Over Achieving AMs of the past

[secondchoice]

I will take “The Big A ‘s” suggestion and split a thread here:



Back in the day radio was a “local” business. Many markets had a dominate signal station(s). A lot of markets had “over achieving” AM stations which didn’t have the biggest signal but had a lot of local listeners.



My list included WMAK, WKDA, and WSIX Nashville. I also added WDXB Chattanooga.



The old 1450 in Fort Wayne beating WOWO in 1968 had to be cool for everybody except WOWO employees.



The current AM stations without translators (if there are any more) are here:



https://www.radiodiscussions.com/threads/overachieving-ams.736730/

 

[davideduardo]

Back in the day radio was a “local” business. Many markets had a dominate signal station(s). A lot of markets had “over achieving” AM stations which didn’t have the biggest signal but had a lot of local listeners.

Before Arbitron became dominant, Pulse and Hooper measured just in the central zone of a market... defined as the region where there was no toll on local area calling.

So if a market had widely spread suburbs that had toll calls to the outer ones, those ratings companies only measured the inner area. And, thus, old Class IV 1 kw station like WCPO in Cincinnati could do as well as higher powered WSAI or WKDA in Nashville could fight with WMAK. Or KBOX in Dallas against KLIF.

But when Arbitron became dominant, those limited signals were pretty much done. And there were lots of them... WOLF in Syracuse, KNUZ in Houston and KRIZ in Phoenix would be others of many examples... even the 250 watter Bill Drake began at in Atlanta! And another one was the reigning Top 40 in Augusta to the north and then the long-time winner in Roanoke.

IIRC, Grand Rapids, Ft. Wayne, Springfield (IL), Denver, Columbus (OH), Milwaukee, Harrisburg, Norfolk and Pensacola were other markets where a Class IV did well with Top 40 in the later 50's or 60's.

 

[gr8oldies]

I will take “The Big A ‘s” suggestion and split a thread here:



Back in the day radio was a “local” business. Many markets had a dominate signal station(s). A lot of markets had “over achieving” AM stations which didn’t have the biggest signal but had a lot of local listeners.



My list included WMAK, WKDA, and WSIX Nashville. I also added WDXB Chattanooga.



The old 1450 in Fort Wayne beating WOWO in 1968 had to be cool for everybody except WOWO employees.



The current AM stations without translators (if there are any more) are here:

he

https://www.radiodiscussions.com/threads/overachieving-ams.736730/

It was WLYV's genius, and WOWO's own fault, with taking the music into unfamiliar MOR territory (even with WOWO being your news/sports/farm/personality station, it played the top 40, even the rock titles. They quickly got back to where they were musically, and at times rocked harder than WMEE or WPTH.

 

[gr8oldies]

Before Arbitron became dominant, Pulse and Hooper measured just in the central zone of a market... defined as the region where there was no toll on local area calling.

So if a market had widely spread suburbs that had toll calls to the outer ones, those ratings companies only measured the inner area. And, thus, old Class IV 1 kw station like WCPO in Cincinnati could do as well as higher powered WSAI or WKDA in Nashville could fight with WMAK. Or KBOX in Dallas against KLIF.

But when Arbitron became dominant, those limited signals were pretty much done. And there were lots of them... WOLF in Syracuse, KNUZ in Houston and KRIZ in Phoenix would be others of many examples... even the 250 watter Bill Drake began at in Atlanta! And another one was the reigning Top 40 in Augusta to the north and then the long-time winner in Roanoke.

IIRC, Grand Rapids, Ft. Wayne, Springfield (IL), Denver, Columbus (OH), Milwaukee, Harrisburg, Norfolk and Pensacola were other markets where a Class IV did well with Top 40 in the later 50's or 60's.

WCOL into the 70s before it eventually moved the top 40 to FM as 92X. IIRC, even with Bill Drake behind it, WCPO never could compete against WSAI, even with ratings being taken in the local calling area. I remember listening to WGRD, Grand Rapids as a daytimer in the late 60s from 50 miles away (not a good signal) at our vacation destination.

 

[trusty]

But when Arbitron became dominant, those limited signals were pretty much done. And there were lots of them... WOLF in Syracuse, KNUZ in Houston and KRIZ in Phoenix would be others of many examples... even the 250 watter Bill Drake began at in Atlanta!

WAKE/1340 was one of the tightest fast-paced Top-40 stations in the fifties and early sixties. It was where Bill Drake developed his "formula" - and (rumor has it) that it was all done with turntables - no cart machines - a regular "boot camp" for jocks of all ages. The station should definitely be on the list of over-achievers.

 

[davideduardo]

WCOL into the 70s before it eventually moved the top 40 to FM as 92X. IIRC, even with Bill Drake behind it, WCPO never could compete against WSAI, even with ratings being taken in the local calling area. I remember listening to WGRD, Grand Rapids as a daytimer in the late 60s from 50 miles away (not a good signal) at our vacation destination.

Part of that was that George Burns was at WSAI with incredible imaging and promotions.