Is WVKO AM in trouble??

[gabigley1]

Correction to above:

According to this OLD article by the Columbus Dispatch: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/contentbe/dispatch/2007/01/05/20070105-B1-00.html
WTPG dropped "Progressive Talk" on WTPG in Jan. of 2007.

WTPG dropped "Progressive Talk" less then two years ago. This has to be a major blow to to Big Eddie aka http://www.bigeddieradio.com/ the self proclaimed "BIG EGO" because he was dropped not ONCE but TWICE
in less then two years in the Columbus market. Is BIG Eddie to embarrassed to make another try(THIRD)
in the Columbus market with his bruised ego? Don't expect him to buy a station in Columbus and turn it into a "Progressive Talk" radio station. With his luck, he may have to drop his own own show from any radio station he decided to own owns in Columbus! ;D

Seriously, I'm a fan, I listened to Big Eddie every day before he was kicked off of WVKO-AM. Goog luck to
Bid Eddie if he decides to buy a radio station here and place his show back on in the Columbus market.

 

[SeanMGilbow]

Two things:

1. Bernard's on-site person is not aware of any agreement involving former WCVO employees for 103.1.

2. As Gary Richards mentioned last night and previously, it was contributions from progressive talk fans nationwide that kept the station going through the summer.

I have confidence in Gary that Momma and Big Eddie will resurface somewhere by the end of 2009.

 

[gabigley1]

The NEW St. Gabriel Radio website:

http://www.stgabrielradio.com/

reflects their NEW WVKO-AM 1580 AM frequency. WVKO-AM Progressive talk radio sighed off at 12MN and St Gabriel Radio came on the air at 12:20AM. They wasted NO time on getting on the air. They were hungry and desperate for a Columbus signal.

 

[xmusicmatt]

The NEW St. Gabriel Radio website:

http://www.stgabrielradio.com/

reflects their NEW WVKO-AM 1580 AM frequency. WVKO-AM Progressive talk radio sighed off at 12MN and St Gabriel Radio came on the air at 12:20AM. They wasted NO time on getting on the air. They were hungry and desperate for a Columbus signal.

WOW they redid their website very quickly.. It looks more polished than the previous website.

 

[xmusicmatt]

Looking though their website (http://www.stgabrielradio.com/) seems like everything is focusing now on 1580. I can't even find a mention of their expansion efforts in Southern Ohio, and their donation page is all about 'purchasing' WVKO..

 

[RFdude1]

I wouldn't be all that surprised to see them putting WUCO up for sale now that they have WVKO. They could then apply the proceeds to their WVKO purchase.

 

[gabigley1]

I wouldn't be all that surprised to see them putting WUCO up for sale now that they have WVKO. They could then apply the proceeds to their WVKO purchase.

On the surface that would seen to be the case. St. Gabriel Radio has a goal to cover most if not all of the Diocese of Columbus with a network of radio stations. It looks like WUCO radio covers at least a couple of other counties in the Diocese of Columbus that WVKO-AM doesn't cover adequately.

Last, but not least, WUCO has some, if not a lot of sentimental value to St. Gabriel Radio. WUCO was the very first radio station in their network and the COL for WUCO is MARYSVILLE, as in MARY in the BIBLE. I have head them discuses the significance of their COL on WUCO radio during fundraiser.

Speaking of the St. Gabriel Radio signal, have you noticed they cleaned up the audio. Before they took over the station, the audio was mediocre(and that is being nice) at best but now WVKO-AM has very good audio
quality. St. Gabriel Radio was able to accomplish in just a few short hours something Cowtown Commutations
was never able to accomplish even after one year on the air.

 

[kdavies5]

well.. gone again is any reason to listen to local radio anymore.

...i guess i dont have to feel so bad about throwing out the little 5" b/w analogue tv/radio in my kitchen anymore

 

[RFdude1]

My sources tell me that they are running an ISDN STL now. Don't know what Cowtown was using for an STL but it seemed somewhat lacking, both in reliability and performance.

 

[xmusicmatt]

Progressive 1580 sounded like it was either a analog phone line or a IP connection..

Speaking of bad audio, I listened to 102.1 the other night. They really should use something other than winamp to broadcast, one of the programs they had on late night sounded distorted in parts and was difficult to listen too..

