The old Z!04 WZYQ

[amfmxm]

I'm referring only to the programming. Because Prettyman hires either really green people or those on their last radio legs ('cause of the pay), the programming ain't the most professional. The way you defend KMZ/LTF you must either work for or have worked for them in the past. It's obvious in the way you lose focus easily.

My resume that area? WINC, WQCM, WIKZ, WZYQ, WFRE--enough to know the market(s) pretty well--and a lot of the people. You're picking on the most stable outfit, and one of the most successful, in the whole region, and that's kind of odd. You sound like you have some kind of grudge. What happened? Get fired? Not get hired?

You don't have to be an "insider" to know that the 97.5 stick covers half the Hagerstown market and less than half of the Winchester market, so their ratings in those markets have always been, and will always be, a fraction of the station's impact in the areas where it can be heard. Get your hands on the Washington County (Hagerstown) breakout of the H/C/W book--any report over the past five or ten years--and read it. They barely show in Franklin County, but kill in Washington County. In reverse, WIKZ is weaker in Washington County, but kills in Franklin County. Everybody knows this.

Their home market is Martinsburg, one of the fastest-growing markets on the entire East Coast for the past 30 years, and they're the only FM in the county, so they dominate it. Look, I work in radio, so I probably have access to info that you never see. I'm guessing that I have some insight on the market that you may not have working for the post office.

 

[RockofHBG]

Well, you're not an outsider, just a floater. You obviously don't know that 97.5 covers the entire Hagerstown-Chambersburg-Waynesboro metro like a glove, actually better than WIKZ in some ways. The reason they don't get ratings is that they suck!!!If you don't believe me about the signal, get in your Yugo and drive around the market sometime. Don't worry, I think they have McDonalds in all the counties!

 

[amfmxm]

Well, you're not an outsider, just a floater. You obviously don't know that 97.5 covers the entire Hagerstown-Chambersburg-Waynesboro metro like a glove, actually better than WIKZ in some ways. The reason they don't get ratings is that they suck!!!If you don't believe me about the signal, get in your Yugo and drive around the market sometime. Don't worry, I think they have McDonalds in all the counties!

Okay, here's some "inside" info. There's a website called www.radio-locator.com where you can see the FCC coverage maps for every individual station in the U.S. as well as all stations covering a particular market. Go there and plug in "Chambersburg, PA" and you'll see that WLTF doesn't show up--because it doesn't cover Chambersburg with a local signal. Now, hit the "back" button and type in "WLTF" in the "station" window. When the station information page comes up, hit the "coverage map" link and look at the map. See the red line? That's the "local coverage" contour, or 60 mV/m contour in techie terms. Beyond that line reception is subject to interference and is generally unreliable, especially indoors--where most radio listening takes place. That Chambersburg area that they don't cover is where most of Franklin County's population resides--and it's tough to generate listenership in an area where your station can't be heard.

One more little thing. As you travel further from the transmitter site toward that red line, the signal gets weaker and weaker. So even within that red/local coverage area, the closer you get to that line, the fewer listeners you'll find.

Alright, that's enough teaching for today. Hey, this has been fun, but I think we've beat this one to death. I'm done. Have a nice life.

As Grease would say, AMF!

 

[RockofHBG]

Gee, you've been quite a teacher. Now let me teach you how to turn on a radio and listen. Seriously, you don't live in the market. I do and have for along time and 97.5 comes in like a local everywhere. If you do your "research", you'd know that Lite has done well from time to time in Arbitron in Franklin County, proving the signal reaches just fine. They just don't do it consistently because Stacy Drake should've been a cab driver instead of a program director.You'd probably be shocked to know who I am. Come to the Chambersburg-Hagerstown. Waynesboro market sometime and I'll buy you to a Big Mac

 

[TarlekInSales]

The reason WLTF doesn't do well in Chambersburg is the same reason WAYZ does better in Chambersburg than Hagerstown... a matter of local preference. The 97.5 signal is listenable in Chambersburg. You can hear it... it's just that apparently nobody wants to!

 

[amfmxm]

The reason WLTF doesn't do well in Chambersburg is the same reason WAYZ does better in Chambersburg than Hagerstown... a matter of local preference. The 97.5 signal is listenable in Chambersburg. You can hear it... it's just that apparently nobody wants to!

Signals matter. That's Point A. Point B is that signals really matter in AC radio, where the vast majority of listening is done inside buildings at work. I admit that LTF comes in fine on most car radios driving around Chambersburg. It's when you get inside those damn buildings and try listening on a cheap radio that it becomes a problem.

