DO YOU THINK CC STATION'S IN ATLANTA WILL CHANGE?????

[BIGSTICK]

From them selling off, do you think the station's they have ruined, which is all of them, will change?????

 

[trusty]

Yes and No.

 

[jbaxter]

From them selling off, do you think the station's they have ruined, which is all of them, will change?????

The sale will fall through, the "Hogan put" of ten dollars under the buyout price will widen until they declare bankruptcy.

 

[AMiable]

The change will not originiate in Atlanta.

Tom Sherr (the bully boy) is running the show from Tampa. The trouble is his Florida strategy is working as well as Rudy Giuliani's.

The countdown clock til Deskins etc all get whacked is at 8 ... 7 ...6 ... 5 ...

 

[jabba17]

For what it's worth, here is what I would do:

--No change for Patron and Viva. Those stations do reasonably well as is with those demos and signals.
--I'd leave Project alone for a few more books to see how it does with 99x gone, 100.5 in the mix, and a tweaked (I assume) Dave.
--I'd put something--anything--else on the Bull. Soft AC, 80s, 60s oldies, AM gold, alternative, Jack, hot talk, yuppie jazz, WGST simulcast, anything. The only situation where I would leave the Bull alone is if I had good info that Citadel is getting rid of one of their country stations...but why should they?
--Spend the money and get some decent shows on WGST. Maybe simulcast on 94.9 after dark (not just Braves games).

Question. Is it possible for someone (with sufficient money, of course ;D) to transplant a (lower-case) clear channel station from another market to Atlanta (assuming that we're talking about an east US clear station, and assuming that there's no other stations with daytime or nighttime protection that have to be dealt with, or would be dealt with as part of the move). NYC and Chicago have, what, about 6 or 7 clear channel stations each, and Atlanta has ONE? ??? Heck, even Nashville has two (WLAC and WSM).

I say this because the only way that WGST (or any other AM talker) will be able to compete with WSB in ATL is with an adequate night signal (and I'm not talking about WCNN's or WDWD's highly directional night signals that cut off significant chunks of the north metro). This would enable them to run shows through the PM drive in winter, carry winter sports games, and keep people from touching that dial when they power down.

I remember when WGST moved from 920 to 640. Some questions related to that:

1) Did 640 become available because of the demise of CONELRAD? Or did that have anything to do with it?

2) I thought I remember hearing at the time that something happened that kept WGST from getting more than their current 1000 watt night signal. I want to say it was a station in NC that wouldn't play along with the deal. I don't know if WGST was looking to get a clear channel on 640 (there's no east US clear on 640), or just something more than 1000 watts.

If Clear Channel can't get a clear channel for its AM talker, could they piece together a network of suburban/exurban AM affiliates--the WPLOs, WFOMs, and WGGAs, etc.--as an alternate? Given the money and willingness to spend it, of course.

 

[RTibbs]

I think each station on the FM dial should be change to a different variation of oldies music. I hear that there is a big market in this town for that format. 96.1 could be Doo-wop, 94.9 could be Old School R & B, 105.3 could be a hippie station and 105.7 could be soft classics from the 70's(oh wait isn;t that the River). Oldies would be big in the ATL with the the amount of young people continously transplanting themselves to the big city, where are they going to get their doo-wop fix from?

 

[Oldiesaholic]

Sounds like a winner to me!

 

[louisNatl]

Don't think that Clear Channel will give up on The Bull that easy. Sure, it's not doing well but they admit that they made a half-ass effort at launching it...No local morning shows or Atlanta personalities. They are just now putting their resources behind it with a morning show and hiring Jamie Massey. I am surprised that we haven't seen another explosion of Bull billboards around town but they may be waiting until the Braves contract runs out to put more muscle behind the station. They could at least pick up some listeners from WNGC, WTSH, and other rimshots that show up in the books.

Project will definitely remain. If they are smart, they will not go in the direction of 100.5 and define themselves as active rock instead.