 

[mikenci]

Come on..Do you really think Bernards on site person would know about a pending deal on 103.1 when the likelyhood is he will be out the door too!!! Gary Richards knew since December 10, 2008 that the Saint Gabrial deal was a done deal. Ask him about why he didnt tell anyone is his troop. The fact is that the deal for 103.1 is done. It will be announced the second week of January. Check back and see who and when posted that the deal for 1580 was a done deal...I think you will find that I am a creditable source. It would be a far streach that Bernard would do a deal with Gary or Cowtown anyway. He was not paying the LMA payments since July and was hanging on by a thread. Why in the world would you think that Bernard would give the station to an organization that could not even come up with the cash to rent it! They would be getting into another Stop 26 Deal that they got out of when they took the stations back.
As for assistance from Charlie...Where was he back in July? Why didnt he step in when the Saint Gabreial deal was announced to Gary back on December 10, 2008? I am sure 1580s asking price was much less than 1031s.

 

[SeanMGilbow]

Come on..Do you really think Bernards on site person would know about a pending deal on 103.1 when the likelyhood is he will be out the door too!!! Gary Richards knew since December 10, 2008 that the Saint Gabrial deal was a done deal. Ask him about why he didnt tell anyone is his troop. The fact is that the deal for 103.1 is done. It will be announced the second week of January. Check back and see who and when posted that the deal for 1580 was a done deal...I think you will find that I am a creditable source. It would be a far streach that Bernard would do a deal with Gary or Cowtown anyway. He was not paying the LMA payments since July and was hanging on by a thread. Why in the world would you think that Bernard would give the station to an organization that could not even come up with the cash to rent it! They would be getting into another Stop 26 Deal that they got out of when they took the stations back.
As for assistance from Charlie...Where was he back in July? Why didnt he step in when the Saint Gabreial deal was announced to Gary back on December 10, 2008? I am sure 1580s asking price was much less than 1031s.

Only one problem: How can we judge your credibility when we don't know who you are?

Of course, you are welcome to visit me at the Ohio Department of Public Safety offices on West Broad Street. Just ask for me personally when you see the State Highway Patrol officer at the Public Service counter.

Merry Christmas. ;D

 

[smedge2006]

Here's someone who is gloating about WVKO...

http://patrickmadrid.blogspot.com/2008/12/catholic-radio-comes-on-strong-in.html

 

[DaleGriffin]

First, let me say I love this thread. I has been going on forever. It got me banned at one point too.

Sean, sorry for your loss. I know you had a lot emotionally invested in this venture and it is actually quite sad to see it fail.

That said...

Once again I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news....Bernard has accepted an offer to sell 103.1 to a religous group comprising of EX-WCVO staffers. They have rasied the necessary funds to purchase the station and will likely start an LMA in mid January 2009. If Progressive talk is to find a home its not going to be 103.1!!!

Is it any wonder why Columbus radio is experiencing a slow, painful death?

All radio is hurting and this all goes back to my much earlier point in this thread... Liberal talk is not business freindly, that makes it a very had sell with no ratings.

This shows that a big dog like CC couldn't make a go with it AND a start up couldn't make a go with either.

Would it be a wise move for someone else to try again?

 

[gabigley1]

The Columbus Dispatch reported on WVKO-AM's "Progressive Talk" demise in a VERY negative way. It seems to
me that someone is saying "Good Riddance" to Cowtown's "Progressive Talk" format. NOTE THE HEADLINE.
This is the headline and and story that appeared in part of their "Broadcast Bits" for December 23, 2008:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...2-23-08_D5_G1CAJT4.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101

"WVKO dumps liberal talk"
[EDIT]

Come on..Do you really think Bernards on site person would know about a pending deal on 103.1 when the likelyhood is he will be out the door too!!! Gary Richards knew since December 10, 2008 that the Saint Gabrial deal was a done deal. Ask him about why he didnt tell anyone is his troop. The fact is that the deal for 103.1 is done. It will be announced the second week of January. Check back and see who and when posted that the deal for 1580 was a done deal...I think you will find that I am a creditable source. It would be a far streach that Bernard would do a deal with Gary or Cowtown anyway. He was not paying the LMA payments since July and was hanging on by a thread. Why in the world would you think that Bernard would give the station to an organization that could not even come up with the cash to rent it! They would be getting into another Stop 26 Deal that they got out of when they took the stations back.
As for assistance from Charlie...Where was he back in July? Why didnt he step in when the Saint Gabreial deal was announced to Gary back on December 10, 2008? I am sure 1580s asking price was much less than 1031s.

Only one problem: How can we judge your credibility when we don't know who you are?

Of course, you are welcome to visit me at the Ohio Department of Public Safety offices on West Broad Street. Just ask for me personally when you see the State Highway Patrol officer at the Public Service counter.

