remember right, back around 1969-1970, 96.5 was WCUE-FM, the sister station to WCUE AM licensed to Cuyahoga Falls. That came in like a local when I lived in Garfield Hts. Also 97.5 was WAKR-FM and came in like a local. 97.5 WONE now is so weak compared to the old signal in Cleveland.

WCUE-FM, later WKDD, then WAKS has always been licensed to Akron. Its former sister WCUE was and is in the Falls. I beleive the reason that both stations ha better Cleveland signals in those days is because both were broadcasting in mono at the time. Mono FM signals go further at the same power than stereo.

 

[SonoSational18]

There were talks about changing the COL for 96.5 to Cuyahoga Falls so it would serve as the city's first FM service.


I think the Munroe Falls move is a joke, seriously..why?

If I remember right, back around 1969-1970, 96.5 was WCUE-FM, the sister station to WCUE AM licensed to Cuyahoga Falls. That came in like a local when I lived in Garfield Hts. Also 97.5 was WAKR-FM and came in like a local. 97.5 WONE now is so weak compared to the old signal in Cleveland.

 

[dannykewl]

There were talks about changing the COL for 96.5 to Cuyahoga Falls so it would serve as the city's first FM service.


I think the Munroe Falls move is a joke, seriously..why?

If I remember right, back around 1969-1970, 96.5 was WCUE-FM, the sister station to WCUE AM licensed to Cuyahoga Falls. That came in like a local when I lived in Garfield Hts. Also 97.5 was WAKR-FM and came in like a local. 97.5 WONE now is so weak compared to the old signal in Cleveland.

WCUE-FM, later WKDD, then WAKS has always been licensed to Akron. Its former sister WCUE was and is in the Falls. I beleive the reason that both stations ha better Cleveland signals in those days is because both were broadcasting in mono at the time. Mono FM signals go further at the same power than stereo.

Yes, now that you mentioned it, I do now kind of remember that WCUE-FM said Akron, even though I think they were simulcasting some around that time, and they would mention the AM in the Falls and FM in Akron. That was a while ago for the old memory.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Yep, that was correct back in the day - WCUE/1150 Cuyahoga Falls, WCUE-FM/96.5 Akron. The COLs haven't changed, though the ownership certainly has.

Since this old thread was resurrected, 98.1/Munroe Falls did seek and receive approval to physically move to the old WCUE-FM/WKDD site on Bellaire Ln. in Cuyahoga Falls (ex-Northampton Twp., off Quick Road).

I'm hearing rumblings that work is going on up there, though I didn't see it when I went by. With that recent approval, expect 98.1 to be pumping out hot AC from 96.5's old tower in the next month or less...if it isn't already doing so!