Status of WABB-AM 1480

[JPatrick]

I'd love to be a part of the next reunion. Ron Fraiser invited me last year, but I had to be out of town on a business trip.
I loved seeing the pictures....a ton of talent in that room!

John "Patrick" Bowler

 

[SlideShow]

I can set the record straight~~~Since Bernie died, his daughter Betsy has run both WABB AM & FM into the ground! She decided to move to California and put a woman in charge named Kathy Kaufman, who has not only NEVER held a radio job in her entire life, she was kicked out of both Atlanta and Chicago for getting caught doing "shady-illegal" business deals. Since this woman came into the market, over 22 people have left that building since November 2009 (When "Hurricane Kathy" started)

WABB AM, is no longer running local radio advertisers, and 97-5 WABB is running 'commercial free hours', that's because this woman does not return phone calls from advertisers, i know this because they call our current sales mgr telling him that. WABB went from 6-7 AE's to 1 AE! Past employees are gone due to this woman Kathy having a very scary temper. One former employee endured this woman yelling and screaming "f-bombs" at her while she was holding her 3 year old chil in her arms while she was signing her exiting papers.The poor program director on the FM has to run these free hours...if you listen they HAVE commercail free hours almost EVERY HOUR. Ms. "Con-Artist Kaufman" also has ONE sales person, who happens to be her 58 year old husband, with who she fired the entire WABB well-qualified young Promotions team to hire her husband to run THAT department. The engineer left 6 months ago after learning what he was dealing with.(He's a cop as well, so you could only imagine what he found out about her) He was the one that made sure 1480 was ran 180%. Without him there, without any AE's..you are NOT going to EVER hear any clear signal, any advertisers on the am. 2 days before this woman started last year, the former business manager packed her things and told the staff "Good luck, this woman is bad news".

In addition, Bernie's wife Judy has NO IDEA that this woman is killing her late husbands radio station. her daughter Betsy and this woman Kathy have her convinced Kathy is the best thing since sliced-bread. Where in reality~SOMEONE needs to tell Judy to do a complete check on this woman. The word on the streets~ "WABB has never been so under the radar..it's getting serious to the point where there are "polls" to when they will HAVE to file for Chap 13. And which one of us will buy them.

In 2 years WABBFM has gone through 6 different mornings shows. Now they have that guy qtipp back, who is working with that God-aweful guy Jay , Jayson? They sound like two college kids whose favorite suject is "THEM". Soon you most likely WILL hear a localized program on WABB AM, rumor has it this "con-artist" Kathy wants to put her husband on the air. Which by the way, he HAS ZERO experience in ANY radio, tv, print, etc. It's so sad, i grew up here..WABB am and FM was what we grew up on and it's the worst it's been. Do not look for an engineer to come in and "fix' anthing" This woman does NOT care, she has no idea the AM even exists. I'm gonn say WABB combo will sell for 2MILL(if that) after the new year..because there will be nothing left.

 

[Dr voicetrack]

I was wondering when what was said above was finally going make it on here! 95% of that is pretty much on from things I've heard. Except for the reasons for the commercial free hours. That's the product of "the poor program director" trying to react to i100 doing 100 minute sweeps. Funny thing is, whenever I hear a commercial free hour, it's only 45-50 minutes. And that's only the beginning of the issues on the programming side. WABB is a complete mess. That's a fact. internally and on air. They don't know what they want to be. Can someone tell me why I'm hearing Smashmouth and Goo Goo Dolls? Doesn't help that WJLQ is starting be a factor. Want some fun? Watch what WJLQ does, (imaging, promotions, web) then see how quick WABB tries to match it or flat out rips it off. On air and online.

 

[icycool7227]

In reference to the two above posts, I KNEW IT! I KNEW THIS STATION WAS AN AWFUL ONE! Why didn't anyone agree with me about this back then? That woman doesn't return phone calls from ANYONE! She certainly didn't return mine about the t-shirt! I know if I want it, I will customize it - it's on my to buy task list. The stupid stations both AM and FM don't even stream online.

