I'm sensing some changes

[BadumpBadump]

Yeah, Yeah I know i said this before but there may be a shake up on the rise before the holidays..keep an ear out! quite possible a morning show?

 

[Feralcat]

And over and over and over with this one and you're not even identifying which station but obviously you mean Coast. What's management doing? Deciding whether or not to can the crew for Thanksgiving or Christmas? I don't like the morning show but I'm a young guy so it isn't aimed at me. I still think they'll sink that place if they replace it. Maybe they're setting Coast up for failure so they can put HJJ on FM then sell the AM.

 

[Skynet74]

It's only a matter of time before Whoopi shows up on coast. I don't think it's even a matter of "IF". It's just a matter of "WHEN".

 

[MarcB]

It's only a matter of time before Whoopi shows up on coast. I don't think it's even a matter of "IF". It's just a matter of "WHEN".

If that is the case that everyone in the listening rage of "The Coast" needs to head down to CVS and stock up on earplugs.


Also I don't know if this what brought up previously, but that wanna-be Providence AM station with it's COL in Attleboro, MA switched formats from Sporting News Radio back to talk, as the LMA for the person or group programming the Sports Format expired. Some outfit called Universal 7 Radio is now LMAing the station. (don't know if they're LMAing it 24/7) http://www.universal7radio.com/

 

[PaulBWalkerJr]

Universal 7 Radio looks like a bunch of crackpots.

I know WARL is still running some programming from sporting news, some programming from Accent Radio and some Universal 7..

Can we say identity crises?

 

[MarcB]

As far as I know they've always have had an identity crisis. When I first heard of WARL it was in NERW in 2000 or 2001 when they were supposed to be running that Web Access Radio Live format, which supposedly is where the WARL call letters came from. Then I know they flipped to Standards and the calls were said to stand for All(star)Radio Legends. Then in May or June of 2003 they went hip-hop as POWER 1320 aquiring the music library from then sister station WNTY 990 in the Hartford Market. That last for a while and they gradaully switched to a talk format and eventually took on the identity of Reality Radio 1320. By the Summer of 2004 they were still talk, but their identity was now 1320 The Drive. (How a talk station got the nickname The Drive, I'll never figure out). By 2005 they were sports running mostly The Sporting News Network still as 1320 The Drive. Now as of October 2006 they're sort of running talk. Don't know what they're calling the station. I haven't listened in quite a while and it doesn't seem like they're worth listening to any more. At least when they were running Sporting News Radio it was remotely interesting for me to turn on their stream.

That's 7 identity changes since 2000. (6 years). Of course their former sister station in Hartford isn't any better. They too have had 7 (Spanish [La Brava], Hip-Hop [Blaze] Talk [NOTTY], Talk [The X], [station sold] Spanish AC [SuperMax], Tropical [Power], and Talk [Talk Radio 990]).

 

[PaulBWalkerJr]

WNTY/WXCT and WARA/WARL have a severe case of Multiple Personality Disorder or Identity Crisis.

Maybe both??!!??

 

[rapking]

I see dead stations .

 

[martin1945]

<<When I first heard of WARL it was in NERW in 2000 or 2001 when they were supposed to be running that Web Access Radio Live format, which supposedly is where the WARL call letters came from. Then I know they flipped to Standards and the calls were said to stand for All(star)Radio Legends. >>

WARL was originally WARA which stood for Attleboro Radio Association. Their studio was in downtown Attleboro and the transmitter was near Falls Pond in North Attleboro. They operated with 1000 watts of power to the local communities around Attleboro.

Martin

 

[AKLes]

WARL was originally WARA which stood for Attleboro Radio Association. Their studio was in downtown Attleboro and the transmitter was near Falls Pond in North Attleboro. They operated with 1000 watts of power to the local communities around Attleboro.

The studios were in a bank building, upstairs in what was once a Lodge Hall. I think the transmitter is still near Falls Pond but it has been years. ND days/DA nights. The towers were oddly matched; different "faces" and heights which made setting up the directional pattern nightmarish.

The station did well into the 1960's with a full-service community-oriented format serving Attleboro and North Attleboro. The owners had some thoughts of building a small empire and bought (then) WYNG-1590 (daytimer) which was licensed to Warwick-East Greenwich. It's now WARV. The "AR" in the middle of WARV and WARL is purely coincidental. Attleboro Radio Association bought 1590 as WYNG and left it that way; never changing the call to reflect anything about ownership. WYNG was run as a community-oriented station and, for several years, operated a store-front studio in East Greenwich in addition to the main studio in Apponaug. There was a very good commuter audience; Route 1 through EG was a primary route to Quonset Naval Air Station.

What did both stations in was a change in the dynamic of the entire market. As Providence (and nearby) residents moved outward for single-family houses and larger backyards they pretty well kept their Providence identities. They had no interest in "local" activities or "local" stations. Increasingly Providence stations included the outlying communities in their news and even stuff like school closings. Both stations lost audience and advertisers. WYNG was first to go; sold a couple of times before settling into the present religious-oriented ownership.

Of the two, I'd estimate that WARV came off best in the deals. It found a niche format and the owners shrewdly deveoped the coverage with increased power and directional pattern. I'd guess that WARL will sort of waffle through multiple hands and perhaps one day be bought up by somebody with a station on an adjacent frequency, perhaps closer to Boston, simply to shut it down and let the "other" station get to higher power or a better pattern.

The new development in Charlestown; new station....maybe that part of South County has developed enough of a sense of community to make it viable but the former WERI and WKFD experiences suggest that might not be an easy trick.

 

[Skynet74]

I was a guest on WARA when they were in the Bank Building in Attleboro. What a hole in the wall dump.

 

[PaulBWalkerJr]

Re: I'm sensing some changes, WARL

And from what I heard from a friend, the studios are still a hole-in-the-wall-dump!

 

[AKLes]

I was a guest on WARA when they were in the Bank Building in Attleboro. What a hole in the wall dump.

In latter years, your description is apt.

When WARA was first put on the air radio was a different creature. The old Masonic Hall worked pretty well for "then". The "control room" was sort of elevated and the old performance hall setting remained. Nice for live musical performances, etc. There was a similar situation at the old WNBH studio in New Bedford (County street near Spring over a retail fashion store). In that instance the studio was actually built with the intent of doing TV but the license was never forthcoming. The "control room" was the actualy air studio but it was built large enough to be used as TV mastr control. Could not be so equipped as that would have violated FCC rules (at the time) by building in the assumption that a CP might be granted.

In both cases, as purposes changed the studios were modified but never really became anything of which to be proud.

In the case of WNBH, the eventually licensee of Channel 6 was a sort of bastard-child of the original WNBH ownership (newspaper) plus several other interests, mainly from Providence. The first attempt at a studio for that enterprise was an old Victorian mansion which, part way into renovations, proved to be a hopeless case. It was torn down and the purpose-built structure at the corner of County and Spring Streets was put up. It served for decades until 6 physically moved to Providence.

I worked, for several years, for The Attleboro Radio Association at WYNG...when they first bought it...and came to know the management pretty well. Never did hear anything about there ever having been any attempt at TV for Attleboro and the use of the former Masonic temple (as the studios were originally structured) made sense.

Lots of interesting stories about studios built for Providence radio stations in their early days; nothing at all like today!