• 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

If WMID can survive, why can't WHAT?

R

Radio Wreck

I just listened to WMID on my lunch break with a fair signal here in Bucks County. The oldies they were playing were... OLD. So why can WMID play oldies on AM and survive in Atlantic City but WHAT can't do the same in Philadelphia where there are a lot more people, businesses, and where there is a hell of a lot more money?

Is WMID a hobby station that is funded by an eccentric millionaire? Is it actually turning a profit? Or is it that the owners of WMID are much less greedy than radio companies in this area? I thought it was impossible to sell 50's and 60's on AM in 2011. At least that's what everyone here is saying.

Any thoughts?
 
WMID signed on Memorial Day, 1947. It is a good format, and heaven knows that with more than 63 years of music behind them they have plenty of music. They have pretty good sponsors too. Maybe you will never find out how WMID can survive, because even in the days of the Internet some things are just not put out there for the competition to see. They already have armpit types across the bay using their material for their own FMs, which obviously cannot make it without preying on what they perceive to be weak.

Let's see, 1947 vs a new gal in town long about 2005. That 1947 is more like a brand new box of matches, and what he knows you ain't had time to learn, as the song goes. Pretty cool, eh?
 
As directional AM WHLI is (was) to Long Island, so is omni WMID to South Jersey.

WHLI's water-path 10000 watts at one point, during better programming, took its influence into at least a half-dozen survey books aside from their native Nassau-Suffolk one. And that east signal was an easy catch for decades for a few million people in their own home book.

WMID at one time sported the 'tallest tower in South Jersey'. If they have owned the tower site land all these years, then in the past and at present they are situated to do as they please. In reality, their omni signal is a huge directional signal to the east, north and south, with not bad coverage to the west. Although I haven't DXed from Long Island for years, I can state that WMID was one of the loudest AM stations on the whole dial along the South Shore of Long Island, from Jones Beach all the way out to the Hamptons. I have to conclude that their nearer shore community signal was better than the other three Class IV signals, on 1490, 1450 and 1230.
WHAT doesn't have that advantage. When I listened in late afternoon from as close as the NE Philadelphia Airport, they'd be getting chewed up a bit. (Probably some of it by WMID, lol.) But with a Reading 1340 upstream on the Schuylkill pretty close by, WHAT doesn't blanket that west-northwest region, either. Philadelphia has more people than Metro Atlantic City, certainly. But Philadelphia also has a lot more huge AM signals than that of WHAT.

Word also has it that WMID (as well as the other Atlantic City stations) used to live off the summer revenue, cramming in as much beach/tourist advertising as possible during the season and stowing the preserves for the winter. WHAT is not privy to a similar season.

That signal factor is probably just a part of WMID's success, but I think it's indisputedly a part.
 
Isn't that easy listening station down in Wildwood 93.1 FM WEZW owned by the same outfit as WMID? Just like WMID, this WEZW outfit is an oddball station playing a genre of music hardly anyone else plays. Who else still plays Barry Manilow and Englebert Humperdink? And I hardly if ever hear any commercials on WEZW when I'm down the shore. So, similar to the question above about "how does WMID" survive, I gotta ask the question "how does WEZW survive?" Are these stations tax writeoffs or something? LOL Are they owned by someone with a ton of money who does radio for fun? Either way, WMID and WEZW are super cool stations. The shore's lucky! Wish Philly was lucky enough to have stations like that.
 
to answer and clafify: yes, wmid does turn a profit. its' only expense is a computer, a transmitter, the electicity to run both, commissions, royalties, and a person to load the spots and traffic. the stations (wcmc) are basically sold as a combo with its' fm sisters wayv/waiv and wzxl. it has a profit center here at the shore with its' phillies franchise. it has no live programming at all...to me its' one sad story. it is a jukebox.

its' sister fm WEZW in wildwood at 93.1 does not earn a penny in DIRECT billing, but read on. other than the simulcast of the phillies with wmid/wcmc, the station is 100% commercial free. yes, commercial free, even in summer. the music is very listenable for and older demo like myself (mid 50's) and is used to nip a piece of wfpg's, wtku's and wibg's audience share and cume, nothing more. this allows it's big sisters wayv/wzxl to move up in their rankings, and charge more, earning its' keep in that way. and it does exactly that!
 
I can state that WMID was one of the loudest AM stations on the whole dial along the South Shore of Long Island, from Jones Beach all the way out to the Hamptons. I have to conclude that their nearer shore community signal was better than the other three Class IV signals, on 1490, 1450 and 1230.
Click to expand...

The loudness factor for WMID was primarily because its big fat Blaw-Knox tower had suberb bandwidth, so the audio sidebands, especially midrange and treble, were higher than most stations at the time. The location and/or ground system of the tower might have been a bit better for a signal towards Long Island than 1490 or 1230 (or 1400 for that matter), but 1450 was just as well positioned.

to answer and clafify: yes, wmid does turn a profit. its' only expense is a computer, a transmitter, the electicity to run both, commissions, royalties, and a person to load the spots and traffic. the stations (wcmc) are basically sold as a combo with its' fm sisters wayv/waiv and wzxl. it has a profit center here at the shore with its' phillies franchise. it has no live programming at all...to me its' one sad story. it is a jukebox.

its' sister fm WEZW in wildwood at 93.1 does not earn a penny in DIRECT billing, but read on. other than the simulcast of the phillies with wmid/wcmc, the station is 100% commercial free. yes, commercial free, even in summer. the music is very listenable for and older demo like myself (mid 50's) and is used to nip a piece of wfpg's, wtku's and wibg's audience share and cume, nothing more. this allows it's big sisters wayv/wzxl to move up in their rankings, and charge more, earning its' keep in that way. and it does exactly that!
Click to expand...

Bill you've got it exactly right!
 
I've probably mentioned this elsewhere, but it's worth repeating IMNSHO. WHAT has few options left to save itself.

Should it choose to remain a Philadelphia licensed and operated station, it could try to offer urban preachers and churches a voice. Another option might include offering unique music and brokered programming. In other words, an 'urban' version not too dissimilar to that of Pottstown's WPAZ. With the latter option, the station could exist as a non-commercial entity.

Now, other options might include allowing the COL to be moved to an adjacent community such as Bala Cynwyd, Upper Darby or perhaps Cherry Hill NJ and run a full-service local format. Another option might be to give the owners of WVCH in Chester an opportunity to take over on 1340. Even if the station cannot broadcast with a full kilowatt, and must go with either a 500- or at worst a 250-watt signal full time, the limitations of the daytime signal could be made up with a better nighttime signal than can be had at 740.
 
amfmsw said:
to answer and clafify: yes, wmid does turn a profit. its' only expense is a computer, a transmitter, the electicity to run both, commissions, royalties, and a person to load the spots and traffic. the stations (wcmc) are basically sold as a combo with its' fm sisters wayv/waiv and wzxl.
Click to expand...

And that, simply put, is the answer to why WMID can survive and WHAT can't. WMID is part of a six-station group, and WHAT is a stand-alone 1K AM station. WHAT is an orphan, and that's not good in the dog-eat-dog world of radio.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom