Talk About A Mickey-Mouse Operation...

[Laurence Glavin]

Critics of various radio-station groups in Boston may often call the ojects of their vituperation "mickey-mouse operations"; but a real one just showed up in the latest Arbitrends, albeit very low on the totem pole: WMKI-AM 1260. Did a few people with diaries write in in just because they tune in to the station while ferrying their kids around?

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

Critics of various radio-station groups in Boston may often call the ojects of their vituperation "mickey-mouse operations"; but a real one just showed up in the latest Arbitrends, albeit very low on the totem pole: WMKI-AM 1260. Did a few people with diaries write in in just because they tune in to the station while ferrying their kids around?

Yeah, I'll bet the mouse with the big ears is doing back-flips over their huge success in cracking the Boston Arbitrends.

Not.

Ratings are irrelevant to this station, and all the other Radio Disney stations. It's promotional airtime for their brands...in marketing terms, a loss-leader (an operation which loses money in order to promote the company's brands...NBC had tons of Bob Hope specials from the 1950s through the 1980s that were in the same category). That's all it means to them. Period.

 

[spilot113]

...a real one just showed up in the latest Arbitrends, albeit very low on the totem pole: WMKI-AM 1260. Did a few people with diaries write in in just because they tune in to the station while ferrying their kids around?

Are they 12+ or 12- numbers....? ;-)

I assume that some "tweens" listen to Radio Disney...and that counts if they are 12/13.

 

[radiojay1]

It's great that some kids listen to Radio Disney, but how many kids would prefer to listen to AM 1260 over Kiss 108 or Jam'n 94.5?  That's why I always wondered why Radio Disney is on AM.  When a thunderstorm comes, unless you're a parent having it on in your car and you are close to the tower, or a kid who is listening at home and living close to the tower, the station will not sound good at all with all the crackling from the lightning, not to mention any other interference that AM is sensitive to. 

 

[DG02816]

This takes me back to when I worked at 1260 in 1979(then religious WEZE).Being located on the Neponset River, the 5 kW DA-N always got out well.

 

[argytunes]

I always find it fascinating that "specialty programming" (like Disney material) is always relegated to the AM DIAL...where the signal is usually limited to a radius of about 30 miles. And of course, when there's a pattern change...that brings the listenership down by another 10 or 20!

When an FM Programmer is ready to take a few chances...he (or she) is welcome to give me call! I've got at least 2 ideas for formats that aren't currently being done in the GREATER BOSTON area.

argytunes

 

[spilot113]

I always find it fascinating that "specialty programming" (like Disney material) is always relegated to the AM DIAL...where the signal is usually limited to a radius of about 30 miles. And of course, when there's a pattern change...that brings the listenership down by another 10 or 20!

After 590, 680 and 1030.......1260's signal isn't that bad...

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WMKI&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

And unlike a lot of the other AM's (740, 950, 1060, 1090, 1150, 1200, 1430, 1550..), the signal doesn't altogether dissappear after sunset.

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WMKI&service=AM&status=L&hours=N

But I think nowadays there is more and more interference everywhere...in the cars, in the houses, computers, all sorts of little electronic devices...that has made AM reception even more of a challenge.

I used to be able to listen to many of these secondary Boston stations easily at home (30 miles away.)

Lately, there all a challenge.

 

[nightfly61]

Critics of various radio-station groups in Boston may often call the ojects of their vituperation "mickey-mouse operations"; but a real one just showed up in the latest Arbitrends, albeit very low on the totem pole: WMKI-AM 1260. Did a few people with diaries write in in just because they tune in to the station while ferrying their kids around?

What's the big surprise? The parents are jumping on the bandwagon & at least it's music on AM again instead of the know it all boring conservative talk mouths & Dr. Medusa(Laura) all day & night. You can't deny Miley's selling out shows like the Stones used to & until the cast of High School Musical outgrow their fanbase the parents are gonna listen to see what the hype's all about and it's gonna be big business for Disney. At least it's more wholesome than the thug stations & Kiss rotating the same clock every 90 minutes. It's different music & that's what people want. Screw the "brands" in this case...and I'm sure there's no station out there that would be nuts enough to air (or have clients that would advertise on) Bob Hope specials muchless crack the Arbitron with them! : I'm sure if an FM ran the Disney feed they'd do well, or even a Hot AC that leaned toward Top 40 could daypart the music correctly. Lots of it already started crossing over 3 years ago with Aly & AJ, Hillary Duff & Jesse McCartney. In fact 14 of the Disney Top 30 this week are either CHR or HAC crossovers. They do up the pitch just a touch(smart move) on RD to make it sound more upbeat...at least they don't Mickey Mouse it though!