Viva and Patron will remain also. They do well for their target demo and are crushing La Raza and the rimshot AM stations around town.

96.7 The Legend may do well serving the Southside with classic country. Eagle has been doing well lately but I am not sure how well Eagle's signal penetrates down there.

WGST should accept that they can not compete with WSB, the flagship for Boortz and Clark Howard. With a 50,000 blowtorch, a 24 hour news team, and local talent, this station will always come out on top. WGST should accept the fact that they do very well considering their fare is mostly syndicated. The could build upon their strong shows such as Rush, Dave Ramsey, and Coast To Coast. Maybe they could bring back Phil Hendrie or put Dr. Dean on during the day! The other talk stations, 920 and 1230/1340, barely gain any ratings.

 

[jbaxter]

WGST should accept that they can not compete with WSB, the flagship for Boortz and Clark Howard. With a 50,000 blowtorch, a 24 hour news team, and local talent, this station will always come out on top.

Of course they'll never beat WSB, but a 1.1 share in adults ? They were two and half times higher in 2005 before Randall Doomquist, not to mention billing 400% more than they do now.

 

[Firebird]

--Spend the money and get some decent shows on WGST. Maybe simulcast on 94.9 after dark (not just Braves games).

Question. Is it possible for someone (with sufficient money, of course ;D) to transplant a (lower-case) clear channel station from another market to Atlanta (assuming that we're talking about an east US clear station, and assuming that there's no other stations with daytime or nighttime protection that have to be dealt with, or would be dealt with as part of the move). NYC and Chicago have, what, about 6 or 7 clear channel stations each, and Atlanta has ONE? ??? Heck, even Nashville has two (WLAC and WSM).


If Clear Channel can't get a clear channel for its AM talker, could they piece together a network of suburban/exurban AM affiliates--the WPLOs, WFOMs, and WGGAs, etc.--as an alternate? Given the money and willingness to spend it, of course.

Just put WGST on one of the FM signals. A network of smaller stations won't make a difference. CC is having success with WPGB/Pittsburgh on the FM dial. It's pretty much a syndicated lineup, along with a local sports program in the evening. Plus, they picked up the Pirates last year. Yet, WPGB is giving KDKA a run for its money and usually finishes in the top 5 in the ratings. Can WGST come back to life? Sure it can, but first that gruesome twosome of Deskins and Bloomquist have to be tossed out of the Building of Death. Then, take over one of the FM signals, then get put on some decent local shows. Will it happen? Considering CC/Atlanta always seem to get the rejects from Tampa, there is no chance any changes will occur. Sometimes, you just have to wonder if John Hogan has some sort of vendetta to run the entire CC cluster into the ground.

 

[jabba17]

Viva and Patron will remain also. They do well for their target demo and are crushing La Raza and the rimshot AM stations around town.

96.7 The Legend may do well serving the Southside with classic country. Eagle has been doing well lately but I am not sure how well Eagle's signal penetrates down there.

WGST should accept that they can not compete with WSB, the flagship for Boortz and Clark Howard. With a 50,000 blowtorch, a 24 hour news team, and local talent, this station will always come out on top. WGST should accept the fact that they do very well considering their fare is mostly syndicated. The could build upon their strong shows such as Rush, Dave Ramsey, and Coast To Coast. Maybe they could bring back Phil Hendrie or put Dr. Dean on during the day! The other talk stations, 920 and 1230/1340, barely gain any ratings.

Agree on Patron and Viva. Davis did what everyone expected them to do with La Raza--do "market research" so one of the five C's could come in with a bigger Latino station and poach the market.

You bring up an interesting point with 96.7. CC has used that signal as a test bed for all kinds of formats--Buzz started there, before moving to 105.3 and then to 96.1. Since Eagle has been moving away from classic country, if Legend does well, CC should differentiate Bull by putting the Legend format on 94.9.