Radio listeners don't give this kind of thing much thought. If a signal comes in nice and strong and clear, they're fine. But if the signal is scratchy or "drifts" (pretty common out on the edge of a signal) they find a better signal and lock on to it.

On the other hand, as WIKZ has cooled a bit from Hot AC toward Mainstream AC and WLTF has warmed a bit from Soft AC toward Mainstream AC, there's not nearly as much difference between the two as there once was. And, if that's how listeners perceive it, then the stronger signal wins--and in Chambersburg, that's WIKZ.

 

[radioperson88]

Are you serious? WIKZ is nothing like WLTF, there's a difference between those two stations. WIKZ is a well programmed station with a great morning show and excellent promotions. The only area where WLTF ever been better is in the "Hick Area"! Good lord, Lite allowed that idot Stacy Drake run the station into the ground for all those years. I guess one would accept Prettyman to allow this to continue for so long, I mean they brought back Gary Michaels! Hello, 1974 called and they want Gary and Stacy back!!! Please, I don't work in that market any longer, it's a great radio market because of stations like the Mainlines, Nassau and even Verstandig. Prettyman stations have been a joke since wayback when 97-5 WKMZ was on the air. BTW, Lite's signal comes in clear as day in downtown Chambersburg and even to the north in Shippensburg. The reason Lite sucks is because it sucks! Not its signal. Imagine what a good radio company could do with that stick. [EDIT]


[EDIT-inflammatory]

 

[RockofHBG]

On the other hand, as WIKZ has cooled a bit from Hot AC toward Mainstream AC and WLTF has warmed a bit from Soft AC toward Mainstream AC, there's not nearly as much difference between the two as there once was. And, if that's how listeners perceive it, then the stronger signal wins--and in Chambersburg, that's WIKZ.

Now I really have to question if you even know where the Hagerstown market is. WIKZ has gotten hotter, more towards CHR than at any time since they flipped from CHR in 1992, not softer. They're playing Beyonce, Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Kevin Rudolph "Let it Rock", etc. And even though they've dropped them from the playlist, earlier this year they played "Right Round" by Flo Rida and "Circus" from Britney Spears. Are you done embarrassing yourself with your lack of knowledge of radio?

 

[joepa4ever]

I'll chime in on this one, having worked at both Z104 & WKMZ way back during the CHR heyday of both stations--the seventies & eighties.

Z104 was, particularly during the late seventies, a superior on-air product--compared with nearly any other Top 40/CHR station in America, regardless of market size. It was also a [EDIT] zoo, inside. The station went through an All Star cast of extraordinary air talents at a very rapid clip, because they would stay for a few weeks, see what a cluster[EDIT]
it was, and leave--if they didn't get fired first. To say that it was a terrible place to work would be much too kind. But, from a distance of 30 years or so, we all are proud to tell other radio junkies that we were a part of it. The real-life experience wasn't so enjoyable. I stuck around for a year before bailing out to Harrisburg and then Orlando. For all its craziness, Z104 was a great launching pad.

WKMZ, on the other hand, was a great place to work. On-air it sounded much more like a medium-market station, with solid imaging and mainstream playlist and a staff that originally came, IIRC, mostly from Hagerstown's WQCM--which had become a hell-hole when the accountant & his wife bought it from Gary Portmess. KMZ's "graduates" included jocks who jumped from there to Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg/York and other larger markets. By the time WKMZ shifted from AOR to CHR in the eighties--that is, when Prettyman bought it, QCM and WIKZ were already well established in the format in the Hagerstown-Chambersburg market, so KMZ didn't make a huge splash there. But it did extremely well in its local market and skimmed off enough audience and sales from Hagerstown and Winchester to do a shitload of business. I think KMZ stayed in CHR for about five or six years--until somewhere in the early nineties--before returning to rock--abandoning Top 40 along with QCM and a thousand or so other stations when the format tanked nationally.

But it was a much better place to work. Good atmosphere. Decent pay. Sane people.


[EDIT-profanity]

 

[radiolistener66]

WDLD

Now I really have to question if you even know where the Hagerstown market is. WIKZ has gotten hotter, more towards CHR than at any time since they flipped from CHR in 1992, not softer. They're playing Beyonce, Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Kevin Rudolph "Let it Rock", etc. And even though they've dropped them from the playlist, earlier this year they played "Right Round" by Flo Rida and "Circus" from Britney Spears. Are you done embarrassing yourself with your lack of knowledge of radio?

So, you've moved it back to CHR? What's the Grand Plan, Rick? Trying to kill your sister station? Being #1 in a one-station market for 26 years must be pretty frustrating, but lack of ambition is no excuse for picking on poor little 96.7. Your company bought them for you. Remember? Be nice...