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OH! OH! OH! WHAT DIRECTION'LL 'ILD GO?!

blackgold

blackgold

Well, here's another question on the future direction of WILD AM 1090? I used to listen to it in its soul and urban heyday in the 1970s and 1980s. And believe me when I tell you...it was the station for the black community-as well as others. However, the rise of Disco on KISS 108 and Disco 93 in the 70s put it on the skids. Then we had this Hot 97.7, which got driven into the ground when Radio One bought it from the Nash family...and now, it has to fight off 24/7 pirates, not to mention the internet and Ipods.
The only thing that's worth listening to is The Tom Joyner Morning Show and Brother Andre on Sunday morning. Incidentally, when I listen to Tom Joyner, I listen to these commercial mixes from various urban artists before it segues way into that awful jingle:
"Oh! Oh! Oh!
It's the Tom Joyner Morning Show!"
Then my listening is ruined. I believe that only if Radio One sells the station will AM 1090 make a comeback of some sorts. So now, with apologies to the Tom Joyner jingle, I ask you:
"Oh! Oh! Oh!
What Direction'll 'ILD Go?!"
 
I agree 100%
You're talking about those (supposed to be) "7 Minute Old School Mini Mixes" But they only play (if you're lucky) three minutes. That's if you'e lucky, if that!!! Now, all Tom has is Talk Features, not enough music.
Few years ago??, 2006, that's the I heard more music on there. From 2006 to now, he plays less music. Most of his show consist of Talk Features and ....

You forgot about "Star 93.7" when it was around, it was simular to W I L D 1090. They played R&B Disco, and R&B Oldschool as well as Current (currently Funkytownboston.com) <<<That's how Star 93.7 was. That's the cloest it was to W I L D


Boston Radio is sad

Too much Rock and Roll music
 
If Crappy Radio One Dont sell it ( drop the price ) the station will go dark. R.I.P. The Legend Nash AM 1090 W I L D Boston.
 
It has been going the same direction for a while now, and I know just the person to get to sign it off for the last time. I think the person still has the toilet flush sound effect that they used when signing WHDH 850 off for the last time.

" W I L D Boston is now leaving the airwaves"..... play national anthem, followed by toilet flushing sound.
 
If Radio One lowers the price tag and sells the station anytime soon, I would love to see the station get sold to an African American church who turns 1090 into a Gospel station. 1090 really is a heritage urban station and Gospel would do well on 1090 AM.
 
beantownradio25 said:
If Radio One lowers the price tag and sells the station anytime soon, I would love to see the station get sold to an African American church who turns 1090 into a Gospel station. 1090 really is a heritage urban station and Gospel would do well on 1090 AM.
Click to expand...

It would have to be a pretty big church with deep pockets to be able to buy it from Radio One.

Radio one is either not willing to take a lowball offer, or has not gotten one they are willing to take.

As much as I respect what the Nash family did with the station before it became property of Radio One, radio is a lot different now. WILD is never going to be what it once was, and neither will any AM station.

In the real world what is WILD worth? Not a lot.

So even if a Church, or group of churches could raise 100 grand, and Radio One took it ( doubtful) most of the churches in the African American community that would do a gospel format would be hard pressed to come up with the money to run a radio station.

Studio, equipment, contract Engineer, telco line to Medford, transmitter and tower space rent, etc. would drain the collection plate pretty fast if you ask me.

I can't see anyone going in there and being able to keep it on the air without real deep pockets, and I think that is sad, considering what WILD once was
 
MRBIboredop said:
I can't see anyone going in there and being able to keep it on the air without real deep pockets, and I think that is sad, considering what WILD once was
Click to expand...

Also, considering that WILD could probably get a major power increase (perhaps, all the way to 50 kW) albeit while still having to remain a daytimer, by moving across the street to the WEZE site and adding a third tower. The cost of such an upgrade would, however, almost surely dwarf the cost of acquiring the existing (4800W-D/1900W-CH ND-D) signal. Could Radio One be holding out for big $$$ because it knows that such an increase is very likely possible? IOW, is the possibility of a major signal upgrade standing in the way of a sale?
 
I think you would have a hard time getting another tower on that shoebox sized tower site at Wellington Circle, and I bet there would be opposition to it.

Look at the amount of money 1060 spent for upgrades and their return on investment would definitely have a negative in front of the percentage. Even 1200 has spent a huge amount of money on their recent upgrade, and IMHO it is going to take forever to see a return on investment.

Salem's 950 filed an application to move a couple of miles away, then pulled it in favor of an upgrade on the current site, and as far as I know they have not moved on it.

How does anyone toss money at an AM signal upgrade and not take a bath would be my next question.

Even 1470's move to Lexington along with a C.O.L. change to Watertown to make it happen seems like a money pit to me.
 
I think it has a future-but only if it considers something that not everyone has considered-shortwave. WILD could continue transmitting on its daytime frequency of 10-9-0 and have a shortwave frequency it could broadcast on 24/7. And of course, they can start up their website again and broadcast their signal that way, too.
 
Wouldn't a station like WILD be a shoo-in for a spot on the expanded AM band?

I thought the whole idea of expanding the band in the first place was for the purpose of uncluttering the band, and affording daytimers the chance to broadcast round the clock.

The only other avenue I see for a round the clock WILD is for some sort of arrangement for it to be carried on one of the FM HD sub-channels.

