Congrats to Indy's WBRI 1500 AM

[MightyFrenchman]

2009 marks 45 years that WBRI has maintained the same Christian talk, preaching & teaching program format. It came under new ownership in 2003 and has remained successful. Almost everyone who reads Radio-Info will think, "What do you mean? WBRI never shows up in the ratings! How is that successful?!" Yes WBRI is a commercial station but its revenue is not based on spot sales but on sales of block time to programmers. The programmers will ONLY remain on WBRI based on the amount of response they receive from the station's listeners and it doesn't have to be financial response. These programmers sign 52-week agreements and many of them have been on WBRI for years. So, if no one were listening to WBRI there wouldn't be any programmers on the station and the station would've gone dark a long, long time ago. So Happy 45th Birthday WBRI! Keep it going.

 

[mjcarter1981]

Congrats!...one of the few stations I miss now that I'm not in Indy any more.

 

[mouseman]

I would extend this note further to Keith Smiley specifically, the OM of the station. WBRI is basically a one man operation [with a part timer or two] which means Smiley does everything there. He's the lone holdover from previous ownership to Wilkins now, and is just a very pleasant man to work with. While he's obviously not been there for the whole 45 years, he is been THE man now, for quite some time, that keeps it all together.

Kudos Keith! ;D

 

[radiomic812]

Wow! Thats a neat accomplishment in radio these days......Congrats!

 

[Herschel Sills]

Even the AM station at 1070 hasn't kept the same format and the same set of call letters for the last 45 years. Congratulations WBRI.

 

[N_D_Radioguy]

2009 marks 45 years that WBRI has maintained the same Christian talk, preaching & teaching program format.

Not everyone thinks this is a good thing.

But putting my own loathing of "religious indoctrination as radio" aside:

What deeper troubles within radio does it indicate that only religious stations can maintain any sort of continuity anymore?

 

[R.D.P.]

To the staff at WBRI, keep on serving the Lord and you will be rewarded. I'm so excited and stoked for you. May God allow you to carry on for many years to come.

I'll be sure to keep you in my Prayers.

R.D.P. <><

P.S. ...And just because a station may be at the bottom, that doesn't mean it's a failure. Sometimes the bottom stations may be the ones that are having the most success.

 

[gr8oldies]

WBRI was on the air when there was only fire and no brimstone.

 

[cspotrun]

i was a kid when 1500 signed on in the early 60's as WNDY with a "MOR" format similar to 810's WIGO. both didn't last long, probably because they were daytimers. but i understand WXLW did quite well ratings wise in the late 50's early 60's, despite being a daytimer.

 

[ten_four]

Channel 13's (WLW-I) sign-off during the 60s offered an opportunity to tune to WXLW. There was a slide with the XL logo. How much that meant at 1 or 1:30 am I don't know. But it WAS there.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

i was a kid when 1500 signed on in the early 60's as WNDY with a "MOR" format similar to 810's WIGO. both didn't last long, probably because they were daytimers. but i understand WXLW did quite well ratings wise in the late 50's early 60's, despite being a daytimer.

Remember, before WIGO and WNDY signed on, there were ONLY SIX radio stations in Indy. (I'm not counting FMs since in the era they made no impact. Of the six radio stations, two were owned by companies that were primarily focused on their television property. WXLW had some sparkle in that era. And it was an era where only the DAYTIME part of any radio station counted. It was assume the everybody was watching TV at night. It was a time when owners of radio stations would give up their night time hours and slide over a channel or two to a daytime frequency if they could get a power increase.

If the CSI people on television are half as good with technology as they are made out to be, they could probably scour the building and still find my fingerprints all over WBRI. Oooops. I've been away from Indy a few years. I don't know with the same building still exists.

WNDY became WBRI in an era with religious television had not yet arrived. Those early years of WBRI were interesting because there was this pent up demand for religious programming.

Today we are waist-deep in outlets, audio and video, that carry Christian programming. It is not that WBRI has survived 45 years that is so amazing... that it has survived the last 10 years is the big amazement. But then.... what else are you going to do with a daylight only station at 1500 on the dial?

 

[AndTheLambGoesBAA]

Channel 13's (WLW-I) sign-off during the 60s offered an opportunity to tune to WXLW. There was a slide with the XL logo. How much that meant at 1 or 1:30 am I don't know. But it WAS there.

WLW, not WXLW.

 

[cspotrun]

Channel 13's (WLW-I) sign-off during the 60s offered an opportunity to tune to WXLW. There was a slide with the XL logo. How much that meant at 1 or 1:30 am I don't know. But it WAS there.

i don't remember seeing that, but i'm not sure what impact that would have, being that WXLW went off the air at sunset, and at WLWI's sign off, XL wasn't on the air! (good thinking huh?)