Merry Christmas. ;D

mikenci is right! I even showed his post to one of WVKO-AM program providers because I took his post as creditably. This program provider was in disbelief/mad to say the very least but got the "OFFICIAL" word when
they came to the WVKO-AM studio to do their Sunday show. They have ads in the newspaper announcing their show on WVKO-AM so it would have been nice if Cowtown Commutations would have given people more of an advanced notice. Another one of the program providers announced that he would be back next Sunday!! BUT THERE WOULD BE NO NEXT SUNDAY for him. He must have been given world at the end of his program! How sad. :'(

I don't see how/why Bernald Ohio would let Cowtown Commutations program the station for free for over five months. Are you sure you have your fact straight on that one?


[EDIT-Citation exceeds amount of permissible content under Fair Use standards and has been truncated as a result.]

 

[gabigley1]

"The OTHER PAPER" published this about WVKO-AM dropping Progressive Talk: http://www.theotherpaper.com/articles/2008/12/26/front/doc4952a10411f03936023001.prt

Which BEGS the question, Why would Bernald Ohio want to drop Cowtown from WVKO-AM if they were paying the rent on the station? His money should be as good as Saint Gabrial Radios' money becase they have yet to buy the station.
As well as Cowtown was doing on WVKO-AM(SEE ARTICLE LINK ABOVE) he should have been paying station rent to Bernald. ???

Hope GR himself will address that question himself.

 

[gr8oldies]

I don't know if Cowtown did or did not pay their LMA payments, but if they did not,and the owners let them "program it for free", it may have been better than the alternative of the owners have to find something to program themselves.

 

[xmusicmatt]

I don't know if Cowtown did or did not pay their LMA payments, but if they did not,and the owners let them "program it for free", it may have been better than the alternative of the owners have to find something to program themselves.

From the sounds of it, Gary took over the LMA that the spanish folks had until Jul 15th.. He said on one of the final farewell broadcasts that he was really fortuniate that he was able to stay on air through the election time, and made it though the 1st year on air... so I would think likely they had been programming the station under an agreement with the owners but likely the owners had the ability to end that if someone else came along to purchase the station which apperently the Catholic folks did.

 

[smedge2006]

All radio is hurting and this all goes back to my much earlier point in this thread... Liberal talk is not business freindly, that makes it a very had sell with no ratings.

This shows that a big dog like CC couldn't make a go with it AND a start up couldn't make a go with either.

Would it be a wise move for someone else to try again?

I call concern trolling here.

The start-up had shown an improvement in the ratings here. Clearly their numbers will be higher than whatever St. Gabriel radio gets. The numbers we've seen are not even a full year on the air, with a crippled signal. Think what a competitive signal could do. Think what a little promotion money could do. In a year or two, I suspect the WVKO's of the world won't be the only signals available at fire sale prices.

As for liberal radio being "business unfriendly", let's compare it to what is probably the most business-friendly format of all: business talk radio. Surely the most pro-business format would be one that celebrates American capitalism in all its forms, right? Yet the format doesn't exist in most markets. The biggest success (WBBR in New York) is on solely to promote Mayor Bloomberg's two-screen machines with keyboards of many colors. The other business radio stations subsist as brokered time outlets for stock software and gold hawkers. I'm not sure there's ever been such a station in Columbus. Business radio has no KPOJ, no KPTK, no station that can be pointed to as an obvious success -- just a lot of marginal stations that test every business school textbook concept -- including Chapter 11.


I live in a market where business radio has been tried (and failed) at least four times in the past 20 years -- 1990, 1991, 2000, 2001 and 2002. By that yardstick, liberal talk has at least three more tries left it in...

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

The Columbus Dispatch reported on WVKO-AM's "Progressive Talk" demise in a VERY negative way. It seems to
me that someone is saying "Good Riddance" to Cowtown's "Progressive Talk" format. NOTE THE HEADLINE.
This is the headline and and story that appeared in part of their "Broadcast Bits" for December 23, 2008:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...2-23-08_D5_G1CAJT4.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101

"WVKO dumps liberal talk"
[EDIT-Citation exceeds amount of permissible content under Fair Use standards and has been truncated as a result.]

Huh? I don't see anything negative at all, let alone "VERY negative." Looks to me like someone just whipped out a brief matter-of-fact headling and a brief matter-of-fact story. I suppose it's possible there was some subliminal editorializing in choosing "dumps" instead of "drops," but I doubt it.