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Format change at WLOD 98.3 Sweetwater

B

BRH

I just noticed yesterday evening that Horne had flipped formats at WLOD 98.3 FM Sweetwater. They had previously been doing classic hits/oldies as "Kool 98.3", but as of yesterday they are now classic rock as "D 98.3, Sweetwater's Classic Rock Station".

During the "Kool 98.3" period, they had been oldies originally and later evolved into classic hits. But they always had really bad cheap sounding sweepers and always had a lot of hiss from the microwave link to the transmitter. But now with the new format, I noticed they have gotten a real voiceover person to do the sweepers, and I'm not hearing the transmitter hiss anymore either. I think in the past they did the programming at Horne's studios in Farragut and fed it down to the Sweetwater transmitter and that's what caused the horrible hiss in the link. I'm wondering if they are now automating it from the Sweetwater studios instead.

Anyway, should be interesting to see how this does. I'm assuming Horne still owns 98.3. It could have been sold. Has anyone heard anything? Also, wonder if Reverand J. Bazzell Mull is rolling over in his grave hearing AC/DC and Led Zeppelin being played on 98.3 (as it was a longtime gospel station he owned for years). Having grown up in the area with WDEH/WLOD being gospel and before that country for years and years, it still makes me do a double take and laugh when I now hear classic rock on that frequency.

But the new format does sound pretty good so far and seems to have more effort put into it than the previous format. Either Horne is trying to improve the station or they are getting it in shape to try and sell it off.
 
Living in Athens I am a frequent listener to 98.3. Listened Friday and noticed no live announcers, just music. Then Saturday morning heard the new format. I must admit I was disappointed. There are already so many classic rock signals in East Tn. that I hated to see thier mix of olides gone. They played a lot of the standard classic rock fare, but also a lot of gems thrown in, a lot of Beatles and the other day I heard "Age of Aquarius". Will miss the variety. So far the classic rock is better than WIMZ or KZ106, but what isn't? I can do without the AC/DC and Ozzy, but its great to hear Elton John on classic rock. This seems to be a "hits" based format and I'm guessing it is satellite. As far as the hiss, I've noticed its gone too. I always thought it was a bad STL.
 
The hiss on the Sweetwater signal was STL noise. They have an extremely marginal path and used to use pre-amps at the receive end, but those kept getting fried by lightning so they just learned to love the hiss. Much worse in warm weather.

They fired one of the AM gospel DJ's. Maybe they've gotten somebody computer literate in there to run the automation from Sweetwater. The old format ran from Chuck Berry to Tears for Fears including everything Bob Dylan ever recorded. Hopefully the classic rock will be done better.
 
A funny note on J Bazell Mull. I remember back in I think it was 1979 or 1980 when WIMZ (then WBIR) flipped from country to classic rock - during their period as a country station every Sunday night (the best I can remember I think it was around 7:00 p.m.) The Mulls had a radio show on 103.5 WBIR. Of course they played gospel. When 103.5 WBIR flipped from country to rock, the Mulls still had some time left on their contract and Mr. Mull REFUSED to let their contract be bought out. So for a little while (again, the memory is fuzzy but it seemed like probably a few months) at 7:00 Sunday night 103.5 would go from hard rock straight into gospel for an hour. You could be hearing AC/DC sing Highway To Hell one minute and the next hear gospel music! What a trainwreck!

WIMZ's variety dissapoints me alot too. I've listened to that station since they started playing rock 28 years ago and they are nothing compared to what they were back in the day. 105.3 The Hog and the new WLOD do have some pretty good variety going on. WLOD has good reception all the way up here in Anderson County.
 
I got to listen to D98.3 for awhile this afternoon. Yeah unfortunately it is a satellite format. I was disappointed in that, although I did like the music mix. Seems odd they would pick this format for that signal. Doesn't 105.7 The Hog already cover 98.3's signal area?

By the way, I've never heard any station call themselves "D" anything. Sounds kind of awkward.
 
RMarino said:
By the way, I've never heard any station call themselves "D" anything. Sounds kind of awkward.
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I remember WDOD FM in Chattanooga calling themselves "Big D96" for a short period in the early 90's or so as a country station. That's the only other time I remember ever seeing a station use "D" as part of their name.

As far as WLOD goes, I'm not sure if it is satellite per se, or one of those services that provides the music library and custom voice cuts each day. Because they are not doing traditional sounding breaks and also I've heard several long breaks that were customized with the dj talking about Sweetwater High School football this Friday and also doing a local weather forecast. Also, many of the commercial breaks are only 1 spot long. This doesn't seem to be a traditional satellite fed format. I'm guessing it is one of the services I mentioned where they provide the music library and record custom voice over cuts either daily or weekly. I remember seeing these services listed in the R&R directory before, but it's the first time I've ever heard a station using them. Anyone else notice this or have any idea what service they are using? I've noticed these locally customized breaks during the midday shift with the female announcer.

Anyway, so far, it's a big improvement over the former all over the place format. Classic rock isn't really my favorite format, but at least the presentation and music are on target this time and sound decent.
 
It is Waitt Radio. Combining 21st century technology with second tier Omaha jocks.
 
Has anyone else noticed that 98.3 is covering a lot of territority all of a sudden? This is a station that is licensed on the old WDEH-AM tower, only 150 feet above average terrain. I think they have changed more than an STL, or transmitter for that matter. Something just ain't quite right...but then again, it is a "Horne" station isn't it?
 
Star 78 said:
Has anyone else noticed that 98.3 is covering a lot of territority all of a sudden?
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Not me. I have a 45 minute commute to work everyday and the 98.3 signal still has its highs and lows in the exact same areas that it always does.
 
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