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SUCCESSFUL CLASS IV STATIONS

B

Bob E. Nelson

The other thread that I started, SUCCESSFUL DAYTIMERS, drew a lot of very good responses. Let's see if lightning strikes again with another ``David vs. Goliath'' radio scenario.

Now called class C, once known as class IV (graveyard) facilities, faced the challenge of operating with only 250 watts on 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450 and 1490. The power was later raised to 1,000 watts day and still later to 1,000 watts at night. These stations struggled, especially at night, to fully serve their markets -- even before suburban sprawl and electronic noise totally doomed the class IVs.

To get started, I can think of two class IV stations that did very well in the 60's, facing larger direct competition in their formats and one of which also fight two 50,000 facilities in its markets:

1). WKDA/1240 in Nashville was top rated in Pulse, Hooper and ARB during a 10-15 year run with a top 40 format. WMAK with 5,000 watts was an also-ran in that format until about 1969. WSM and WLAC, both with 50,000 watts, attracted listeners outside the survey area at the time but didn't have the dominance of WKDA.

2). WCOL/1230 in Columbus. Another top 40 that had a long run of success, stretching into the early 70's. I never had access to the ratings for this market but display ads that Great Trails ran in SRDS indicated that ``New WCOL'', as it was branded for years, enjoyed strong listenership in Ohio's capital. I don't think it had a direct format competitor but WCOL did beat more powerful facilities such as WTVN with 5,000 watts at 610 and an arguably better signal from WBNS also with 5,000 watts but at 1460.
 
WVON, Cicero, IL - a legendary r&B station for many years at 1450.

WSBC/WEDC/WCRW; Shared time stations on 1240 for 50 years, all 3 were foreign language, and all 3 VERY profitable. WCRW was on 5 hours daily and netted over 3k a week.

WOPA 1490, serving the Chicago area, owned by Sonderling. Foreign language and sold out 24/7.
 
Bob E. Nelson said:
The other thread that I started, SUCCESSFUL DAYTIMERS, drew a lot of very good responses. Let's see if lightning strikes again with another ``David vs. Goliath'' radio scenario.
Click to expand...

There were a slew of these, some lasting into the 70's.

WBBQ in Augusta, GA... huge double digit shares under a legendary PD whose name, I believe, was Harley Drew.

KGFJ in LA... got in the top 5 with its r&b format

WJMO in Cleveland, r&b and also among the top stations.

I forgot the original calls, but there was a very successful Black station on 1400 in Detroit.

KSON in San Diego was a major player until it moved to FM.

KRIZ in Phoenix... #1 in the early 70's with top 40.

KQUE in Houston, another top of the market station with Top 40.

WAKE, Atlanta where Bill Drake refined his craft.

WOOK and WOL in DC, very successful r&b stations.

WROV in Roanoke, huge numbers for about two decades.

WKWK Wheeling, market leader with Top 40.

WKGN in Knoxville, market leading Top 40 into the 70's.

WBSR Pensacola, another market leader with Top 40.

Another great top 40, WCVS in Springfield, IL.

There were, of course, many more.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Bob E. Nelson said:
The other thread that I started, SUCCESSFUL DAYTIMERS, drew a lot of very good responses. Let's see if lightning strikes again with another ``David vs. Goliath'' radio scenario.
Click to expand...

There were a slew of these, some lasting into the 70's.

KQUE in Houston, another top of the market station with Top 40.

There were, of course, many more.
Click to expand...

KNUZ was the station on 1230; Top 40 and very successful in the 50s but quickly overtaken by KILT in 57 when McLendon bought KLBS and flipped it.

KQUE was the FM on 102.9 (co-owned); didn't come on the air until 1961.

KNOW, 1490, Austin, was very successful as a Top 40 station for years, probably up until around 1970.
 
Love this thread, especially since two stations I worked at back in the day are listed!!!

WBSR in Pensacola was rockin' out of an old wood building with the tower right out the back door. Funky but a fun place to work.

The "New WCOL" put out an amazing daytime signal around central Ohio with 1000 watts from their 1/2 wave tower at the south edge of Columbus. Nighttime 250 watts did a decent job covering the Metro area. Contrasting to WBSR it was very corporate at the downtown studios. WTVN was what we called chicken rock at the time, we were the only Top 40 rocker.
 
WNOR at 1230 in Norfolk
WENZ at 1450 in Highland Springs/Richmond with R&B
WWIN at 1400 in Baltimore with R&B
WFEC in Harrisburg Pa
WJET at 1400 in Erie
WOLF in Syracuse at 1490
WMID at 1340 in Atlantic City
WOND at 1400 in Atlantic City

Also Cincinnatti, Baltimore,and Charlotte had competitive Top 40 on this type of station
 
WLYV Ft. Wayne Indiana on 1450 with a great run as a top 40 before being eclipsed by 5000 watt WMEE.
WMOH Hasmilton OH was an A/C daypartinfg top 40

WBOW 1230 in Terre Haute IN ran a top 40 format.

WNDU as an AM in South Bend

Thousands more, not even counting the smaller town graveyarders, such as WSFC, Somerset, KY, WSAL, Logansport IN, WASK, Lafayette, IN, WMOA Marietta OH, WMRN MArion OH, WKBV Richmond IN, WBAT, Marion IN,...the list goes on and on.
 
I'll add WRIT 1340 Milwaukee to that list. After WEMP moved to 1250 in 1955, WRIT took over the 1340 frequency with a Top 40 format that predated WOKY by a few years. WOKY was more successful (much better signal), but WRIT held its own until they dropped the format in 1972.

The station is now WJYI. WRIT-FM is no relation, AFAIK.
 
1230/WKBO took the Top 40 title from 1400/WFEC in Harrisburg and reigned for a decade...

And in current-day radio (Spring 2009 rankings)--

1240/WJEJ is #3 in Hagerstown-Chambersburg-Waynesboro, market #166

1400/KLIN is #3 in Lincoln, market #172, and

1400/WDWS is #1 in Champaign-Urbana, market #220
 
This list is incomplete if we do not add what was originally KNCM in Moberly, Missouri. Owned and operated by Jerrell Shepherd. Actually got his foot in the door for the market on 1220 and then rather quickly got the engineering to move to 1230. Some of you will recognize the station under the call letters he selected later: KWIX. (He like call letters that could be pronounced as a work. (For a while he owned KLIK) "You're clicking with KLIK"

Jerrell Shepherd had a thing going about upping the sales on his station. Back then graveyard stations in a town like Moberly were typically billing $150,000 to $200,000. When I left it was up to $375,000. Four years later I went to an NAB meeting in Chicago to hear "Shep" explain to the world how you bill $720,000 per year on a small station in a town of 13,000 people.

Oh, for you guys that talk FORMATS rather than sales.... we had this eclectic home-town service and news and talk format. I think the first program of the day where we actually played "records" was 3:30 in the afternoon.

This was the era (1950s, 1960s) when one of the questions you had to answer on the FCC License Renewal app (every three years back then) was: "How Many PSA's per week will you broadcast?" Virtually all broadcasters put some rather luxurious number there to make sure to keep the FCC at boy. Jerrell (with a bit of a chip on his shoulder) put a BIG, ROUND, JUICY ZERO in there time after time. I think he really looked forward to maybe getting into a hearing someday where he could prove that his policy: "When your local organization does something useful, my news team will be there broadcasting a customized news story about the organization." His thinking: That outranks anybody who is putting mimeographed, canned announcements on the air from some national association that gets read over and over and over, even if you don't even have a local chapter in the community of the radio station.

It was a great ride!
 
WUBE-----Cincinnatti
WIST-----Charlotte
WITH-----Baltimore
 
1340 KICK, Springfield, Missouri's original all top 40 all the time, and I believe the first Springfield station to broadcast 24 hours a day.
 
phantom444 said:
1340 KICK, Springfield, Missouri's original all top 40 all the time, and I believe the first Springfield station to broadcast 24 hours a day.
Click to expand...

Given that the little class IVs were at a signal disadvantage, they had to be more innovative in order to compete. One such edge was to not sign off.

Apropos KICK's 24-hour operation, I believe that the nation's very first round-the-clock operation was KGFJ in Los Angeles, then at 1200 on the dial (before the NARBA move to 1230). In my hometown of Pittsburgh, class IV facility WWSW (1500 pre NARBA, later 1490) was 24 hours back when the bigger stations (KDKA, KQV, WCAE and WJAS) signed off at midnight or 1 AM.
 