WABB 97.5 you will NEVER be as good as KMGJ Magic 93.1, 101 WIXX, KXBN B-92, KHTT 106.9 K-Hits, WSKS 97.9/105.5 Kiss FM, or the former WHTS All Hit 98-9 so give it up and file for bankruptcy or something!

Most def., not as good as Magic or WIXX. How's that for sizers?

 

[icycool7227]

Exactly! Nobody does care. Maybe the Dittman family just hangs on to the facility for sentimental reasons. After all, they've owned it since 1959, and for about two decades after that, 1480 was an enormously successful station. Cannot imagine the facility being remotely profitable now.

Maybe they should look at a new format. With one talker on FM and another housing Limbaugh and Hannity, somebody's losing--and hard.

Yes they should look at a new format. Then maybe those jerks who work there will be fired.

 

[icycool7227]

Thanks for the history. Very interesting.
I came within a eyelash of working for Mr. Dittman in the 80's.
A very unique and interesting individual.

Who brought up a daughter who ran the station poorly. Perhaps even her father was a jerk as well.

J Alex,

I really have enjoyed the history that you and others had posted. I had joined WABB AM during their last #1 book. I remember
that at WKRG FM, Ed Routt came in from Dallas, Blaine Kelley was the pd, and G100 debuted with awesome numbers. It was a great introduction for me and the radio biz. Give Bernie credit...he was a fighter and after some memorable battles, WKRG FM was out of the format by the late 80's, evolving into their present day ac format, which has been doing real well for them.

Sorry to hear about WABB-AM. God knows we tried to make it work after FM dominated the market(I know you mentioned
all the formats at one time). Bernie was good to work for and I had a great relationship with him until the day he died, but he was just really into the CHR FM's in Mobile and BHam(WAPI-FM) in the 80's, and all the marketing and interest went into those.
In 1988, I told him the future on AM was non-music and we began to integrate talk and sports programming at night and on the weekends, but WKRG AM was always a step ahead with Rush, etc. I know Tim Camp did a great job with the station in the early 90's before he became a part of WNSP.

Mobile will always be my second home and I was always proud to have been a part of WABB.

John Patrick(Bowler)

Proud to be part of a station that calls the police when a listener wants more info on streaming and a simple t-shirt? Proud for a station who treats people like dirt? I wouldn't be proud, I would be embarrassed and humiliated.

It happened recently. About 60 former WABB employees from 60's - 2000's converged for a "family reunion" of sorts in Mobile.

"Barney Dickman" was sorely missed and well remembered.

Check out the "I worked at WABB" group of Facebook for details....

John Bowler HAS to be at the next one per Kathy Richardson.

Probably was similar to working at a prison, the way that station treated individuals....

 

[icycool7227]

I can set the record straight~~~Since Bernie died, his daughter Betsy has run both WABB AM & FM into the ground! She decided to move to California and put a woman in charge named Kathy Kaufman, who has not only NEVER held a radio job in her entire life, she was kicked out of both Atlanta and Chicago for getting caught doing "shady-illegal" business deals. Since this woman came into the market, over 22 people have left that building since November 2009 (When "Hurricane Kathy" started)

WABB AM, is no longer running local radio advertisers, and 97-5 WABB is running 'commercial free hours', that's because this woman does not return phone calls from advertisers, i know this because they call our current sales mgr telling him that. WABB went from 6-7 AE's to 1 AE! Past employees are gone due to this woman Kathy having a very scary temper. One former employee endured this woman yelling and screaming "f-bombs" at her while she was holding her 3 year old chil in her arms while she was signing her exiting papers.The poor program director on the FM has to run these free hours...if you listen they HAVE commercail free hours almost EVERY HOUR. Ms. "Con-Artist Kaufman" also has ONE sales person, who happens to be her 58 year old husband, with who she fired the entire WABB well-qualified young Promotions team to hire her husband to run THAT department. The engineer left 6 months ago after learning what he was dealing with.(He's a cop as well, so you could only imagine what he found out about her) He was the one that made sure 1480 was ran 180%. Without him there, without any AE's..you are NOT going to EVER hear any clear signal, any advertisers on the am. 2 days before this woman started last year, the former business manager packed her things and told the staff "Good luck, this woman is bad news".

