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Thoughts on WHAT 1340

J

jlongstreet

Hello All,

WHAT continues to impress me with their variety of music, live jocks, and all around presentation.

Thoughts?

Regards,
Longstreet
 
I have been saying this all along, for a weak signal and not much to go on they sound fantastic. They have the broadest library of any station. When you don't know what is coming on next that makes a great station, sort of like WCAU-FM when they first signed on in 1970, one tune She Say by the Diamonds was a staple and I never heard it before but loved it....same with WHAT some tunes I am not familiar with but think they are great. I just hope they can continue on the air, its nice to hear music on AM, I am an old goat and still remember the good AM days, I do have Satellite and HD and MC but still love to tune in on the old AM band....
 
Ditto!

Despite the station having one of the worst signals known to man, woman, or other living beings, the content of the station is nothing less than terrific.

The music (for someone in my demo) is excellent. It defines MOR (for anybody who remembers the phrase) yet still has an incredible amount of "Oh Wow" tunes which make you smile and bring back memories. The jocks not only sound natural, they actually sound as if they're enjoying what they're doing and speak knowledgably about the music and what's going on in this market. It seems like the on-air personalities on virtually every other Philadelphia radio station are programmed to sound forced and irrelevant. Even the spots on WHAT are easy to listen to. The ads are straightforward (not ridiculously over-produced), feature local businesses (in the neighborhood!) and, more often than not, sound sincere.

If this station has even a modicum of success, it could be used as a virtual template of how local radio can defeat the monstrous homogenized conglomerate chains. Of course, the station won't succeed, but it won't be because of lack of inventiveness and trying.

Congrats to Mike Beau, Bob Craig, Wee Willie (can you believe he's still doing this) and the rest of this crew that seems to be toiling in obscurity. I don't even know who owns, runs or programs the station, but you are all to be commended. You may be tilting at windmills but don't give up...at least not yet.
 
HarrytheK1 said:
The music (for someone in my demo) is excellent. It defines MOR (for anybody who remembers the phrase) yet still has an incredible amount of "Oh Wow" tunes which make you smile and bring back memories.
Click to expand...

Just checked it out this morning and heard one of those tunes... the big country hit "Skip A Rope" by Henson Cargill. If that's the sort of stuff you're likely to hear, I'll be definitely listening a lot more.

HarrytheK1 said:
Even the spots on WHAT are easy to listen to. The ads are straightforward (not ridiculously over-produced), feature local businesses (in the neighborhood!) and, more often than not, sound sincere.
Click to expand...

This is hard to explain, but they almost sound like the ones on 95.7 when it was classical (WFLN?) Sort of easy on the ear and not coming at you like a bulldozer.
 
Yep. Great little station. Giving it high marks any chance I get. I've said this a dozen times though, I just wish I could get it at my house (and the station and my house are even in the same county). But I listen on the internet a bit and on the truck radio when I'm down in eastern Chester county. Actually, once I get down to about Schwenksville here in Mont. Co. they start to come in during the early morning. Great on-air guys who are in command of the tools of their trade. Bonafide legends. As I come into range, some mornings I almost say out loud "Morning Mike, how ya doin' today?" All things considered, the station sounds good in those few areas where I get to hear it, so praises for whoever engineers also.
 
I agree with everyone on this thread, this morning to hear the Lovin' Spoonful followed by Johnny Horton and then Ricky Nelson was a real treat. The only thing that can hurt this station and make it fail is the horrible signal, lets hope its success can get them on a good frequency. I would not understand if 94.1 heads toward sports why 610 can not give this a try, I would of bet the house on 950 doing it once again but recently they seem to be very committed to the no ratings sports format.
 
Perhaps because they did it once and it stopped working. Why, then, would you bet the house the same station would do the same thing again?

The refrain that it was somehow the brokered/infomercial programming that killed things is revisionist history at its finest. Those came along to boost what was already a station in a ratings decline. The other stuff didn't kill WPEN as the Station of the Stars, it just delayed the time of death.

