Anyone know whats going on at WLGZ (legends 990)?? Their power or transmitter seems not to be working properly as I 80% of the time keep hearing a buzz in the background and/or the the signal doesnt seem strong. I live here in the city and have not had any problems listening until recently. What gives?? Anyone else in the rochester area notice this??
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Legends 990
- Thread starter eartotheradio
- Start date
A
anoldradioguy1
Guest
> Anyone know whats going on at WLGZ (legends 990)?? Their
> power or transmitter seems not to be working properly as I
> 80% of the time keep hearing a buzz in the background and/or
> the the signal doesnt seem strong. I live here in the city
> and have not had any problems listening until recently. What
> gives?? Anyone else in the rochester area notice this??
I was listening to WLGZ in my car late Friday night/early Saturday morning.
The signal seemed fine. Its the programing that does me in. They are obviously reacting to the demise of WBBF and the fact there are no oldie stations in the market. They are playing much more 60's & 70's and some 50's doo wop, but they are still mixing in Al Jolson, Dinah Shore, and Vaungh Monroe. Sorry, that stuff is just way before my time and the button gets pushed quickly as soon as I hear anything before the rock & roll era. I do like to hear the Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, etc. stuff that was done in the late 50's & 60's into the 70's.
> Also, I am dying for some more local personality. Wouldn't it be great to hear an all night person that just relates to the music and the audience?
> power or transmitter seems not to be working properly as I
> 80% of the time keep hearing a buzz in the background and/or
> the the signal doesnt seem strong. I live here in the city
> and have not had any problems listening until recently. What
> gives?? Anyone else in the rochester area notice this??
I was listening to WLGZ in my car late Friday night/early Saturday morning.
The signal seemed fine. Its the programing that does me in. They are obviously reacting to the demise of WBBF and the fact there are no oldie stations in the market. They are playing much more 60's & 70's and some 50's doo wop, but they are still mixing in Al Jolson, Dinah Shore, and Vaungh Monroe. Sorry, that stuff is just way before my time and the button gets pushed quickly as soon as I hear anything before the rock & roll era. I do like to hear the Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, etc. stuff that was done in the late 50's & 60's into the 70's.
> Also, I am dying for some more local personality. Wouldn't it be great to hear an all night person that just relates to the music and the audience?
M
Mark_Giardina
Guest
> I was listening to WLGZ in my car late Friday night/early
> Saturday morning.
> The signal seemed fine. Its the programing that does me in.
> They are obviously reacting to the demise of WBBF and the
> fact there are no oldie stations in the market. They are
> playing much more 60's & 70's and some 50's doo wop, but
> they are still mixing in Al Jolson, Dinah Shore, and Vaungh
> Monroe. Sorry, that stuff is just way before my time and
> the button gets pushed quickly as soon as I hear anything
> before the rock & roll era. I do like to hear the Sinatra,
> Nat King Cole, Perry Como, etc. stuff that was done in the
> late 50's & 60's into the 70's.
> > Also, I am dying for some more local personality.
> Wouldn't it be great to hear an all night person that just
> relates to the music and the audience?
>
What you are hearing on 990-AM today is similar to the same type of format tried out when the station was known back in the mid-80s to early 90s as WEZO-AM.
To give you a brief history, in the late 1980s WEZO-AM and WARM 101.3 was purchased by a group out of Boston known as Atlantic Ventures. They brought in managers who were more interested in the FM station and could have cared if we even had an AM operation. The only saving grace is that AM had at the time Paul Harvey News at 8:30am and noon and “The Rest of the Story”. Meanwhile my news department, which at one time consisted of three full-timers and one weekend person, had been decimated leaving only myself to gather as much local news as possible during morning drive and noon. (Afternoon drive news was eliminated altogether)
Well despite the odds, 990-AM managed to average a 3 share in the ratings, which wasn’t bad considering the management and owners didn’t put a dime into the AM operation. What was interesting is that in certain day parts the AM had more listeners than the FM station, which didn’t thrill the front office people I can tell you.
What eventually happened is that a decision was made to dump Paul Harvey, which WHAM picked up immediately, and myself, then have the AM morning announcer read headlines out of the morning newspaper. That lasted for a few months until the morning announcer was canned, and so was the station as Mr. Otto Mation was brought in full time.
WLGZ has the potential of increasing its audience if it bothered to spend money, as you pointed out, on more local talent plus having local news during morning and afternoon drive. After all the audience the station is going after tends to be more interested in news and information than younger demographics.
Unfortunately, like so many other broadcasting operations, WLGZ is trying to save money. So what Crawford Broadcasting is doing now is just repeating history as Atlantic Ventures did with WEZO-990AM 20 years ago by just getting by with the bare necessities.
Personally I would love to see a few local individuals come in and buy 990-AM and invest the time and money it would take to make the station into what I know it can be…real professional radio.
