• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Trend setting station in Gainesville

F

Freebird Fantasia

Guest
Since many of you probably aren't in the Gainesville area, I wanted to point out something about a station there.

Atlanta stations simply seem to copy WDUN News Talk 550 out of Gainesville. WDUN airs Rush Limbaugh noon to three. Ditto GST. The station was already airing Dave Ramsey. Now GST gets on board. Heck, even WSB fell in behind WDUN when 750 started airing Sean Hannity.

Looks like the little station in Gainesville, which also has a legitimate 24-hour news department, holds it own with the "big boys."
 
I'm surprised one of the big boys hasn't bought out WDUN, either to turn it (back) into an Atlanta station
or to stop any comparisons to anything going on in ATL.
 
You're right, you know? It's amazing how WDUN sets the pace, not only for Atlanta, but for the entire country (and even Armed Forces Radio)! When you travel from city to city, you hear Limbaugh and Hannity and others who WDUN program. Certainly, if it wasn't for WDUN, none of this would happen.

And this can only mean that radio execs from other parts of the nation head up 985, plant themselves in the Motel 6 right there at exit 16, and monitor monitor monitor. They're waiting for the next trend setting programming element--then, off they go in their Avis rentals, scurrying right back down the freeway to Hartsfield-Jackson to head home, ready to implement it on their station.

Truly uncanny. Keep the observations coming.
 
WDUN is locally owned and locally operated (Second generation). They understand their market and go directly for it. And do a hell of a job of it.
Charles Giddens (currently dead) got them to try being an Atlanta station with their FM 20 years ago. They weren't particularly successful, so they sold it (at a profit) to Katz Broadcasting. And then went back to doing what they do well, being a >good< small market station.
If someone wanted to learn the basics of radio, and how to make it fit, they could do a lot worse than motoring to Gainesville and watching WDUN in action.
They also own another AM (a class IV kilowatter) and an FM licensed to Cleveland. An excellent lesson in small market consolidation.
 
WDUN....."An excellent lesson in small market consolidation."

That sums it up about as well as anything could. This is the way a news/talk radio station should be run. WGST, and even WSB at times, could take notes.

WDUN has a legitimate 24-hour news department (they actually have one, they don't just say they do) and they always seem to get the jump on the talk show hosts (their local morning show from 9-11:45 easily beats anything WGST has tried in the last decade). Throw in Braves games, UGA sports and the Atlanta Falcons, plus local high school sports coverage, and you've got the complete package.
 
Freebird Fantasia said:
WDUN....."An excellent lesson in small market consolidation."

That sums it up about as well as anything could. This is the way a news/talk radio station should be run. WGST, and even WSB at times, could take notes.

WDUN has a legitimate 24-hour news department (they actually have one, they don't just say they do) and they always seem to get the jump on the talk show hosts (their local morning show from 9-11:45 easily beats anything WGST has tried in the last decade). Throw in Braves games, UGA sports and the Atlanta Falcons, plus local high school sports coverage, and you've got the complete package.
Click to expand...

Agreed. WDUN is one of the few remaining radio stations that actually does things the right way, and doesn't do them with smoke and mirrors. Stations like WDUN are becoming rarer in this ever-shrinking business.
 
Yes, I have been listening to WDUN for a couple years now. They do a very nice job. Small market news/talk at its very best. And I agree; the big boys in Atlanta, specifically WGST, could sure learn a lot from WDUN.

Even though I live in Roswell and work in Atlanta, I listen to Rush on WDUN. The signal of WGST is stronger (during the day), but WGST's audio sounds like excrement. WDUN, though weaker than WGST where I am, just sounds better. Anyone notice this besides me? Switch between 640 and any other station on AM. Most of the others, certainly 550, 680, 750 etc have a bright, open and clear sound. 640 sounds muffled, harsh and like something is very wrong. Programming issues aside, they are just hard to listen to. After about 15 minutes, even if it's something I want to hear, I just can't stand to listen any more because of the horrible sound quality. It seems these people are trying everything in their power to keep people from listening to their station. It's working.
 
'After about 15 minutes, even if it's something I want to hear, I just can't stand to listen any more '

Again, the Atlanta stations are trying to out do one another. The Gainesville folks are trying to make a living while the Atlanta stations all put pretty good signals into their market. How to do this? Local, local, and if there's nothing else kicking around, do something local. Louder than the other guy? No. Listenable, and clean enough to listen for a long time. TSL up there is measured in eons. Jacobs Media owns it, Jay 3 is second or third generation, depending how you look at it. Eveyrone who works there sees their clients every day in the normal course of their lives. Greene Ford isn't interested in ratings, per se, but they are intensely interested in haveing a crowd in their showroom, and WDUN puts it there.

To exemplify, a couple years ago, there was proposed an ordinace regarding dogs in Hall County. Since it created some uproar among the citizens, the Commission appointed a Citizen's Commitee to investigate the issue. At about the same time the Honorable Whomeverhewas from DeKalb County was trying to pass a State law banning some breeds. No news organization South of Buford showed any interest at all in the goings - on, but WDUN had a reporter with a recorder and a notebook at EVERY meeting of the commitee, and of the Commission session wherein the report was presented. Contrast thre results: On Atlanta TV and radio, you got a steady diet of PITBULLpitbullPITBULLpitbullPITBULL. On WDUN, you got a view of what was going on and what the public concerns were. There's a hell of a difference.

WGST, to pick a signal, could bury the other guys by doing this. It would take a bit of time, but what they're doing now is hardly setting the woods on fire. Just quietly be first and be accurate. There's not much practical limit to the spotload you can run on a news outlet, as long as you have >news<. Is it gonna happen? Not on yer tintype. "Too expensive" is the cry. Tell the folks in Gainesville, they're making a living.
 
littlejohn said:
WGST, to pick a signal, could bury the other guys by doing this. It would take a bit of time, but what they're doing now is hardly setting the woods on fire. Just quietly be first and be accurate. There's not much practical limit to the spotload you can run on a news outlet, as long as you have >news<. Is it gonna happen? Not on yer tintype. "Too expensive" is the cry. Tell the folks in Gainesville, they're making a living.
Click to expand...


I believe that around the time of the Olympics (before and after) WGST had a really good news staff. I used to see their news trucks around all the time. For example, when the FBI thought Richard Jewel had a hand in the bombing during the Olympics I think Don Dornberg (with GST for 19 years) was onsite in Richard’s apartment complex parking lot broadcasting news reports.

Clearly, Jacor and now Clear Channel felt their money was not giving them the return they wanted.

I fondly remember Wade Medlock’s “I’m in the kudzu! I’m in the kudzu!” during a live report . . .
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom