Reviewing station listings on ABMP and I noticed something strange. It appears the strongest Rock station in birmingham is 250 watts. Seeing that all rockers (and we have plenty) down here at the beach are 50,000 - 100,000 watts, this seems strange. What's the story? Is the Ham surrounded by a bunch of class A rockers? I know B'ham has plenty of rock-n-rollers, are they so progressive they don't need OTA radio anymore?
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Rockin in Birmingham
- Thread starter Poledo
- Start date
Birmingham hasn't had an AOR station since 1984, when 95 Rock (then WAPI-FM, later WMXQ, then WYSF and now WJOX) began its segue to CHR I-95. When Rock 99 first signed on in late '88, they mixed a little current rock in with classic rock, but within a year or so it was all classic rock. The first 80-90 docket station to sign on in the market was WWBR at 105.9 (106 the Bear), but it was a 1 kw station licensed to Trussville with its antenna on Ruffner Mountain in East Lake/Irondale. Good station, lousy signal. Within two or three years it segued to Alternative as 106 the X (WRAX's first of three locations on the dial, BTW).
The next (and final) full signal rock station in Birmingham was WRLR (97.3), signing on in '99. Another station hindered by a lousy signal: 640 kw, but at least broadcasting from Red Mountain. All the billboards in the world couldn't help the station. It lasted about two years, until Cox moved WODL (Oldies 106.9) to 97.3 to make way for 106-9 the Point. For whatever reason, no one else in the market tried rock until Clear Channel put the original Vulcan on 105.5, which lasted until they moved WERC's news-talk from AM to FM.
The biggest problem for Birmingham radio creativity is that ownership is basically limited to four corporate monoliths: Cumulus, IHeart, Summit and Crawford. Could you honestly see Crawford doing anything resembling rock radio? And as far as the other ownership groups, they all seem content on cannibalizing each other's formats. WENN had urabn FM all to itself until 95.7 Jamz and 98.7 Kiss-FM flanked them on both sides. WZZK was the market's top banana, so the previous owners of 102.5 went after them, finally dethroning them when they relaunched the station as the Bull and having Patti and Dollar Bill literally fall in their laps. Rock 99 was dominating with Classic Rock until the Point dropped all '80's and became the Eagle. For about the last 20 or so years, Birmingham has become like many mid-major markets: a constant dose of me-too-ism.
The next (and final) full signal rock station in Birmingham was WRLR (97.3), signing on in '99. Another station hindered by a lousy signal: 640 kw, but at least broadcasting from Red Mountain. All the billboards in the world couldn't help the station. It lasted about two years, until Cox moved WODL (Oldies 106.9) to 97.3 to make way for 106-9 the Point. For whatever reason, no one else in the market tried rock until Clear Channel put the original Vulcan on 105.5, which lasted until they moved WERC's news-talk from AM to FM.
The biggest problem for Birmingham radio creativity is that ownership is basically limited to four corporate monoliths: Cumulus, IHeart, Summit and Crawford. Could you honestly see Crawford doing anything resembling rock radio? And as far as the other ownership groups, they all seem content on cannibalizing each other's formats. WENN had urabn FM all to itself until 95.7 Jamz and 98.7 Kiss-FM flanked them on both sides. WZZK was the market's top banana, so the previous owners of 102.5 went after them, finally dethroning them when they relaunched the station as the Bull and having Patti and Dollar Bill literally fall in their laps. Rock 99 was dominating with Classic Rock until the Point dropped all '80's and became the Eagle. For about the last 20 or so years, Birmingham has become like many mid-major markets: a constant dose of me-too-ism.
Charles, I wouldn't say that's necessarily "set in stone" about Crawford Broadcasting not willing to attempt a rock format. Even though Crawford Broadcasting began as a Christian broadcaster, today the organization is more quasi-Christian. They have tried other formats before, and they DO own WPWX "Power 92" in Chicago, which is a secular urban formatted station. Crawford was in the crosshairs a few years ago with the Clear The Airwaves project, who were concerned about (and met with) Crawford Broadcasting about their use of obscene lyrics on their two stations there in Chicago, WGCI and WPWX.
http://raprehab.com/clear-the-airwaves-project/
If Crawford is willing to do urban on one of their stations, why not rock? And let's not forget the whole "Fun/Star/New 101" classic hits format they tried on WYDE-FM here in Birmingham.
Fair assessment about Crawford. And you forgot the two attempts they made to do standards/pre-Beatles oldies on 1260 as Legends 1260 (WLGS and WLGD). I would think, though, that they would be highly unlikely to try active rock or whatever they're calling current rock these days.
The deeper question is, would rock make money for anyone on full-power stick in Birmingham? Obviously, Cumulus has two FM's that aren't setting the woods on fire, ratings-wise, although I think 100.5 is contractually bound to do ESPN radio on 100.5 as a condition for having Finebaum on 94.5. The big question is, how much longer will they allow 99.5 to wallow? And if they were to pull the plug on Nash Icons, which way would they go? I've seen posters here and on other boards saying that initiating a(nother) simulcast of WAPI on FM would be the way to go, but since news-talk on FM isn't quite the panacea that it was hoped to be, would that make sense? CHR could have worked if the Vibe wasn't a glorified jukebox. Heck, if they hadn't gotten lazy, 99.5 could still be pumping classic rock. Remarkably, that frequency has become the black hole of Birmingham radio.
(Geez, imagine the expertise I could dish out if I knew what I was talking about!)
The deeper question is, would rock make money for anyone on full-power stick in Birmingham? Obviously, Cumulus has two FM's that aren't setting the woods on fire, ratings-wise, although I think 100.5 is contractually bound to do ESPN radio on 100.5 as a condition for having Finebaum on 94.5. The big question is, how much longer will they allow 99.5 to wallow? And if they were to pull the plug on Nash Icons, which way would they go? I've seen posters here and on other boards saying that initiating a(nother) simulcast of WAPI on FM would be the way to go, but since news-talk on FM isn't quite the panacea that it was hoped to be, would that make sense? CHR could have worked if the Vibe wasn't a glorified jukebox. Heck, if they hadn't gotten lazy, 99.5 could still be pumping classic rock. Remarkably, that frequency has become the black hole of Birmingham radio.
(Geez, imagine the expertise I could dish out if I knew what I was talking about!)
I would so love to see Rock 99 come back, but this time as modern rock, maybe give it a different name to separate it from the classic rock days, and not step on Tuscaloosas Rock 1063. Z995, or something. give Tuscaloosa and outlying areas a rock station again. this whole cringe inducing "man up" thing vulcan is doing is making me want this even more.
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