<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>
> Saturday morning.
> The signal seemed fine. Its the programing that does me in.
> They are obviously reacting to the demise of WBBF and the
> fact there are no oldie stations in the market. They are
> playing much more 60's & 70's and some 50's doo wop, but
> they are still mixing in Al Jolson, Dinah Shore, and Vaungh
> Monroe. Sorry, that stuff is just way before my time and
> the button gets pushed quickly as soon as I hear anything
> before the rock & roll era. I do like to hear the Sinatra,
> Nat King Cole, Perry Como, etc. stuff that was done in the
> late 50's & 60's into the 70's.
> > Also, I am dying for some more local personality.
> Wouldn't it be great to hear an all night person that just
> relates to the music and the audience?
>
What you are hearing on 990-AM today is similar to the same type of format tried out when the station was known back in the mid-80s to early 90s as WEZO-AM.
To give you a brief history, in the late 1980s WEZO-AM and WARM 101.3 was purchased by a group out of Boston known as Atlantic Ventures. They brought in managers who were more interested in the FM station and could have cared if we even had an AM operation. The only saving grace is that AM had at the time Paul Harvey News at 8:30am and noon and “The Rest of the Story”. Meanwhile my news department, which at one time consisted of three full-timers and one weekend person, had been decimated leaving only myself to gather as much local news as possible during morning drive and noon. (Afternoon drive news was eliminated altogether)
Well despite the odds, 990-AM managed to average a 3 share in the ratings, which wasn’t bad considering the management and owners didn’t put a dime into the AM operation. What was interesting is that in certain day parts the AM had more listeners than the FM station, which didn’t thrill the front office people I can tell you.
What eventually happened is that a decision was made to dump Paul Harvey, which WHAM picked up immediately, and myself, then have the AM morning announcer read headlines out of the morning newspaper. That lasted for a few months until the morning announcer was canned, and so was the station as Mr. Otto Mation was brought in full time.
WLGZ has the potential of increasing its audience if it bothered to spend money, as you pointed out, on more local talent plus having local news during morning and afternoon drive. After all the audience the station is going after tends to be more interested in news and information than younger demographics.
Unfortunately, like so many other broadcasting operations, WLGZ is trying to save money. So what Crawford Broadcasting is doing now is just repeating history as Atlantic Ventures did with WEZO-990AM 20 years ago by just getting by with the bare necessities.
Personally I would love to see a few local individuals come in and buy 990-AM and invest the time and money it would take to make the station into what I know it can be…real professional radio.
<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>
> WLGZ has the potential of increasing its audience if it
> bothered to spend money, as you pointed out, on more local
> talent plus having local news during morning and afternoon
> drive. After all the audience the station is going after
> tends to be more interested in news and information than
> younger demographics.
Most of the older listeners to this station were probably refugees from WEZ0's beautiful music days. The slightly younger side of the demo probably stayed with the WARM-101 operation, although people I knew also jumped to WBEE's country. But the 60+ set seems to be reduced to the erudite WXXI-FM, WLGZ, or WHAM (the angry white guy talk).
I was surprised to see a lot of older folks becoming XM aware and finding their beautiful music channel Sunny playing in their Buicks and Cadillacs.
That's the only place left you're going to hear Paul Mauriat coming out of someone's car.
Crawford's treatment of WLGZ seemed to be an improvement over the older satellite delivered AM standards format, but I haven't really listened much to it lately.
> Personally I would love to see a few local individuals come
> in and buy 990-AM and invest the time and money it would
> take to make the station into what I know it can be…real
> professional radio.
This cuts across the grain of what radio looks like these days. I wouldn't be surprised to see some digital radio stations running subchannel versions of "the lost formats of Rochester" on a purely automated basis. A fully staffed and invested standards format station seems unlikely around here, unless we get some regulation back that requires actual programming for, from, and about the city of license.
> bothered to spend money, as you pointed out, on more local
> talent plus having local news during morning and afternoon
> drive. After all the audience the station is going after
> tends to be more interested in news and information than
> younger demographics.
Most of the older listeners to this station were probably refugees from WEZ0's beautiful music days. The slightly younger side of the demo probably stayed with the WARM-101 operation, although people I knew also jumped to WBEE's country. But the 60+ set seems to be reduced to the erudite WXXI-FM, WLGZ, or WHAM (the angry white guy talk).
I was surprised to see a lot of older folks becoming XM aware and finding their beautiful music channel Sunny playing in their Buicks and Cadillacs.
That's the only place left you're going to hear Paul Mauriat coming out of someone's car.Crawford's treatment of WLGZ seemed to be an improvement over the older satellite delivered AM standards format, but I haven't really listened much to it lately.
> Personally I would love to see a few local individuals come
> in and buy 990-AM and invest the time and money it would
> take to make the station into what I know it can be…real
> professional radio.
