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SUCCESSFUL DAYTIMERS

Have one to add here....

WNYR in Rochester, NY. 250W daytimer- had to sign off at sunset to prevent interference with CFTR in Toronto.

Signed on in 1965 (before it was WRNY and WRVM) doing country- and cleaned up with the format, as for many years it had an exclusive on it.

In 1980, WNYR moved to 990- went to 24 hours at that time- courtesy of the Canadian government, where 990 is a clear channel for them. They continued their dominance in the format until the mid 80s, when WBEE 92.5 finally overtook them.

I still remember all the cars that had WNYR bumper stickers on them- you couldn't miss them, the stickers were pretty simple, and were around for years- a bright yellow background with WNYR on them- and little else- in bold black letters.
 
Couple others popped into my head. When we used to vacation in Fremont MI when I was a kid, WGRD (AM 1410) was one of the stations I listened to. A pretty good fake Drake format. When it signed off I'd get WING from Dayton. WINW "15 WINW" from canton was a top 40 daytimer and if I'm not mistaken Canton's WQIO was a daytimer. WHLO Akron ran top 40 and had a run as a news talker as a daytimer (actually limited time.,.they could stay on until sunset in LA). Then there's WRFD in Worthington/Columbus.
 
One thing I remember about WVOK is that Joe Rumore
had a loyal following outside Birmingham (I've known
people in Anniston who wouldn't miss him in the morning);
I seem to recall he played more country than top-40, but then
again I actively avoided his show (brother Duke on WYDE did
play country, since that was that station's format in the early '70s,
when I lived in Birmingham). I also seem to recall that Joe
Rumore's show was simulcast on WBAM.

I also remember WVOK signing off by playing "Dixie," even after
that became politically incorrect.
 
Here are a few more very successful daytimers:

1130/WEEO in Waynesboro (Hagerstown-Chambersburg-Waynesboro), a killer Top 40 outfit in the early seventies--from 1971 through 1976. A "pure" daytimer, protecting 1130/WNEW (at that time) in NYC--just 200 miles away. WEEO generated Arbitron AQH & Cume persons numbers that have never been replicated in the market.

960/WHYL in Carlisle (Harrisburg)--with the biggest of the Top 40 signals in the Harrisburg market, did very well against the smaller-but-fulltime 1400/WFEC in the late sixties and early seventies. And, oddly enough, Carlisle's OTHER daytime Top 40, 1000/WIOO gave WHYL fits locally.

540/WGTO in Cypress Gardens, FL (Lakeland-Winter Haven)--now Orlando's WFLF. In the late seventies & early eighties under Hubbard Broadcasting and while still a daytimer, GTO scored a #1 (12+) in the Lakeland-Winter Haven book and scored in both the Orlando & Tampa-St. Pete books. WGTO's "Glory Days" lasted about 5 years until FM vanquished all AMs, fulltime or not!

But let me also second the earlier nomination of Omaha's 660/KOWH as perhaps being the most influential daytimer ever, as the birthplace of Top 40--and therefore the birthplace of "format radio" as we know it today. KOWH met their demise in the late fifties at the hands of fulltime 1290/KOIL--another Hall of Famer.
 
amfmxm said:
But let me also second the earlier nomination of Omaha's 660/KOWH as perhaps being the most influential daytimer ever, as the birthplace of Top 40--and therefore the birthplace of "format radio" as we know it today. KOWH met their demise in the late fifties at the hands of fulltime 1290/KOIL--another Hall of Famer.
Click to expand...

This link has a brief history and an early ad (1953) for KOWH.

http://www.davidgleason.com/Broadcasting Feature Article KOWH Omaha.htm

While the term Top 40 was not invented here (it came out of another Storz station, WTIX) the format itself was developed at this station.
 
Were daytimers almost exclusively found in the United States?

I recall only a very limited number in Canada (CHIN/Toronto is the the only one I can remember at present) relative to the amount of AM stations in the 60's-80's.

What about Latin America? Before the growth of FM, were there daytimers south of the US border and in Ecuador, Chile, Argentina and so on?
 
Bob E. Nelson said:
Were daytimers almost exclusively found in the United States?

I recall only a very limited number in Canada (CHIN/Toronto is the the only one I can remember at present) relative to the amount of AM stations in the 60's-80's.