In addition, Bernie's wife Judy has NO IDEA that this woman is killing her late husbands radio station. her daughter Betsy and this woman Kathy have her convinced Kathy is the best thing since sliced-bread. Where in reality~SOMEONE needs to tell Judy to do a complete check on this woman. The word on the streets~ "WABB has never been so under the radar..it's getting serious to the point where there are "polls" to when they will HAVE to file for Chap 13. And which one of us will buy them.

In 2 years WABBFM has gone through 6 different mornings shows. Now they have that guy qtipp back, who is working with that God-aweful guy Jay , Jayson? They sound like two college kids whose favorite suject is "THEM". Soon you most likely WILL hear a localized program on WABB AM, rumor has it this "con-artist" Kathy wants to put her husband on the air. Which by the way, he HAS ZERO experience in ANY radio, tv, print, etc. It's so sad, i grew up here..WABB am and FM was what we grew up on and it's the worst it's been. Do not look for an engineer to come in and "fix' anthing" This woman does NOT care, she has no idea the AM even exists. I'm gonn say WABB combo will sell for 2MILL(if that) after the new year..because there will be nothing left.

I agree with this whole post. Let's hope this does sell to some company who knows how to run radio stations right like Cumulus and Clear Channel. Seems like this Kathy should be put in jail from the likes of the above post. Even before she took over the station was bad still.

 

[stereolane]

In reference to the two above posts, I KNEW IT! I KNEW THIS STATION WAS AN AWFUL ONE! Why didn't anyone agree with me about this back then? That woman doesn't return phone calls from ANYONE! She certainly didn't return mine about the t-shirt! I know if I want it, I will customize it - it's on my to buy task list. The stupid stations both AM and FM don't even stream online.

WABB 97.5 you will NEVER be as good as KMGJ Magic 93.1, 101 WIXX, KXBN B-92, KHTT 106.9 K-Hits, WSKS 97.9/105.5 Kiss FM, or the former WHTS All Hit 98-9 so give it up and file for bankruptcy or something!

Most def., not as good as Magic or WIXX. How's that for sizers?

KMGJ Magic 93.1? Managed by Jim TerLouw? I hope you are kidding... and WIXX??? Perhaps in 1985, but today, not so much.

As for WABB, it seems to me that after awhile, the owners would see the bottom line, and get wise. I am in Mobile regularly, and have heard hours of dead air on 1480. The FM should be reaping the rewards of the current strength of CHR, but seems to be missing the mark.

$2 Million seems a bit high for a "fixer-upper" combo in Mobile.

 

[WBGR FM 93.1]

... Let's hope this does sell to some company who knows how to run radio stations right like Cumulus and Clear Channel. Seems like this Kathy should be put in jail from the likes of the above post. Even before she took over the station was bad still.

Clueless??? Cheap Channel??? Although they may have a few good stations here and there.... they are not known for running stations right around here. Let's not make a bas situation worse.

-Travis

 

[icycool7227]

In reference to the two above posts, I KNEW IT! I KNEW THIS STATION WAS AN AWFUL ONE! Why didn't anyone agree with me about this back then? That woman doesn't return phone calls from ANYONE! She certainly didn't return mine about the t-shirt! I know if I want it, I will customize it - it's on my to buy task list. The stupid stations both AM and FM don't even stream online.

