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Recent technical problems at Rocket 95.7 / WSHP Lafayette

R

radiojohno

Several times during the last week or more while I was trying to listen to Bob & Tom on The Rocket 95.7 / WSHP Lafayette, the station was broadcasting only dead air (a live signal, not just static) -- including on Friday morning (May 11) from approximately 6:30a to 8:00a (if not longer). Once or twice during that specific period, the program popped back on for one to three seconds ... and then went back to dead air. Friday morning wasn't the only time it's happened recently, though.

My sense is that it wasn't, say, a satellite reception problem (assuming WSHP receives Bob & Tom that way) because even local commercials and IDs did not air. Anybody know what's up?

Oh, and while we're talking about The Rocket 95.7, apparently newcomer Rob Creighton took over for Steve Clark a few weeks back. Did Steve leave AMP altogether?
 
Has to be fed by satellite -- If it was over-the-air from WFBQ, they'd have to have a board op (since there aren't any closures on the OTA feed). And any self-respecting board op will not allow dead air for more than a few seconds at a time.

Still, that's real lame to have dead air on AM drive. Board Op or no board Op.

I happened to have dead air when I got into work at 4:50 AM. Once I got there, it lasted about 45 seconds. (Sat feed had gone out about 2:30 AM) FYI: Never try to work an 11 hour shift doing a remote, newscasts, plus DJ and Engineering duties thrown in your lap. I eventually found out that the LNB power wasn't leaving the Starguide.

Sometimes I laugh at the Part-Time part of my job description :lol:
 
The feed was always sat as B&T moved from ISDN years ago.

In the past they have fed closures but Rocket always had a board op. Weather and such. Maybe this has cahnged. Who needs a baord op, this crap always works correctly, right?

Many sat problems spring and fall with lnb's and dishes. bees like the feedhorn for homes. wind plays havoc with the dish. If you heard blurb or blurb ina dn out this could be the case. They had a silent sense alarm but maybe no one at WAZY wanted to listen.

Steve Clark was always covering things at AMP one verys tation. With him gone expect a change.
 
Steve Clark is a great programmer and Lafayette radio simply wont be the same without him. But its good to see that hes going on to a much better place to work.
 
Where???

Congratulations Steve!
 
radiojohno said:
Oh, and while we're talking about The Rocket 95.7, apparently newcomer Rob Creighton took over for Steve Clark a few weeks back. Did Steve leave AMP altogether?
Click to expand...

Oooh....big grab....failed gigs in Joliet and in Michigan....

doing a Sunday shift (as recently as a month ago) on a hot ac in Jolet...following Seacrest....that screams "PD Material"
 
Spoke with a guy Saturday who does business with the folks on 18th street. He said his sales rep from out there told him that format changes/tweaks may be on the horizon for practically ALL the stations in the building. Of course, does this really surprise anyone??
 
Boiler*FM said:
Spoke with a guy Saturday who does business with the folks on 18th street. He said his sales rep from out there told him that format changes/tweaks may be on the horizon for practically ALL the stations in the building. Of course, does this really surprise anyone??
Click to expand...

Not a bit. They need to do something to bring clients back.

Anyone heard what they intend on doing with the stations?

Anyone have any realistic predictions?

I dont foresee them doing anything until their new ratings company releases the numbers.
 
I would assume the obvious here, only because they did it in the Fort. They hire the PD of a Modern Adult Contemporary station from Terre Haute to program WAZY and WLFF. Then they hire the PD of a Rock station to program WSHP and WSHY. Waitt Radio Networks already runs all the programming on WLFF with the exception of Lia Knight and Blair Gardener. Waitt Radio Networks also carries both Hot Adult Contemporary and Classic Rock programming. You can insert your own people and control certain aspects of the music as well, i think there is a website to check it out if you want. Both WBTU and WSHY in the Fort carried Waitt Radio Networks Oldies and Country Red to be exact. My overall thoughts on where this is going to go is.

95.3 THE WOLF stays WAITT RADIO NETWORKS COUNTRY BLUE
95.7 THE ROCKET grabs WAITT RADIO NETWORKS CLASSIC ROCK
96.5 WAZY grabs WAITT RADIO NETWORKS HOT ADULT CONTEMPORARY
1410 WSHY picks up WAITT RADIO NETWORKS CLASSIC COUNTRY
Chris Carter moves into programming both ROCKET and WAZY
Rob Creighton moves into programming both WOLF and WSHY
WAZY keeps a local morning show (Jake and Kim)
WAZY dumps Romeo for Cooper Lawrence
WLFF gets a local morning show (Rob and Chris)
WSHP keeps Bob and Tom
WSHP keeps Alice Cooper
 
::) I love people on message boards that have no idea what's going on. ::)

I suppose speculation is only natural, but let's not stir the pot here...unless you actually know what's going on. Otherwise rumors get started...does anyone actually like rumors? [Feel free to insert your own smar*ss comment here. You know you want to.]