There's no technical reason why WGST can't compete with WSB from sunup to sundown; the exception is people tuning their radios to WSB before sunup or changing stations at sundown. WGST is 50kW day. There's plenty of interesting shows they could add. 920 (which has a decent metro signal during the day) and 1230/1340 (which doesn't unless you're ITP or near Cobb County) put up a lot of shows that get great listenership nationwide that WGST could pick up (like they did with Dave Ramsey).

To use a baseball analogy, WSB is major league, WGST is high AAA, WGKA is AA, and WALR/WFOM is rookie league. But WGST insists on not filling their roster with potential major-league talent (except Rush and Ramsey), while WGKA plays above their league with Laura Ingraham, Michael Reagan, Bill Bennett, et al. There's only so many shows that WSB can poach with Boortz and Howard and Hannity stuck on their sked. I'm not sure why WGKA doesn't do any better than they do, particularly as WGST flounders. If CC isn't careful, WGKA will push WGST out of the books.

As I said on another thread, WGST even did better during the Planet Radio debacle.

 

[fussbudget]

WGST was able to latch on to 640 after a failed experiment in minority ownership on that frequency. We knew as soon as Newsradio 92 moved that there were problems with the night signal. I'm not sure why that wasn't obvious prior to the move. After the switch we recorded the the night signal on both 640 and 920 in various parts of the metro area. Not very scientific to be sure but it was easy to hear the difference. 920 had a better signal and night. The decision to simulcast on FM was a good one. I have no idea why that was abandoned, or what if anything can be done to correct the situation.


I remember when WGST moved from 920 to 640. Some questions related to that:

1) Did 640 become available because of the demise of CONELRAD? Or did that have anything to do with it?

2) I thought I remember hearing at the time that something happened that kept WGST from getting more than their current 1000 watt night signal. I want to say it was a station in NC that wouldn't play along with the deal. I don't know if WGST was looking to get a clear channel on 640 (there's no east US clear on 640), or just something more than 1000 watts.

If Clear Channel can't get a clear channel for its AM talker, could they piece together a network of suburban/exurban AM affiliates--the WPLOs, WFOMs, and WGGAs, etc.--as an alternate? Given the money and willingness to spend it, of course.

 

[Barbapapa]

There's no technical reason why WGST can't compete with WSB from sunup to sundown;

There is a big reason and that's the fact that you can't hear WGST in many places around Atlanta.
It's amazing that you and other smart experts can claim that they have an equal signal based on some technical reasons. The fact is that WGST simply does not come in when WSB always does. In Lawrenceville WGST is completely unlistenable. Maybe in a different car it would be but WSB is always there. Even in areas where WGST does make it to the radio, it's easily screwed up by traffic lights or certain busnesses.

Hasn't anyone noticed that WGST has had the most succesful talk show hosts on over the years and yet the ratings still suck? Does everyone in the industry think it must be because of some kind of demographic abnormality in Atlanta and NOT the signal?

 

[taylorengineer]

The 640 frequency used to be reserved for Cuba and there were no US operations at night.
When Reagan started a pi**ing contest with Radio Marti radio/tv Fidel started jamming US radio night operations with superpower transmitters. In response, the FCC allowed 640 to be licensed with night power. The night signal goes all east-west. No significant power towards Fidel. You can still hear Cuban operations, with high power, in the WGST nulls.
I would broker the time away for nights - do some intown real estate show and get some local agents to buy the time. Nights are throw away anyway - look at cumes after 7PM.....they are 1/10th daytime cumes. I'd figure out a way to do continous contesting or something that would actually benefit people enough to make them change their normal evening habits.
Or you could try to use the signal for mind control or contacting extraterrestrials. I remember an old women who used to live close to a transmitter site I maintained who claimed our radio signal made her grown daughter "talk to the devil about sex." At night, when the station was off, she would sleep. But when the sun came up, and the radio station came on, she would wake up and "start talkin' dirty to the devil."
The power of radio.
I have been facinated about the possibility of using a radio signal to contact aliens ever since the first "Outer Limits" TV show back in the 60's. In the very first episode, a radio engineer uses the stations night signal to lure an extraterrestrial into communication. When the night jock finds out the engineer is diverting power for his experiments he turns the transmitter power back up and snares the alien into some kind of earthly energy hold.
WUBL seems to have a real morning show now. Let's see after a couple of books if they are on to something. Country is a very profitable format but you have to make an effort to actually get listeners. CC did not do that at the beginning.
Flip 96 Rock back to 96 Rock. Wait for the PPM,s. The PPM's will be "bery bery goot" to straight ahead R&R.
Leave the Mexicans alone and let the pinestaw fall where it may.