What about Latin America? Before the growth of FM, were there daytimers south of the US border and in Ecuador, Chile, Argentina and so on?
Click to expand...

Mexico has daytimers, and not just along the US border. They seem to have been a product of NARBA and the "sort of" synchronization of technical standards for AM.

I know of no other daytimers in Latin America. The NARBA equivalent for the Southern Cone nations has protection requirements which often mandate lower night powers, but there are no daytime stations. I don't recall any in Europe, either.

In Latin America there are also very few directional stations... the ones I know about (710 Argentina, 660 Ecuador, 820 Cali, Colombia, and the two 1040/1220 Rio/Sao Paulo Brazil) were built at the owner's request to put the signal over the areas they wanted, and to not waste signals over rural or undesired areas. Mexico, of course, has quite a few directionals, some being the innovative "single tower" design.

As a sidebar, Mexico is starting its migration of AMs to FM, with some areas of the nation able to move 100% of AMs to FM.
 
Just a note on WFLI, went on the air around 62 or 63 with 10kw, then went to 50kw in the late sixties. Used a gigantic water cooled transmitter. If you're a JET FLI fan, google "Tommy Jett" for one of WFLI's most popular jocks. He as a lot pictures and and other things, including a rate card from about 1965 or 66 on his website. As a teen remember switching to WVOV when WFLI went to night power. Got about 15 minutes before VOV signed off.
 
I am shocked, SHOCKED that - in 5 pages of this thread - nobody has mentioned WILD 1090 in Boston! :eek:

That little daytimer was outdrawing some of the lower rated FMs in Boston as recently as 2005 or 2006. It has been around for close to 50 years as one of the few stations serving Boston's black community and is often listed with the likes of WOL and KSOL as being one of the more influential R&B stations during the 1960s.

Of course, Radio One has made some boneheaded moves with the station in recent years which have resulted in lower ratings - but it's still there and still has a pretty significant showing.
 
In case I missed it, WLOU Louisville was a daytimer the first 30 years of its life and did well. I seem to remember they hit #1 AQH 12 plus just prior to the addition of a not so great night pattern.
 
If I didnt mention it, WMGS, Bowling Green OH on 730 with Country as "King Country 73". The station was bought by Jimmy Swaggart. Now, it's all Jimmy, all the time 100% fed from baton Rouge.

How about Honey Radio (WHND) in Monroe MI (rimshottinfg Detroit)?

WGTO in Beautiful Cypress Gardens FGL was a daytimer at 50000 watts before they got 1000 watts at nifght.
 
BRNout said:
I am shocked, SHOCKED that - in 5 pages of this thread - nobody has mentioned WILD 1090 in Boston! :eek:

That little daytimer was outdrawing some of the lower rated FMs in Boston as recently as 2005 or 2006. It has been around for close to 50 years as one of the few stations serving Boston's black community and is often listed with the likes of WOL and KSOL as being one of the more influential R&B stations during the 1960s.
Click to expand...

Before 1957, the WILD call letters resided at 850 in Birmingham, AL when Bartell bought it and changed it to WYDE (Bartell promoted it with its sister station WAKE in Atlanta as the "WYDE aWAKE" stations. The promotion was too cheezy to write home about and didn't last long.)

WILD in Birmingham was a MOR station that never took advantage of its call letters.
 
Radio Rob, you're right on about WLOU-AM 1350 kHz (5kw-d, 500w PSA until 8 March 1984, when 500w D-N added). They were very well programmed and had excellent ratings since switching to R&B on 21 October 1951. That is, until Johnson Publishing of Chicago bought the station in 1983 and built their misplaced new antenna array (to rush nighttime service and try to beat its Urban FM competitin WJYL-FM) to the air. The site in western Louisville requires big, nasty nighttime nulls right over huge chunks of the city to make pattern...the site shoud actually be to the north and east of the city to protect co-channel and adjacent channel stations without nulling out so much target audience at night pattern and power..