This cuts across the grain of what radio looks like these days. I wouldn't be surprised to see some digital radio stations running subchannel versions of "the lost formats of Rochester" on a purely automated basis. A fully staffed and invested standards format station seems unlikely around here, unless we get some regulation back that requires actual programming for, from, and about the city of license.
S
scooterodell
Guest
> WLGZ has the potential of increasing its audience if it
> bothered to spend money, as you pointed out, on more local
> talent...
How much local talent do you need? To my knowledge, all of the talent on WLGZ is local, with most of it live. They've got somebody on the air, live or otherwise, 24/7 M - F.
> bothered to spend money, as you pointed out, on more local
> talent...
How much local talent do you need? To my knowledge, all of the talent on WLGZ is local, with most of it live. They've got somebody on the air, live or otherwise, 24/7 M - F.
S
scooterodell
Guest
> Anyone know whats going on at WLGZ (legends 990)?? Their
> power or transmitter seems not to be working properly as I
> 80% of the time keep hearing a buzz in the background and/or
> the the signal doesnt seem strong. I live here in the city
> and have not had any problems listening until recently. What
> gives?? Anyone else in the rochester area notice this??
>
Haven't heard it. Sounds fine this morning!
> power or transmitter seems not to be working properly as I
> 80% of the time keep hearing a buzz in the background and/or
> the the signal doesnt seem strong. I live here in the city
> and have not had any problems listening until recently. What
> gives?? Anyone else in the rochester area notice this??
>
Haven't heard it. Sounds fine this morning!
How Old Is Old?
> They are
> playing much more 60's & 70's and some 50's doo wop, but
> they are still mixing in Al Jolson, Dinah Shore, and Vaungh
> Monroe.
> Sorry, that stuff is just way before my time and
> the button gets pushed quickly as soon as I hear anything
> before the rock & roll era.
This is a very interesting observation in the context of how some (not so old) listeners feel about Leslie Gore, Elvis, The Big Bopper, Frankie Avalon and The Five Satins being played on oldies stations. Hence (hence???!!), many Oldies stations have dropped the Oldies moniker and resorted to using the Classic Hits or Greatest Hits moniker, playing virtually no music from the 50s and early 60s, and incorporating more 70s and even some 80s songs.
> I do like to hear the Sinatra,
> Nat King Cole, Perry Como, etc. stuff that was done in the
> late 50's & 60's into the 70's.
> Also, I am dying for some more local personality.
> Wouldn't it be great to hear an all night person that just
> relates to the music and the audience?
>
A splendid thought and one with which I concur, but highly unlikely, given the conventional wisdom regarding all night listening.
> They are
> playing much more 60's & 70's and some 50's doo wop, but
> they are still mixing in Al Jolson, Dinah Shore, and Vaungh
> Monroe.
> Sorry, that stuff is just way before my time and
> the button gets pushed quickly as soon as I hear anything
> before the rock & roll era.
This is a very interesting observation in the context of how some (not so old) listeners feel about Leslie Gore, Elvis, The Big Bopper, Frankie Avalon and The Five Satins being played on oldies stations. Hence (hence???!!), many Oldies stations have dropped the Oldies moniker and resorted to using the Classic Hits or Greatest Hits moniker, playing virtually no music from the 50s and early 60s, and incorporating more 70s and even some 80s songs.
> I do like to hear the Sinatra,
> Nat King Cole, Perry Como, etc. stuff that was done in the
> late 50's & 60's into the 70's.
> Also, I am dying for some more local personality.
> Wouldn't it be great to hear an all night person that just
> relates to the music and the audience?
>
A splendid thought and one with which I concur, but highly unlikely, given the conventional wisdom regarding all night listening.
H
Haystack
Guest
> > WLGZ has the potential of increasing its audience if it
> > bothered to spend money, as you pointed out, on more local
>
> > talent plus having local news during morning and afternoon
>
> > drive. After all the audience the station is going after
> > tends to be more interested in news and information than
> > younger demographics.
>
> Most of the older listeners to this station were probably
> refugees from WEZ0's beautiful music days. The slightly
> younger side of the demo probably stayed with the WARM-101
> operation, although people I knew also jumped to WBEE's
> country. But the 60+ set seems to be reduced to the erudite
> WXXI-FM, WLGZ, or WHAM (the angry white guy talk).
>
> I was surprised to see a lot of older folks becoming XM
> aware and finding their beautiful music channel Sunny
> playing in their Buicks and Cadillacs. That's the only
> place left you're going to hear Paul Mauriat coming out of
> someone's car.
>
> Crawford's treatment of WLGZ seemed to be an improvement
> over the older satellite delivered AM standards format, but
> I haven't really listened much to it lately.
