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It's Official -- WSRQ is history

S

smedge2006

As reported by the Radio Babe:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060911/COLUMNIST50/609110360

Post-mortem:

I think 1450 had problems from its weak signal and overlap with 970.

It was also hurt by the ideological zig-zag of its talk shows (Springer to Limbaugh to Hannity to Lionel).

It had no local talk shows and tried to gain a local identity by running a lot of local news and a news block in the morning.

The news block was 95 percent non-local material so that didn't help the cause much.

What little local material there was came from stale and boring phoners. AFAIK 1450 didn't do any outside reporting. 970 was more likely to send a reporter to cover a Sarasota story than 1450 was.

In my opinion the morning drive newsblock was a waste. They should have plugged in a syndicated show in the morning and hired an up and coming talk talent from out of market to do a local show 9 am - noon.
If they weren't going to go out and cover stories, a local news staff was a waste. They should have farmed that out to 970 IMHO.

Sarasota is a bigger radio market than Syracuse NY. It has only 2 local TV news operations, so a local news-talk radio format might have been viable, just not the way 1450 did it. It tried to do too much and too little at the same time.
 
this station never had a chance. their former program director knows nothing about news and most of the stories they read on air where taken from the newspaper or television. They had some decent news people on staff - some guy named ryan seemed to actually put together some local news segments, but he didn't do it often enough when i listened. i actually liked their local sports content - mostly high school football and the dan back show - but they never promoted those heavily.

Perhaps with a local talk show lead in, it might have worked but we will never know. Clear channel's sarasota cluster has no interest in anything local......just go there any day and see how many folks are actually live on their stations. It's sad.
 
If I'm not mistaken Ryan Rafferdy's real job is a jock with 106.5 WCTQ Country. The news on 1450 was a sideline. It is a shame to see this go away. The right thing to have done was blow up the crap on 92.1, and put the Dove back there where it belongs. Syndicated talk could have stayed on 1450 and they could have brokered other time there if they wanted. They also could have kept sports on 1320. Whoever is running Sarasota's CC cluster is sure making some strange changes that dont seem to make sense.
 
Hey Smedge.... Who has the second local TV news operation? There are only 2 stations licensed to this market. Channel 40 (ABC 7) and Channel 66 licensed to Bradenton run out of Tampa St. Pete. Not unless you count Bay News 9 or SNN6 which are cable operations.
 
I would count 40 and SNN6.

Perhaps the reason they didn't go brokered on 1450 is because there are already so many stations south of the Skyway offering studio time for petty cash.
 
Goodbye WSPB/WSRQ. CC Sarasota screwed up in 2003 when they chose Hannity over Free Talk Live for afternoon drive. FTL (local to Sarasota at the time) was slated for afternoons on WSRQ AM after they flipped formats on from talk WSRQ FM (now alt-rock WTZB), then at the last moment they changed their minds and put on Hannity.

We were pretty bummed at the decision at the time, but thank goodness they did, as FTL is now independantly syndicated and free from the clutches of clueless managers. ;D

I'll always fondly remember working in the converted closet that was 1450 WSPB.
 
I remember when WSPB had a magnificent studio there on City Island. David Jahns did the morning show there for years. The Dolans started there before moving on to WOR and syndication in NYC. WSPB FM then WMLO was off to the left behind sliding glass doors and was all automation on big reel to reel decks. May have been a Schafer automation like what WDUV in Bradenton had in their AM studio.
 
What happens to the syndicated programming on 1450?

Thinking specifically about Hannity. Wouldn't it be funny if they went crawling back to 930 AM, the station they yanked it from three years ago, just to have a "pin in the map" in Sarasota?
 
Well, actually it was Peter Jahns... I did news with him for a while...
Yes, the old WSPB studio was great in it's day...( Built in 1939 ) I worked there 1st in 1972 when of all people, Neil Rogers was PD and morning man... I did some overnight work on the am...Peter came back after that ... Whatever happened to him ???
WMLO (the best beaching station on the gulfcoast) was in a small studio in the NW corner of the building... later it was the production studio for Z106...

The automation was for WBRD FM( started out I think as Country.. then later as the Dove..WDUV-FM... I don't recall WBRD AM ever being totally automated...until recently... a lot of operator assist when they were all talk..but it was the FM that was automated ever since I was there first in the early 70's...and all the way through the 90's on and off...the Nelson's always had at least one operator on site....although some of them were questionable to say ther least...Even Pepper Lipsynkx(sp) did a "head show" after the normal midnight sign off of the 26,000 watt WBRD FM...in a little narrow make shift, walk through studio btwn the front door and the transmitter room...

enjoy the day...
walt
 
Peter Jahns must have been before my time, but there actually WAS a David Jahns who was an Oldies 106 account exec in the early '90s who was actually somewhat responsible for me being hired there! Wonder what he's doing today. Thanks for bringin' back those City Island memories. I was in that building from 1993-1997.
 
You missed out on the rat infestation, Rich. :eek:

One night there was one sitting on the corner of the break room trash can.
 
Yeah, Truly Nolen came in and laid traps in the ceiling. They caught over 40 on their first trapping, if I recall correctly.
 
Seems I remember when you walked into the Samoset studios thru the front door, you turned left into a hallway and the FM automation was there on the left, and you looked into a window into WBRD's studio, then turned right and the production studios were on the left and in back were the transmitters. You are right about Peter Jahns not David. Chalk that up to oldtimers disease LOL...
 
That how I got the two names screwed up. Peter Jahns was the AM drive personality on 1450 for years. Had a big following. Was in Orlando area last I knew. David Jahns was/is a sales rep in the Sarasota area. I knew him when he worked for CH62 TV when it was here in Sarasota. I remember a very young Gayle Guyardo working there at the time. Then he worked for the Nelson family selling WDUV as sales manager.
 
Re: It's Official -- WSRQ is history - more CC sarasota changes

you meet hear a new morning show on monday on sarasota's country station. Maverick has been let go.....sammie jo and ???? in the morning?
 
Re: It's Official -- WSRQ is history - more CC sarasota changes

MusicMan11 said:
you meet hear a new morning show on monday on sarasota's country station. Maverick has been let go.....sammie jo and ???? in the morning?
Click to expand...

If that's true, then that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. CC Sarasota has been poorly run since the day they moved into Independence Blvd.
 
I'll second that. Things started to go bad as soon as Big Jim Davis was shown the door. He was great.
 
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