Johnson-who had the Midas touch in publishing but the exact opposite touch in radio-hired arrogant yet clueless management to run WLOU, did nothing to improve facilities, competed poorly against competitors WJYL, WDGS-AM and their eventual slayer, combo WGZB-FM/WLSY-FM. On 31 October 1995, a horrible-sounding (no audio chain maintenance in the final weeks) WLOU signed off as a heritage Urban station. It's now a very poorly-run and programmed Urban Gospel station, owned by Davidson Media as part of a 3-station Urban Gospel Music (WLOU), Traditional Urban Preaching & Music (WLLV), and Spanish (WTUV) combo.
 
I don't remember if it was mentioned or maybe I even mentioned it, but WKEE in Huntington WV was a daytimer on 800. It would start interfering with CKLW right before sunset where I lived. Did anyone call it teh "Little 8"?
 
WKEE in Huntington had a sister station, WWKE, Key Radio, in Ocala, Fl. Bob Hauck was the General Manager, and Jay Kuppers the PD, it was a
great sounding and very successful station.
WKKO 860 in Cocoa was huge in the mid 60's, has Pulse ratings of over 50 all the time, one of the best rockers around.
 
Yeah, our bookeeper at a station I worked at in Ohio had worked at WWKE. I even sent a couple of tapes there, I didn't realize they were co-owned.
 
WADR in Remson, (Utica-Rome) NY was a very successful daytimer for many years with a country format. 5kw daytime ND 500watts pre sunrise.
Also, WSEN in Baldwinsville (Syracuse) NY was (is) a daytimer. It is legend that they were the first full time country station north of the Mason- Dixon Line.
 
KLEE, 1480 Ottumwa IA. 500 w 6AM-sunset until nighttime auths gave them 33 watts, created in the 80s by sending 500 watts into a coil that burnt off 467 watts as heat. Cheap, if inefficient way to hit a low nightime power. Guessing it was pretty common back then. Now with a much taller tower designed for the co-owned FM, AM power has been halved with a more efficient antenna, and hopefully has a low power xmtr for nighttime.

Back to programming, KLEE was country during the 60s and early 70s and had the format all to itself. One of the jocks that worked there during that time said the station did pretty well , had a news cruiser that would do live remotes wherever there was breaking news.

1974: KLEE went top 40 under new ownership by the Palen family. Dan Palen had a very strong operation in '74 & '75 with OK to pretty good talent (as in John Cromwell, wherever he is now) and better music variety than KIOA in Des Moines, about 80 miles NW. KLEE-FM came to life in 1976 in fits and starts, picking up the top 40 format after sunset and illustrated the dangers of cue burn much better than AM.

KLEE remained a strong daytimer with top 40 until 1979, when Dan saw where the trends were heading and swapped formats with KLEE-FM, now KOTM. So began the long decline of 1480, like so many other small AMs.
 
The King Bee said:
Radio Rob, you're right on about WLOU-AM 1350 kHz (5kw-d, 500w PSA until 8 March 1984, when 500w D-N added). They were very well programmed and had excellent ratings since switching to R&B on 21 October 1951. That is, until Johnson Publishing of Chicago bought the station in 1983 and built their misplaced new antenna array (to rush nighttime service and try to beat its Urban FM competitin WJYL-FM) to the air. The site in western Louisville requires big, nasty nighttime nulls right over huge chunks of the city to make pattern...the site shoud actually be to the north and east of the city to protect co-channel and adjacent channel stations without nulling out so much target audience at night pattern and power..

Johnson-who had the Midas touch in publishing but the exact opposite touch in radio-hired arrogant yet clueless management to run WLOU, did nothing to improve facilities, competed poorly against competitors WJYL, WDGS-AM and their eventual slayer, combo WGZB-FM/WLSY-FM. On 31 October 1995, a horrible-sounding (no audio chain maintenance in the final weeks) WLOU signed off as a heritage Urban station. It's now a very poorly-run and programmed Urban Gospel station, owned by Davidson Media as part of a 3-station Urban Gospel Music (WLOU), Traditional Urban Preaching & Music (WLLV), and Spanish (WTUV) combo.
Click to expand...

Thanks King Bee for filling in the blanks. You're right about Johnson, they destroyed the place. It's worth noting WLOU didn't have consistent competition on FM until GZB. So when prior FM competition would close shop, LOU's ratings would spike.

The station gospel has nice audio these days. Their engineer is passing the pilot so AM stereo radios open up bandwidth. Even though the audio is mono, it does sound good on a wide band radio.
 
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