>
> > Personally I would love to see a few local individuals
> come
> > in and buy 990-AM and invest the time and money it would
> > take to make the station into what I know it can be…real
> > professional radio.
>
> This cuts across the grain of what radio looks like these
> days. I wouldn't be surprised to see some digital radio
> stations running subchannel versions of "the lost formats of
> Rochester" on a purely automated basis. A fully staffed and
> invested standards format station seems unlikely around
> here, unless we get some regulation back that requires
> actual programming for, from, and about the city of license.
>
I think scooterodell is right about WLGZ being locally hosted 24/7 at least during M-F. I've seen local hosts at events and such. In my opinion, that is fully staffed. I also believe that their programming does originate locally. There are other Standards stations in the company but I'm pretty sure each is operated/programmed individually.
> > bothered to spend money, as you pointed out, on more local
>
> > talent plus having local news during morning and afternoon
>
> > drive. After all the audience the station is going after
> > tends to be more interested in news and information than
> > younger demographics.
>
> Most of the older listeners to this station were probably
> refugees from WEZ0's beautiful music days. The slightly
> younger side of the demo probably stayed with the WARM-101
> operation, although people I knew also jumped to WBEE's
> country. But the 60+ set seems to be reduced to the erudite
> WXXI-FM, WLGZ, or WHAM (the angry white guy talk).
>
> I was surprised to see a lot of older folks becoming XM
> aware and finding their beautiful music channel Sunny
> playing in their Buicks and Cadillacs.
That's the only> place left you're going to hear Paul Mauriat coming out of
> someone's car.
>
> Crawford's treatment of WLGZ seemed to be an improvement
> over the older satellite delivered AM standards format, but
> I haven't really listened much to it lately.
>
> > Personally I would love to see a few local individuals
> come
> > in and buy 990-AM and invest the time and money it would
> > take to make the station into what I know it can be…real
> > professional radio.
>
> This cuts across the grain of what radio looks like these
> days. I wouldn't be surprised to see some digital radio
> stations running subchannel versions of "the lost formats of
> Rochester" on a purely automated basis. A fully staffed and
> invested standards format station seems unlikely around
> here, unless we get some regulation back that requires
> actual programming for, from, and about the city of license.
>
I think scooterodell is right about WLGZ being locally hosted 24/7 at least during M-F. I've seen local hosts at events and such. In my opinion, that is fully staffed. I also believe that their programming does originate locally. There are other Standards stations in the company but I'm pretty sure each is operated/programmed individually.
> The signal seemed fine. Its the programing that does me in.
> They are obviously reacting to the demise of WBBF and the
> fact there are no oldie stations in the market. They are
> playing much more 60's & 70's and some 50's doo wop, but
> they are still mixing in Al Jolson, Dinah Shore, and Vaungh
> Monroe. Sorry, that stuff is just way before my time and
> the button gets pushed quickly as soon as I hear anything
> before the rock & roll era. I do like to hear the Sinatra,
> Nat King Cole, Perry Como, etc. stuff that was done in the
> late 50's & 60's into the 70's.
> > Also, I am dying for some more local personality.
> Wouldn't it be great to hear an all night person that just
> relates to the music and the audience?
>
I was listening on the way to work last night after midnight & there was an annoucer that sounded live. The choice of music to & from work changed as did the presence of the announcer. To work there was a mix of MOR & Oldies with the announcer whose name I didn't catch but coming home no announcer & it was the Rascals, a 60's girl group & a version of the Dragnet theme done Sandy Nelson/Gene Krupa style.
Just as aside & in defense of Vaughn Monroe who made a great version of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" in the 40's, he probably picked up a few fans of all ages from his singing "Let It Snow" at the end of the Die Hard movies.
> They are obviously reacting to the demise of WBBF and the
> fact there are no oldie stations in the market. They are
> playing much more 60's & 70's and some 50's doo wop, but
> they are still mixing in Al Jolson, Dinah Shore, and Vaungh
> Monroe. Sorry, that stuff is just way before my time and
> the button gets pushed quickly as soon as I hear anything
> before the rock & roll era. I do like to hear the Sinatra,
> Nat King Cole, Perry Como, etc. stuff that was done in the
> late 50's & 60's into the 70's.
> > Also, I am dying for some more local personality.
> Wouldn't it be great to hear an all night person that just
> relates to the music and the audience?
>
I was listening on the way to work last night after midnight & there was an annoucer that sounded live. The choice of music to & from work changed as did the presence of the announcer. To work there was a mix of MOR & Oldies with the announcer whose name I didn't catch but coming home no announcer & it was the Rascals, a 60's girl group & a version of the Dragnet theme done Sandy Nelson/Gene Krupa style.
Just as aside & in defense of Vaughn Monroe who made a great version of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" in the 40's, he probably picked up a few fans of all ages from his singing "Let It Snow" at the end of the Die Hard movies.
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