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Some History about 97.7 fm

R

Radio Fish Heads

Some History about 97.7 fm

I worked there ( 3 ) times over the years ( with many different people - scoundrels , good people , liars , con men ) in other-words people
from all walks of life. Just like WCNW , WMOH , WPFB ; it was a great learning place for radio up-starts to become professionals . The list
of names over the years are the great & near great and some who were " never to be " .......
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
97.7 fm from my memory - and maybe others can fill in the blanks !
Harold Parshall put the station on the air from his home - Mixerville , Indiana 97.7 fm WOXR
Harold was unable to make the little station run on a profit
Eaton Company buys it from Harold
Howard Toney buys it ( Pres. of MidAmerican Broadcasting )
Jim Gregg buys it out of Kokomo, Indiana ( B.G.S. Broadcasting Inc )
97.7 now is located in Up-town Oxford - High Street
Block Programming ... Farm show ( CW music in the morning - only show with commericals )
after the morning show - MOR until 3 pm --- than top-40
later all top-40 and progressive rock
Jim Gregg sold the station to a couple from the Chicago area
Soon after that --- WOXR 97.7 changed to WOXY


My personal opinion is -- 97.7 WOXR should have never been allowed by the FCC to be taken out of the City (Village of Oxford ) and sold off and
left OXford without a home town voice of their own...
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

There is nothing that would have stopped the sale, and Oxford is not without service as WMUB is licensed to Oxford.
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

-------- Blaster : You are correct . Nothing could have stopped it...
But that was NOT my point . BTW - WMUB is the Univ. Station and
has nothing to do with the City of Oxford. I don't think they even
have a News Dept. ! Last time I was inside the studios ; they were
not Operational from that location at all. Miami has NO money to run
it ---- was the rumor ...... ( that was from someone that works in
the Radio Engineering Dept. )
My main Complaint is --- Oxford should have in my humble opinion a
local radio station and the Call Letters should be owned by the City
and Freq. not able to be moved out by some "carpet-beggars" who
took their Millions . But I guess that is the American way !
A sad state of affairs. Maybe CC will give me 1360 and I will move
it to Oxford ( downtown ) and a run a local - oriented hometown
radio station and make it work and turn a modest profit ! The chances
of that happening -- are like Obama not winning a 2d term in office.
















of that happening are
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

Radio Fish Heads said:
My personal opinion is -- 97.7 WOXR should have never been allowed by the FCC to be taken out of the City (Village of Oxford ) and sold off and
left OXford without a home town voice of their own...
Click to expand...
Considering that the Baloghs bought WOXR and changed it into WOXY, it was still fiercely live and local until the sale to First Broadcasting in 2004, when the studios moved to Georgetown. For a year after that WOXY was still semi-local with some remotes and ads, but it wasn't the same. Then the switch to MAX-FM happened.
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

Oxford is a nice city and Miami University is a great school with a beautiful campus. It is too bad that there is no commercial station there for residents and students to get entertainment and local news. Miami University football & basketball games are carried on some area AM stations, but I wonder how well those can be receved in Oxford after sunset? An FM outlet may be more obtainable than an AM for that area, but which one and what the price may be to buy and program it well are the immediate questions.
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

Radio Fish Heads said:
BTW - WMUB is the Univ. Station and
has nothing to do with the City of Oxford. I don't think they even
have a News Dept. ! Last time I was inside the studios ; they were
not Operational from that location at all. Miami has NO money to run
it ---- was the rumor ...... ( that was from someone that works in
the Radio Engineering Dept. )
Click to expand...

Miami University turned over operation of WMUB to Cincinnati Public Radio several years ago, and Cincinnati Public Radio operates it as a repeater of WVXU. There is no local-to-Oxford programming of any kind on WMUB. Miami is still technically the owner, however.
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

I never understood why First Broadcasting didn't continue with 97X. Where did "Max-FM" get them?
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

stereolane said:
I never understood why First Broadcasting didn't continue with 97X. Where did "Max-FM" get them?
Click to expand...
The Baloghs owned the trademark to 97X so they weren't going to transfer it, and they also kept the massive music catalog in the sale. That format continued on the internet at woxy.com until last year.

First knew going in that they were not going to have the stations that long (supposedly), and the alternative format that followed 97X for a year was delivered via Satellite from WAITT Radio Networks in Omaha, and fed to the transmitter back in Oxford. There was only one local jock (me).

The whole idea was to move the signal from Oxford and upgrade it, and then sell the stations they bought in 2004. It didn't happen that way.
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

It was about two miles outside of Oxford on the southwest side, on Stillwell-Beckett Road. First sold the site after the transmitter move to Mason.
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

I think the old tower on Stillwell-Beckett was removed and there's a house there now. First initially moved WOXY to the WKOI-TV tower where it sat for a little while before the city-of-license change to Mason was granted.
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

Class a A station, were limited to 3 kW at 300 feet. As to the Stillwell-Beckett site, it was even worse for us because we had an even shorter tower because we were in the Oxford/Miami U Airport flight path and we had a 12 bay antenna so the center of radiation was about 30 feet from the top. We had a 1000 watt Gates TX. There were a lot of things that could have been done to optimize the signal but Jim Gregg was a "bottom line" broadcaster. Blaming the technical facilities is easy but if the content is there, the audience will find you.

