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The Exodus Continues...

D

Dighton Rockhead

According to the front page of radio-info, this tiime it's Atlanta's WSB, now simulcasting its talk format on an FM.

Sorta makes me wonder...

Will Citadel be content to simulcast 630 on a Class A FM...or will there eventually be another shoe yet to drop?

Also...Is 920 meerly a place-holder format until Clear Channel finally decides what it wants to do?. I mean...If they had wanted to do a "WHJJ-FM"...wouldn't they already have done it by now?

Just wonderin'...
 
I can't see which F.M.s would go by the wayside in the Citadel cluster. Presumably 92.3 & 105.1 are doing well & 106 has its market to itself. That leaves 99.7 which has always been flipping identities. Plus, R.I. is (I think) 2nd behind Florida in terms of oldest citizens so being on A.M. here isn't as big a detriment.

Now, on to WHJJ. If C.C. jettisons that format, what can they do with 920? Not much. Maybe Fox Sports. The F.M.s seem to be doing fine. They're probably billing well & aren't costing the company much with the exception of WHJY. So, while the F.M.s have options if they're underperforming, it's do-or-die for the A.M.s.
 
Well, there are only six Class B FM's in RI, and Citadel owns two of them: WPRO-FM and WWLI, both of which are powerhouses.

The other four are all pretty safe I'd say: WBRU, WHJY, WWBB, and WEEI-FM.

The 99.7 signal out of Wakefield-Peacedale really isn't that bad, and the 630 signal covers the entire state and then some. Hot 106.3 doesn't cover nearly as much of the state, that's why they used to have 102.7 out of Narragansett Pier. I'd say Citadel is going to stick with what's working right now.

Clear Channel though? I could see them blowing up WWBB or WSNE to simulcast WHJJ if they actually wanted to invest some money in the station.
 
I used to bash WHJJ because they were boring. Now, as much as I respect WPRO/WEAN-FM, I wish there were a talk battle going on in this city between 'PRO & 'HJJ. Even a 3rd station could possibly do OK but all there are are 790 & 990 and 790 isn't going to go after 630, obviously. Maybe act as a blocker (in Jacksonville, WQIK-FM's sister station Rooster Country acted as a blocker for WQIK-FM) but no direct competition. That leaves 990 which I don't think is running a full 50 gallons.

I'd personally like to see a local entity buy 920 but after seeing how well Channel 6's owners are doing, that might not be the best. Poor 920. Still, 630 acts like 920 is a legitimate threat. 630 is still on its game.
 
If 990 was in the hands of someone who could fix up the transmitter site and get the signal back up to 50 kW during the day rather than the ~15 kW it now runs, with some decent hosts, it could make a dent. But I don't see that happening with the present ownership.
 
DG02816 said:
If 990 was in the hands of someone who could fix up the transmitter site and get the signal back up to 50 kW during the day rather than the ~15 kW it now runs, with some decent hosts, it could make a dent. But I don't see that happening with the present ownership.
Click to expand...

Gotta disagree. I was there during the Beautiful Music days under the original ownership. Engineering was first-class in every respect and no expense was spared to maintain it well and get the most out of it. Reality simply was....as it would be today....the directional pattern required by The FCC dumps most of the power out to sea and, though there was a legal city-grade signal in downtown Providence, anywhere North, South or West sucked.

Anybody else here remember Mowry Lowe's reference to directions in the WLKW-990 sign-off?

"To our friends in the..........."
 
I don't remember Mowry Lowe's signoff for 990, but DO recall that he later popped up on 1590 for awhile, doing Beautiful Music there.
 
DG02816 said:
I don't remember Mowry Lowe's signoff for 990, but DO recall that he later popped up on 1590 for awhile, doing Beautiful Music there.
Click to expand...

I'm intrigued by that....

1590 started out as Beautiful Music....a couple of years before WLKW was signed on. When it (as WYNG) was sold to Attleboro Radio Association (who also owned WARA, 1320) the format was changed to full-service local for Warwick/East Greenwich (it was a dual city of license and the ARA people really wanted to respect that). Afterward it was sold to some folks from The DelMarVa (Dover, Delaware) Peninsula whose format was sort of nebulous and finally to the Blount interests who took it "Christian". I believed that Mowry retired when WLKW was sold to Alex Tanger but it's not impossible he did something at WARA though I rather doubt it as he was pretty ancient by then.

I really don't think 1590 ever went back to Beautiful Music after Milt Mittler sold it to the ARA folks.
 
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