HANK and GOLD

[AJ1952Chats]

Indianapolis had the most wonderful oldies station on for awhile called WGLD (GOLD 104.5).I was sorry to see it go.It was replaced by something called JACK, and I wasn't that impressed with what I heard on it.Fortunately, there's still WERK out of Muncie when I want to listen to oldies. I still miss GOLD because it was the Mercedes of oldies.Mostly, these days, I listen to the best country music station I've heard in ages: WLHK (HANK 97.1).When I listen to it, I can tell that it's a country station instead of a station trying to be all things to all people.Although I heard one when traveling through Ohio a few years ago, it's been quite awhile since I'd heard a country music station sound so much like a country music station so consistently.Lately, I've even started to notice some blasts from the past (that is, the GOLDen past) starting to settle in at HANK's place: The Channel 8 news team and Scott Records Roddy.Any other HANK and GOLD fans out there?

 

[spark gap]

I am just glad to see someone give WFMS a serious run for once. They have had it too easy for too long. They need to suffer like the rest of us.

 

[MikeStandardsFromIndiana]

How can the Channel 8 news team be on Hank when Channel 8 has a Deal with Q95 to provide Hourly news to them. The Only TV station Hank could afflilate would be Fox 59. Channel 13 and WFMS are Together, Channel 6 and WKLU have a deal. Plus the q95/Channel 8 deal.

 

[AJ1952Chats]

I am just glad to see someone give WFMS a serious run for once. They have had it too easy for too long. They need to suffer like the rest of us.

HANK is always advertising about how some station has call letters that probably stand for WeForgetManySongs

 

[AJ1952Chats]

How can the Channel 8 news team be on Hank when Channel 8 has a Deal with Q95 to provide Hourly news to them. The Only TV station Hank could afflilate would be Fox 59. Channel 13 and WFMS are Together, Channel 6 and WKLU have a deal. Plus the q95/Channel 8 deal.

Let me correct my mistake. I think that I heard a commercial by them on there--as in advertising their TV news program.

 

[k105mark]

Anyone noticed how Hank is trending downward, now?There's only so much Freddie Fender that a listener can take. It's okay to play some old country, but make sure it's the best.

 

[AJ1952Chats]

Anyone noticed how Hank is trending downward, now?There's only so much Freddie Fender that a listener can take. It's okay to play some old country, but make sure it's the best.

HANK doesn't just play SOME old country. "He" plays a LOT of old country. This is, in a way, like an oldies station for country music--but the definition doesn't just stop there, because it's a good place for hearing the best of today's country hits.I don't know if HANK is trending downward or not. I just know I love what I hear whenever I tune in! :-*

 

[spark gap]

Anyone noticed how Hank is trending downward, now?There's only so much Freddie Fender that a listener can take. It's okay to play some old country, but make sure it's the best.

I'm not sure what the trends are; but I know what it is billing. Damn site better than Real97. No one knows for sure how it or Jack will do in the long haul. What we do know is Indianapolis is big enough to support two country stations. The thing I like about it; it seems to have expanded the country share in the market vs. siphoned directly from WFMS. WFMS is down considerably, however they are not having to eat at the Wheeler Rescue Mission either.Good competition is healthy. Lafayette and Terre Haute could use some good competition to both K105 and HI 99. Saga's WIXY slaughtered the heritage country station in the Champaign market a few years ago (granted WIAI was awful) The Crock in Terre Haute is just that...we'll see what WACF in Paris does.Is there another equivalent signal country station in Lafayette to compete with KOA? Or is just some under funded rimshot out of Attica?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

WACF is off the bird, it isn't competition for Hi-99.There is no place to turn in Terre Haute for older country -- Hi-99 claims to be the "home for the legends", but ... hahaaha. WW1's Mainstream Country (WACF) is also heavy on contemporary artists. It explains why Bullet WWBL shows up in the arbitrons for Terre Haute. Crock is probably the best classic country station in terre haute that has a decent signal.I can take a lot of Freddy Fender. I have at least one of his albums.

