• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Haritage stations

J

JH_Radio

JohnJax posted something on the North Florida board, which got me to thinking about haritage stations.
I loved Rock105 WFYV/Jacksonville, FL. A harder edged Classic Rocker simular to WYSP in its last incarnation. CBS blew up WYSP too. that was a sad sad day in Philadelphia radio. CBS thinks they can do better with WIP-FM but not sure how that panned out. I think the heritage rockers are dieing. Look at how long WRUF "Rock104" rocked before they blew that up for country?
with so many country station in the Gainsville/Ocala markit, how are they surviving? People aren't into radio as much as they used to be. Why not leave the haratige stations alone? I loved plannit Radio 107.3 WPLA Jacksonville, FL too. Rock isn't the only format i like, but i'm thinkin how long till they blow up WDUV/New Port Richi? The Duv is a good soft AC (though I think they used to lean softer. Look at WPLM. in 2007 they were a much softer AC than they are now. CHR's haritage seem to last longer to me. Why's that? WKRZ, WIOQ, WAPE-FM. I was gonna say is that cause they play newer music and keep the content fresh? but WYSP did all kinds of live on location stuff, even though the music was older. an AOR such as WFYV also plays new music along with the classics, but that is dieing, too.

ALong with your thoughts on haritage stations, who's still around that has been around for ages with the same format or some varyant of the same format?
KYW newsradio started in 1965, isn't that right?
WMMR started in 1968?
KYW is stil news. MMR is still AORE>

What about the stations that are haritage but have been owned by the same company for ages? That percentage is probably less, much less.
WMRF in lewistown, PA might be an example? Perhaps smaller markits have haritage stations that have not changed hands?
WSTW in Willmington, DE has been CHR for a long time, and have they been owned by DelMarVA broadcasting since it became CHR? Dont know how long WSTW has been doing the same format.
 
Los Angeles has a fair amount of heritage stations:

KABC (790): Talk since 1960.
KTWV (94.7): Smooth Jazz since 1987.
KRTH (101.1): Oldies off and on since 1972 (continuously since 1986).
KIIS (102.7): CHR since 1981.
KOST (103.5): Adult Contemporary since 1982.
KPWR (105.9): Rhythmic since 1986.
KROQ (106.7): Alternative since 1979.
 
I overlooked:

KNX (1070) All-news since 1968.

I would have included KLOS (95.5), but I don't remember what year they went Classic Rock. However, they have been doing some form of album rock with those call letters since 1971.

As for same ownership, KNX has been owned by CBS since the 1930s, and KCBS-FM (93.1) since the 1940s.

Mt. Wilson Broadcasters has owned KKGO (105.1) since 1959 and Emmis has owned KPWR (105.9) since 1985.
 
I don't think any station can be called a, um, heritage station anymore, not since corporations swallowed up these properties. So-called heritage stations are under the same umbrella with upstarts with bad signals. These days, a stick is a stick is a stick. JMO.
 
Scout said:
I don't think any station can be called a, um, heritage station anymore, not since corporations swallowed up these properties. So-called heritage stations are under the same umbrella with upstarts with bad signals. These days, a stick is a stick is a stick. JMO.
Click to expand...

The exceptions would be Emmis and Mt. Wilson Broadcasters in L.A. KPWR is a stand-alone under the same ownership for 28 years. KKGO is an AM/FM where the AM has been under the same ownership for 20 years and the FM for 54 years.

And even in the corporate clusters, there are exceptions to the "upstarts with bad signals" idea. CBS Los Angeles? KCBS-FM, KTWV, KAMP, KRTH, KROQ and KNX. All established, successful and strong signals.

Clear Channel L.A.? KHHT, KYSR, KIIS, KOST, KBIG, KLAC, KFI and KTLK. Again, all established stations and the two weaker AMs were both extremely strong before the physical growth of the market went beyond the reach of the signals. Neither classifies as an "upstart with a bad signal".
 