 

[jabba17]

There's no technical reason why WGST can't compete with WSB from sunup to sundown;

There is a big reason and that's the fact that you can't hear WGST in many places around Atlanta.
It's amazing that you and other smart experts can claim that they have an equal signal based on some technical reasons. The fact is that WGST simply does not come in when WSB always does. In Lawrenceville WGST is completely unlistenable. Maybe in a different car it would be but WSB is always there. Even in areas where WGST does make it to the radio, it's easily screwed up by traffic lights or certain busnesses.

Hasn't anyone noticed that WGST has had the most succesful talk show hosts on over the years and yet the ratings still suck? Does everyone in the industry think it must be because of some kind of demographic abnormality in Atlanta and NOT the signal?

I know what you're saying with the listenability...and I don't know why traffic lights affect WGST the way they do versus WSB (and WGUN, and WCNN, and other 50kW AM stations), given the same signal power. It might be WSB's tower being closer to the north metro (across from Northlake Mall), without downtown ATL in the way.

I wouldn't go so far as to call WGST unlistenable, but the signal quality isn't quite the same. But I wouldn't say it's deficient enough to cause people to tune elsewhere, all else being equal (like programming quality).

In the early to mid-1990s, WGST was cleaning WSB's clock. At one point, WGST had Boortz, Rush, AND Clark Howard! Anne Cox Chambers was trying to be a loyal Democrat and build a homegrown Air America with Mike Malloy and other liberal talkers, which failed miserably. When WSB gave up on liberal talk and got Boortz, WGST was able to replace Boortz with a local unknown named Sean Hannity. WSB tried to put Boortz opposite of Rush, where Boortz got killed. When Boortz moved back to mornings, Hannity didn't draw as well as Boortz, but still drew respectably.

It's hard to say exactly when WGST jumped the shark. The popular answer is Planet Radio (1997), but even Planet Radio did okay--certainly not the 1 share of today. I would put it at when Hannity left for NYC and eventual syndication. This left WGST with Glenn Beck (better than the available alternatives), Rush, and the Kimmer. You could also factor in the loss of the FM signal, which hurt AM drive, the Kimmer and PM drive, and any after-dinner shows like Dr. Laura (not that her show hadn't jumped the shark as well).

 

[jabba17]

The 640 frequency used to be reserved for Cuba and there were no US operations at night.
When Reagan started a pi**ing contest with Radio Marti radio/tv Fidel started jamming US radio night operations with superpower transmitters. In response, the FCC allowed 640 to be licensed with night power. The night signal goes all east-west. No significant power towards Fidel. You can still hear Cuban operations, with high power, in the WGST nulls.

WUBL seems to have a real morning show now. Let's see after a couple of books if they are on to something. Country is a very profitable format but you have to make an effort to actually get listeners. CC did not do that at the beginning.
Flip 96 Rock back to 96 Rock. Wait for the PPM,s. The PPM's will be "bery bery goot" to straight ahead R&R.
Leave the Mexicans alone and let the pinestaw fall where it may.

Country is a very profitable format-I think it's tops in $$$ and ratings. But you can only divide the pie so many ways. I think Y106.7's short-lived "young country" format drew in a lot of listeners who would have otherwise turned their nose up at country, by including country rock, Americana, and southern rock in their playlist. Don't know why they dumped it.

