High School Football Coverage Lacking in Columbus

[jhc2010]

Live broadcasts of high school football on the radio in the Columbus area seem to be lacking when compared to other parts of the state.

WVKO-AM (1580) Area teams (290 watts Night)
WQTT-AM (1270) Marysville HS (500 watts, directional away from City)
WCLT-AM/FM (1430/100.3) Licking County teams (AM 48 watts night, FM 50,000 watts)
WHTH-AM (790) Licking County teams (26 watts night)
WVSG-AM (820) Central Catholic League teams (790 watts night)
WLOH-AM/FM (1320/104.5) Fairfield County teams (16 watts night)
WFCO-FM (90.9) Fairfield County teams (1200 watts)

In recent years Rewind 104.3 has broadcast games as has 1230 AM, WINF 101.9 Delaware, and 97.5 WOBN Westerville.

A weekly listing of games from across the state can be found here:
http://www.yappi.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5199087

Any reason why fewer stations are broadcasting these games on Friday Nights in the fall?

 

[markbohach]

One correction to your list.

WLOH has two full power FM translators that give give city grade coverage to
both Lancaster and Logan and continuous coverage across about 40 miles of Rt 33.

 

[gabigley1]

If WVKO-AM 1580 dose not renew it's LMA, then you can strike them from the list for next year.

Maybe 1230 will air games during the playoffs? WTVN has also aired games during the playoffs on occasion, but not for last four years or so.

 

[antares]

Expenses > ratings?

 

[markbohach]

Expenses > ratings?

Ok-I'll buy that for the big signals in town.

However, out here in the hinterlands where we don't sell by ratings, broadcasting high school football and basketball
(has been for us anyway) is a huge sales success. We sell out our available game inventory just about every year.

Yes, you incur expenses- but not that much.

And you own a market exclusive, community minded, locally produced product.

 

[xmusicmatt]

Back when I worked for a small market Clear Channel station back in 1999 producing/board oping many high school basketball / football games.. we always sold out our ad spots [heck if 'less wasn't more' we could have ran longer breaks]... people ate that stuff up... we would often get requests from parents who had kids on the teams who heard their kids name on air during a big play and want a copy.

High school sports is quite popular in small market towns.

 

[static_cling]

The OP omitted WHTH's sister station WNKO/101.7. When I worked there, it carried high school football games. I assume this hasn't changed since the tower's move to New Albany.

 

[antares]

That's good to know that the smaller stations still have a following on the radio with high school sports. I presume therein lies the problem for the bigger signals in Columbus: too many teams, no real local connection between a station and a team as well.

 

[schmave]

The OP omitted WHTH's sister station WNKO/101.7. When I worked there, it carried high school football games. I assume this hasn't changed since the tower's move to New Albany.

It has changed. WNKO no longer carries high school games, presumably as part of its effort to shed its Licking County identity and market more to Columbus (and, as the promo says, "all of central Ohio"). All high school coverage is now on WHTH.

 

[static_cling]

The OP omitted WHTH's sister station WNKO/101.7. When I worked there, it carried high school football games. I assume this hasn't changed since the tower's move to New Albany.

It has changed. WNKO no longer carries high school games, presumably as part of its effort to shed its Licking County identity and market more to Columbus (and, as the promo says, "all of central Ohio"). All high school coverage is now on WHTH.

Ya learn something new everyday, dontcha? Regardless of how well the upgraded signal can be heard, I find it interesting that WNKO would deliberately target Columbus. My impression of the move was that the owners intended to primarily serve Licking County and the immediate surrounding area, with any listeners and ad revenue from C-bus being treated as gravy. It *is* a crowded field, no? Has there been any talk of a sale?
When I worked there, the owners generally turned a blind eye to Columbus. Then again, the original 3Kw signal was centered near Newark. Due in part to a directional null, it would quickly turn to static west of about Reynoldsburg. Reception to the north and south of Licking County seemed to be somewhat better.
As for WHTH/790, the nighttime signal was hit-and-miss. Coverage was adequate in Newark, but even in the north side of town it could be spotty.

 

[schmave]

The OP omitted WHTH's sister station WNKO/101.7. When I worked there, it carried high school football games. I assume this hasn't changed since the tower's move to New Albany.

It has changed. WNKO no longer carries high school games, presumably as part of its effort to shed its Licking County identity and market more to Columbus (and, as the promo says, "all of central Ohio"). All high school coverage is now on WHTH.

Ya learn something new everyday, dontcha? Regardless of how well the upgraded signal can be heard, I find it interesting that WNKO would deliberately target Columbus. My impression of the move was that the owners intended to primarily serve Licking County and the immediate surrounding area, with any listeners and ad revenue from C-bus being treated as gravy. It *is* a crowded field, no? Has there been any talk of a sale?
When I worked there, the owners generally turned a blind eye to Columbus. Then again, the original 3Kw signal was centered near Newark. Due in part to a directional null, it would quickly turn to static west of about Reynoldsburg. Reception to the north and south of Licking County seemed to be somewhat better.
As for WHTH/790, the nighttime signal was hit-and-miss. Coverage was adequate in Newark, but even in the north side of town it could be spotty.

