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NEW CHANGES TO ALTOONA RADIO?

C

clangham

Yes, just a day and a half before Santa arrives, and I have some free time on my hands. I thought about checking out some websites and notice WALY and WBXQ have re designed their sites and even added live streaming. WOW, things are looking up!

My observances are;

1. WALY has changed format from an oldies station to 80's, 90's and todays hits.

2. Other then Adam in the morning and loca on Q94l, the rest of the day is feed from the bird. (maybe?)

When did these changes take place?
What are your thoughts?
 
Mix, Q94, and WRTA all got new sites. They are much improved compared to the previous sites. The streaming feature is awesome and I've been listening to the Mix stream.

On the 26, Waly will become mainstream AC. I find it ironic that Altoona was without any AC for 8 or 9 years. It helped drive people like me to satellite radio. Finally, WBRX picked up the format and it's no surprise that Waly is following. It's been trending in that direction for some time. In a years time, Altoona went from a market with no AC station to a market with 2 AC stations. In addition to doing the evening show, I hope that they have Tesh do the imaging for the entire station. I enjoy his polished sound and think that he does some of the best AC imaging. I learned not to get lemons with my drink by listening to John Tesh. I'm healthier because of it.

In addition to both AC stations trying to be like the old 104.9 WHPA, both WBRX and WALY have personalities from the old Mix. Caleb James from the 94.7 morning show was on the old WHPA morning show. Bob Steele who will do mid-days on the new Waly was Michael Kay on the old WHPA mid-day show. I think it's awesome that two of the old WHPA hosts are doing their same time slots on the 2 new AC stations. If you flip between the 2 stations during the course of a day, it will be just like you are listening to FM 104.9 WHPA. It will be awesome.

If there is room for 2 stations doing the same format, it is without a doubt the AC format. It looks like Mix will skew a little older than Waly, as Mix still plays 70s.

Speaking of WHPA, what's coming to 93.5 next week?
 
To answer your question "what's coming next to WHPA"?, it's Chris Lash. He will be there until a week before Valentines' day. Look for WALY to change floormat to "hot oldies adult comtemp country sports urban" when the Mix beats them in the ratings.
 
The new WALY certainly landed with a BIG thud to these ears. The announcers seemed to have little enthusiasm for the new format, and almost seemed disinterested in being on the air. I would imagine Denny Popma on WHPA 93.5 should see a nice boost in listenership. The WHPA signal seems to be greatly improved, especially to the east toward Williamsburg and Huntingdon.
 
I've been struggling to connect to WALY's online stream. I tuned into the morning show last Friday, but all I heard was an endless stream of Christmas songs. I guess the spot break filler got stuck for a few hours. I heard half of Mike's mid-day show and it sounded really good, but then the stream went out and I have yet to get it back. The server must be down.

For the 2 hours that I was able to get something... New Jingles. Voice-overs/imaging from Jim Shield's Wife and Johnstown's Al Steele. I think that Al Steele goes good with the new format. I can't figure out why they position themselves as playing it all from the 80s, 90s, and today--because I heard at least three 70s records in one hour--some mid 70s. But they were AC artists. I'm not against the 70s, I'd just not exclude the 70s when positioning the station. The former listeners will enjoy the new music mix (I heard very few currents/re-currents), but they might not give it a chance if they do not realize the station still plays the older stuff. Or maybe I am over-analyzing.

I was just tipped off to this letter to the Altoona Mirror--it's from a few weeks ago and about WALY--but if you missed it here it is:
http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/513887.html?nav=737

There are comments following the letter.

And for those who would like to follow what MIX 94.7 is spinning, you can use mediabase and look up the Jones AC log. If you use the link below, change the date to whatever day you are looking for. They have a huge variety.

http://www.mediabase.com/whatsong/MBMusicWhatSong.asp?c_let=JRN4-FM&MONDTE=12/29/2008
 
I don't know the satelite man but was glad to see Denny Pompa's name mentioned. I claimed a long ago that he was one of the "Kings of Radio" in central Pennsylvania and this just proves it because I know that satelite man is one picky listeners. On another note, I note that although my post on "The Worst Of" has been read 150 times, no one has had the courage to reply. I guess no one wants to end up in this barrel but I can think of a few names for starters and I wouldn't have to look very far. I also heard that Sean McKay will probably be visiting Dave Barket's radio campus sometime next month.
 
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