What cities across the state could support a local radio station where one does not currently exist?
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Towns That Need Local Radio
- Thread starter newzradiorow
- Start date
Most towns have their own station. Now, whether they are live and local is up for debate. I can think of towns that have AM stations, but no FM's. One that comes to mind is Russellville. Used to have WVVR until it moved to Hopkinsville and then Clarksville. Another city that makes me shake my head is Fulton. Only AM in that town is now dark and they are really reliant upon Union City and Paducah.
LaGrange
Bengalsfan said:
But that's a bedroom community to Louisville. Why be in LaGrange when you can be where the money is in Louisville? That'll prevent them from having their own station for a long time.
I think, and this is just me, the OP was directing that question towards the more rural communities. I could be wrong though.
We're talking about the very issue that has made radio what it is today.... if you have any disappointment over what radio is today. A little over 40 years ago my boss, the station owner, took off for his annual vacation in North Carolina and left me in charge. When he came back he told me about running into a guy at convenience-store/fish-bait place driving a station wagon with station call letters painted all over it. So, they talked radio. Two stations in a tiny, tiny town.
I grabbed the Atlas, the Broadcasting Yearbook and the SDRS directory and checked out every town and village and city in North Carolina that was 2,000 people or more. In (my) theory, there was no place left in NC to build one more radio station and hope for success. But we all know about the drive for the 80/90 rule and the coming of FM popularity and today we have what.... two, three, four times as many radio stations as there were back in the mid 60's?
Yes, there will probably be a handful of rural towns/counties in KY that might be fertile for one more little radio station, but as we used to say out in the cotton fields.... it will be "slim pickin" this time around. Lots of luck on your quest for the names of the towns. I will also enjoy the results of the conversation.
I grabbed the Atlas, the Broadcasting Yearbook and the SDRS directory and checked out every town and village and city in North Carolina that was 2,000 people or more. In (my) theory, there was no place left in NC to build one more radio station and hope for success. But we all know about the drive for the 80/90 rule and the coming of FM popularity and today we have what.... two, three, four times as many radio stations as there were back in the mid 60's?
Yes, there will probably be a handful of rural towns/counties in KY that might be fertile for one more little radio station, but as we used to say out in the cotton fields.... it will be "slim pickin" this time around. Lots of luck on your quest for the names of the towns. I will also enjoy the results of the conversation.
DJOnAStick said:
Have you seen the per capita income for Oldham County? Let the 30+ stations fight for the pie that is Louisville. I'll take a station in LaGrange and keep the Oldham county pie to myself.
One city comes to mind in Central Kentucky. Winchester once had two stations one FM the other a daytime AM. Clear Channel purchased the FM, which became WKQQ, essentially moving it to Lexington. CC provides very little, if any, local programming to Winchester even though it is still licensed to the community.
The AM, on 1380 and originally owned by the Horton family, was purchased by the Catholics and also moved from the community.
Winchester does receive some local service from WCYO,the Irvine FM, and from the two Mount Sterling stations.
The Winchester Community Profile lists the city population at 16,400 and Clark County at 34,000. The profile also lists the market area at 454,000.
With the bands crowded and with its close proximity to Lexington, local programming with very tight management would be the only way a new Winchester station could survive.
The AM, on 1380 and originally owned by the Horton family, was purchased by the Catholics and also moved from the community.
Winchester does receive some local service from WCYO,the Irvine FM, and from the two Mount Sterling stations.
The Winchester Community Profile lists the city population at 16,400 and Clark County at 34,000. The profile also lists the market area at 454,000.
With the bands crowded and with its close proximity to Lexington, local programming with very tight management would be the only way a new Winchester station could survive.
I looked up Winchester and it took me for a "stroll down memory lane!"
There is a donut shaped dead-zone for radio surrounding so many larger markets. As the new form of radio came into being ten to twenty years ago, all the stations in nice markets near larger cities were purchased and moved into the city where possible. I live in a county of almost 200,000 people but we have no commercial radio station. It can be argued we don't need one because you can get a sunburn trimming your shrubs at night from the beacons on all the towers in and around Atlanta.
Winchester has a unique problem that will create some limits for any station that might ever be allocated there or moved in there. Small town radio has a heritage of reaching out in all directions and bringing customers in for the retailers that were beyond the reach of the local newspaper circulation. Small market stations in "The Donut" around the bigger city are often kept alive by reaching the rural area listeners on the far side of the little town... the listeners beyond the influence of the nearby big city. Winchesters is hard-up against the mountains that stretch on and on over on the far side of the market from Lexington. The place that ought to be the bread-and-butter audience to deliver to local merchants is a bit of a no-man's land.
Oh, that stroll down memory lane? In my "middle age crazies" era I took flight training. My supervised (instructor sitting at my side) cross country flight that would open the door for me to be able to do solo cross country journeys was from Indianapolis, to a point just west of Winchester with a dog-leg turn toward Pikeville Ky. From Winchester to Pikeville was one "puckered rectum" experience. If engine trouble developed, there were no fields that would make an emergency landing a happy experience. And there didn't seem to be any population down there that would find your wreckage for weeks or months!!! It is not real estate that advertisers would be standing in line to purchase advertising for. ;D (Having said that... I know there are some stations in the mountains... down in Coal Country, that do well serving their community... but it is quite different than serving the community in Kansas or Indiana or Wisconsin.
There is a donut shaped dead-zone for radio surrounding so many larger markets. As the new form of radio came into being ten to twenty years ago, all the stations in nice markets near larger cities were purchased and moved into the city where possible. I live in a county of almost 200,000 people but we have no commercial radio station. It can be argued we don't need one because you can get a sunburn trimming your shrubs at night from the beacons on all the towers in and around Atlanta.
Winchester has a unique problem that will create some limits for any station that might ever be allocated there or moved in there. Small town radio has a heritage of reaching out in all directions and bringing customers in for the retailers that were beyond the reach of the local newspaper circulation. Small market stations in "The Donut" around the bigger city are often kept alive by reaching the rural area listeners on the far side of the little town... the listeners beyond the influence of the nearby big city. Winchesters is hard-up against the mountains that stretch on and on over on the far side of the market from Lexington. The place that ought to be the bread-and-butter audience to deliver to local merchants is a bit of a no-man's land.
Oh, that stroll down memory lane? In my "middle age crazies" era I took flight training. My supervised (instructor sitting at my side) cross country flight that would open the door for me to be able to do solo cross country journeys was from Indianapolis, to a point just west of Winchester with a dog-leg turn toward Pikeville Ky. From Winchester to Pikeville was one "puckered rectum" experience. If engine trouble developed, there were no fields that would make an emergency landing a happy experience. And there didn't seem to be any population down there that would find your wreckage for weeks or months!!! It is not real estate that advertisers would be standing in line to purchase advertising for. ;D (Having said that... I know there are some stations in the mountains... down in Coal Country, that do well serving their community... but it is quite different than serving the community in Kansas or Indiana or Wisconsin.
I might work in Louisville; but my kids are in school in Oldham. We belong to the North Oldham Little League. We eat here in Oldham and , for the most part, shop here. I'd like a radio station that is devoted to Oldham. It doesn't have to be on FM; it could be an AM. We just need something to augment the Oldham Era and the Neighborhood section in the CJ.Bengalsfan said:
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