SMALL TOWN, BIG MARKET

[davideduardo]

And now that we're all friends again (and I say that as one of the few people here who's broken bread with not only Sr. Gleason but also Mr. 6479 and Hizzoner OMW...), here are a few that come to mind amidst my travels:

On a different side of this... how about stations that were successful where they were and spoiled it all by moving into or near a bigger market.

The move of KSIQ from Brawley in the Imperial Valley to Campo inside the San Diego market is a pretty dramatic one. From being a reasonably successful station in a small market they became a very limited San Diego facility with a main transmitter in a valley so most of its useful coverage comes from a booster that gives a useful signal to about 10% of the market. While Brawley/El Centro/Calexico is a small market, its possible to operate successfully there.

 

[fybush]

On a different side of this... how about stations that were successful where they were and spoiled it all by moving into or near a bigger market.

You could fill a book with those, I think...KSIQ is certainly a good example to start with.

Sticking with Ohio, how about WMRN-FM 106.9 Marion giving up its big B signal over north-central Ohio to become an afterthought B1 (or is it an A?) on 106.7 in the Clear Channel Columbus cluster?

101.9 Colorado Springs moving north to become a Denver rimshot?

WSNJ-FM, which owned south Jersey when Ed Bold owned it as a superpower B on 107.7, before Radio One overpaid to move it into Philly as an A on 107.9?

This category brings in some AM examples, too - 620 Wichita Falls moving to Dallas, where it's now a forgotten Radio Disney outlet, for instance.

Who's got more?

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Denver is full of these messes. Just about every signal serving every wide spot from Cheyenne (does that city even have any FM signals of its own now?) to south of Pueblo has tried to "move in" to Denver...usually with poor results. I haven't done the math, but 101.9 is probably not the only such station signal-wise, before and after.

WQKT's 60, by the way, touches downtown Akron and downtown Canton. It puts a strong, listenable signal into much of western Summit County and western Stark County. I caught it again in the western part of the area listening to see if it was carrying the Cavaliers' pre-season game (it was not), and it was very strong. Again, not so much east of downtown Akron, but there's plenty of population in the market west of downtown.

DE makes a very good point about car vs. home radios, though. The former WHK-FM/98.1 Canton put a listenable signal into car radios in much of Akron, but Clear Channel found out rather quickly that the station's stick east of Canton was a non-starter for in home/office listening. That led to the transmitter move to Hartville (northwest Stark County, closer to Akron), and the more recent move back into the heart of the Akron market from the old 96.5 site.

But we're kicking around two different points here. WKDD continued, even after the move to the 98.1 frequency, to try to market in Akron...and it was a miserable failure until the first transmitter move (and has even suffered from Hartville, forcing CC to move it back into Summit County, with the COL move to the Akron suburb of Munroe Falls).

Mr. Fybush has a couple of great examples around Ohio. WDFM's attempt to hit Ft. Wayne was ill-fated from the start. The signal is decently listenable (again, in cars, mostly) even without the booster, but CC would have to make more effort than a booster to sell this small town station in even the modestly-sized metro area of Northeast Indiana. (Heck, aren't there some CLOSER stations that have stuck to the home field? The station licensed to Hicksvillle, no?)

WREO has the same problem in Erie. They'd have to open up a sales office there, and make some effort to sell non-Ashtabula sponsors. Under Media One, they seem more content to mine the Lake County area east of Cleveland, which is economically much better off than both Ashtabula and Erie. They can sell Mentor and Painesville from Ashtabula, and with that signal.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

One note about 98.3/Luna Pier-Monroe MI...they've actually been trying to superserve their former COL as "Tower" for a while now.

It's just with the format flip, they're basically shouting "MONROE!!!!"...from a tower in Toledo.

 

[gr8oldies]

A station I used to work for, WCLR (formerly WPTW-FM), in Piqua, Ohio, near Dayton. As oldies Kool 95 in the mid 90s we kicked butt north of I-70. We marketed toward Dayton and did well there at times, but we owned the revenue from Vandalia to Lima. Cox bought us, destroyed the oldies format with a 200 song rotation (we were maybe around 800 and you know I'm not a "play 10000 songs" proponent), then went 80s with the all-U2 all-the time format, then started simulcasting News talk WHIO. It's successful in it's own way now, bringing the demos down for the News-Talk format (as well as filling in horrid coverage in many areas on the AM side during the morning news) but, at the same time, there are no additional spots to sell.

To make room for the WMRN move one spot down the dial to Columbus, WSRW in Hillsboro, which had 50,000 watts on 106.7 and served every holler in South Central Ohio, was downgraded and moved to 106.5, where it is now an afterthought in CC's Chillicothe cluster. Think that's one of the markets CC is trying to rid itself of.

