The Buck getting stopped , the Zone kicking off at/after 2pm?

[Nate Wesley]

I was curious as to when they'd sign '97.3 The Buck' off the primary airwaves today (assuming it might show up on WZZK-HD somewhere). There's a pending goodbye on the website promoting a 104.7 WZZK contest. I've heard promos to tune in for a 2pm announcement listening to the online stream.

Someone in the 'Ham getting those tape machines ready?

 

[Nate Wesley]

I recorded the pillowy-soft launch of 97.3 The Zone. Kinda underwhelmed, but I'm sure the fully-programmed station will still whet the appetites of most.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JRL0YF6D

 

[tomservo]

Thanks for the recording, Nate. The transition from the last country song to Eli Gold's opening remarks is one of the cringiest moments in Birmingham radio history. The dumped out song, the rumbling bumbling sounds, the grunts and throat clearing live on air. Ouch!

 

[WBGR FM 93.1]

Thanks for the recording, Nate. The transition from the last country song to Eli Gold's opening remarks is one of the cringiest moments in Birmingham radio history. The dumped out song, the rumbling bumbling sounds, the grunts and throat clearing live on air. Ouch!

I noticed the song that started to play as the music faded was The Band Perry's "You Lie." It would have been comical and kinda ironic if they would have faded the song right after the lyrics "I never liked the taste of crow but baby I've ate it." Many people said that three country stations in Birmingham was too many, and it turns out they were right!

-Travis

 

[Nate Wesley]

Thanks for the recording, Nate. The transition from the last country song to Eli Gold's opening remarks is one of the cringiest moments in Birmingham radio history. The dumped out song, the rumbling bumbling sounds, the grunts and throat clearing live on air. Ouch!

Cox actually telegraphed their plans for the station. Why couldn't they have had a nice pre-produced piece to jump-start the station? It was an almost lifeless start, and Gold's broadcasts on Learfield Sports certainly don't start that way.

I know Cox-Birmingham isn't so staff-poor at the moment they couldn't have done better than that. Bad start.

 

[Charles1]

And keeping the Rick and Bubba replay from 3-7 is kind of underwhelming, too.

 

[rtc]

"Formal" announcement here:

http://birmingham.myfoxal.com/news/sports-recreation/94749-973-fm-changing-sports-talk

and a "dispute" (?) here:

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/08/radio_host_tim_brando_says_he.html

 

[tomservo]

How about the website: "This site is currently under construction." All they need are the little animated stick figures digging a hole and the "road work" signs that were popular on Geocities and it's 1999 all over again.

 

[musicfan11]

Is the lineup exciting enough to attract the sports listener? Opinions?

 

[passtheword]

Thanks for the recording, Nate. The transition from the last country song to Eli Gold's opening remarks is one of the cringiest moments in Birmingham radio history. The dumped out song, the rumbling bumbling sounds, the grunts and throat clearing live on air. Ouch!

Yes, that was a really awkward start there. I especially liked hearing Eli Gold refer to the outgoing station at one point as "93.7, the Buck". I thought his speech comparing his sign-on of the Zone to his sign-on of news-talk WERC when it dropped the music format in '82 was a very revealing truth in regards to the direction FM radio is headed, both here in Birmingham and elsewhere. 30 years ago, many of the AM music stations started to shift to talk and other non-music programming. Now we see this same scenario playing out on the FM side of the dial...5 FM's in Birmingham now offer either talk or sports programming (5 1/2 if you count WXJC's talk programming). Welcome to the "AM-ization" of the FM Band. :