Central Illinois, with its great soil and flat-as-a-tabletop landscape, is Class IV Heaven. I had previously mentioned 1400/WDWS, #1 in Champaign--today, in 2009--but there's also...

1230/WJBC, Bloomington-Normal, long the market's top-ranked station as Bloomington Broadcasting's flagship station, but still #3 behind its two Regent clustermates... and,

1340/WSOY, currently #1 in Decatur!

In fairness, the optimum AM topography in this region allows Class IVs to perform more like 5kw or 10kw rigs elsewhere. All three of these (+ 1490/WDAN, Danville... 1240/WTAX, Springfield... and 1450/WFMB. Springfield) put a local (2.5 mV/m) signal out 30 or 40 miles--and WJBC is listenable clear the hell up past Joliet, 85 or 90 miles out. Like I said, it's Class IV Heaven!
 
The Class A FM channels should have been the kind of stations in our generation that functioned like the Class IV AMs of 30, 40, 50 years ago. The original power for these Class A channels of 3KW may have been right on target. Maybe slightly less would have been just fine.

Bumping them up to 6KW and then with a wink-and-a-nod letting them pretend to serve their small market while letting them edge their transmitters closer and closer to larger markets nearby and move their studios to the larger towns will be discussed for years and years and years.

If you owned one, and moving it to the city put your kids through college and finally funded your retirement plans, you will argue that the FCC got it right. If you are an emotional sort, a non-station owner that gets all choked up about how great life was in the day of the great Class IV AMs you will argue til the day you are buried that the handling of Class A FMs was one of the FCCs major blunders.

I would argue that it is not the job of the FCC to primarily look after the best interests of people who own certain radio stations, and not primarily to look after emotional, choked-up fans of old memories, but the primary task is to craft a plan that gives the citizens of America access to reasonable communication services that are appropriate to the needs of communities every where.

You can count me as one of those who will argue that the FCC stubbed their toe in managing the allocation and distribution of the FM band. I'm sure all the commissioners will lose sleep over that tonight.
 
amfmxm said:
1230/WJBC, Bloomington-Normal, long the market's top-ranked station as Bloomington Broadcasting's flagship station, but still #3 behind its two Regent clustermates... and,
Click to expand...

Until the late 90's WJBC owned Bloomington-Normal. They had the highest AQH in the country, then something happened and now they are #3.

Let me add 1340 WIRY Plattsburgh, NY. They are a small town full service radio station with Yankee baseball and a playlist that segues from Merle Haggard to Boys 2 Men. The control room and production rooms are a time warp, sans computers. Go here http://www.wiry.com/ and click the photo page.
 
A few come to mind.........

Savannah, Ga.: WSGA 1400 "The Rockin' 140"  (1967 - c. 1982)    http://www.theinternetfarm.com/goodtimer/index.htm

Macon, Ga.: WNEX 1400 "The Big X" - also played the hits, doing well for itself.

Birmingham, Ala.: WJLD 1400 ... actually licensed to suburb Fairfield. R&B force since the 1950s.

Tallahassee, Fla.: WTAL 1450 ... top-40, sounded great in the '70s.  Not so much in the '60s.

Huntsville, Ala.: WBHP 1230 ... "Big B Radio", a country station for what seemed like 300 years. 

Fort Walton Beach, Fla.: WNUE 1400.  Even held its own in 1990-91 as a short-lived reprise of its original top-40 format ("Nue Hits 14")

Pine Bluff, Ark.: KOTN 1490 ... "Radio Cotton" was owned by Buddy (Hairspray) Deane from 1961-1983.  Pine Bluff was said to have been the only place where "The Mighty 1090" KAAY came in second.

--Russell
 
I'll add KROY/1240 in Sacramento to the list of ``mice that roared''. Like WKDA (also on 1240) in Nashville, another capital city, KROY faced off against two 50,000 watters (KFBK and KRAK) and had KXOA, a direct competitor in the top 40 format, with a 5,000 watt signal.

According to this link, the little class IV was number one in every Arbitron from the fall of 1968 through the fall of 1973:

http://www.1240kroy.com/1970.html
 
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