I thought this probably belonged on this board more than the central PA board.
Ben
Antenna Guy Carl,
Thanks for the kind words about our facility WEMR....a few details though....
Route 81, at the time the Citadel breakup was done, got WCDL, WCWI (now WNAK-FM) WAZL and of course at the same time bought WNAK. GEOS Communications, our company, got WEMR and WCWY (Now WBZR), both of Tunkhannock.
Since the time we took over the facilities, we have done many repairs and an upgrade to WBZR to make it 6,000 watts. It is true that these radio stations were turned into essentially "translators" and it has taken some time and effort to bring them back to what they were. People in Wyoming County have expressed to us literally hundreds of times that they are glad to have the stations back broadcasting locally once again. One of the great things about WEMR is that because it was built in 1986, in terms of AM radio, it's in like new condition as far as the ground radials, towers and phaser.
Our programming on WEMR is a simulcast of WCOZ in Dushore (licensed to Laporte). Wyoming county where WEMR is located and Sullivan County, where WCOZ is located are two counties which count themselves in the same region of the state (The Endless Mountains Region) share a common border, a common economy, because of the Procter and Gamble plant in Mehoopany where many residents of both Wyoming and Sullivan County work and common challenges being small towns in this day and age. By simulcasting WCOZ on WEMR, our thought is, that we can offer news, weather, and public service which serves both counties, and a format which has been successful in both counties. If you listen to the radio stations, you'll see that, on the air we are no more a Sullivan County station now than we are a Wyoming County station. We feel that we can offer the best local programming on WEMR by pairing it with our WCOZ which already is strongly committed to local programming. WCOZ/WEMR does not use a satellite service. We program the stations all on our own and have all local disc jockeys, news from 7am to 5pm weekdays at the top of the hour, a shopping show, a locally produced Sinatra show on Sunday nights from 6p-9p, we run local sports in both Sullivan and Wyoming Counties, and even do church on Sunday mornings.
I can't speak for what Route 81 has done with their stations, or what their lifespan will be, although I do respect what they've done especially by bringing back WCDL and WAZL, but as far as we go on our end, we're FAR from "sat's a plenty" and "A sad ending to what began as an excellent and satisfying beginning."
Thanks again for the kind remarks about WEMR being a charming facility. I really get a kick out of it when someone brings us up on this board.
Ben Smith
Co-Owner
WEMR/WCOZ/WBZR
> > > I expect in the next year or two that Route 81 will
> cease> to> > exist, with the stations sold off to Clear
> Channel,> Citadel> > and the others, to become bug light
> stations in those> > networks. Sad, but I fear it will
> occur.> > Many were bought from one of the companies
> mentioned.> Citadel couldn't wait to unload them!> I'll keep
> my comments brief because I don't know Mr. Roach, but I do
> know people who work for him (worked being the better
> word)........Rt. 81 bought Cidadel properties that were so
> badly broken, it took much more money to even begin to fix
> them....in one case, only the tower was not replaced: the
> atu, ground system and transmitter was completely replaced
> and there was no studio equipment at all to begin with, so I
> suspect that replacing everything that they had to replace
> took more money than they ever thought it would
> cost....Buyer beware, however most of the properties that
> Rt. 81 bought or would like to buy have been majorly...and I
> mean MAJORLY damaged, and I saw three of them completely
> destroyed before Mr. Roach bought them......Prior to
> "another company" buying them, these properties were well
> managed, well maintained, so Roach and company got a ton of
> junk when they invested....they found they had to fix and
> fix they did at the expense of employees, but that is not
> their fault.......................in one Rt 81 facility,
> just one man does all the programming, thinking, planning,
> and selling. I would say he is also very experienced,
> however he is frequently overwelmed and too busy.He started
> out saying how wonderful Rt. 81 is and now his opinion of
> the organization is not all that good.......Knowing what I
> know, if I had a fistfull of cash to invest, I would not
> invest in Rt.81 even though their original idea of local
> radio (am and fm) was brilliant and a potential investors
> paradise, I wouldn't put a penny into it
> now..............Here is the other side of the coin, and I
> don't know what they are getting per minute either
> (billing-wise)...WAZL in Hazelton has probably a 20 minute
> cm load in the morning...which is way too much. The station
> is so hard to listen to because of the overload of
> commercials.....I fear they will LOOSE listeners because of
> the commercial load.....WCDL in Carbondale on the other hand
> has several local sponsors and the cm's are spaced out like
> in the old days....you hear 3 songs, then two cms, then
> three songs again and it sounds nice and relaxed......WEMR,
> a completely TRASHED facility runs a simulcast of their
> central Pa station WCOJ. When WEMR was physically built, it
> was a wonderful little place that was well thought out;
> signal was excellent and they got a power boost and
> nighttime authorization. You could hear it loud and clear
> in Wylussing; it became "the" local station over WARM at
> the time because it simply was run right from there......the
> "other" company purchased it, simulcasted WARM and a variety
> of other stations on it, and in the process, walked in and
> tore every wire out of the place.....kind of looks like
> vandalism!! If you ever wanted to buy a small radio
> station, WEMR would have been the station you would
> buy....charming property, killer frequency and a signal to
> match....but it was trashed. Rt. 81 bought it and inherited
> a junkyard.....it will take money and time to fix.....and if
> the philosophy of Mr. Roach continues, EMR may soon be a
> local station again.....but like the poster thinks, I too
> believe that it will be sat's a plenty at the Route 81
> stations very very soon. A sad ending to what began as an
> excellent and satisfying beginning.
>
Ben
Antenna Guy Carl,
Thanks for the kind words about our facility WEMR....a few details though....
Route 81, at the time the Citadel breakup was done, got WCDL, WCWI (now WNAK-FM) WAZL and of course at the same time bought WNAK. GEOS Communications, our company, got WEMR and WCWY (Now WBZR), both of Tunkhannock.
Since the time we took over the facilities, we have done many repairs and an upgrade to WBZR to make it 6,000 watts. It is true that these radio stations were turned into essentially "translators" and it has taken some time and effort to bring them back to what they were. People in Wyoming County have expressed to us literally hundreds of times that they are glad to have the stations back broadcasting locally once again. One of the great things about WEMR is that because it was built in 1986, in terms of AM radio, it's in like new condition as far as the ground radials, towers and phaser.
Our programming on WEMR is a simulcast of WCOZ in Dushore (licensed to Laporte). Wyoming county where WEMR is located and Sullivan County, where WCOZ is located are two counties which count themselves in the same region of the state (The Endless Mountains Region) share a common border, a common economy, because of the Procter and Gamble plant in Mehoopany where many residents of both Wyoming and Sullivan County work and common challenges being small towns in this day and age. By simulcasting WCOZ on WEMR, our thought is, that we can offer news, weather, and public service which serves both counties, and a format which has been successful in both counties. If you listen to the radio stations, you'll see that, on the air we are no more a Sullivan County station now than we are a Wyoming County station. We feel that we can offer the best local programming on WEMR by pairing it with our WCOZ which already is strongly committed to local programming. WCOZ/WEMR does not use a satellite service. We program the stations all on our own and have all local disc jockeys, news from 7am to 5pm weekdays at the top of the hour, a shopping show, a locally produced Sinatra show on Sunday nights from 6p-9p, we run local sports in both Sullivan and Wyoming Counties, and even do church on Sunday mornings.
I can't speak for what Route 81 has done with their stations, or what their lifespan will be, although I do respect what they've done especially by bringing back WCDL and WAZL, but as far as we go on our end, we're FAR from "sat's a plenty" and "A sad ending to what began as an excellent and satisfying beginning."
Thanks again for the kind remarks about WEMR being a charming facility. I really get a kick out of it when someone brings us up on this board.
Ben Smith
Co-Owner
WEMR/WCOZ/WBZR
> > > I expect in the next year or two that Route 81 will
> cease> to> > exist, with the stations sold off to Clear
> Channel,> Citadel> > and the others, to become bug light
> stations in those> > networks. Sad, but I fear it will
> occur.> > Many were bought from one of the companies
> mentioned.> Citadel couldn't wait to unload them!> I'll keep
> my comments brief because I don't know Mr. Roach, but I do
> know people who work for him (worked being the better
> word)........Rt. 81 bought Cidadel properties that were so
> badly broken, it took much more money to even begin to fix
> them....in one case, only the tower was not replaced: the
> atu, ground system and transmitter was completely replaced
> and there was no studio equipment at all to begin with, so I
> suspect that replacing everything that they had to replace
> took more money than they ever thought it would
> cost....Buyer beware, however most of the properties that
> Rt. 81 bought or would like to buy have been majorly...and I
> mean MAJORLY damaged, and I saw three of them completely
> destroyed before Mr. Roach bought them......Prior to
> "another company" buying them, these properties were well
> managed, well maintained, so Roach and company got a ton of
> junk when they invested....they found they had to fix and
> fix they did at the expense of employees, but that is not
> their fault.......................in one Rt 81 facility,
> just one man does all the programming, thinking, planning,
> and selling. I would say he is also very experienced,
> however he is frequently overwelmed and too busy.He started
> out saying how wonderful Rt. 81 is and now his opinion of
> the organization is not all that good.......Knowing what I
> know, if I had a fistfull of cash to invest, I would not
> invest in Rt.81 even though their original idea of local
> radio (am and fm) was brilliant and a potential investors
> paradise, I wouldn't put a penny into it
> now..............Here is the other side of the coin, and I
> don't know what they are getting per minute either
> (billing-wise)...WAZL in Hazelton has probably a 20 minute
> cm load in the morning...which is way too much. The station
> is so hard to listen to because of the overload of
> commercials.....I fear they will LOOSE listeners because of
> the commercial load.....WCDL in Carbondale on the other hand
> has several local sponsors and the cm's are spaced out like
> in the old days....you hear 3 songs, then two cms, then
> three songs again and it sounds nice and relaxed......WEMR,
> a completely TRASHED facility runs a simulcast of their
> central Pa station WCOJ. When WEMR was physically built, it
> was a wonderful little place that was well thought out;
> signal was excellent and they got a power boost and
> nighttime authorization. You could hear it loud and clear
> in Wylussing; it became "the" local station over WARM at
> the time because it simply was run right from there......the
> "other" company purchased it, simulcasted WARM and a variety
> of other stations on it, and in the process, walked in and
> tore every wire out of the place.....kind of looks like
> vandalism!! If you ever wanted to buy a small radio
> station, WEMR would have been the station you would
> buy....charming property, killer frequency and a signal to
> match....but it was trashed. Rt. 81 bought it and inherited
> a junkyard.....it will take money and time to fix.....and if
> the philosophy of Mr. Roach continues, EMR may soon be a
> local station again.....but like the poster thinks, I too
> believe that it will be sat's a plenty at the Route 81
> stations very very soon. A sad ending to what began as an
> excellent and satisfying beginning.
>