Shortwave?......I'll give "blackgold" extra-credit for creative thinking, but that one is really in left field....or....more appropriately...considering the programming on shortwave these days....RIGHT field... ;D
 
blackgold said:
I think it has a future-but only if it considers something that not everyone has considered-shortwave. WILD could continue transmitting on its daytime frequency of 10-9-0 and have a shortwave frequency it could broadcast on 24/7.
Click to expand...

Isn't there something in the FCC regs prohibiting either simulcasting and/or commercials on shortwave?
 
with internet streaming the only people that are listening to short wave are either in the middle of nowhere, or wearing tin foil hats.

People won't drop money for HD receivers and you expect them to buy a SW radio?

Didn't both the Christian Science Monitor and the BBC cease their SW operations?
 
If you expect the station to be supported by advertising dollars -
the ONLY questions to ask are:

1) who is the audience?
2) which advertisers will pay to reach that audience?
3) will those $$ be enough to support the station's format/operation?

The Three Stooges can rant all they like (what Boston needs...) -
but this is the reality...
 
Okay, forget the shortwave part. Let's move them into the Extended AM Band or the Extended FM Band so they can try 24/7 broadcasting. They deserve to regrow their station that way.
 
The Expanded FM band is a myth, not going to happen, and as for the expanded AM, talk about FAIL! There isn't one in any of the Northeast states the high frequency and low power are not going to be an upgrade even to a daytimer imho. There are less than 100 in operation in the US, and there has to be a reason for that.

Did the FCC ever repeal the 2002 moratorium on applications for the expanded band?

list of stations: http://www.angelfire.com/wi/dxing/xband.html
 
MRBIboredop said:
...the high frequency and low power are not going to be an upgrade even to a daytimer imho. There are less than 100 in operation in the US, and there has to be a reason for that.
Click to expand...

Do you think that stations like WJIB would opt for a 10KW expanded Band frequency....or turn it down for staying on 740AM with 250 watts?
 
Jibguy says: WJIB would likely just stay where it is. Unless a successful case could be made for keeping BOTH, like Elizabeth NJ did! - Additionally, you can count on neither ever going with the current "HD" I-Block system.
 
MRBIboredop said:
The Expanded FM band is a myth, not going to happen, and as for the expanded AM, talk about FAIL! There isn't one in any of the Northeast states the high frequency and low power are not going to be an upgrade even to a daytimer imho. There are less than 100 in operation in the US, and there has to be a reason for that.

Did the FCC ever repeal the 2002 moratorium on applications for the expanded band?

list of stations: http://www.angelfire.com/wi/dxing/xband.html
Click to expand...

For whatever reason it was never built out, but a CP was issued for a 1700 AM in New Hampshire maybe in the town of Rochester? I don't remember because it was so long ago. It was the only Expanded Band AM station that was ever issued a CP in New England.

Numerous stations in New England wanted to move to the Expanded Band none were ever approved. Here in Connecticut 2 I can think of were WCCC AM 1290 in West Hartford. They were a 490 Watt daytimer and simulcast their FM rock station (Today they're licensed for 11 watts at night and are a Classical Station with I-MESS in the Morning). The other one in Connecticut was WNTY AM 990 in Southington. They were (and still are) 2500 watts day with 80 watts at night. Back then they were a local community station. Today (as WXCT) they run Spanish Christian programming piped in from New Jersey via an Internet Stream. I'm sure there were others that I'm forgetting, but those are the 2 that I remember from Connecticut.
 
I have to agree with Bob Bittner. WJIB is fine where it is; he'd need at least the 10 kW day power to come even close to getting the coverage he has on 740 with 250 watts. Also, the Expanded Band can be thought of as part of the shortwave spectrum. LOTS of skywave at night. I believe the 1660 Bob refers to, originally WJDM and now licensed to Jersey City as WWRU,is one of maybe 2 directional stations in the entire X-Band. You'll notice quite a few ESPN and Radio Disney affiliates there too.
 
MRBIboredop said:
I think you would have a hard time getting another tower on that shoebox sized tower site at Wellington Circle, and I bet there would be opposition to it.
Click to expand...

There is AMPLE room for the third tower midway between the existing pair at the WEZE site. However, whether the City of Medford would go for it is another issue entirely. WEZE's towers are 160 degrees apart at 590. 80-degree tower-to-tower spacing would be just fine for WEZE itself, if, say, Salem wanted to use the additional tower to increase the station's daytime power. But the idea of moving WILD to that site is in no way predicated on changes to WEZE. My guess is that Salem would see no benefit from using the third tower and it would be used only by WILD. At 1090, the tower-to-tower spacing for the three-tower in-line array would be 147.8 degrees. This is almost the exact electrical spacing of the three towers in WRKO's array, meaning that WILD could have patterns very similar to WRKO's (that is, modified figure-eights symmetrical about an east-west axis). To protect WTIC, the non-CH day pattern would have to limit the radiation to the west to the current RMS of WILD's 4.8-kW ND non-CH day operation (something like 618 mV/m @ 1 km, I believe) and to protect WBAL during CH, the CH pattern would have to limit radiation to the west to the current RMS of WILD's 1.9-kW ND CH operation (something like 389 mV/m @ 1 km, I believe). Using the CH pattern at reduced power during the period between Boston and Baltimore sunsets, WILD could probably run enough power to actually be heard in a fair amount of the market during that roughly half-hour portion of PM drive. As you can see, the idea is technically quite feasible. What I don't know is what problems there would be with Medford's zoning board.
 
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