SUCCESSFUL DAYTIMERS

[davideduardo]

Can I ask where you were GM?

WFMV, overseeing the chang to WEZS. I worked with WRFK to transfer the classical format to that station to allow an uncontested format flip from Classical to Beautiful Music on WEZS. Interestingly, Art Keller's Radio Fairfax Prince William (later EZ Communications) paid $74 thousand dollars for a large market FM!

 

[MsMusicRadio]

Do you know what genious panicked when 106.5 flipped from NPR to "Mix 106" and caused WEZS to flip to a Hot AC/CHR hybrid as B103.7 "The Best Mix". This left Richmond with no true AC station once again until WQSF moved in from Williamsburg and then LIte 98 . I don't think B103 ever truly recovered from this mistake.

 

[jonbruce]

Top 40 KUTY 1470 Palmdale, Ca., the station I grew up on, which went on the air in August 1957 was number 1 in a 1959 Northern Los Angeles County Pulse with 51.6. The only other local stations at the time were 1380, also a daytimer and full time 610 KAVL, both with MOR formats.

 

[michael hagerty]

I'll have to look at the Pulse numbers for specifics, but KSEE in Santa Maria, Ca. was a dominant Top 40...and a daytimer at 1480.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[radioboy]

The former WANM-AM 1070 in Tallahassee was the number 1 station in town for well over a decade with
an urban format. The music director was Joe Bullard. WANM went on the air in 1974 as a 10kw daytimer.

Similar formats on FM eventually led to its change of format to CNN News.

Now, the station is Christian WFRF and has been since 1997.

 

[KevinFodor]

Never completely successful as a music station, however, when WAVI-AM in Dayton went 2 way telephone talk in 1971, (first 250, then 1,000 watts), it was successful and stayed a local talk station until it and sister station WDAO-FM were purchased in the early 1980's.

WAVI, though not strong enough to compete for #1 12 plus, did score #1 ratings women 35 plus in dayparts. (Source: Arbitron and a sales kit available on the media page of the Dayton Broadcaster's Hall Of Fame website.

 

[davideduardo]

The former WANM-AM 1070 in Tallahassee was the number 1 station in town for well over a decade with
an urban format.

I can attest to this AM daytimer success. When I was supervising WTNT / WNLS around 1990, WANM was still in the top 5, and doing good business.

Two more I can think of are KRVN in Lexington and KMMJ in Grand Island, NE. KRVN was a daytimer on 1010 until moving to 889, and KMMJ on 750 until they got a fulltime licence were very big farm stations with big coverage and huge revenues.

All the examples here seem to be from around 20 years ago back to the 50's.

Has there been a successful, well listened to AM daytimer since, lets say, 1995?

 

[Corky Marlowe]

In the early seventies, WEET at 1320 was the "country giant" in Richmond Va and signed off at sunset.

Too bad they didn't make it to the era of Twitter...They could send their listeners "WEET Tweets".

Someone mentioned WJJD in Chicago. I've heard a couple airchecks of their Top 40 days in the early 60's, and I think if they'd been able to broadcast round the clock, they could have given WLS a real run for their money. In other words, they sounded darn good.

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

All the [successful daytimer] examples here seem to be from around 20 years ago back to the 50's.

Has there been a successful, well listened to AM daytimer since, lets say, 1995?

Part of the technical landscape has changed since the old days. With the advent of post-sunset power, there are some daytimers that remain on a night with a pretty good power. That being said, there's still the ``Class D'' category for these stations.

Honestly, the only ``Class D'' that I can think of doing well post-1995 is KWMT in Ft. Dodge. Last time I looked at the Arbitron books a few years ago, they did show up in Des Moines, Sioux City, Waterloo and other non-home markets. They still run it like a ``real'' radio station with news, ag reports and classic country.

Of course, that 540 dial position and ground conductivity helps them. And the 170 watts PSSA makes them anything but a daytimer (at least in their home market) in spite of being a ``Class D''.

And that's it -- I can't think of ANY other daytimer currently doing well in any other market.

 

[jh]

I was wondering if someone would mention KWMT on this thread. The station continues to out-bill all the FMs in Ft. Dodge due to the farm programming, which is the real reason the station exists. It's sort of classic county by default, they've been country since 1970 and just never stopped playing those old songs, they still play all the currents.

Although KWMT is full-time, that night signal really doesn't do them much good. All the farm listening and advertising is during the daytime. They're directional with a null to the north, same pattern day and night. When they cut power, that null gets pulled right over the north part of Ft. Dodge,so they have signal problems in their home town at night.

 

[charlestondxman]

Another one that used to be good was WNCG (910) from North Charleston, back in the 1960's and 1970's. They used to have good ratings, as they were a country music station before most of the stations on FM became popular. They only had 500 watts, but with their low dial position, they had (and still do) have a good signal covering all of Charleston.

WPAL (730) was also a daytimer, as it was pretty much the station that all the blacks listened to for decades, until 1999 when Clear Channel bought them. They had religion, R&B, urban, and lots of gospel.

 

[davideduardo]

Honestly, the only ``Class D'' that I can think of doing well post-1995 is KWMT in Ft. Dodge. Last time I looked at the Arbitron books a few years ago, they did show up in Des Moines, Sioux City, Waterloo and other non-home markets. They still run it like a ``real'' radio station with news, ag reports and classic country.

KWMT still shows in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Sioux City and Mason City and occasionally in Omaha.

 

[Icangelp]

Well sir, back in the day there was this little daytimer station in Newport/Cincinnati on 740 KHZ. They called themselves the Jazz Ark, or Radio Free Newport, and the studios were in three large steel bulk storage drums welded together and floating on the Ohio River. Isolating the turntables was a nightmare but accomplished none the less.

The station was owned by a couple from newport and then the local Budweiser distributor, and it was a commercial station playing real commercials, and I suspect, subsidized by the owner. "We Never Operate Profitably" was one of it's mottos. The on-air talent seldom left the station for greener pastures, and the music format was rock-solid jazz mixed with cuts from comedy albums, and irreverent humor from the jocks. Leo Underhill (Old Undies) and Ray Scott were the Godfathers of the jocks.

The station was legendary with the same kind of mystique and status as Coors Beer before it went national. As a teen, I was lucky enough to hear it all the way up in Indy thanks to a lobe thrown in our direction.

In 2000, the station was sold and became Sacred Heart Radio. We appreciate the religious format, but we all miss the a truly unique station.

PS., someday I'll tell you about 1220 KHZ WSLM in Salem, Indiana. They still operate and sound just like a 1950's small town station.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Top 40 KUTY 1470 Palmdale, Ca., the station I grew up on, which went on the air in August 1957 was number 1 in a 1959 Northern Los Angeles County Pulse with 51.6.

Wasn't that the station that gave birth to the radio career of one J. D. Imus?

 

[MsMusicRadio]

Top 40 KUTY 1470 Palmdale, Ca., the station I grew up on, which went on the air in August 1957 was number 1 in a 1959 Northern Los Angeles County Pulse with 51.6.

Wasn't that the station that gave birth to the radio career of one J. D. Imus?

CORKY MARLOWE IS A REALLY COOL NAME

 

[gr8oldies]

Couple more come to mind, WMGS 730 in Bowling Green, OH "King Country 73" with a south facing directional pattern that covered a good share of the state, plus parts of Indiana. It's currently "all Jimmy Swaggart, all the time" WJYM. WFRO in Fremont, OH even though it had an FM, was successful (it's now slent. WCIT, Lima OH for awhile as a top 40, and WHUT, Anderson IN.

 

[MN Maniac]

KWMT is still going strong. Although they have had a LOT of staff turnover since Three Eagles took over 2 years ago. Earlier this year Joe Zimmerman ("Joe Zee") left the station after 24 years of continuous service. Several other staffers have also exited KWMT and sister station KKEZ over the past few years.

As far as covering Fort Dodge at night, that's no problem since KWMT's transmitter is located on the NW edge of town. However, the signal drops off quickly as you drive north. There is actually a spot near Clare, IA (right in the null towards CBK in Watrous, SK) where you can SEE the KWMT towers but NOT hear the station at all. The channel is all CBK! That 170 watts does travel SW, however. When I was in Hays, KS, I could hear KWMT on my car radio for about a half hour after power change. It was weak with lots of interference from the Spanish 540 in Las Vegas, NM, but it was there.

 

[jonbruce]

Yes, KUTY 1470 Palmdale was Don Imus first station. I think he was there in 1968 or 69. I worked there for several months in 1973 between gigs in bigger markets. Owner Kay Mende told me they had a hard time to make him "open up on the air" with funny stuff ! I first caught Imus in 1970 on 1470 KXOA in Sacramento on my way to Canada and he was up to full speed by then. KUTY was also Bob Kingsley's first station, as I recall in 1960.

 

[rygert]

I am late on this thread, but WHYZ 1070 Greenville, SC, was another successful daytimer. They had really good ratings in the 1980s with an urban contemporary format. It was a 50kw signal, but was not great in Spartanburg, the second largest city in the market. WHYZ failed pretty quickly once they got a competitor on FM in the late 1980s.

Now the station is WCSZ Sans Souci, SC, and has a nighttime power allocation as well. But it's been through a number of different formats and has recently been silent altogether.

 

[Nostalgia]

Allow me to add WIOI 1010 New Boston, Ohio (Portsmouth, OH) to this list. Successful?, I really dont know since I was 18 when I worked there if we are just measuring ratings success. But this station epitomized the mom and pop station and I am happy to note that it still appears to be owned by the Maillet family. We all had great respect for Mr. Maillet. He hired a bunch of young guys like myself, and took time to mentor us, turning us into better broadcasters. We were Top 40 in 1967 and he put me on afternoon drive! BTW there was nothing in New Boston. The tower was across the Ohio River from New Boston but in Kentucky, and the studios were in Portsmouth. I will always have fond memories of working at WIOI.