 

[davideduardo]

The 640 frequency used to be reserved for Cuba and there were no US operations at night.

And KFI? KFI has been on 640 since well before NARBA. Cuba got a 1-B assignment, not sa full A. And they operated it nicely until they abrogated the treaty under Fidel.

When Reagan started a pi**ing contest with Radio Marti radio/tv Fidel started jamming US radio night operations with superpower transmitters.

The Cuban use of high power transmitters and jamming began in the late 60's, not the 80's. By the 80's, many of the high power Czech built transmitters had become obsolete or could only run lower power. Most of those transmitters had been put on the air before 1970, in fact. There were a couple of 300 kw rigs, a bunch of 120 kw ones, and lots of 60 kw ones. None of those qualifies as superpower, either.

In response, the FCC allowed 640 to be licensed with night power. The night signal goes all east-west. No significant power towards Fidel.

That's not the reason at all. The FCC no longer guaranteed national protection of 1A clears after the breakdown of the clears in the 70's to create gray area service (stations like KTVN in NE or KDWN in NV) and so other opportunities arrose to operate on clears, like WGST... which protects KFI to the West, by the way. It also proyects Cuba because we still honor the treaty.

 

[Barbapapa]

I wouldn't go so far as to call WGST unlistenable, but the signal quality isn't quite the same. But I wouldn't say it's deficient enough to cause people to tune elsewhere, all else being equal (like programming quality).

In the early to mid-1990s, WGST was cleaning WSB's clock. At one point, WGST had Boortz, Rush, AND Clark Howard! Anne Cox Chambers was trying to be a loyal Democrat and build a homegrown Air America with Mike Malloy and other liberal talkers, which failed miserably. When WSB gave up on liberal talk and got Boortz, WGST was able to replace Boortz with a local unknown named Sean Hannity. WSB tried to put Boortz opposite of Rush, where Boortz got killed. When Boortz moved back to mornings, Hannity didn't draw as well as Boortz, but still drew respectably.

I think that any potential of the signal going away will keep a listener from even bothering to tune there in the first place. A listener will not make occasionally leaning forward to adjust the radio part of thier routine or risk going through the effort of choosing a station only to have to change it because it's not available in that time/location.
When a signal goes awry it becomes a shrill nuisence that forces action, why bother when you can leave it on a station that doesn't do that? You could have Jesus and Elvis doing a lively drivetime show but if your radio is going to emit unpleasant static noises at certain times you'll just leave it on any station that sounds normal.
Frequently changing talent and 'formats' (planet radio) doesn't help build a known comfy feeling in listeners either.

That's interesting that WGST used to do well in the early 90s. I swear it seems like the signal wasn't as bad back then. Could that be real? Is there something in the geography that's affected the signal?

 

[AMiable]

One of the forgotten morons in the collapse of CC Atlanta is the former GM Pat McDonnell. The man is responsible for splitting the signal - thereby destroying WGST and providing for Atlanta a catastrophic series of ****-ups at 105.7FM. He also single handedly drove off Georgia Tech sports and the Atlanta Falcons - two revenue sources and programming magnets (football airs on daytime when the AM only signal was not a problem).

 

[taylorengineer]

I stand corrected regarding the 640 allocation and operation of KFI on 640.
Fidel did intensify jamming efforts during the 80's in response to America's Radio Marti. Quite a few Florda stations gor higher power at night to combat the new interference. The Soviets know how to make RF and were in complicity with the Cubans and their efforts.
And 300 Kw does qualify as superpower although there are directional AMs in our country which have over half that much power in their lobes. Also remember, the Cuban engineers are world renown for their use of bubble gum and duct tape to make radios play(and cars run.) A clever bunch they are....if they had the iron to play 300 kilowatts they could make it play 300 kilowatts!