It probably doesn't get anymore blatant than WIFE in Connersville, IN, which moved from Connserville to a Cincinnati suburb as a 6000 watt Radio On

 

[quadraphonic]

WBRF is in Galax VA/Mt. Airy NC, and they are pretty easily heard in Greensboro and Winston-Salem NC, but they have never sought advertising there, as far as I have heard. If they have, they failed. They get their weather from WXII-12 in Winston-Salem now, apparently. And they are the flagship for Wake Forest University sports, but I'm pretty sure WFU/ISP sought them out on that deal. www.blueridgecountry98.com

WAKG in Danville VA is also heard in Greensboro, but they have apparently made enough ratings and money in Danville for years, so they never had to try and rimshot anyone.

I think since 105.7 in Statesville NC and 105.3 in Gaffney SC were sold/moved/folded/spindled/mutilated in the last few years, and many stations in the past 20 years have moved toward a larger market, those are the last big-signal, small-town stations in these parts that's close to a larger market they ignore.

God, please don't let me get Tasered. I confess: I did not check the contour maps.

 

[charlestondxman]

Also, in my area, we lost several stations to that. WHLZ 92.5 in Manning, SC (between Lake Marion and Florence) was one of the best country stations around. They had a monster signal, and could probably be heard in half the state or more, including both Charleston and Florence. They served their community very well, and only really talked about Manning and Florence, not the rest of the area.

However, Apex bought it, and moved it to Charleston about 7 or 8 years ago. They flipped it to Hot AC "Coast" (which was a good station) but didn't get good ratings, so they flipped it to top 40. Then last year it went to urban.

WEGX 92.9 is another signal that used to be in a small town that doesn't really serve that purpose anymore. It can be heard in well over half the state, plus a good part of NC, but it used to just serve the Dillon area as WZNS. Now it serves Florence and Myrtle Beach as a country station.

 

[JeeperOne]

Here in Denver we have.....

KTCL-FM 93.3 - COL is Greeley, CO
KBCO-FM 97.3 - COL is Boulder, CO (A mere 50+ Northwest of Denver)
KKFN-FM 104.3 "The Fan" whose COL is Longmont, CO (Several miles North of Denver)

All of these stations run ads tailored for a Denver audience BUT.....

Aside from that, there are a number of Colorado Springs stations that can be heard in some parts of South Denver (Mainly in the Suburbs) & a few Northern Colorado (Read Ft. Collins & points North) that can be heard in some parts of North Denver too (Mainly in the Suburbs)

Neither of these stations run ads tailored for a Denver audience

On TV, KKTV 11 & KRDO 13 in Colorado Springs could often be receivable in parts of Denver before the transition. Not sure if that's the case now. Up North, there's KCDO 3 in Sterling, CO (Apparently it's still on Channel 3 though I have no idea how or why)

Cheers

 

[JeeperOne]

You and Mr. Media are confusing stations that are somewhere between deep fringe and DX reception with usable signals. There is nothing miraculous about getting such a station... it's just something that nearly nobody except a radio geek would do today.

Well I guess it's safe to say that ALL of us are guilty of that to some extent to be hanging out here D

You seem to take things WAY too seriously David. Lighten up.

Cheers

 

[JeeperOne]

101.9 Colorado Springs moving north to become a Denver rimshot?

Along the same lines, there's 102.3 moving East to become a Denver Classic Rock-turned JOKE FM rimshot (It's now home to ESPN Desportes Radio)

Cheers

 

[JeeperOne]

Denver is full of these messes. Just about every signal serving every wide spot from Cheyenne (does that city even have any FM signals of its own now?) to south of Pueblo has tried to "move in" to Denver...usually with poor results. I haven't done the math, but 101.9 is probably not the only such station signal-wise, before and after.

The thing you miss is because most of the FM transmitters are atop mountains here in Colorado, a station doesn't have to move ANYWHERE to cover a certain area. The signals do that on their own.

The only thing a station here has to do to cover a certain area & be considered a part of the community is simply run advertising for local businesses, political candidates, TV stations, etc. The top of the hour legal ID is merely a formality.

Cheers

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

The thing you miss is because most of the FM transmitters are atop mountains here in Colorado, a station doesn't have to move ANYWHERE to cover a certain area. The signals do that on their own.

Very true. But I do seem to recall a few transmitter moves...from Way Out There to Close Enough To Denver To Fake It.

