Bob1370 said:
Jim--Was there ever any thought given by Sinclair to making 550 the Disney signal, leaving 1400 alone and moving WGR's sports talk and PBP programming, along with the WGR callsign, up to 1520 and that 50,000 watt East Coast blowtorch? We kept hearing rumors to that effect about 10-12 years back, before Entercom came into the picture, about WGR's lineup, intellectual property and callsign heading up the dial to 1520 to take advantage of the much better nighttime and early morning coverage. Was it all just speculation or was there ever anything to it?
As it's ancient history, I guess posting on a message board doesn't violate any proprietary covenants.
During Daryl Parks' (outstanding PD who's been at WLW since leaving Buffalo) last month as PD of WGR (February 1995), Keymarket was preparing to LMA WGR and WWWS and ultimately buy the radio stations.
During this period, there was some down-low talk of the WGR call letters and intellectual property moving to 1520. Being Production Director of WGR/WGRF/The Rock Network at the time, i was not in the loop. Brian Dickman was the outstanding Promotions Director of WGR at the time and had about a dozen T-Shirts printed with a logo that said "WGR Intellectual Property of 1520" blue stencil stamped logo on gray cotton. As I recall, the shirts were not distributed and within days were recalled by order of senior management on Niagara Street, "Inside Baseball" for Rich Products. The shirts reportedly were destroyed, although there may be others like me who "never got one" and so, never gave it back. Definitely a radio geek's collector's item.
After becoming PD/OM of WGR (March '95, as I said, "ancient history"), Keymarket flipped 1400 WWWS from Business News to ABC's Solid Gold Soul. I thought this was a better format for 1520 and made the case. Considered. Rejected by Keymarket because it could have adversely impacted 102.5.
Talk of WGR on 1520 took a different turn with the intellectual property of WGR moving to 1520 and the massive day/night 550 signal going Asian/Korean to serve the growing community in Toronto. Questions rose as to where the programming would originate, how would it be overseen and produced. To the best of my knowledge, nobody on the WGR staff was proficient in Korean or Mandarin. The Asian/Korean speculation lasted about two weeks before it was cast aside (to my relief) and life returned to abnormal.
770 WTOR Youngstown probably makes a good buck shooting Asian programing across Lake Ontario on its high power DA-1 signal.
