Signal strength is crucial. WCOL-FM proved that twice in this market. When they changed to Oldies in late 1990, they demolished their Class A competition on 103.1 and 103.5 in one book. Even more telling is when they changed to country a few years later. Remember that WCOL was always a Top 40 giant in the market, but it had no legacy or even remote connection to Country, yet they blew off both 95.5 and 98.9 very quickly because they had the best signal in the format. At the time it seemed like a mistake to keep the WCOL call with the Country format since it had utterly no connection and it seemed like nobody in the market would ever associate WCOL with Country, but their signal made all the difference. Even if Saga or someone else would offer a superior product, it wouldn't matter on a poor signal because in one market after another it has always been the signal strength that wins listeners and advertisers. Some people on this board have questioned how so many of the stations in this market sound so bad in terms of format. As long as you have a good Class B signal that people can hear, you can sound as bad as you like and still win unless someone with an equal signal competes in the same format.
