The other site had a headline "Full power CHR coming to Montgomery?" I'm too cheap to subscribe. Anyone have any dirt?
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Full power CHR?
- Thread starter ThePowerCow
- Start date
Has anyone ever been able to dethrone Y 102 from their perch? I recall WBAM trying contemporary music… and failing… and I'm sure there were other attempts on smaller signals. To me in this context "full power" just likely means "not on a translator", it doesn't necessarily mean one of the big 100 kW equivalent signals.
I don't see any of the iHeart stations changing because they are dominant in the ratings. In fact they own the top three spots with a huge jump in 12+ numbers over everyone else. Bluewater no longer subscribes so I can't see how they are doing these days but they didn't exactly have any barn stormers with the less than useful overall ratings.
Speculation gets us nowhere but since we have nothing better to do, why not? My vote for likely flip candidates are, in order: WQKS, WACV, WBAM.
I could see WQKS switching their current CHR HD-3 format "Hits 107.1" for the main channel and shuffling the classic hits off to the subchannel. WACV is the only FM talk station in town but the ratings aren't great and there seems to be a national trend towards burnout in the format. Going CHR could pull a little from WHHY and decimate the Hits 107.1 translator just by having a slightly better signal. WBAM isn't that likely because I suspect like most of the rest of the south "second place country" is still making money hand over fist; but it did go slightly CHR once before and there may be some desire to do it again, since it's the only "underperforming" big signal in the market.
I don't see any of the iHeart stations changing because they are dominant in the ratings. In fact they own the top three spots with a huge jump in 12+ numbers over everyone else. Bluewater no longer subscribes so I can't see how they are doing these days but they didn't exactly have any barn stormers with the less than useful overall ratings.
Speculation gets us nowhere but since we have nothing better to do, why not? My vote for likely flip candidates are, in order: WQKS, WACV, WBAM.
I could see WQKS switching their current CHR HD-3 format "Hits 107.1" for the main channel and shuffling the classic hits off to the subchannel. WACV is the only FM talk station in town but the ratings aren't great and there seems to be a national trend towards burnout in the format. Going CHR could pull a little from WHHY and decimate the Hits 107.1 translator just by having a slightly better signal. WBAM isn't that likely because I suspect like most of the rest of the south "second place country" is still making money hand over fist; but it did go slightly CHR once before and there may be some desire to do it again, since it's the only "underperforming" big signal in the market.
The real issue is billings. I don't think anyone would want to go after WHHY because it is down at 7th in billings with less than half the revenue of the top station, WZHT.
Of course, Cumulus has managed to lose half the ratings and revenue that the station had just a decade ago, so one could say that the format, well done, might get a bigger share of audience and revenue.
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The Other site reports that 3rd station would be coming, so that would have to rule out Bluewater and cumulus.
Most insiders know well enough that the managing partners of bluewater refer to 96.1 as their personal "Baby", so i don't see hits moving there, maybe switching with 98.9 though.
Hot 105.7 has been throwing some CHR into the mix over the past year and a half, so it's possible that Hot could move to either 104.3 or 97.1 and the new chr would land at 105.7
there has been talk of a new move in with CP for hope hull, but i don't think that's every going to hapen.
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that has to do mostly with Mix 103.3 moving to Hot AC with a rich CHR lean to it.
I've heard different sources, one says yes, but not much..another says no.
It's either #1 or #2 in the 12+ ratings I saw recently, so I would assume so.
I had forgotten about the move-in from the Wiregrass that JD mentioned. It's been in the pipeline so long I think everyone forgot! But that might actually be the best guess yet. There were several puzzle pieces involved for the move to happen, and they've all occurred. First, WDBT 93.7 licensed to Hartford had to sign off, then WAAO had to move to 93.7 from 103.7. Then WLDA which had been silent on 103.9 came back on air to host 93.7's talk programming, and it took those WDBT calls as well as received a permit to boost its coverage. The final thing is for 93.5 to sign on from south of Montgomery.
My biggest question about 93.5 is ownership, or future ownership. The licensee is Brantley Broadcast Associates, which is a name that apparently exists solely to take ownership of "troubled" facilities and get them optimized or moved to a better location. It's part of Reynolds Technical Associates if I remember correctly and is closely aligned with Great South Wireless. Great South is behind a few move-ins in Alabama like taking Clanton's 97.7 and moving it closer to Shelby County and launching the oldies "Peach" format, as well as taking the 97.7 out of Oneonta and moving it to the Huntsville area and launching the sports "Zone" format. I guess moving a station from south Alabama to Montgomery and launching CHR wouldn't be out of the question, either.
I guess i'm one of the few that actually remembers / cares??
the last new sign i'm aware of has been a low power FM, WKEM-LP that plays R&B, and does it really well, it's a shame the owner doesn't have some kind of website or social media presence.
Right now, the 2 companies worth keeping an eye on would be Terry Barber's Little engine broadcasting, which seems to be chugging along quite well (pun intended) and Al Stroh's company that owns the river and the ticket. I remember when Al stroh tried to take on 'HHY in the mid 90's with Star 98.9 and having some success.
Whoever this new station is owned by, will need to hit the ground running with a strong on air team and probably a good investment in aggressive marketing to get the word out (TV, Billboards, Street team van) as well and plenty of interactive social media engagement.
I wish I could; Lance has some pretty reliable information from what I've seen. But I'm in the process of shedding costs, not taking on new ones, so a subscription to his site is currently out of the cards. My website and radio in general is just a hobby for me, and it's not something I can really afford to spend a lot of money on. As it stands, I can't even really afford to keep the domain and hosting going year to year. I'm currently letting a few magazine subscriptions lapse and that money will go towards keeping my site up for another year.
Yeah, i know the feeling. My Internet Radio station is nothing more than a hobby, i recently switched to a free form rock format just for fun, but i've gained a ton of listeners.
Maybe 105.7 could just switch th Rhythmic CHR, then they could keep the Hot 105.7 branding and everyone would be cool with it.
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