Pensacola/Fort Walton Today in stupid engineering mistakes (WBSR Pensacola)

[cceng]

still lurking Tibbs....

 

[briancraig]

Arbitron started surveying Pensacola in 1973. The market started with, and continues to be comprised of, Escambia, FL and Santa Rosa Counties.View attachment 7057

The top 5 in that first Arbitron survey:
1. WCOA 16.9
2. WBSR 16.2
3. WNVY 10.0
4. WPFA 9.7
5. WMEZ 7.6

(WBSR was #1 in teens by a large margin with a 36.4 share)

WCOA was MOR, WBSR top 40, WNVY and WPFA were country and WMEZ was beautiful.

WBSR was the station at the beach in those days, although I remember hearing WTIX from New Orleans a lot. You go 18 miles to the east on Santa Rosa Island to Navarre Beach and WTIX was the station heard the most. We went to Navarre every year and the TIX jingles always remind me of the beach. Even WNUE from Ft Walton Beach and WDLP from Panama City were stronger at Navarre than WBSR.

Surprised WBOP wasn’t top 5. As the only black oriented station, they would sometimes have very good numbers. And in 1973 were also on FM.

The other AM was daytimer WVIX competing with BSR for top 40.

I think WJLQ went top 40 on FM in 1974. They would’ve been WCOA FM in 1973, but I don’t know the format.

107.3 had not signed on yet and WXBM was still a class A Milton station on 102.3.

WKRG-FM from Mobile went top 40 in early 1978 and and always did well in Pensacola from 1978 until they went AC in 1986.

 

[Huff]

Surprised WBOP wasn’t top 5. As the only black oriented station, they would sometimes have very good numbers. And in 1973 were also on FM.

WBOP AM and FM were listed separately, so they weren't a full simulcast. The AM had a 3.8 share and the FM had a 7.2. Combined that would have put it third overall.