 

[spilot113]

I always find it fascinating that "specialty programming" (like Disney material) is always relegated to the AM DIAL...where the signal is usually limited to a radius of about 30 miles. And of course, when there's a pattern change...that brings the listenership down by another 10 or 20!

After 590, 680 and 1030.......1260's signal isn't that bad...

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WMKI&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

And unlike a lot of the other AM's (740, 950, 1060, 1090, 1150, 1200, 1430, 1550..), the signal doesn't altogether dissappear after sunset.

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WMKI&service=AM&status=L&hours=N

But I think nowadays there is more and more interference everywhere...in the cars, in the houses, computers, all sorts of little electronic devices...that has made AM reception even more of a challenge.

I used to be able to listen to many of these secondary Boston stations easily at home (30 miles away.)

Lately, there all a challenge.

When an FM Programmer is ready to take a few chances...he (or she) is welcome to give me call! I've got at least 2 ideas for formats that aren't currently being done in the GREATER BOSTON area.

When you hear the phone not ringing....you'll know it's them!

 

[Eli Polonsky]

That's why I always wondered why Radio Disney is on AM. When a thunderstorm comes, unless you're a parent having it on in your car and you are close to the tower, or a kid who is listening at home and living close to the tower, the station will not sound good at all with all the crackling from the lightning, not to mention any other interference that AM is sensitive to.

Maybe that's why WMKI and a number of other Disney AM stations are also broadcasting in HD. I've heard WMKI in HD. Fairly decent stereo sound quality, and no static.

By the way, anyone who is old enough to remember the '60s when practically ALL Top 40 and rock'n'roll music was on AM will remember that we never let a little lightning static stop us from listening to what we enjoyed.

Many of us in the suburbs strugged and strained to listen to 1510 WMEX, Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsburg et al, from what was then another weak directional signal transmitting from Quincy, which then had even worse coverage inland than 1260 does... and it was well worth it.

 

[DG02816]

And at the time Arnie was on WMEX, the place was 50 kW-D, 5 kW-N, DA-2. Perhaps LA_Guy can shed some light on things there then with that 5 kW night setup. I used to hear it sometimes driving to work at WEZE...it was really pulled in to protect WLAC and the now dark WNLC New London....

 

[spilot113]

And at the time Arnie was on WMEX, the place was 50 kW-D, 5 kW-N, DA-2.

When did they upgrade from 5kw days....to 50kw days?

 

[JustinT]

After 590, 680 and 1030.......1260's signal isn't that bad...

Overall, the station's signal is not terrible, especially in the city of Boston. But Radio Disney is mainly going for listeners in the suburbs, and that's where it could use some help, especially at night (though for a format targetting tweens, I'd guess that mornings and afternoons are when WMKI has its peak listenership). From my experience in MetroWest, the WDDZ 550 signal is far clearer in most areas than WMKI. If ABC/Disney were to ever take control of ESPN 890, its been noted on here before that putting Radio Disney on the 890 stick and ESPN on 1260 would be a great move - but as things stand now that won't happen.

On another note, check out the WMKI website's event calendar (http://radio.disney.go.com/music/yourstation/boston/may.html). They're doing remote appearances in Bangor, Maine!

 

[NHRadio]

Growing up in Peabody (early-mid 70's) WMEX was very listenable days but almost impossible at night. Was it 50kw days then? I think not but I could be wrong.

And at the time Arnie was on WMEX, the place was 50 kW-D, 5 kW-N, DA-2. Perhaps LA_Guy can shed some light on things there then with that 5 kW night setup. I used to hear it sometimes driving to work at WEZE...it was really pulled in to protect WLAC and the now dark WNLC New London....

