Cold Coffee
Banned
In theory six watts at their HAAT gets out like 100 watts at 100 feet. But in the real world six watts is not a strong signal anywhere.
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Station Carrying Second Oldest Live Country Music Show (Behind Grand Ole Opry) is 30 Months Behind on Tower Rent, Begging for Donations
- Thread starter Mikey Radio
- Start date
Although it was KWKH that started the Louisiana Hayride, the show that competed against the Opry for attention and talent. The famous story is when Hank Williams was kicked out of the Opry. he joined the Hayride.
It does appear that Jamboree USA really was a respected player on the country music circuit at one time, and it's a shame it was lost. I looked through a few of the booklets that @DavidEduardo linked to in his post, and as you state, there were several tour busses lined up in a row in front of that theater to drop off people to see performances, and lines of people a city block long waiting to get in. In looking at the information on the Jamboree site and elsewhere, it seemed the current top artists of the day up through the 70s and 80s regularly performed on that stage. According to the Wheeling Jamboree website I posted in my OP, it seems like during the period of ownership change from Clear-Channel to Live Nation and all those transactions, the business decision was made to discontinue the live Jamboree USA performances on Saturday evenings, and after a few years of carrying "encore broadcasts" they stopped airing it on WWVA in the mid-2000s. I don't know how the business vs. politics of it all worked, but it's a bit sad the city leaders at the time didn't or couldn't stop Live Nation from shutting it down, or didn't try and offer a strong alternative to try and keep it going. As @tvnut and @fybush both stated, once a long-running, legacy offering like that is discontinued for so many years, it's difficult to resurrect it and get the same type of following and industry respect back. If they'd have kept it going, perhaps they would've had a few lean years if it started to feel "old school" or "un-cool", but then once the appreciation for long-running, heritage programs like that kicked in again, it could possibly still be going in some form at this point.
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I don't know anything about the specific terrain in Wheeling, but what's the four-wheeling and rock climbing like up there? How about a Jeep weekend or an RV camping weekend paired with a music festival? It would take a lot of planning, of course, but it might work.
I went to Jamboree In The Hills when it was happening, and the two main activities people care about are camping and drinking. Thats it. If you have a campground where they can stay and drink, they're happy. Unfortunately, the natural amphitheater there was sold so I doubt they can bring it back. The fans loved to bring their own beer into the festival. I always remember one guy who used a coffin as a cooler. When they outlawed BYOB, it killed the festival.
Clear Channel bought WWVA. Live Nation is a concert promoter. Two different companies (although at one time they were together). WWVA changed its format about ten years ago.
Broadcasting music performances on the radio is expensive. The performers want to get paid when that happens. They all have to approve their performances and sign release forms. So I'm sure that's what led to the cutbacks on the broadcasts. One reason The Opry still broadcasts on WSM is they're co-owned. Also, the Opry members sign long-term broadcast agreements to cover their appearances on the radio.
One thing that may help WWOV is that it's a non-profit station, so it's not making money from the artist performances. So when there is a Jamboree show, the performers are more willing to have their performances on the radio.
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I dunno, I'm just going by what's been posted on the Jamboree website linked to in my OP. Also, keep in mind that Live Nation was spun off from Clear-Channel in 2005 which is also when a lot of the stuff mentioned below with Jamboree USA occurred, so the division and lines between what was CC and what was LN may not yet have been so clear back then.
As do all LPFM's. One big reason they struggle to exist.
That's correct. Clear Channel at one time owned Live Nation. Robert FX Sillerman started buying up local concert promoters around the country, and sold it to CC. Perhaps the idea was to continue the co-production of concerts with radio. When Clear Channel spun it off, the theater and the radio were no longer co-owned. Now the Jamboree is it's own non-profit, so both the show and radio are separate from the theater. Jamboree owns WWOV. Very complicated. It looks like Jamboree doesn't have the money to pay the rent for the antenna, and that's what the GoFundMe is about.
I'm the one who posted the OP about the GoFundMe site specifically to help cover the back monies owned on the tower rent for WWOV-LP and fully understand the original subject of this thread.
That said, the conversation above has also spun off into Jamboree USA / Wheeling Jamboree, its (apparently rich in some ways) history, past relationship with WWVA, etc. which is what prompted many of the posts above. I find those discussions that have spun off interesting and am happy to participate in those as well - Sometimes the most interesting threads on RD are the ones that deviated from the originally stated subject.
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Cold Coffee
Banned
Sometimes power is more important than antenna height.
To follow you into that area, I can tell you that at the same time these changes were happening in Wheeling, there was a similar thing taking place in Nashville with the Opry. The company that owned the Opry & WSM had evolved into more of a hotel company than a media company. The Opry had become very old, with old performers and an aging audience. The owners (Gaylord) sold off all of their radio stations in Nashville except WSM-AM. They started making changes at the Opry that didn't sit well with the members, particularly Vince Gill. He started talking to the media about it, and stirring people up. There were demonstrations outside the hotel, and the ownership sat down with the members and they worked something out. Gaylord brought in a new CEO who did some reconfiguring of the business. They spun off the entertainment part from the hotel part. Now you have the Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, and WSM part of what is called Ryman Hospitality. But the turning point was when the artists got involved and worked with ownership to create something bigger than it was then.
Bob Hammett, founder of Hammett and Edison Consulting Engineers once told me: "Kelly, field strength always wins." That doesn't apply to LPFM's because unless you're standing within 20 feet of the antenna, more like field strength is not an option.Sometimes power is more important than antenna height.
Cold Coffee
Banned
100 watts at 100 feet is enough to put a good signal all over a medium sized city. Looks like much of theirs is wasted in rural Ohio. They need a better signal in the eastern half of Wheeling. That way more radios stop on scan. I think their music might be popular there.
I was trying to find some documentation for what I said in my last post about how the Opry almost went the way of the Jamboree. In fact, what was being discussed was flipping the format of WSM from classic country to talk & sports. That was similar to what happened at WWVA. But then a bunch of artists got involved, and here's an article from that time:
journalrecord.com
Gaylord station changes its tune, keeps the Opry | The Journal Record
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- After an outcry from country fans and music stars, the owners of WSM-AM station announced Monday the historic station will continue to broadcast country music and the Grand Ole Opry rather than switch to an all-talk, all-sports format. The announcement by Gaylord...
journalrecord.com
Maybe the FCC should have let Clear Channel move it to Cleveland.
The FCC didn't stop them. It was an internal corporate decision not to pursue the move.
For three years after Live Nation shut down “Jamboree In The Hills” for reasons stated previously, a project called “Blame My Roots” tried to replicate that magic, but it was announced a while back that this event is also being discontinued.
I didn’t know that WEJP even existed. Yet one more thing I’ve learned from RD.Sometimes power is more important than antenna height.
West Virginia US Senator Robert Byrd allegedly intervened.
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