So Long Smooth Jazz 1480

[darksoldier]

I Break my silence for but a moment....Smooth Jazz is on smoothjazz1480.com, and I have an oldies station to "get together", plus a net station to program, and a website to update... Just hard driving now, but my plan is to serve Cincinnati, Dayton, Northern KY, and the world with LOCAL/national/international jazz/smooth jazz information, and play MUCH better music than BA, while not killing people with OVER ROTATION. Got an IPhone or a Blackberry? .... You can still listen in the car, or on the go.


BACK TO WORK NOW......

 

[cincyradio72]

I am a huge fan of this format, but unfortunately nationwide this format is dying more and more each day. I read a couple weeks ago that Lite 99.9's HD2 signal was supposed to become Smooth Jazz but I haven't heard anything since.

Actually the WLQT (Lite 99.9 Dayton) HD-2 feed switched over to smooth jazz I believe sometime last week.

 

[kirkiefan]

That is true. Smooth Jazz is now on WLQT's HD (Sub?) carrier.

Smooth jazz has also departed from WRPO-LP up in Russells Point (Indian Lake area) a week ago as well in favor of oldies.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

I agree that 1160 has a better daytime signal. 1480s signal is much weaker in Northern KY. I wonder if they can upgrade their daytime power?

They had a better daytime signal...remember those 4 or so almost 400' towers at 106 Glenwood Avenue? For whatever reason, they left that site & went from 400' towers to 150' towers (roughly speaking on both counts). Unless they can buy other stations & shut 'em off, I doubt you'll see a better day or night signal. That said, it HAS to be better at night north of the river than 1160 is. I went to a show they put on at the Taft Theater a couple years ago...sounded great when we went in, when the show was over, the signal was worthless--and that's a few hundred feet from the river downtown. It has to get worse from there north. I keep hoping they'll someday get their hands on 1360 & those coveted WSAI calls...At the end of the day, that's where WDJO's format belongs.

 

[FRR]

Why the conversion in the first place?

 

[Arbitorn]

There were five towers on Glenwood - one was very small - and the property they sat on was worth more than the station. They should have moved the transmitter to the old BASF site at Dana and Montgomery Roads. Real estate would have been more expensive than the landfill along Cross County Highway but the signal would have been a ton better. There's really not much that can be done to improve the wattage where they are now. I agree with MicroBob about the format belonging on 1360 but that would involve Clear Channel doing the right thing. They couldn't pour the right thing out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel.

 

[One Who Knows]

There were five towers on Glenwood - one was very small - and the property they sat on was worth more than the station. They should have moved the transmitter to the old BASF site at Dana and Montgomery Roads. Real estate would have been more expensive than the landfill along Cross County Highway but the signal would have been a ton better. There's really not much that can be done to improve the wattage where they are now. I agree with MicroBob about the format belonging on 1360 but that would involve Clear Channel doing the right thing. They couldn't pour the right thing out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel.

An engineer once told me the hill on Glenwood Avenue suffered greatly from soil erosion...it was a task for them to keep tower #5 from literally sliding down the hill.

 

[microbob]

I agree that 1160 has a better daytime signal. 1480s signal is much weaker in Northern KY. I wonder if they can upgrade their daytime power?

They had a better daytime signal...remember those 4 or so almost 400' towers at 106 Glenwood Avenue? For whatever reason, they left that site & went from 400' towers to 150' towers (roughly speaking on both counts).

It's a shame they couldn't rebuild the new transmitter site with the original tower configuration that is needed for optimum signal for 1480khz.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

I agree that 1160 has a better daytime signal. 1480s signal is much weaker in Northern KY. I wonder if they can upgrade their daytime power?

They had a better daytime signal...remember those 4 or so almost 400' towers at 106 Glenwood Avenue? For whatever reason, they left that site & went from 400' towers to 150' towers (roughly speaking on both counts).

It's a shame they couldn't rebuild the new transmitter site with the original tower configuration that is needed for optimum signal for 1480khz.

To mis-quote some of Ted McAllister's last words on WSAI in 1978, It's a Shame, it's a #$%@$ ^%$@# Disgrace!

 

[major]

It wasn't their choice of which to give up. The oldies guys were leasing 1160, and bought 1480 a few months back. Apparently, they couldn't afford to buy one and lease the other. As far as I'm concerned, in Amelia, Ohio, both frequencies are "daytime-only" stations. Clearly the daytime of 1160 is MUCH better than 1480. 1480 has historically had signal problems. Some due to the installation, some due to the pattern. It seems like WCIN has to protect stations, but they are afforded none themselves. At least that's what it seems like to me in Clermont County.

 

[kirkiefan]

Part of 1480's daytime signal misses Eaton but barely reaches Dayton and Springfield. Troy,Tipp City Piqua and Sidney has no reception of 1480 at all...even if it was up to full power. Still I wish Dusty,Brian and the gang at the oldies clubhouse well on this venture as they no longer have to lease their station from Christian Broadcast Systems Ltd. anymore...For us "upper valley folks" we still have the online stream which I am thankful for.

 

[KevinFodor]

1480 is NOT designed to be a radio station for Dayton, Eaton, Piqua, etc. Neither is/was 1160 AM. It's designed to be a local for Cincinnati.

It is what is known as a Class B AM radio station (up to 50 KW day). It doesn't reach the Dayton area very well because of it's high position on the radio dial. They must protect class A stations by modifying their signals at night. It's been too long ago since I worked there to remember exactly who the station protects.

Nonetheless, the daytime signal, while not quite as good as 1160, should be serviceable over most of greater Cincinnati. In the 70's the station's signal was very good in the daytime from the Glenwood Avenue tower site, but crap at night. (I would lose it two exits up I-75 north going home at night.) I know the towers and transmitter were moved, and power lowered as a result. Whether something can ultimately be done to improve this, I do not know.

Even so, I wish them the best. WDJO does a good job at what they do. I'm sorry to see the WCIN calls go away...but I guess they don't mean much anymore down there.

I was the News Director at WCIN the night of the Who concert tragedy. I was working in the newsroom after returning from the scene. We got a phone call that night from the BBC in London. I fed them tape of the eyewitness interviews I had done and agreed to be interviewed for their morning show. At the end of the conversation, I asked the gentleman from the BBC, "How is it that you chose to call us for information?" His reply? "We called the overseas operator and asked them for the names of radio stations in Cincinnati. We heard your call letters...WCIN...and figured you had to be one of the biggest stations in town."

I let him go right on thinking that, of course!