Mr. Larry Fuss is a true professional broadcaster and has taken on a huge load in Ms. Rumor has it that he is selling out but after some investigation it appears only his Clarksdale station is For Sale! It appears he is keeping the stations in Greenville and Leland but am told it has been a real stuggle. There is only so much money in that market and we can only hope that Larry has the staying power to hang in. Think is managment is in place now.
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Fuss Selling?
- Thread starter nuffsaid
- Start date
The new guys at WROX sure have the place cook'in! I'm impressed!
Did you listen to the stream or on the air?
Not too long ago WROX was rebuilt from the ground up and it has always sounded good when I been close enough to hear over the air.
The stream on the other had no longer sounds that good. It is very over driven and distorted. It also sounds like it's being fed off the FM maybe.
The format sounds like a good fit for Clarksdale. I like it better than the moldy oldies previously heard... It is something anyone can listen to. Just what is needed in Clarksdale since the city is rather under served by the other stations. The others simple sit there like a jukebox. I hear local commercials and DJs. Midday sounds voice tracked and still sounds very good compared to other stations in the area.
Having worked at WROX back in the days of Early Wright. It makes me happy to hear the station make a come back and serve Clarksdale again.
On my last visit to town I heard WROX playing at more than one business I passed through.
Not too long ago WROX was rebuilt from the ground up and it has always sounded good when I been close enough to hear over the air.
The stream on the other had no longer sounds that good. It is very over driven and distorted. It also sounds like it's being fed off the FM maybe.
The format sounds like a good fit for Clarksdale. I like it better than the moldy oldies previously heard... It is something anyone can listen to. Just what is needed in Clarksdale since the city is rather under served by the other stations. The others simple sit there like a jukebox. I hear local commercials and DJs. Midday sounds voice tracked and still sounds very good compared to other stations in the area.
Having worked at WROX back in the days of Early Wright. It makes me happy to hear the station make a come back and serve Clarksdale again.
On my last visit to town I heard WROX playing at more than one business I passed through.
I am way far away from Clarksdale so i listened on line to the stream. The sound was not that good and some of it could be due ot the stream but voice over powering music so much is not a stream problem. Think the station could be "right" for Clarksdale but hope they can work on the professionalism and the sound.
I used to complain about the lack of professionalism in small town Mississippi radio, too. Then I moved to a ranked market with corporate ownership and suddenly, I find myself missing the hokey charm of live-n-local. Remember, Clarksdale is just a small town… the steady stream of hungry jocks coming through small towns, trying to hone their skills in hopes of scoring a gig in a big city are no longer there… the people doing it are doing it because they love small town radio, oftentimes.
Small town radio may have its foibles but that's what gives it character.
Small town radio may have its foibles but that's what gives it character.
Zach, thanks for the reality check! Yes local radio does have a very colorful flavor and I honestly miss that. However, I do feel that processing can be fined tuned in any market to give the station a listenable delivery. The stream could be off the board and before processing and if that is the case why not change it? That is a "non expense" change and an easy fix! Clarksdale is like most of the small markets in the Delta that are struggling for revenue and much can be blamed on the economy but some has to be the lack of sales training and professionalism of the sellers on the street. There are consultants out there that could and would offer help to these markets for more than reasonable fees if contacted.
There aren't many stations that impress me these days. WROX is unique and I like that. It's also not a robot jukebox radio station. There is no other local content on the dial in Clarksdale. I am listening right now and hearing local news.
The other day Paul Wilson was talking about all the live music available for the taking in Clarksdale.
A station that is actually trying to serve the people living right outside the door always will impress to me in the days of hearing Ryan Secrest, Doug Banks, and Michael Baisden at the same time all over the dial in nearly any market in the country.
The music almost reminds me of the groovin' oldies format.
The other day Paul Wilson was talking about all the live music available for the taking in Clarksdale.
A station that is actually trying to serve the people living right outside the door always will impress to me in the days of hearing Ryan Secrest, Doug Banks, and Michael Baisden at the same time all over the dial in nearly any market in the country.
The music almost reminds me of the groovin' oldies format.
G
Groove1670
Guest
WROX sounds very good for a small market station. The stream needs to be worked on. That has nothing to do with the station presentation. It is good.
It is local. That is what matters.
My hat's off to the new owners of WROX, at least they're trying hard to make the station local. I hear some local spots but I don't think it's enough to cover the expenses yet. The new owners are a husband and wife who are probably still paying the bills out of their pockets. I'll bet they haven't even taken a paycheck out of the place yet. Give 'em some slack, it's a whole lot easier to armchair quarterback than it is to actually own and run a business.
Yes, the stream sounds like it's getting a processed feed off the FM...I bet there's only one processor in the whole chain and it's processing EVERYTHING. If you think the audio quality on the stream could use improvement let's all pitch in and offer to buy them a used CRL; they'd probably thank us for it!
Yes, the stream sounds like it's getting a processed feed off the FM...I bet there's only one processor in the whole chain and it's processing EVERYTHING. If you think the audio quality on the stream could use improvement let's all pitch in and offer to buy them a used CRL; they'd probably thank us for it!
nuffsaid said:
That's true. No matter how home-town and local radio is, there's no excuse for bad sound quality. Shoot, we should be happy they're streaming. Mississippi is behind the times in that respect. Fewer stations streaming, some still don't have websites at all! The technical issues that seemed to never get resolved are what really frustrated me as a listener when I lived there.
At least as a whole, processing in rural Mississippi is much quieter and less annoyingly driven than bigger markets, so that's one more thing I miss.
Has anyone else looked at the online pictures of the station? What I see is someone that frugally has cleaned the place up and made things right, even if some things are older. You don't see that often. The place is NICE for Clarksdale, MS. I don't know if this is the work of LF and friends or the new owner, but I'm impressed that someone took the time to improve, fix, and install stuff right even on a limited budget. It's a rare site. Considering LF didn't hang on to the place tells me that it's a pretty hard place to even keep floating. The lack of support of the local biz community there is the root of the difficulty. This new family that have invested in Clarksdale have a huge uphill battle on their hands. I'm just gratful they are trying.
G
Groove1670
Guest
Let them stay in the Top 100 markets ;D
The inside of the station looks great.
That's true. No matter how home-town and local radio is, there's no excuse for bad sound quality. Shoot, we should be happy they're streaming. Mississippi is behind the times in that respect. Fewer stations streaming, some still don't have websites at all! The technical issues that seemed to never get resolved are what really frustrated me as a listener when I lived there.
At least as a whole, processing in rural Mississippi is much quieter and less annoyingly driven than bigger markets, so that's one more thing I miss.
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The bad audio is also a pet peeve of mine. One local station had too much bass, then after they "fixed" it, it had too much treble. they've been working on it and the other day it was loud as hell and the audio kept crapping out but when it was working it sounded better. I checked today, and the audio is better but the volume is so low you have to turn it up just to hear it. barely gets above the static. It's really not worth the trouble. And some of the "good" radio stations are not any better. Some sound like they are being fed some low bitrate stream or satelite feed. I even noticed some digital artifacts on Rush Limbaugh the other day. some of these syndicated shows (and supertalk) sound almost as bad as Sirius radio, at worse cell phone quality. annoying.
At least as a whole, processing in rural Mississippi is much quieter and less annoyingly driven than bigger markets, so that's one more thing I miss.
[/quote]
The bad audio is also a pet peeve of mine. One local station had too much bass, then after they "fixed" it, it had too much treble. they've been working on it and the other day it was loud as hell and the audio kept crapping out but when it was working it sounded better. I checked today, and the audio is better but the volume is so low you have to turn it up just to hear it. barely gets above the static. It's really not worth the trouble. And some of the "good" radio stations are not any better. Some sound like they are being fed some low bitrate stream or satelite feed. I even noticed some digital artifacts on Rush Limbaugh the other day. some of these syndicated shows (and supertalk) sound almost as bad as Sirius radio, at worse cell phone quality. annoying.
The "new standard" for the industry seems to be at an all-time low. Mpeg crud, maybe several generations of it makes it to air and no one cares. IT people and ex-TV repairmen are left to do what broadcast engineers used to do. Although there are plenty of CHEAP ways to set mod properly, many of these guys don't have equipment or even know how to use it. Add to all this that many owners simply want to run the people and equipment until they drop without spending a dime, and you get what passes for broadcasting these days. Oh yeah... The Commish is too busy playing in the public file and trying to action off frequencies to even care. Back in the day they cared and would fine someone for technical deficenties. Now they send ClipBoard Johnny and Papertrail Suzy out to make sure the public file and EAS is 100 percent documented right.
It's even worse when an AM station has an FM sister station. The AM side is put on auto-pilot, shoved in a closet and forgotten. The transmitter etc. rots and when it eventually craps out they go silent. If an AM station has a flea power FM translator, the main AM station also goes down the tubes even though it may actually have a vastly superior coverage area. They may have 5,000 watts on AM and only 99 watts of FM, but the AM will sound like crap. And they only reason they keep the AM running is so they can keep the FM translator. People in fringe areas may not be able to even pick up the 99 watt FM, and have to listen to AM. But if it sounds like garbage, forget it. People say the reason they don't listen to AM anymore is because it sounds bad. When its properly set up, and you listen on a decent radio, AM doesn't really sound that bad at all. Its not necessarily AM radio that sounds bad, most of the time its AM STATIONS that sound bad. I think in the next several years you're going to see more and more AM station go silent. Some of these stations have ancient equipment and when they start to break down, they will not want to blow any money on them and can't afford a new tranmitter so they will be gone forever.
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