 

[LibertyNT]

in DFW its particularly hard to find a class A rimshot or just a regular rimshot that doesn't try to serve DFW. Even our little class A on 92.1 says Dallas Ft. Worth despite having No signal in Ft Worth and hardly any signal in Dallas.

but there are a limited few
AM:
KGVL 1400 Greenville, puts a good signal over half the metro by day, but strives to super serve Greenville.

FM:
97.5 KLAK. This is by far the best example. This Station Moved in from north of the red river into Tom Bean Texas. It Became Collin County's Radio Station, serving McKinney, Allen, Plano, Wylie, ect.

 

[TimmyWA]

I lived in Sacramento for around 4 years and recall the drive on 80 between Sacto and the Bay. In town, you could usually pull in Vacaville's Hometown Station KUIC 95.3. It had a pretty big coverage area and we could usually listen to that Vacaville only oriented station for almost the entire trip. According to Radio-Locator, they put out less than 500 watts ERP at about 2000 ft HAAT from their main and have a small booster in Vallejo. They really hyper-local focus their imaging and advertising as well as traffic and weather reports. I thought it was pretty cool.

 

[LKellerIII]

The SF Bay Area (#4 market) has a number of outlying suburban stations, some of which I've enjoyed over the years, though they never pulled in any big ratings to speak of. In the late 70s, I owned a 69 Mercury Cougar that had a great AM radio that was able to pull in low powered stations.

One of the better stations was 990/KKIS out of Concord, which became one of my Top 40 station pre-sets. Good music and good personalities. If I remember correctly, Dr. Don Rose - probably the Bay Area's most beloved morning DJ (KFRC, K-101) owned the station in the 80s for awhile.

In the 70s and 80s when the San Francisco "free form" rock stations like KSAN had gone downhill and become heavily formatted, the free-form album format was still very much alive on KTIM-FM out of San Rafael. A number of SF's hippie-era DJs worked at the station. One of my disappointments in moving to the southern part of San Francisco was not being able to pick up KTIM, though you could often pick it up in neighborhoods closer to the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

[mbatchelor]

In St. Louis - Goodradio.TV's KTJJ 98.5 "J98" Farminton, MO is a 100kW Flamethrower about 65 Miles south of the City that has a city grade over most of the southern part of the metro, yet remains very locally focused with lots of local news and sports.

Across the river in Litchfield, IL, WSMI FM 106.1 is much the same serving the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis.

In Kansas City, 100.7 KMZU Carrolton, MO is another one like the above - Country Music, Local Sports and News and Farm coverage on another big 100kW signal.

 

[the golden boy]

Jackson's not that big of a city, but WMGO-AM Canton has a signal that is somewhat listenable in the daytime in Jackson. They do show in the Arbitrons here. The station is very focused on Canton and Madison County.

If there are any Chicagoans reading this, please help me out here: did the former Y108 and 99.9 Bus FM make any attempts to focus on Chicago? There are also a group of stations in northwest Indiana that can be heard on the south side of Chicago, but they don't make any attempts to target Chicago.

 

[dave73]

Jackson's not that big of a city, but WMGO-AM Canton has a signal that is somewhat listenable in the daytime in Jackson. They do show in the Arbitrons here. The station is very focused on Canton and Madison County.

If there are any Chicagoans reading this, please help me out here: did the former Y108 and 99.9 Bus FM make any attempts to focus on Chicago? There are also a group of stations in northwest Indiana that can be heard on the south side of Chicago, but they don't make any attempts to target Chicago.

99.9 WBUS (when the COL was Kankakee, IL) mainly focussed on Kankakee County, but also served some neighboring counties, including Iriquois, Will, & southern Cook Counties. While it could be heard on some radios on the south side of Chicago, they never made any attempt to market themselves as a Chicago station (unlike WRZA under both Entravision & Newsweb with the COL as Park Forest).

I believe both WAUR & WYSY on 107.9 did market themselves as Chicago stations, but I do believe they also served Aurora (their COL). This is only 1 of 3 Class B suburban signals that has Grade A coverage over Chicago (WPPN 106.7 Des Plaines & 92.3 WPWX Hammond, IN being the other suburban signals, but WPWX markets themselves as Chicago station instead of a Hammond station). I'm sure as WLEY that they're marketing themselves as a Chicago station instead of an Aurora station.

WZVN 107.1 Lowell Indiana does reach the near south suburbs & does manage to reach the far south side of Chicago with their 3kw equivalent Class A signal. They however make no attempt to market themselves as a Chicago, instead, focussing on Lake, Porter, Jasper, & Newton Counties of Indiana (Lake & Porter Counties the most).