WABB 97.5 you will NEVER be as good as KMGJ Magic 93.1, 101 WIXX, KXBN B-92, KHTT 106.9 K-Hits, WSKS 97.9/105.5 Kiss FM, or the former WHTS All Hit 98-9 so give it up and file for bankruptcy or something!

Most def., not as good as Magic or WIXX. How's that for sizers?

KMGJ Magic 93.1? Managed by Jim TerLouw? I hope you are kidding... and WIXX??? Perhaps in 1985, but today, not so much.

As for WABB, it seems to me that after awhile, the owners would see the bottom line, and get wise. I am in Mobile regularly, and have heard hours of dead air on 1480. The FM should be reaping the rewards of the current strength of CHR, but seems to be missing the mark.

$2 Million seems a bit high for a "fixer-upper" combo in Mobile.

I strongly disagree with your response. If you're so proud of this WABB you would post a 90 min. or more aircheck of it for everyone.

 

[Huff]

Since I've taken all of you on a trip back to the early days of Mobile radio, how about this look at a C E Hooper Radio Audience Index from NOV 1964. Hooper was the industry standard back then, more so than Pulse, and Arbitron was not around. This is IN-HOME listening only. Two dayparts: 7 to noon, and noon to 6 pm. No demographics.

What a great piece of history Alex! Do you have any other ratings surveys, or are these the only two?

 

[J Alex Bowab]

Thanks for the compliment, Domingo ... regret that I don't have any other survey results from pre-historic times, at least not for Mobile ... I do have a 1961 Hooper survey from New Orleans which shows WNOE #1 with a 24, and WTIX #2 with an 18.

This discussion started out with comments about WABB AM being either off the air, broadcasting dead air, or having horrid audio quality (actually, all of the above) ... sorry to say nothing has changed: for several weeks now it sounds like the STL was down, and instead they're feeding studio to xmtr over a dial-up phone line. Unbelievable.

 

[Huff]

Thanks for the compliment, Domingo ... regret that I don't have any other survey results from pre-historic times, at least not for Mobile ... I do have a 1961 Hooper survey from New Orleans which shows WNOE #1 with a 24, and WTIX #2 with an 18.

There's not a chance you could email me a scan of that New Orleans survey, is there? I'd be more than happy to send you the historical info I have on Mobile and NO in return!

 

[J Alex Bowab]

Glad to oblige. This properly belongs in the Louisiana forum (so, sue me!) but here goes. This is a C E Hooper from Feb-May 1961. First number is for 7am-noon, second is noon-6:

WBOK 800, daytime r&b: 8.7/7.8
WDSU 1280, NBC + easy listening: 10.4/7.6
WJBW 1230, top 40 (250 watt signal): 2.9/4.4
WJMR 990, 250 watt daytimer, various programming: 1.1/1.2
WNOE 1060 top 40: 23.0/24.9
WSMB 1350, ABC network + easy listening: 6.9/7.7
WTIX 690 top 40: 18.4/18.2
WWL 870, 50 kw clear channel, CBS + easy listening: 10.6/7.9
WWOM 600, daytimer Wonderful World of Music: 7.8/10.7
WYLD 940, r&b: 9.6/9.1

"Other AM & FM" showed a 0.6; There were at least 3 FMs that I know of at the time, so FM was still years away from making an impression.

The top 2 stations, both top 40, had a combined share of 42%. You'll never see that again.

 

[Huff]

Glad to oblige. This properly belongs in the Louisiana forum (so, sue me!) but here goes. This is a C E Hooper from Feb-May 1961.

Great stuff - thanks for posting! Private message me your email and I'll send you some historical data on Mobile.