Anyone who knows Chris Carter and his past programming ventures knows that he will not let his station, his baby, go the way of the bird. Mark my words on that... And since I don't live in the listening area, or the state anymore, I can't say for certain that the Wolf is on satellite. If it is though, and if Chris is the PD, look for that to change within a few months...
 
Anyone who knows Chris Carter and his past programming ventures knows that he will not let his station, his baby, go the way of the bird. Mark my words on that... And since I don't live in the listening area, or the state anymore, I can't say for certain that the Wolf is on satellite. If it is though, and if Chris is the PD, look for that to change within a few months
Click to expand...

Those who have worked for AMP - now and in the past - know that Chris will have NO say in whether a station does or does not go on the bird. That is not the PD's decision with AMP. That decision is Art's and Art's only...not even Arthur has that call. Just ask any of the many former PD's that have gone in and out of S. 18th.

I do wish him luck in the position, and hope for his sake that the rumors that Art is getting out of the way and handing the reins off to Arthur are true.
 
CChase, while I applaud your support for Chris, I do to. Chris is a fantastic guy and has had a lot of great radio stations under his belt. I know 3 men that have went through those doors as programmers of WAZY in the past 2 years. All 3 had no reign whatsoever on the stations. It was all knee jerk reactions from Indianapolis making the decisions there.

The WOLF is on the bird, ran by WAITT RADIO NETWORKS. Chris is or most likely will be PD of the WOLF. The only control he has of that signal is making sure part-timers are covered to board op the Purdue games.

Last year before Dana left, they were talking about moving WAZY to Hot AC as well immediately after the book came out. Guess what satellite company offers Hot AC? Same with Classic Rock on 95.7, great station but that same company likes to cut deals for entire clusters.

The automation system is older than you are, and the staff is cut to the bone. Lafayette is losing their grip in Indy's eyes, and while Chris is a great PD he wont have any say what kind of programming goes on at those stations. I wish him the best of luck in the next couple months.
 
radiojohno said:
Several times during the last week or more while I was trying to listen to Bob & Tom on The Rocket 95.7 / WSHP Lafayette, the station was broadcasting only dead air (a live signal, not just static) -- including on Friday morning (May 11) from approximately 6:30a to 8:00a (if not longer). Once or twice during that specific period, the program popped back on for one to three seconds ... and then went back to dead air.
Click to expand...

By the way, the dead air problem happened again this morning (May 18) on WSHP, in patches between 7:30a and 8:00a.
 
I always laugh and yet feel sorry for all the guys that get the gig as PD for AMP (WAZY) in Lafayette. Everytime somebody new comes in you immediately ready on here (the boards) how they 're going to come in and just whip that station and operation into shape on S. 18th St. Art's hired good PD's for the job, but the poor guys do't stand a chance since Art doesn't listen to them anyway - and he NEVER does! Their career at WAZY is over just about as soon as they walked in through the door.
 
While going by Lafayette this morning, I tuned in to 95.7 to catch the Best of B&T. At 5:30, I heard NOTHING! Every one in while for a second or two, was music, but nothing. I tuned back in at 6:00, again nothing, than a 5 second blurb that someone was sponsering the Best of B&T. B&T than started, and were in and out to the point of distraction.

Considering that this has been chronicaled for the past week, and NOBODY seems interested in fixing it, why not just shut it down, or sell it to EMF (after all, they will buy anything!)

What a way to run a railroad....
 
Rocket 95.7 / WSHP was broadcasting dead air yet again on Saturday morning (July 7), from 7:00a (probably starting earlier) until approximately 10:10a -- I had left the radio on and finally heard music replace silence.

"Best of Bob & Tom" usually airs then and no doubt it's automated, but isn't anybody in the building on Saturday mornings to check on things? And don't the advertisers get peeved? (Is this why AMP runs spots every other month seeking sales people?)

It's a shame 'cuz there are probably other people in their target demo in Lafayette who, like me, enjoy B&T and classic rock. Doesn't AMP realize that lots of folks in this area can reliably tune in Indy's Q95 and might simply give up on the Rocket?
 
radiojohno said:
It's a shame 'cuz there are probably other people in their target demo in Lafayette who, like me, enjoy B&T and classic rock. Doesn't AMP realize that lots of folks in this area can reliably tune in Indy's Q95 and might simply give up on the Rocket?
Click to expand...

It will be interesting to see what happens with The Rocket in the next book. Seems like these Bob & Tom problems have lasted through the duration of the book. You would think a live board-op would be on hand.....especially since theyve had so many problems recently with the satellite uplink.
 
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