New WCVG format revealed!

[DJJack]

All Marcel Marceau! All the time! Come experience the quiet storm that is WCVG.

Good Lord...put SOMETHING on. That's wild.

 

[Oscar]

It's a Million Dollar Dead-Air Weekend!!!

I thought this was some kind of April Fools joke, but to run dead air and nothing but a once an hour announcement is just ridiculous. What are they doing? If this is a stunt, the media hasn't picked up on it guys!

 

[majicjim]

Re: It's a Million Dollar Dead-Air Weekend!!!

> I thought this was some kind of April Fools joke, but to run
> dead air and nothing but a once an hour announcement is just
> ridiculous. What are they doing? If this is a stunt, the
> media hasn't picked up on it guys!
>

Elvis is dead...and so is the station!

 

[microbob]

Re: It's a Million Dollar Dead-Air Weekend!!!

They are stunting with The sound of Silence that old Simon & Garfunkel song except they have the extended version.




> Elvis is dead...and so is the station!
>

 

[stevenmcintosh2012]

Bring back CLU 132! A great station (musically anyway) that had no listeners. (In case no one remembers, WCLU was Top 40 from sometime around 1983 or 1984 until 1987.)

 

[NoWayNoCC]

Bring back CLU 132! A great station (musically anyway) that had no listeners. (In case no one remembers, WCLU was Top 40 from sometime around 1983 or 1984 until 1987.)

Certainly the most underrated station in the history of the Cincinnati market. Great music, great personalities, but nobody remembers it. The corporate radio types here always drag poor old CLU 132 through the coals every time it gets mentioned.I bet they had quite a few listeners in Covington though. I do remember them saying how they got lots of requests.

 

[Apollo7979]

What's the population breakdown of Latinos in Cincinnati?If it's a growing minority, then maybe it's time to put a full-service regional Mexican format on the station. Granted, it's not a ratings winner, but it would be the exclusive place for that type of programming in the Queen city.

 

[gr8oldiesradio]

May I ask why these old threads are coming back as new?

 

[Apollo7979]

May I ask why these old threads are coming back as new?

This board format is now set up to allow users to see the threads with the most recent posts first and so on. Basically, if the thread is a hot topic and gets a lot of posts, it's going to be up top as long as people keep writing in the thread. The threads that get little or no responses will be pushed down the board. I suppose it's for convenience. *shrugs*I have to admit, it is a big change to see this format on Radio-Info. It's going to take a lot of getting used to.

 

[Apollo7979]

May I ask why these old threads are coming back as new?

This board format is now set up to allow users to see the threads with the most recent posts first and so on. Basically, if the thread is a hot topic and gets a lot of posts, it's going to be up top as long as people keep writing in the thread. The threads that get little or no responses will be pushed down the board. I suppose it's for convenience. *shrugs*I have to admit, it is a big change to see this format on Radio-Info. It's going to take a lot of getting used to.

Well, it looks like I can't edit my post if I leave it on longer than five minutes. I just understood what you were asking, gr8.In short, I was wondering the same thing. On other boards that I've visited that have the same format, if you don't read what's listed as "new" the first time you log in, they won't come back as new the next time you log in as long as no one else posted between the times you visited the board.Perhaps this is a glitch they are still working on. *shrugs*

 

[stevenmcintosh2012]

Hey, NoWayNoCC....Glad to see your post on WCLU. They had a much better playlist than Q102. They weren't afraid to play those songs at the lower end of the Top 40 chart. I remember at times during the 80's that Q102 wouldn't even play some songs in the top 10 (i.e. New Edition's Cool It Now). And Mark Sebastian......that's another issue..........what an annoying idiot.I recall getting up one morning and listening to WCLU while I was getting ready for school, and they had a contest right after coming on the air for the day. They were looking for caller ten, and there was a stipulation that eliminated me from calling in (I think it was you had to live in Ohio for the prize). The DJ came back on a few minutes later and announced that he hadn't gotten any callers. I won lots to stuff from that station since getting through their line was easy.The DJ's were really cool too. They sometimes chatted with me on the phone and readily answered questions about the station.In 1986, they started broadcasting at night using 66 watts at the time. I strung up a wire on the front side of the house and hooked it to my stereo's external AM antenna jack. In Union, I could heard the station but not good enough to listen to it. I noticed in the car in the industrial section along KY 17 south of I-275 that the signal was stronger but sounded wavy, and that was pretty close to their tower although there were a few big hills blocking the path. Given that, their nighttime signal was sort of a waste and basically unusable.Since I lived in Union, KY growing up, I could get 94.5 in Lexington & 92.9 in Dayton pretty easily, and WDJX in Louisville came in decent with a little more effort with the antenna. I was already listening to 94.5 and 99.7 WDJX quite a bit, which I went to exclusively when WCLU decided to pull the plug on Top 40 around February or March of 1987. I was disappointed to see it go. I rarely listened to Q102, which usually was only when it was forced on me by another family member or when I was riding in my mom's car since her radio was crappy.

 

[NoWayNoCC]

Glad to see your post on WCLU. They had a much better playlist than Q102. They weren't afraid to play those songs at the lower end of the Top 40 chart. I remember at times during the 80's that Q102 wouldn't even play some songs in the top 10 (i.e. New Edition's Cool It Now).