 

[chrish]

I seem to recall Ed Juiare doing the WMEX Squantum 50 KW upgrade in 1967,
originally WMEX had two Blaw Knox or Lehigh self supporting towers cut for 1470.
They were identical to the four SS towers at WPAT in Patterson NJ that angled out at the very bottom.
WMEX kept the same pattern after the move to 1510 in 1941.The two towers were on a lined up SSW to ENE with symetrical nulls to WLAC in Nashville that fell over
Westwood with the opposite null over Cohasset.
It was basically a fat figure 8 pattern with 2/3 of the power going north and 1/3 going south.
I grew up on the North Shore in Salem, MA and both WMEX and WNAC/WVDA/WEZE
melted the dial day and night.
For some reason as part of the 50 KW upgrade unfortunately the SSW self supporter was replaced with uniform cross section guyed tower, I'm not sure why this was done, It was in the same place as the original SSW tower that produced the night pattern which remained unchanged until the move to Waltham. This new tower along with a second new day tower formed the three in a triangle.

I have the original 1939 map from their Washington consultant Jon Barron for 1470 KC and also one for the unchanged 1510 KC ( I was working in the industry before
the Khz/Mhz nomenclature was adopted )

Somewhere I also have the Squantum 50 KW day pattern info along with the original Waltham day and night paperwork, I know Grady made some changes adding
a third critical hours pattern when WNLC faded into the ether.

The original 5 KW Collins 21 E that I grew up listening to became the night
transmitter after the upgrade, the RCA Ampliphase was probably to inefficent
to run at 5 KW for nightime operation.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

And at the time Arnie was on WMEX, the place was 50 kW-D, 5 kW-N, DA-2.

When did they upgrade from 5kw days....to 50kw days?

Chrish above says it was 1967, but I seem to remember 1969 was when the daytime upgrade finally went on the air... I could be wrong... but either way, Arnie was no longer on WMEX by the time the upgrade went into effect.

 

[nd2023]

I used to listen to Radio Disney when I was 9 or 10. That's when it was brand new. If we had 12- ratings, Radio Disney would be near the top.

 

[DanStrassberg]

And at the time Arnie was on WMEX, the place was 50 kW-D, 5 kW-N, DA-2. Perhaps LA_Guy can shed some light on things there then with that 5 kW night setup. I used to hear it sometimes driving to work at WEZE...it was really pulled in to protect WLAC and the now dark WNLC New London....

WMEX's 5-kW DA-1 pattern, which later became WITS's (5-kW) DA-N pattern was never pulled in to protect WNLC. Rather, WNLC and a lot of other stations (anyone remember WRAN?) were shoehorned into the WMEX null that protected WLAC and the WLAC null that protected WMEX, which is older than WLAC. WNLC's night pattern was, IIRC, a six-tower in-line teardrop aimed southeast. WNLC's 10 kW-D pattern was quite different--and there was only one tower in common between the day and night arrays. WNLC's day pattern was a three-tower squashed (and slightly asymmetrical) cardioid aimed northeast, pretty much right AT WMEX, only 77 miles away. When WMEX increased to 50 kW-D, it and WNLC had to be the shortest-spaced pair of high-power co-channel AMs, and only one of them (WNLC) received any protection from the other (WMEX). Moreover, until its daytime power increase, WMEX never protected WNLC by design. The 50-kW D pattern did protect WNLC by design but it was also designed to protect WLAC from daytime skywave. At one point, WMEX filed for a CP to relax its D pattern during noncritical hours. That application was withdrawn when the CP was granted for the move to Waltham and increase to 50 kW-U.

 

[oaktree]

Back to the "Mickey Mouse" operation ...

Very easily explained ... promotion / marketing for Disney, first.

Second, built in captive audience, not all things to all people.

Third, Mommy and Daddy approve, for at least as long as AM lasts and "they" know what AM is.

And fourth, very few rating diaries, lots of Time Spent Listening and "quarter hour maintenance" that maximizes the rating output (little as it may be) to at least show up with an "exclusive cume" that does, believe it or not, does sell advertising, even with little numbers.

 

[DG02816]

...And the reason WMKI has remotes in ME is because the non-D day and especailly the DA-N, get up there. The night signal screams for 5 kW. When I was interviewing for the chief engineer's job at the now-dark-and-deleted WASY 1590 in Gorham, I had a chance to hear 1260 at night. Loudest thing on the dial up there besides 1590.