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Requiem For The Man Who "Killed" WOWO

DToTheJ

DToTheJ

This weekend, Percy Sutton passed away in New York City. An icon in the Harlem section of New York City, Sutton owned Inner City Broadcasting, whose stations included WLIB-AM 1190. Of course, it was under his watch that Inner City purchased the former 50,000-watt blowtorch WOWO-AM outright from Price Communications and decreased its power, so that WLIB could cease being a daytimer and "protecting" WOWO. Since then, WLIB has been a 24/7 station in NYC.
 
speaken of wowo,, didnt they once have an oldies format on FM as well. i remember back in like 1990 my parents had it on during a trip to toldedo,, And I dont think it was the AM. but it could have been if they played oldies.
 
Mid West Clubber said:
speaken of wowo,, didnt they once have an oldies format on FM as well. i remember back in like 1990 my parents had it on during a trip to toldedo,, And I dont think it was the AM. but it could have been if they played oldies.
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Toldedo, eh?

WOWO-FM on 103.1fm. They did play oldies. It's interesting to me that WOWO-FM on 103.1fm is now WGL-FM (the other half of 1250am) on 102.9fm, and back in the day, WOWO and WGL were sister stations when Fred Zieg owned them. When Price sold 103.1fm to Bob Taylor, Taylor then sold it to what is now "Summit City Radio Group" (along with WXKE on 103.9fm). I don't know what year 103.1fm moved to 102.9fm, nor do I know what year the city of license changed from Roanoke to Huntington.
 
Wasnt 102.9 once a dance station as Energy 102.9?
 
I was sure I heard this station while up there, and the time period seems about right. I dont know what Alternative dance means,, it seemed to lean on early 90s dance when I heard it,, very weak signal in Fort Waybe itself, I dont think it ever made a dent in the ratings, but it could have worked in indianapolis.
 
Along with Percy Sutton, it sounds as though Inner City itself is about to expire. Allegedly Mr. Sutton and his family were using Inner City as their personal bank account for quite a while and other shareholders have caught on to it and the lawsuits have begun.

Maybe time for a reversal of what was done in the mid-90's - Federated buys WLIB from Inner City, shuts it down and restores WOWO to their previous status. Not sure if the FCC would let WLIB be converted back to a daytimer - may just need to be shutdown totally. Probably an expensive project, but I'll dare to dream.

Everything Price Communications touched was destroyed. WWKB, Buffalo, the heritage top 40 in that market went from 7th in 12+ ratings to becoming a permanent fixture at the bottom of the charts after the entire staff was fired and replace by a satellite feed in the late 1980's. Literally, they went to about 0 listeners in one book. Then this horrible deal they made when selling WOWO - which even with Price's blundering was still at or near the top in the Ft. Wayne market when they sold it. Until then, though, WOWO was lucky - at least maintained a live and local staff throughout the Price era.

Does anyone know - was Price also a minority owned broadcaster? Always wondered what motivated them to make this deal - I'm sure they could have sold WOWO intact for plenty of money.
 
spt87 said:
Then this horrible deal they made when selling WOWO - which even with Price's blundering was still at or near the top in the Ft. Wayne market when they sold it. Until then, though, WOWO was lucky - at least maintained a live and local staff throughout the Price era.
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Under Price, WOWO's sales were down. I'm unsure why. Ratings aren't everything.

spt87 said:
Does anyone know - was Price also a minority owned broadcaster? Always wondered what motivated them to make this deal - I'm sure they could have sold WOWO intact for plenty of money.
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Price was owned by Bob Price who is not a minority.
 
spt87 said:
Along with Percy Sutton, it sounds as though Inner City itself is about to expire. Allegedly Mr. Sutton and his family were using Inner City as their personal bank account for quite a while and other shareholders have caught on to it and the lawsuits have begun.

Maybe time for a reversal of what was done in the mid-90's - Federated buys WLIB from Inner City, shuts it down and restores WOWO to their previous status. Not sure if the FCC would let WLIB be converted back to a daytimer - may just need to be shutdown totally. Probably an expensive project, but I'll dare to dream.

Everything Price Communications touched was destroyed. WWKB, Buffalo, the heritage top 40 in that market went from 7th in 12+ ratings to becoming a permanent fixture at the bottom of the charts after the entire staff was fired and replace by a satellite feed in the late 1980's. Literally, they went to about 0 listeners in one book. Then this horrible deal they made when selling WOWO - which even with Price's blundering was still at or near the top in the Ft. Wayne market when they sold it. Until then, though, WOWO was lucky - at least maintained a live and local staff throughout the Price era.

Does anyone know - was Price also a minority owned broadcaster? Always wondered what motivated them to make this deal - I'm sure they could have sold WOWO intact for plenty of money.
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RIP to Mr. Sutton, but what was done to WOWO remains inexcusable to this day. If there is justice in the radio world, someday this will be rectified.
 
RIP to Mr. Sutton. I LOVED WOWO, but...........there are lots of other signals in Ft. Wayne.

What he did is Legal, not "inexcusable." Sutton PLAYED BY THE RULES. Clever thinking. Good idea for him, good attorney to get it done.

Blame the fcc. The fcc allowed it. That's all.
 
If I remember right, it was an election night as I was driving home from my own radio gig and WOWO was off the air until all the funds transferred from Price to Westinghouse. It wasn't long before WOWO sold a block of religious programming from 10pm to midnight. Thankfully that didn't last long.
 
Haven't listened to WOWO for years...last time I listened I was running an errand in my boss's car which had am AM stereo radio. WOWO sounded great in stareo....but after it became a Rush affillate, I turned it off. The loss of that great WOWO signal is not only inexcusable...it's abhorrent...thanks to corporate greed and the 1996 Tele act allowing that greed to flourish! WOWO put Ft. Wayne on the radio map..now it's a shadow of what it used to be....so sad!

WOWO was for eveybody. You listened to the Top 40 hits as a teen with Jack Underwood(if you didn't particularly care for WMEE being a clone of CK). Your parents listened to The Little Red Barn and Bob Sievers. A kick-butt signal all over Indiana and Ohio...reaching out and inspiring nerdy farm kids like myself who played with the radio dial at night and hooking up a two-tube Lafayette AM radio oscillator to your home phonograph dreaming you had your own radio station on the weekend....that was classic WOWO...and I miss it!
 
I tended to gravitate to the younger WOWO jocks. Michael O'Shea sounded almost top 40. Remember though the reduced night coverage was at least in the planning stage before 1996.
 
I listened to WOWO 1190 regularly at night during the 1970s and 1980's while I was growing up in Connecticut. Bob Chase calling Komets hockey will be forever ingrained in my mind. :D And I also liked the AC/Full Service format they aired at the time.
 
So seeing this post bears this question: I believe that Inner City still "owns" WOWO, and FedMed "runs" it, to boil it down. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) If that is the case, pundits of the board I ask you, WOULD FedMed buy out Inner City to get back that 50kW blowtorch signal, or just keep what they've got?? My opinion is that Tony R. and the gang up there in Elkhart are cutting jobs to make "room" in the budget to grab it up. Of course they may have to buy ALL of Inner City's assets but then again I'm speculating. I'm a tech head, not a moneygrabber... :)
 
My understanding is that Fed Med owns WOWO, that sale may have been pre-arranged. Think Inner City got in, did the deed and got out.
 
My opinion is that Tony R. and the gang up there in Elkhart are cutting jobs to make "room" in the budget to grab it up.
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Doubtful they're buying anything since the whole CC Defiance/Fallen Timbers thing came to a halt.
 
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