Also, Q-102 refused to play most of David Bowie's songs that hit the top 40 or even the top 10 around that time. Yet for a while around late 1984/early 1985, Q-102 instituted an "instant replay" where they'd play a song twice in a row, and it was always a really boring song that they'd overplayed anyway. Needless to say, this didn't last long.

I recall getting up one morning and listening to WCLU while I was getting ready for school, and they had a contest right after coming on the air for the day. They were looking for caller ten, and there was a stipulation that eliminated me from calling in (I think it was you had to live in Ohio for the prize).

The stipulation was probably because all their prizes previously went to people in Kentucky. You could barely pick them up in Ohio, so that's probably why they never had any Ohio callers.

The DJ's were really cool too. They sometimes chatted with me on the phone and readily answered questions about the station.

I called them up with some weird request, and they were like, "You know, we'd love to play that for you, but our program director threw the record away." They actually played a lot of my other weird requests though.

In 1986, they started broadcasting at night using 66 watts at the time. I strung up a wire on the front side of the house and hooked it to my stereo's external AM antenna jack.

They didn't stay on too long after sunset. The 66 watts must have been a postsunset authorization or something. They were listenable in Highland Heights during the day, but in the evening there was always like a second or two where'd they'd go off the air and come back with a really weak signal. Later in the evening they signed off altogether.

Since I lived in Union, KY growing up, I could get 94.5 in Lexington & 92.9 in Dayton pretty easily,

I listened to 94.5 a lot in the late '80s/early '90s. Even then, Q-102 didn't have as big of a playlist, though I think it had improved somewhat by then.

I was already listening to 94.5 and 99.7 WDJX quite a bit, which I went to exclusively when WCLU decided to pull the plug on Top 40 around February or March of 1987. I was disappointed to see it go.

I was shocked - SHOCKED - to see WCLU go. How naive I was back then.Anyone else notice that WCLU sounded like it used an old golf tee as a stylus for the music?

 

[microbobcincy]

Every time I used to hear them during the day it sounded like one of their turntables they had, played the song at a slower speed than the other. It was annoying. They had a ton of technical problems. I always wondered how they made any money to keep the transmitter on the air. It was a real life WKRP for sure.

 

[NoWayNoCC]

Every time I used to hear them during the day it sounded like one of their turntables they had, played the song at a slower speed than the other. It was annoying. They had a ton of technical problems. I always wondered how they made any money to keep the transmitter on the air. It was a real life WKRP for sure.

A lot of the records sounded like they were warped or scratched, for some reason. Maybe it was just my radio that made it sound that way.I'm sure WCLU made some money, because they did play commercials. Campbell County Chevrolet and some vitamin company were big advertisers, I seem to recall.

 

[microbobcincy]

I don't think it was your radio. I seem to recall a year or so before they changed formats, WCLU had an equipment upgrade that made them sound better.I can remember River Downs had an hourly racing results show. They had very few commercials compared to the other stations in town at the time.

 

[NoWayNoCC]

I can remember River Downs had an hourly racing results show.

I remember how they had the fishing report where they played "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins (or some other popular song) at 78 RPM in the background.

 

[stevenmcintosh2012]

They didn't stay on too long after sunset. The 66 watts must have been a postsunset authorization or something. They were listenable in Highland Heights during the day, but in the evening there was always like a second or two where'd they'd go off the air and come back with a really weak signal. Later in the evening they signed off altogether.,

Actually, I seemed to recall they went down to 125 watts during critical hours and then 66 watts after that during that time. I don't recall them signing off, but then again I couldn't get a listenable signal no matter what I did in Union. I could barely hear them at night. In that industrial area on Route 17 south of I-275 I remember turning them on and hearing them around 7 or 8'ish at night.What time did they sign off the air?I didn't realize their Ohio signal was that bad. I would have thought that it would have been helped by the Ohio River.

 

[NoWayNoCC]

What time did they sign off the air?

After 1986, I think they signed off a little bit after sunset, like maybe a half-hour or so. They always played the drum roll ID at signoff.

I didn't realize their Ohio signal was that bad. I would have thought that it would have been helped by the Ohio River.

On the north side of Cincinnati, WCLU was almost unlistenable, even in the daytime. WCLU did have a fairly good signal to the southeast though. However, the area to the southeast was mostly rural.

 

[Jeff_Davis]

You guys are both right AND wrong about WCLU. I'm impressed by the details you remember, though. We didn't think anybody was paying attention, but the more people I talk to, I find more people who used to listen to "that little AM station around '13' on the dial." Most of those were 80s high schoolers who bought cars without FM radios or drove their parents' car. I was there from September 1985 to April 1987 when Dick Plessinger bought it. In fact, I was down there today visiting. If you want to know more, I'll fill you in later. Gotta go.

 

[NoWayNoCC]

Anyone know what WCLU did with its massive music library when the Plessinger crew took it over?They must have had a huge record collection. Whenever WCLU played an oldie that was more than 3 years old, it was usually something I hadn't heard in years.