 

[Mario500]

On Saturday, I learned "The Joey Reynolds Show", which used to be broadcast by WABB-AM until it was replaced by "The Midnight Radio Network" due to low ratings (according to Tom Naylor, the former director of programming), had been cancelled by WOR-AM in New York, New York and had its last broadcast on April 2nd. "The Joey Reynolds Show" was my favorite program on the station, as it had pleasant and interesting discussions unlike anything on the radio in Mobile. The news of its cancellation reminds me of when WNTM-AM stopped broadcasting "Paul Harvey's News and Comment" and "The Rest of the Story" a few years before the announcer died.

The only program I would want to hear on WABB-AM when I have the chance is "Doug Stephan's Good Day". The only radio programs of the spoken word format I hear on a regular basis is "Leo Laporte the Tech Guy" broadcast live by WBZR-AM and "The Kim Komando Show" broadcast by WAVH-FM on a delay. I used to contact WABB-AM suggesting "Leo Laporte the Tech Guy", but I believe it would be a great for WAVH-FM between 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM on weekends, when the station usually broadcasts previous editions of "The Neal Boortz Show" on Saturday and "The Clark Howard Show" on Sunday.

Thank you everyone for contributing to this discussion about WABB and radio in Mobile.

 

[artsutton]

A little off subject...but did the little AM in Fairhope ever do well as a local Fairhope station or was there always a temptation of serving Mobile with it? I know the Stewarts in Foley always did well with their little AM but I don't recall WABF ever doing very well despite Fairhope being a very nice small town. Of course, it may be that the nature of the community...retirement/tourists made it difficult for a local radio station to have much impact.

Glad to oblige. This properly belongs in the Louisiana forum (so, sue me!) but here goes. This is a C E Hooper from Feb-May 1961. First number is for 7am-noon, second is noon-6:

WBOK 800, daytime r&b: 8.7/7.8
WDSU 1280, NBC + easy listening: 10.4/7.6
WJBW 1230, top 40 (250 watt signal): 2.9/4.4
WJMR 990, 250 watt daytimer, various programming: 1.1/1.2
WNOE 1060 top 40: 23.0/24.9
WSMB 1350, ABC network + easy listening: 6.9/7.7
WTIX 690 top 40: 18.4/18.2
WWL 870, 50 kw clear channel, CBS + easy listening: 10.6/7.9
WWOM 600, daytimer Wonderful World of Music: 7.8/10.7
WYLD 940, r&b: 9.6/9.1

"Other AM & FM" showed a 0.6; There were at least 3 FMs that I know of at the time, so FM was still years away from making an impression.

The top 2 stations, both top 40, had a combined share of 42%. You'll never see that again.

 

[J Alex Bowab]

WABF has listenership on the Eastern Shore (Fairhope/Daphne) and in Mobile. If you listen to their 9-10 am Swap Shop, many of the callers are across the bay. The signal is decent in Mobile since the conductivity across the bay delivers it well. The station airs an adult standards satellite-fed format the other 23 hours a day, and since no other station in Mobile County or Baldwin County is in the nostalgia arena, there will be at least some audience on both sides of the bay. At night, however, the 30 watt signal barely covers Fairhope only. WABF is the only terrestrial station I listen to (otherwise I'm totally on XM). I've seen Arbitron 12+ numbers of less than a 1 share, but WABF does typically show up. That's more than you can say for the AM stations in Robertsdale and Bay Minette, which I've never seen make the cutoff in Arbitrons, and I've been looking at the books off and on for 30 years.

WHEP/Foley also shows with a 1 share or less typically (and it now has an FM translator).
WABF is co-owned with the Orange Beach FM 105.7.

 

[stereolane]

I think that the "Timeless Cool" format would be a good way to update WABF, and may even capture some interest on WABB. The Mobile Bay area seems like the right place for that format.

 

[JPatrick]

Hi Alex,

Didn't Bob Clarke do a good job of keeping WABF rolling? I remember talking to him a lot in the 80's when I was in Mobile and he explained his reasons for success. I know he ran that station as an AM daytimer and it featured live ac music, interviews with community leaders, and tape-delayed sportscasts.

John "Patrick" Bowler