Back in 2003 BLACK UNITED FUND OF NEW YORK, INC. bought WCKL from Clear Channel and immediately took the station silent for what is listed as financial reasons. Since a station can loose their license if they are silent for more than a year in May 2004 they signed an agreement with clear channel to simulcast 92.9 WBPM ,then cruisin 93.5 WCZR for one year .They then went silent for another year, just recently signing back on simulating WCZR . Furthermore, their license was about to expire anyway but they applied for and were granted a renewal by the FCC. My question is why does the FCC allow this when BLACK UNITED FUND OF NEW YORK, INC. have shown no ability to program and keep the facility on the air themselves since acquiring it 3 years ago. I assume that given their title they hoped to create programming aimed at Blacks ,which if great, but if they can’t financially do it why not sell out to somebody who can rather than renew the license and then agree to a simulcast for a year just to be on the legally on the air? Then again I wonder how anybody could effectively reach many Black listeners on a tiny rural radio station.
Another peeve is since WKZE AM /FM was taken over by WILLPOWER RADIO, LLC they began using the Air America service, on the AM station without any apparent clue as to what is going on. The few times I have listened I don’t recall any local commercials .When the change was announced I wondered how an all talk format would work on a daytime only station. How can you maintain listener interest when you must sign off mid topic? The answer is very badly .When the sunsets (actually about 5 minutes before) they simply shut down, abruptly cutting a speaker off mid sentence. If a listener is interested in what the person is saying this must be very frustrating since the signal simply disappears without explanation or legal sign off .There isn’t even a station ID which is a violation of FCC regulations. Since nobody has complained I guess not many people are listening.
Another peeve is since WKZE AM /FM was taken over by WILLPOWER RADIO, LLC they began using the Air America service, on the AM station without any apparent clue as to what is going on. The few times I have listened I don’t recall any local commercials .When the change was announced I wondered how an all talk format would work on a daytime only station. How can you maintain listener interest when you must sign off mid topic? The answer is very badly .When the sunsets (actually about 5 minutes before) they simply shut down, abruptly cutting a speaker off mid sentence. If a listener is interested in what the person is saying this must be very frustrating since the signal simply disappears without explanation or legal sign off .There isn’t even a station ID which is a violation of FCC regulations. Since nobody has complained I guess not many people are listening.