If WHAT is making a go of it, all the more power to them. I applaud them and as an individual listener wish I could pick up the station better. But what may meet the needs of one business is not necessarily logical for someone else (WIP, WPEN).
 
I have to agree that WHAT has successfully morphed into a full service classic MOR operation. They're indeed killed by being on a Class C frequency, and being bracketed by WRAW and WMID. Still listenable here in Oreland at night.
 
It always amazed me even in the 60's if you tilted your AM radio a certain way WMID would overpower WHAT and this was in South Philadelphia. It seems the WHAT signal never was that good, although I think it was stronger in the 60's reception wise. I do notice as soon as you are 20 miles or so into the Garden State WMID starts to beat them up on the car radio. WMID always had a superior signal and that was when they were 1kw without the added tower height to compensate for 99.3, now I think they are 850w and still going strong. The problem is what can be done about WHAT now....I would not want to see them go under.....
 
I agree, WHAT is a great station. If they had a bigger stick they would be up there in the ratings. The PD is Bill Knight, he also does afternoons. The Production Director is JD, he does Latenights, 10-2am as well. People that listen love the station, if only more people would tune in. It's nice to see indie radio out there in any capacity.
 
Today they played "I Only Want to be With You" by Dusty Springfield. I haven't heard that one in years and forgot just what a great tune it is...although I could have done without hearing Roger Whittaker 2 songs later :)
 
I had them on all day today, this station is the best thing around. The reason I started to listen to hard rock is the oldies stations in this market were so damn stale and repetitious it was a big turnoff....They are doing a 4th Philly sound holiday and they are also throwing in so many tunes that were not played since WCAU-FM circa 1972. I wonder how they would do on 97.5, although the signal is not as strong as the other Philly FM's, it would still get them out so other areas can hear this great music......they are hard to explain, you have to listen to them to appreciate their overall sound....After hearing the great Classic Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto today, you can bet WHAT is an Equal Opportunity Music Format, can we say that for R1.
 
Absolutely agree with your assessment. They keep getting better and better.

I just tuned them in online and I notice that Bob Craig isn't listed. Anyone know what happened to Bob? Enjoyed him for many years....................

Regards.
 
I am a fairly new listener, so I don't really know what is up with him....I noticed they were jockless during the 4th but like I said the music did the talking...LOL...fantastic playlist..... the problem I had today was as soon as I went over the WW bridge, and headed up 130 North going to Pennsaukin, they were breaking up, fading and had constant noise...I was upset over this, how the heck can they stay afloat with a signal as bad as they have. I never had them on in the car until this weekend when I really noticed how good they are. I did not mind listening to them with all the interference but I am into the music more than the quality of sound, but I know most people would turn them off in an instant when they started to break up....I remember in the 60's when they had their old tower and dropped to 250w at night they had a much better signal, but now they seem very bad, you go into Jersey and they fade out....When I got back into south philly they were pretty good but spotty in some sections. During the very late overnight they are non existant in SP, but weaker 1310 is booming, go figure...
 
When I was in Philly this past weekend, I did pop WHAT 1340 AM on the walkman....I never have stopped listening to it ever since....and they are online www.am1340what.com and they stream.

If WMID can enter an agreement with WHAT AM, that would be the best simulcast for Philly and South Jersey.
 
BJ Steigner said:
When I was in Philly this past weekend, I did pop WHAT 1340 AM on the walkman....I never have stopped listening to it ever since....and they are online www.am1340what.com and they stream.

If WMID can enter an agreement with WHAT AM, that would be the best simulcast for Philly and South Jersey.


That would be awesome, going from Philly to the Shore with 1340...I cannot believe I have not been listening to Sirius in my car and XM at my home, when I listen to music its 1340, they seem to have a much better selection than the 60's Channel, which has the same tired stale oldies playlist as T-radio, and you dont have to suffer through Terry Young....
Click to expand...
 
jlongstreet said:
I just tuned them in online and I notice that Bob Craig isn't listed. Anyone know what happened to Bob? Enjoyed him for many years....................
Click to expand...

Does anybody know why he left and who replaced him?
 
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