I'm not sure it's a deliberate targeting of Columbus as much as wanting to be seen as a station for the entire region, not just Licking County. That said, the vast majority of WNKO's advertisers are in the Newark area and their news is always Newark-centric (although on the day Romney announced his visit there, their top "story" on the afternoon newscast mentioned an area commissioners' meeting set for later that week even hours after the announcement, so take that for what it's worth).
WHTH throws nulls to the north-northeast and west-southwest at night, and in my experience at least the southwest one is pretty substantial. They come in fine in Newark, Heath and Granville at night, and even into northwest Perry County where I live.
I can't tell you any info about sales. I've never worked there and don't personally know anyone who does. All I know is what I've gleaned from listening the past several years.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Highly unscientific of course, but I was Newark not long ago and 4 out of 5 radios I heard were tuned to WNKO. They must have a huge share of listening there, and as schmave points out all the ads are for Newark-area businesses. At least for now, "and all of central Ohio" is probably an afterthought -- or meant to indicate that Newark-to-Columbus commuters can enjoy uninterrupted listening. That said, I've heard NKO in a couple Polaris-area stores.

 

[gabigley1]

Live broadcasts of high school football on the radio in the Columbus area seem to be lacking when compared to other parts of the state.
WVKO-AM (1580) Area teams (290 watts Night)
WVSG-AM (820) Central Catholic League teams (790 watts night)

Noticed last Friday night that the Bishop Watterson Eagles and the Stallions of St. Francis DeSales game was on both WVKO-AM and WVSG-AM.
Usually, I could care less about this(Football) but noticed WVKO-AM has apparently upgraded it's remote broadcast equipment. They said during this game they have upgraded
their equipment as of last week and the new audio is sounding pretty good now. Gary Richards, The WVKO GM said he used to use cell phones for his games.
Sometime the audio sounded so bad Mr Richards must have used a very low quality cell phone. With the background noise at some of the basketball game he used to go broadcast from, it made
listening to some of the the games unbearable. I'm a fan of the station since the audio at WVKO-AM is now pretty good now and listen to some of the shows in case Gary is reading this.

 

[techie2]

Live broadcasts of high school football on the radio in the Columbus area seem to be lacking when compared to other parts of the state.
WVKO-AM (1580) Area teams (290 watts Night)
WVSG-AM (820) Central Catholic League teams (790 watts night)

Noticed last Friday night that the Bishop Watterson Eagles and the Stallions of St. Francis DeSales game was on both WVKO-AM and WVSG-AM.
Usually, I could care less about this(Football) but noticed WVKO-AM has apparently upgraded it's remote broadcast equipment. They said during this game they have upgraded
their equipment as of last week and the new audio is sounding pretty good now. Gary Richards, The WVKO GM said he used to use cell phones for his games.
Sometime the audio sounded so bad Mr Richards must have used a very low quality cell phone. With the background noise at some of the basketball game he used to go broadcast from, it made
listening to some of the the games unbearable. I'm a fan of the station since the audio at WVKO-AM is now pretty good now and listen to some of the shows in case Gary is reading this.

When it comes to game broadcasts, it doesn't matter what kind of cell phone you use, they all sound terrible. The vocoders in the phones just can't handle crowd noise or anything that isn't speech. Land line is okay, but POTS codecs have been around for years and there are now tons of them available on the used equipment market, so there's really no reason to use analog POTS any more.

The newer IP codecs are good for a high quality remote anywhere an internet connection is available, but unfortunately they aren't much help when the cell networks aren't up to snuff. Even the "4G" services are starting to get problematic.

 

[gabigley1]

Live broadcasts of high school football on the radio in the Columbus area seem to be lacking when compared to other parts of the state.

WVKO-AM (1580) Area teams (290 watts Night)

It appears Gary Richards will still be doing live broadcasts of high school football this fall over WVKO-AM.
Have heard him doing live high school basketball over WVKO-AM for the last three weeks over WVKO-AM. This is somewhat of a surprise because it was announced on the last day of the Progressive Talk format that WVKO-AM would cease doing any more live high school sports programming. Gary Richards must have worked out a deal with the new lease holders of WVKO-AM
since then.

 

[schmave]

Live broadcasts of high school football on the radio in the Columbus area seem to be lacking when compared to other parts of the state.

WVKO-AM (1580) Area teams (290 watts Night)

It appears Gary Richards will still be doing live broadcasts of high school football this fall over WVKO-AM.
Have heard him doing live high school basketball over WVKO-AM for the last three weeks over WVKO-AM. This is somewhat of a surprise because it was announced on the last day of the Progressive Talk format that WVKO-AM would cease doing any more live high school sports programming. Gary Richards must have worked out a deal with the new lease holders of WVKO-AM
since then.

I saw him myself at the DeSales-Hartley boys game a few Fridays ago but didn't get to talk to him. It'd be a good thing for the area if those broadcasts can transcend the change in formats.