WLJE 105.5 Valparaiso Indiana claims to be heard from Chicago Illinois to South Bend Indiana with their 3kw equivalent signal, but it's weak in Illinois as well as around South Bend. It can be heard in the nearby south suburbs near the Indiana/Illinois line, but get too far west, & it get bleedover from either WYKT (Wilmington, IL?) to the south, or WZSR Woodstock, IL to the north. It's mainly heard in Lake, Porter, & LaPorte Counties of Indiana (probably northern Jasper & Starke Counties too). They mainly market to NW Indiana with the Valparaiso area being the main area.

WXRD 103.9 Crown Point Indiana can also be heard in parts of the nearby Chicago south suburbs, but not heard as well in Chicago. They only market themselves as a NW Indiana station. This is a 3kw Class A station.

Now out of the 3 NW INdiana stations I mentioned (Class A only), WLJE has shown up in the Chicago Arbitron books the most, though I'm sure Radio One Communications (owners of WLJE, WXRD, & WZVN) doesn't subscribe to Arbitron, & doesn't care if they show up in the Arbitron books, as they're marketing themselves to NW Indiana.

 

[w9wi]

I intended to make this thread a place for stories about hearing small town stations clearly in big city traffic, as a curiosity, nothing more. The 64 dbU contour of the station means nothing to what I'm trying to accomplish here (which is why I rather clearly indicated the station can be heard "on car radios"), and the ratings were only brought up as an indication that *someone* in the big city calls up these stations from time to time, probably to hear sports product on FM that could be on AM in the big city.

A prime example that no longer exists would have been WDBL-FM 94.3 Springfield, Tennessee. Clearly audible on a car radio through most of Nashville, though I can't imagine anyone (except commuters from Springfield) ever listened. Really, the best of small-town radio. About five years ago they sold to Saga, who relicensed the station to Oak Grove, Kentucky and made it in essence a Clarksville station.

WANT-98.9 Lebanon, Tennessee still falls into this category, though their signal is a lot less potent in Nashville. WKOM-101.7 Columbia too -- their signal is a bit better but they're satellite oldies with little local content. Hopkinsville's WHOP-FM 98.7 and Cookeville's WGSQ 94.7 also make the trip, to the extent that WHOP drove a translator off their frequency. (to my knowledge not that WHOP complained about the translator, but that the translator was rendered useless by the WHOP interference) But again, I doubt any of these stations have any significant audience in Nashville beyond those who commute from those towns.

WTKM-FM 104.9 Hartford, Wisconsin still qualifies. It's clobbered in areas south of Milwaukee by a relatively recent 104.7 operation but is plenty loud in the northern & western suburbs. The polka format probably has little audience below age 50. (but in that demographic it *does* have audience in Milwaukee proper, they complained loudly when the 104.7 went on the air and again when it moved closer to Milwaukee) Since WGLB-FM 100.1 sold to a Catholic broadcasting organization I can't think of anyone else "leaking into" the Milwaukee market. Except maybe for the Grand Rapids grandfathered monsters & the Muskegon stations right on the lake, (and Madison's monster WOLX) but none of these could be called "small town".

WDBL really explains why such stations are so rare. With modern computer-driven allocation studies, someone can usually find a way to move these outlying-town stations into the core market.

 

[schmave]

A station I used to work for, WCLR (formerly WPTW-FM), in Piqua, Ohio, near Dayton. As oldies Kool 95 in the mid 90s we kicked butt north of I-70. We marketed toward Dayton and did well there at times, but we owned the revenue from Vandalia to Lima. Cox bought us, destroyed the oldies format with a 200 song rotation (we were maybe around 800 and you know I'm not a "play 10000 songs" proponent), then went 80s with the all-U2 all-the time format, then started simulcasting News talk WHIO. It's successful in it's own way now, bringing the demos down for the News-Talk format (as well as filling in horrid coverage in many areas on the AM side during the morning news) but, at the same time, there are no additional spots to sell.

A bit off topic, but as a longtime listener to 95.7 under three formats whenever I visited western Ohio, thanks for all the great programming over the years. Kool 95/The Point is one of those stations I remember fondly from my teen and 20s years, even if the music often pre-dated me!
You aren't kidding that Kool 95 kicked butt in the 90s. You guys often were the station played over the loudspeakers at Mad River Mountain when I skied there during high school, and you also were the station played on the St. Marys/Wapak cable access channel quite a bit too. I fondly remember being able to listen all the way from Dublin to St. Marys and also en route to Cincinnati when I went down to watch the Reds. I do remember the playlist getting smaller when Cox took over, and often listened both OTA and online during the "Dayton's Point" years since Columbus by then didn't have an 80s station. Still listen occasionally since they went to talk, but not nearly as much.