 

[AJ1952Chats]

WACF is off the bird, it isn't competition for Hi-99.There is no place to turn in Terre Haute for older country -- Hi-99 claims to be the "home for the legends", but ... hahaaha. WW1's Mainstream Country (WACF) is also heavy on contemporary artists. It explains why Bullet WWBL shows up in the arbitrons for Terre Haute. Crock is probably the best classic country station in terre haute that has a decent signal.I can take a lot of Freddy Fender. I have at least one of his albums.

Yeah! Freddy Fender is really talented--and it doesn't hurt that he's also a studmuffin (or he was the last time I looked--always made me think of a slightly-older Freddie Prinze, Sr.).Country doesn't always have to be chronologically-older to be "real" country. Some of the legends such as Randy Travis are still giving us great stuff today--and some new artists who are barely old enough to shave really have a clue about that sound that proclaims "Hey! I'm a real country song being done by a real country singer!" and are proving it by putting new material out there to be enjoyed!

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Indianapolis had the most wonderful oldies station on for awhile called WGLD (GOLD 104.5).Mostly, these days, I listen to the best country music station I've heard in ages: WLHK (HANK 97.1).When I listen to it, I can tell that it's a country station instead of a station trying to be all things to all people. Any other HANK and GOLD fans out there?

Hank is one of the greatest produced/presented stations in the State. Just enough attitude without being over the top. I sat and listened to Hank while eating lunch at Subway in Knightstown. Gatlin Brothers (All the Gold in California). What a great song no one plays. And I don't like "old country" either. I heard a current and a year old recurrent followed by another blast from the past. One comment abohut Hank vs WFMS and the only thing anyone lsitens to WFMS for is the record company promioted contest to meet Toby kieth that no regular listener has a chance of winning anyway. Kind of interesting this sounds like the EMI contest that got the New York Attorney General to work on payola. WFMS and their parent have a great Arbitron gimmick...sending requests to lsiten on Thursdays out to specific zip codes. This is why they still have any listeners.

 

[AJ1952Chats]

Indianapolis had the most wonderful oldies station on for awhile called WGLD (GOLD 104.5).Mostly, these days, I listen to the best country music station I've heard in ages:  WLHK (HANK 97.1).When I listen to it, I can tell that it's a country station instead of a station trying to be all things to all people. Any other HANK and GOLD fans out there?

  Hank is one of the greatest produced/presented stations in the State. Just enough attitude without being over the top.  I sat and listened to Hank while eating lunch at Subway in Knightstown. Gatlin Brothers (All the Gold in California).  What a great song no one plays. And I don't like "old country" either. I heard a current and a year old recurrent followed by another blast from the past.  One comment abohut Hank vs WFMS and the only thing anyone lsitens to WFMS for is the record company promioted contest to meet Toby kieth that no regular listener has a chance of winning anyway. Kind of interesting this sounds like the EMI contest that got the New York Attorney General to work on payola.  WFMS and their parent have a great Arbitron gimmick...sending requests to lsiten on Thursdays out to specific zip codes. This is why they still have any listeners.

I love old country!  In fact, that's one of the things I too often found missing on several of today's country stations.  That's not the case with HANK, however, because he's not ashamed to play it!

 

[MightyFrenchman]

Hank is well-presented but I don't listen because I don't like country music.

 

[AJ1952Chats]

Hank is well-presented but I don't listen because I don't like country music.

That's a good enough reason not to listen! L :-* L

 

[countryradio]

Hank is not that great of a radio station...no real format of where they schedule songs. FMS is still the best country station in Indiana.FMS personalities aren't the greatest, other than JD Cannon but as a whole the station is just better. The we play anything format of any station won't last long. If you are playing songs that people have never heard of before then you aren't going to have a huge listening audience.If you look at the ratings both stations need to do something. They are both trending down but as a whole station FMS is better. They do more stuff that matters to a listener.Also, FMS would never do a contest where a local, normal listener couldn't win.Bob Richards and his staff are too good for that.Until Hank has people who know country music running things, they won't win.

 

[AJ1952Chats]

Hank is not that great of a radio station...no real format of where they schedule songs. FMS is still the best country station in Indiana.FMS personalities aren't the greatest, other than JD Cannon but as a whole the station is just better. The we play anything format of any station won't last long. If you are playing songs that people have never heard of before then you aren't going to have a huge listening audience.If you look at the ratings both stations need to do something. They are both trending down but as a whole station FMS is better. They do more stuff that matters to a listener.Also, FMS would never do a contest where a local, normal listener couldn't win.Bob Richards and his staff are too good for that.Until Hank has people who know country music running things, they won't win.

The "songs that people have never heard of before" are, likely, the songs that PLENTY of us have probably heard of way-back-when, have been missing, and are glad to have back.I grew up in the days of where you could even request something spontaneously (and they're doing that on HANK now) and have it played almost immediately. I remember that one of my friends was feeling very depressed one day during the Christmas season of 1977, and I got out of the car and went over to a pay phone to call WIRE. I explained about my friend, gave her name, and requested that Jingle Bells by The Singing Dogs be played and dedicated to her.Just minutes later, the DJ dedicated the song to Edith and played it. This friend--someone far away from her home country of Lebanon whose dad had recently passed away--giggled and laughed as if she had swallowed a feather.Even though this little unexpected distraction didn't take away from the fact that her dad was now gone before she had the chance to fly back and visit with him and that she had been unable to afford the flight back to attend his funeral, it really did lift her spirits a lot.Go forward to 1986 when another friend--one who had just been through an especially rough year--turned fifty. I wanted to play a request for him on his birthday. I knew, by that time, that radio stations didn't seem to do spontaneous requests anymore they way that the people at WIRE had for Edith, but I heard that they could if you requested far enough ahead.So I requested what was his favorite song at the time. I think I did this about two weeks in advance--and, at least, one week in advance. I will say that they did do a nice dedication to him (that is, telling where he lived, his name, and that he was celebrating his 50th birthday), but they didn't play the song I'd requested. Instead, they played another song by the same artist, and the DJ explained that the song I'd requested hadn't been in the line-up at that time, so this was the best they could do.I didn't lay blame on the DJ (at WFMS) but, instead, on the times. I was sad to see requests go by way of the dinosaur.GOLD 104.5 brought back the requests option at given times. Now, HANK is bringing back that more spontaneous way of doing things to country radio.At one time, you had to log in what you'd played if you were a DJ (fair enough so that artists could get paid when you used their songs), but you could make up your list as you went along if you wished--and, at least, you (if a DJ) had the basic control of what played instead of its being decided by some committee somewhere.I hope that HANK hangs around for a very long time!

 

[countryradio]

When you hear Shania Twain followed by Merle Haggard or Charley Pride, that isn't good scheduling. A mainstream country song should never be followed by a classic country song like that especially!That is just one of the many reasons Hank won't last.

 

[AJ1952Chats]

When you hear Shania Twain followed by Merle Haggard or Charley Pride, that isn't good scheduling. A mainstream country song should never be followed by a classic country song like that especially!That is just one of the many reasons Hank won't last.

I tend to disagree, because I think what HANK is doing is giving listeners the feel of being in an informal setting with a guy named Hank and his buddies, and they're all sitting around in his family room listening to the songs in his CD collection (the one he got to keep in the divorce settlement).He's not thinking about, "Which song goes well with the last one?" and neither are his guests. It's more like, "I'm in the mood to play this song!" and most of the guests are just fine with that.Anyway, I think it's a good concept that has the potential to last. It's like being in a restaurant and listening to the jukebox. The songs on the jukebox aren't arranged in any sort of format other than somebody has popped in some coins and selected his/her favorite songs; somebody else has popped in some coins and selected his/her favorite songs; and so on and so-forth. And the jukebox just plays them in the order in which they're requested.

 

[voicetrack]

country radio said: A mainstream country song should never be followed by a classic country song like that especially!Spoken like a radio person. Do you REALLY think the listener cares? I'm betting they dont. Some programmer along the way told you that, and you believed it.Now, I'm not trying to start an argument with you. I'm just asking why you think the statement is true.

 

[countryradio]

If you play Shania Twain followed by Merle Haggard it sounds like a train wreck.Shania is too contemporary to play before or after a Merle song...there has to be some song in between to off set the two.And to say that a programmer said that to me along the way is actually a false statement.I am a programmer and that is my feeling. Hank came on strong and now is starting to fade in the ratings. We'll have to see what happens with the new jocks they have to see if it works or not.The jocks on that station don't seem to be a good fit for country radio, which could be good or bad.You have to know the music, and you also need to know the history of the music. If you don't, the listener can tell!