Phoenix
KDKB 93.3 - Album rock since 1971
KOOL 94.5 - Oldies (or variants thereof) since 1971
KUPD 97.9 - Rock since 1979
KESZ 99.9 - Housewife rock Adult Contemporary since 1988
KSLX 100.7 - Classic rock since 1986
KNIX 102.5 - Country since 1969
KVVA 107.1 - Spanish-language since 1987

KFYI 550 (formerly 910) - News/talk since 1985
KGME 910 (formerly 1360 & 550) - Sports talk since 1994
KDUS 1060 - Sports talk since 1995
KOY 1230 (formerly 550) - Adult standards/MOR since the '60s, if not earlier.
KFNN 1510 - Business news since 1988
KASA 1540 - Spanish-language since 1967
 
I guess I don't understand your definition of heritage (or, as you write, haritage) stations.

If by heritage you mean a station has had the same calls for 50 years, who cares? Clear Channel has a cluster of so-called heritage stations in L.A.? Good for them. Bet that all have the same "I Heart Radio" promo running on all those stations every five minutes and air the same jocks and talk show hosts.

I don't hear many stations that do programming worthy of a "heritage" status. Potting up Rush Limbaugh at 11AM doesn't really count.
 
I would have to agree with Scout on this one. WSM is a "heritage" station here in Nashville, but they are as much of a joke as anyone else these days. They have fired popular long-time announcers, and their average listener is probably my parents' age. Ironically enough, my parents are among their listeners.

The threshold for what constitutes a "heritage" station is probably quite low these days! ::)
 
Formats that have been around for 20 years (commercial stations only) are considered heritage to me.
Grand Rapids market
93.7 WBCT - Country since 1992
96.9 WLAV - Rock since 1974 (and has carried the WLAV calls since 1948!)
104.5 WSNX - CHR since 1984
105.7 WSRW - AC since 1962
 
Take KMXV in Kanzis city. They have been doing CHR since at leats 1982.
WDAF Now on 106.5 formaly on AM (dont remember what freq), has been doing country for a long time (not sure how long.)
WOGL has been doing Oldies in Philadelphia since 1987.
WJRR has been doing some form of rock since around 1993 according to there promo.
WHTZ has been doing CHR since 1983
Then there's the question of how long does the station need to be in the format to be considered haritage?
 
WBEB did beautiful Music for a long time before morfing into AC.
I'd have to look up how long it did beautiful music but WBEB in Philadelphia has been AC since 1992.
WYSP had been some sort of rock from I believe 1972 to 2011.
WFYV rocked from 1980 and wil go off at the end of April 2013.
 
WDAF in Kansas City was AM 610....It was the very first radio station I ever heard as a stream over the Web in 1996!

cd
 
A few others come to mind...

KSTP FM - KS95 in the Twin Cities. Has been some form of AC for at least 30 years and I believe owned by Hubbard that long.
WCCO in Minneapolis has been there as long as I have been on earth and probably longer.

KRQQ in Tucson. Has been CHR since the late 70's early 80's?
 
Hartford, CT Market:

WWYZ 92.5 - Country since '88

WKSS 95.7 -CHR since '86 (Interestingly enough they were even called KISS for their last couple years as a Beautiful Music Station. Back then it was KISS 96)

WRCH 100.5 - AC since '88

WDRC 102.9 - Oldies since '88 though it has evolved to Classic Hits

WCCC 106.9 has been Rock & Roll since the late 70s. Recently they've added quite a bit of Classic Rock to the New Stuff.

WTIC 1080 has been News Talk since the early 90s

WPOP 1410 has been Sports Talk since '97 started as 1 on 1 Sports flipped to ESPN about a year later and flipped to FOX Sports in March of 2012.

New Haven, CT

101.3 WKCI has been CHR since the late 70s.


And then sometimes you kill heritage. For example in the Springfield, MA Market. KIX 97.9 WPKX (Enfield, CT) was the Country Station for 20 years. They added a simulcast in November of 2011 on WRNX 100.9 (Amherst), killing off a long time AAA format. (not sure if it was heritage or not). In January 2012 KIX moved to 100.9 only, with 97.9 becoming a Hartford Move in station (WUCS Windsor Locks, CT).
 
You've got to do a LOT more than keep the same set of call letters and the same format for any number of years just to be considered "heritage." Case in point, WKDF here in Nashville. At one time, they broadcast out of the Stahlman building in downtown Nashville, and they had their call letters in big red letters on the outside of that building, visible from the Nashville skyline, at least to the east. The call letters are still on that building, even though they have not broadcast from there in many years. Those call letters are visible from LP Field across the Cumberland River, which is probably appropriate, considering that they at least were (maybe still are) the flagship station for the Tennessee Titans.

