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WABB SOLD!

Found this today on al.com. The article states that the WABB-FM format change occurs at midnight on Wednesday, but that EMF takes over on Thursday. I was thinking the format change was scheduled for Thursday, March 1. Does "midnight Wednesday" actually mean the beginning of Thursday? Also, for those wondering about the AM, it appears it is for sale.

Transition at hand for WABB-FM; other radio changes likely
 
passtheword said:
Found this today on al.com. The article states that the WABB-FM format change occurs at midnight on Wednesday, but that EMF takes over on Thursday. I was thinking the format change was scheduled for Thursday, March 1. Does "midnight Wednesday" actually mean the beginning of Thursday? Also, for those wondering about the AM, it appears it is for sale.

Transition at hand for WABB-FM; other radio changes likely
Click to expand...

EMF takes over 03/01/12 at 12:00 am. Now will we hear KLove at that point who knows.. I am guessing they will launch but I have seen EMF in other situations take a station dark briefly before launching.

I am guessing the author of that piece considers "midnight" (11:59:59 pm on 02/29/12) .. which is the last second that WABB-FM will be on air with CHR.
 
So God's EMF is picky enough to be using an atomic clock? Who cares if it's 11:59 or 12:15?


It'd be a great swerve, go through all the crying and saying goodby from the live bodies at WABB. Play a goodby song followed by the Star Spangled Banner (official US Radio/TV sign off song) then as soon as people think it's over come back and keep rocking for another hour or so before turning off the transmitter for EMF to fine tune the old station. The EMF folks will be asleep at Midnight, they'll probably wait until 8am before coming in to work. They shouldn't care what happens between midnight and dawn.

I don't know if it's been mentioned but what facilities were included with the sale of the 97.5 license. Will EMF be buying the WABB real estate or installing a dish at the tower to feed from a bird?
 
This will be painful.........
 
poledo said:
turning off the transmitter for EMF to fine tune the old station. The EMF folks will be asleep at Midnight, they'll probably wait until 8am before coming in to work. They shouldn't care what happens between midnight and dawn.
Click to expand...

Isn't WABB FM an "originating" or "input" EAS station? If they are: I do not think they can just "sign off" unless it is an equipment failure. IIRC the "input" or "originating" stations were to have redundant everything except tower.
 
poledo said:
I don't know if it's been mentioned but what facilities were included with the sale of the 97.5 license. Will EMF be buying the WABB real estate or installing a dish at the tower to feed from a bird?
Click to expand...

I can't find where I read it, but I believe EMF got the license and transmitter equipment but not the studio or property. I could be wrong though, so take that with a grain of salt.

More than likely we will hear EMF at midnight fed through the WABB studio via web stream until someone can go out to the TX site and throw up a dish. Or it's possible someone from EMF came down and did that already since they were just in Jackson not too long ago.

It's only a small consolation, but we're lucky compared to Jackson — they lost TWO commercials stations to EMF at the same time.
 
This actually took longer than I thought after Bernie passed away. I figured it would be gone maybe a year or so from is death. His daughters would visit the station occasionally, but they didn't seem that interested in being in the business. When my wife was pregnant, he offered to buy the baby if it was a boy so he could have someone to take over the station. I honestly couldn't tell if he was joking by the tone of his voice. It was a girl, BTW.

They must be getting tons of web hits. I can't get it to play, unless they took the stream down.
 
ouuc said:
This actually took longer than I thought after Bernie passed away. I figured it would be gone maybe a year or so from is death. His daughters would visit the station occasionally, but they didn't seem that interested in being in the business. When my wife was pregnant, he offered to buy the baby if it was a boy so he could have someone to take over the station. I honestly couldn't tell if he was joking by the tone of his voice. It was a girl, BTW.

They must be getting tons of web hits. I can't get it to play, unless they took the stream down.
Click to expand...

I had to refresh the Tunein feed when I listened this morning--I imagine there is a lot of online listening.
 
helloagain said:
Will you be listening at midnight tonight to hear the transition and how WABB says goodbye?
Click to expand...

Cherish Lombard, hostess of "Studio 10" on Fox 10 TV, had a segment on WABB's change-over on the show this morning (Feb. 29, 2012). Nice segment. She says WABB will hand over the reins after playing Bob Dylan's "Stuck In Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again"...they "began" their rock era, she said, by playing the same tune....
 
Zach said:
I can't find where I read it, but I believe EMF got the license and transmitter equipment but not the studio or property. I could be wrong though, so take that with a grain of salt.

More than likely we will hear EMF at midnight fed through the WABB studio via web stream until someone can go out to the TX site and throw up a dish. Or it's possible someone from EMF came down and did that already since they were just in Jackson not too long ago.
Click to expand...

EMF already has their rack on site I am guessing. When EMF launches a new station they ship in a preconfigured rack of equipment (ipump receiver, processing, remote control gear, automation etc.) basically it's plug and play for the most part.

Now since the sale has not been finalized by the FCC yet.. I am guessing main control will remain at the current studios for now until FCC approves the sale, the conversion to non commercial and the MSW to broadcast direct from the tower site.
 
I still think EMF are crazy for letting this format go - the station seems to have so much history in the market by switching formats you're just gonna lose listeners. No point broadcasting a format when no one listens.

I reckon they should've kept things as they were.
 
ouuc said:
This looks like EMF's 1st Alabama station: http://www.klove.com/music/radio-stations/radio-station-download.aspx
Click to expand...

The bulk of Alabama's Christian radio networks are either Moody from Chicago or WAY-FM from Tennessee. WAY-FM has a pretty decent network of stations and translators in N. Alabama. CSN also has some translators here and there.

K-Love's actual first station in Alabama is WMLV 93.5 licensed to Butler in Choctaw County. It targets the Meridian market and is listed under Mississippi on K-Love's website. There's also some bleed over from their full power station in the Columbus-Starkville-West Point market. There is a translator on 95.7 in Mobile whose parent station is listed as WKPF Navarre, which is K-Love, but it has never been on air as far as I know. It is owned by 550 AM, Inc., who own WASG.

WABB would be a good candidate for EMF to install HD like they have on their Tucson affiliate. It carries K-Love and Air1 is on the HD-2.
 
Don;t forget that Mobile has long been served by Pensacola Christian College's "Rejoice Radio" nationwide network's parent station, 100KW WPCS 89.5.
 
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