Also, there was no money for promotions and very little for salaries. As several iterations of OXR and, later OXY showed, lots of built-in disadvantages can be overcome.

John
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

jterhar said:
Class a A station, were limited to 3 kW at 300 feet. As to the Stillwell-Beckett site, it was even worse for us because we had an even shorter tower because we were in the Oxford/Miami U Airport flight path and we had a 12 bay antenna so the center of radiation was about 30 feet from the top. We had a 1000 watt Gates TX. There were a lot of things that could have been done to optimize the signal but Jim Gregg was a "bottom line" broadcaster. Blaming the technical facilities is easy but if the content is there, the audience will find you.

Also, there was no money for promotions and very little for salaries. As several iterations of OXR and, later OXY showed, lots of built-in disadvantages can be overcome.

John
Click to expand...
I worked at WOXR briefly in 1971. That Gates transmitter was there then...it was still there when they left that site? It was a used piece of junk 40 years ago. Was it still fed via phone line with the FM Volumax sitting on the concrete block as well? While I don't recall the number of bays, a 12 bay antenna on a class A is unheard of--not to mention horribly expensive--very out of character for a 'budget broadcaster' to invest in. That antenna would have been 110' long resulting in the center of radiation being a minimum of 55' down from the top....probably 60'. That transmitter went off during my tour of duty and I was dispatched to look at it. There was a roll of toilet paper left on top of the transmitter. It somehow fell down into the transmitter and enough of it got sucked into the blower that air flow ceased. Fortunately the air flow switch did it's job and no damage resulted. May I never have to clean TP from a blower fan again!
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

Sounds like that old line about "doing chin-up's off the lowest bay" applied here.

Too bad "First" took the old tower down. These days, you should never take ANY tower down. I have made plenty of money in the tower business over the years... and easy money at that.
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

jterhar said:
Class a A station, were limited to 3 kW at 300 feet. As to the Stillwell-Beckett site, it was even worse for us because we had an even shorter tower because we were in the Oxford/Miami U Airport flight path and we had a 12 bay antenna so the center of radiation was about 30 feet from the top. We had a 1000 watt Gates TX. There were a lot of things that could have been done to optimize the signal but Jim Gregg was a "bottom line" broadcaster. Blaming the technical facilities is easy but if the content is there, the audience will find you.

Also, there was no money for promotions and very little for salaries. As several iterations of OXR and, later OXY showed, lots of built-in disadvantages can be overcome.

John
Click to expand...

John, what was your on air name at WOXR? I remember chatting with several of the DJs there and distinctly remember one them telling me their real name was John Terhar but my memory has grown fuzzy. I used to be a big fan of the station from the early 70s into the late 70s, especially during their mid-70s progressive rock days when Mark Fullerton was running things.
 
Re: Some History about 97.7 fm

BobOnTheJob said:
jterhar said:
Class a A station, were limited to 3 kW at 300 feet. As to the Stillwell-Beckett site, it was even worse for us because we had an even shorter tower because we were in the Oxford/Miami U Airport flight path and we had a 12 bay antenna so the center of radiation was about 30 feet from the top. We had a 1000 watt Gates TX. There were a lot of things that could have been done to optimize the signal but Jim Gregg was a "bottom line" broadcaster. Blaming the technical facilities is easy but if the content is there, the audience will find you.

Also, there was no money for promotions and very little for salaries. As several iterations of OXR and, later OXY showed, lots of built-in disadvantages can be overcome.

John
Click to expand...
I worked at WOXR briefly in 1971. That Gates transmitter was there then...it was still there when they left that site? It was a used piece of junk 40 years ago. Was it still fed via phone line with the FM Volumax sitting on the concrete block as well? While I don't recall the number of bays, a 12 bay antenna on a class A is unheard of--not to mention horribly expensive--very out of character for a 'budget broadcaster' to invest in. That antenna would have been 110' long resulting in the center of radiation being a minimum of 55' down from the top....probably 60'. That transmitter went off during my tour of duty and I was dispatched to look at it. There was a roll of toilet paper left on top of the transmitter. It somehow fell down into the transmitter and enough of it got sucked into the blower that air flow ceased. Fortunately the air flow switch did it's job and no damage resulted. May I never have to clean TP from a blower fan again!
Click to expand...
I know that the Baloghs bought a new transmitter some time after they bought the station (and installed a back-up in the mid 1990's), but couldn't tell you the models because I hardly ventured over to the engineering side of things.

One of Doug's favorite stories was when they bought the station, and he and his wife were at a party with the staffers right after they took over. The station is on in the background, and it goes off the air. No one bats an eye except for Doug. He was told "Oh, that? Happens all the time. It'll come back up!"

Classic.
 
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