But none of that has anything to do with why 'KDF outlived their own "heritage." The problem with them was that they built themselves an image as a "rock" station circa 1969, then proceeded to coast on that reputation for the next 30 years! Those ubiquitous black and yellow KDF bumper stickers were everywhere! I even saw them down in west Tennessee, where I lived at the time, too far away to actually listen to them! They called themselves a "rock" station, and even imaged themselves as one, but they played folks like Huey Lewis and the News, the Thompson Twins, and Cyndi Lauper in the '80s. When we finally got another (classic) rock station in 1998, they repeatedly lampooned "wimpy wimpy KDF" (as they called them) for playing the likes of "All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow. It must have worked, because in 1999, 'KDF finally quit pretending to be a "rocker," and flipped the switch and went country. I still remember listening to 92.3 in Jackson back when I lived in the weststate in the '80s, and the jock there mentioned getting a call from a listener in Waverly one Saturday night who said, "y'all are outrockin' 'KDF tonight!" Even then, I knew that it wasn't particularly hard to "outrock" 'KDF. ::)

'KDF may be building for themselves a new "heritage" as a country station, but I don't listen to enough country music to know for sure. Even now there will occasionally be someone on the Nashville board pining away for 'KDF to go back to "rock," but I have to remind them how bad 'KDF sucked as a "rocker" back in the '80s and '90s. ::)
 
Haritage?

Sorry to be snarky, but I'm always amazed by the number of misspellings and typos on these boards.

In these times, even poor spellers can go on the web and check spelling. It only takes a few seconds, and especially if you're starting a thread, I would think posters would want to get it right.

I just went on Google, and typed in "haritage." I got back about a kajillion hits (and yes, I'm spelling 'kajillion' right ;D) correcting the spelling to "heritage."
 
Using the strictest definition, KNX, Los Angeles still stands...owned by CBS for the past 80 or so years, all-news for 45, and still delivering a high-quality product. WCBS, New York; WBBM, Chicago and KCBS, San Francisco would also qualify.
 
Here is a link to an old thread of mine about a station (albeit a small-town station) that I would consider heritage:

http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=224161.0

The text link in my thread still works, although I could not get the video to play. They have been at it at that station since the '50s, although they were off the air for a few months about four years ago, before returning to the air with new owners. When they signed off in '09, I thought, that was it! But they returned under new owners about four months later. This is one station that I would have written off for dead!

My parents live about a mile from me now, and my dad listens to their "swap-shop" program. ;D

This is probably the closest station to me (distance-wise) that is NOT a joke!
 
I guess the station where I started, KIBS in Bishop, California, fits that mold, too. On air since 1953, with only four owners (1953-1969; 1969-1976; 1976-1995 and 1995-present). All mom and pops. Only the 1969-1976 owner lived out of town. The rest were residents. And the town is only 3,500 people.

Block programmed (Country/MOR/Classical/Top 40/Album Rock Friday and Saturday nights) until 1972, AC daytime Top 40 at night until 1975 and Country since then. All the community service features continue, and the man who owned it from 1976-1995 works for the new owners as Chief Engineer. A couple of the DJs have been there more than 25 years.

The only break in the chain is that it began as an AM. They bought a competing FM in 1981 and moved the KIBS call letters and programming over to it, changed the AM calls and went satellite. Still, that's 32 years unbroken on the FM.
 
Re: Heritage stations

It's interesting how many people posted call letters before any attempt to agree on a definition of "heritage." A lot of stations toss the word around. In station promotion, it seems to mean they've had the format longer than their competitors in the same format.

If we set the bar at 50 years, same calls, same city, same format, there are very few "heritage" stations.

Do we allow changes of owners?
Or change of frequency? Like WQXR-FM. It's been classical forever, but in the FCC license files, it's a different station.
Do we allow for formats to evolve? If a station flips from full service to all news, with a (mostly) clean break (like WBBM), it seems like that should reset the clock. But if a station evolves from full service and over time become talk (like WGN), then the clock keeps running.
What about wholesale personnel changes, especially going from local-live to syndicated or voice-tracked. Seem to me they aren't "heritage" no matter how long they stay with a format. Only local-live stations should be considered.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom