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The new 1540 The Farm!!

So, Chris, are you bringing in an FM translator, or buying a full-power station? :)

I remember 95.1 as "K-Rock", though it first went country shortly after "95.9 WAX-FM" went out of business in the early 1990s. 95.9 (I THINK) took the K-Rock identity for a while, and 95.1 became...oh, I can't remember the moniker. I know 95.9's Shadow Summers ended up at 95.1 in the country format, as did Steve ("S.T.") Fine.

I can't remember the sequence of events that ended up with 95.9 first as CHR "The Beat", and the whole mess with 101.9 (Stop 26 vs. Clear Channel).

1540 and 1570 are sister stations again, of course. They joined up shortly after the fire at 1570 (circa 1990), when 1540 bought 1570 and the stations became the urban AC simulcast "Network 15 - The City". I can't remember if CD 106 was on/co-owned yet.
 
Yes, "95 K-ROCK" moved to 95.9 and became "96 K-ROCK" for a few years and 95.1 was "Cat Country 95", later tweaked to "95.1 The Cat" under Clear Channel ownership. 95.9 also spent some time as Smooth Jazz as "Easy 95.9", before going Hot AC in 1998 as "Mix 96", which was right around the time that "98.9 KBN-FM" was rebranded as "Mix 989" but I'm not sure which came first. 95.9 modified to "Channel 96" after about a year. Their Hot AC approach was much more current-intensive than WKBN-FM/WMXY's gold-intensive angle.

Clear Channel purchased Gocom who owned 95.1 and 95.9 which forced them to give up the 101.9 signal. "The Beat" moved from 101.9 to 95.9 in June of 2000 with only a few hours notice as Stop 26 took over 101.9 with their Urban AC format that had moved to AM 1440 in the fall of 1998 when The Beat launched. 95.9 was rebranded as "Kiss FM" in February 2001.
 
Heard Just after 11 this morning..

Glen Campbell:"Country Boy"
Jim Ed Brown:"Pop-A-Top"
Travis Tritt:"Here's A Quarter (Call someone who cares)"
Carlene Carter "Every Litttle Dream"

Now THAT's Classic Country!
 
InsertNameHere said:
Yes, "95 K-ROCK" moved to 95.9 and became "96 K-ROCK" for a few years and 95.1 was "Cat Country 95", later tweaked to "95.1 The Cat" under Clear Channel ownership. 95.9 also spent some time as Smooth Jazz as "Easy 95.9", before going Hot AC in 1998 as "Mix 96", which was right around the time that "98.9 KBN-FM" was rebranded as "Mix 989" but I'm not sure which came first. 95.9 modified to "Channel 96" after about a year. Their Hot AC approach was much more current-intensive than WKBN-FM/WMXY's gold-intensive angle.

Clear Channel purchased Gocom who owned 95.1 and 95.9 which forced them to give up the 101.9 signal. "The Beat" moved from 101.9 to 95.9 in June of 2000 with only a few hours notice as Stop 26 took over 101.9 with their Urban AC format that had moved to AM 1440 in the fall of 1998 when The Beat launched. 95.9 was rebranded as "Kiss FM" in February 2001.
Click to expand...

CC couldn't complete the purchase of the Gocom stations until 2004, when they divested the entire New Castle cluster (WKST/1200, WBZY/1280, WJST/92.1, WICT/95.1) to Forever. It was concurrent with the sale of CC's two Johnstown, PA stations, also to Forever.

Stop 26 actually took Clear Channel/Gocom to court back in 1999 because, according to Stop 26, CC/Gocom refused to allow Stop 26 to preempt any programming on 101.9 - which would have been a clear violation of the LMA. CC/Gocom settled out of court in 2001, paying Stop 26 a $25K fine, and relinquished control of the 101.9 signal.

With the "Beat" format's relocation to 95.9, the 101.9 signal temporarily simulcast WNIO/1390 until Stop 26 resumed operating control of the station, which was the moving of WRBP/1440's format and calls to 101.9. Stop 26 then spun off the 1440 facility to Salem Communications, which since then has operated it as a relay of AM/1220 (first WHK, now WHKW) in Cleveland.

For the record, after WNIO and WRTK swapped call letters in late 1999, WRTK/1540 solely simulcast programming on the 106.1/Niles facility (first "CD106" WNCD, then WBBG) until CC/Gocom spun it off to Dale Edwards (owner of WABQ) in April 2001.
 
FYI, members of the Payless team are considering a gathering in Athens October 16th during homecoming weekend....maybe a road trip to Pomeroy could also be in the works. ;D ;D There Buddy!
 
I live in Greenville, PA. Those K-love people don't waste time getting on the air. I just turned on 107.1 and sure enough it's K-love now.
 
With the "Beat" format's relocation to 95.9, the 101.9 signal temporarily simulcast WNIO/1390 until Stop 26 resumed operating control of the station, which was the moving of WRBP/1440's format and calls to 101.9.

I don't recall that. The Beat began simulcasting on 95.9 and 101.9 on a Saturday morning and by Saturday evening, Stop 26 had taken over 101.9
The simulcast was supposed to last a week. The Clear Channel folks were not too happy about that!!
This was a small factor in the rebranding to KISS in early 2001 as many people simply thought The Beat had disappeared.
 
mc_billy_bob said:
I live in Greenville, PA. Those K-love people don't waste time getting on the air. I just turned on 107.1 and sure enough it's K-love now.
Click to expand...

Nothing personal against K-Love's mission, but I genuinely feel as though somebody, somewhere dropped the ball when it came to this latest sale of WEXC. The station has so much potential, but it's been wasted in recent years. It's Greenville's loss. I assume EMF won't be hiring any local talent for this format.
 
Trust me I would love to be a station owner and have some great ideas for the market, but it's impossible to buy a station when you don't have the money to buy one and you can't find the backing to make it happen.
 
Did all three stations dump programming for K-LOVE? Or are both WLOA and WGRP still airing their satellite-based classic country format separately until EMF can unload those stations?

I read that WEXC switched to K-LOVE right after the conclusion of a high school football game last night. It's a shame, WEXC clearly fared better when they aired secular formats. Mr. Glunt had his reasons to air CCM on such an extreme rimshot for Youngstown, I can understand that. But at the same time, WEXC's overall viability in the Youngstown/Sharon region was badly impaired by carrying such a niche format.
 
InsertNameHere said:
With the "Beat" format's relocation to 95.9, the 101.9 signal temporarily simulcast WNIO/1390 until Stop 26 resumed operating control of the station, which was the moving of WRBP/1440's format and calls to 101.9.

I don't recall that. The Beat began simulcasting on 95.9 and 101.9 on a Saturday morning and by Saturday evening, Stop 26 had taken over 101.9
The simulcast was supposed to last a week. The Clear Channel folks were not too happy about that!!
This was a small factor in the rebranding to KISS in early 2001 as many people simply thought The Beat had disappeared.
Click to expand...

Scott Fybush's NERW (http://www.bostonradio.org/nerw/nerw-001009.html) had WBTJ/101.9 simulcast WNIO/1390 during the latter part of 2000 - as late as that October. This was around the same time CC swapped the formats and calls of WKST/1280 and WBZY/1200, and Gocom swapped the formats and calls of WNCD/106.1 and WBBG/93.3. Either way, WBTJ was handed back to Stop 26 and reverted to WRBP on April 2001.

I know there was a logo for WNIO that had both 1390 and 101.9 listed during this simulcast; I cannot find it for whatever reason now. When the simulcast ended, the "101.9" was scrubbed from the logo, but the "Youngstown's Original Hit Stations" slogan somehow remained on the logo for several years thereafter as seen here.

Note, too, that this WNIO logo is the one that was drawn into the stoop at the Mineral Ridge studios (seen at 3:24 in the video). I presume that was the stations' original logo, or at least when the adult standards era of WNIO/1540 started in 1996.
 
I'm being told by ears within the market that 107.1 is pumping out K-Love, and also doing legal IDs for 1470 and 940, but that there's some sort of technical problem/static with 1470 today. My reader isn't sure about 940, but I've always made the assumption that 1470 directly feeds 940.

It wouildn't be the first time that a station in the Beacon universe IDed stations that weren't (yet) carrying the programming. :)

The release on the sale says EMF is buying all three stations...then, after FCC approval and closure, intends to sell off 1470 and 940 to someone else.
 
I'm told it sounds like 1470 is "broadcasting static", that there's some sort of signal there. They probably have to figure out how to temporarily have it refeed 107.1. 940 might be on, since IIRC it's co-located with 107.1 on McCracken Road, and they could presumably just simulcast it instead of daisy chaining it from 1470.

My reader couldn't pick up 940 from that location, tho.
 
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