WAMB on 99.3 FM

[scottwmro]

Re: Reply to Scott and JuneBaby

WNFN 106.7, as Tibbs has pointed out, has been through many format changes. This is the "First One", that Lew Dickey and Cumulus has had to stick with (ESPN SPORTS/THE FAN), due to this legal battle between them and Randy Bell & Ted Johnson, majority owner of 560, WNSR.

The battle still rages? I found it to be quite ironic that ABC Radio Networks, a party in the suit, is of course now owned by Citadel, which of course owns the two sports stations' stronger competitor.

I'm glad you brought that up, but when the law suit was filed, Citadel didn't own ABC, so the suit still sits out there. It's only been a short time that Citadel has had control of ABC, so I'm sure something will change in the whole thing. We'll probably see somthing come out about it in "08".

 

[Tibbs4]

Man, I learned some cool facts on this post. I never put Bill Barry in with WANT or their family connections.
WANT's signal is pretty decent for the power. I assume it's paid for and profitable, like Bill's mindset says.
No debt, no problem. Same is true for why South Central ain't buying overpriced signals. They're making
serious cash with no debt.


I do seem to remember that Planet/Kiss mix back and forth years ago. Maybe it's just been mentioned on here. Planet was
more 80's based than dayparts on 102.5, but obviously a decade ago, that made sense. I don't see the logic
for why they canned Planet other than to protect 92Q when they went R & B Oldies with Kiss or Hip Hop
with Blazin'. I think Blazin' had the best numbers, but was a tough sell. Planet could have had a decent demo.
It was a good station. I do love the fact that they had a promo or liner running saying "we're going to
rock Nashville for generations to come" and then trashed out within less than 200 days. Guess that's a
lifetime for those in Roundabout Time. Certainly a career is about that long there. Maybe you're just remembering
the brilliant Beaver vs Rooster fiasco where the name switched back and forth soon after the sixth format change in
a week (kidding there)>>>. Leave it to moron central to pick a protected logo to steal when there
are 65 billion other names to pick from.

My real question, Scott, why is Crumulus stuck with ESPN while in a lawsuit, when logically speaking,they
know the station is washed up and at it lowest point, especially when the demo is less attractive (in everyway)
than women 25-54? Seems like a good time to say to NSR, here ya go. Sorry, we wanna make money.


I'd suggest JAZZ as a viable format for NFN, but we don't want to knock Nock, fellow VIP RI-poster, of the opportunity to have
really good jazz on RFN. We all know Crum would screw up the actual music on a jazz station to make it fail miserably.

From the 1067 playbook:
Jazz = Success
Suxxes = Crumulus
No match
Game off!

 

[romer979fm]

We all know Crum would screw up the actual music on a jazz station to make it fail miserably.

all they'd really have to do is plug into the Jones smooth-jazz feed...like 101.1 ran...
sounds canned...but the music wasn't bad.

 

[scottwmro]

My real question, Scott, why is Crumulus stuck with ESPN while in a lawsuit, when logically speaking,they
know the station is washed up and at it lowest point, especially when the demo is less attractive (in everyway)
than women 25-54? Seems like a good time to say to NSR, here ya go. Sorry, we wanna make money.


I'd suggest JAZZ as a viable format for NFN, but we don't want to knock Nock, fellow VIP RI-poster, of the opportunity to have
really good jazz on RFN. We all know Crum would screw up the actual music on a jazz station to make it fail miserably.

From the 1067 playbook:
Jazz = Success
Suxxes = Crumulus
No match
Game off!

Tibbs,
That's a good question, but I really don't know why they continue the Sports for on 106.7. If one of us could get to an inside source at thier corporate office in Atlanta, I bet we would find out. That's all I can say.
One would think that the battle between WNFN and WNSR would have been over, but I've seen court battles drag on for years. The lawyers love it, they make more money to keep thier gravy trains afloat! That's why I hate some of Nahsville's Lawyers, but that's another show I don't want to get started on.

As far as Jazz is concerned, WFSK does a fantastic job, but they can not get a power increase or raise the antenna due to interference with a station near Bowling Green that is co-channel with them.

 

[jetfli]

That's a good question, but I really don't know why they continue the Sports for on 106.7. If one of us could get to an inside source at thier corporate office in Atlanta, I bet we would find out. That's all I can say.
One would think that the battle between WNFN and WNSR would have been over, but I've seen court battles drag on for years.

WNSR's website still refers to an August 2006 court date that of course came and went. I've always been under the impression that the Fan existed just to keep the Zone from having another ratings point or two, sort of payback for the SportsNite debacle. Does the ESPN contract still end in February 2008?

 

[bub]

...like Bill's mindset says. No debt, no problem.

Speaks my language!

 

[Fredj1979]

Re: Reply to Scott and JuneBaby

The battle still rages? I found it to be quite ironic that ABC Radio Networks, a party in the suit, is of course now owned by Citadel, which of course owns the two sports stations' stronger competitor.
[/quote]

You may want to Check that, I don't think the ESPN brand was part of the ABC deal. Also ratings or no, as long as 106-7 is making money, they will stay will sports talk. Sports is one of those formats that can make money without ratings, and can be very cheep to operate.

 

[jetfli]

Re:

You may want to Check that, I don't think the ESPN brand was part of the ABC deal. Also ratings or no, as long as 106-7 is making money, they will stay will sports talk. Sports is one of those formats that can make money without ratings, and can be very cheep to operate.

Check what? I didn't imply ESPN was part of the ABC deal. Please explain...

 

[Tibbs4]

Fred, under you analogy, would it not have been cheeper for 1067 to just
have stayed one of their previous fifty canned formats, which all had minimal
expenses anyway and had better ratings and brought in more dollars as a results
of more listenership and more advertisers?

Look at Jack? It's more expensive to print money than run that...and it's
a huge success. 106.7 could try Jazz and use Jones, virtually quadruple ratings
all the way to almost nothing and make more money. True, some formats
require real live humans, but still....

Incidentially, isn't it a fiduciary responsibility of Crumulus to attempt to maximize the
stockholders profits which includes an obligation to maximize ratings, performance
etc., while maintaining a control on the expenses. They can't settle for 15th
place and prove they are maximizing. Sports or polka.

 

[scottwmro]

Fred, under you analogy, would it not have been cheeper for 1067 to just
have stayed one of their previous fifty canned formats, which all had minimal
expenses anyway and had better ratings and brought in more dollars as a results
of more listenership and more advertisers?

Look at Jack? It's more expensive to print money than run that...and it's
a huge success. 106.7 could try Jazz and use Jones, virtually quadruple ratings
all the way to almost nothing and make more money. True, some formats
require real live humans, but still....

Incidentially, isn't it a fiduciary responsibility of Crumulus to attempt to maximize the
stockholders profits which includes an obligation to maximize ratings, performance
etc., while maintaining a control on the expenses. They can't settle for 15th
place and prove they are maximizing. Sports or polka.

Tibbs,
I do agree with you totally on this one. We both know they have filed a Rule Making with the FCC to moved and relicense the station to Millersville, this is still not going to help them.
Actually, Steve Newberry has a station on 106.7 in licensed to Horse Cave Ky, so they may have to go to a directional pattern with WNFN if this rule making is approved.
With such a weak signal, they were better off doing the Kiss Format. I don't know what's on the minds of Lew Dickey's consultants with that station, but I agree that Jazz, Black Adult Contemporary was the best thing for that station. They didn't give the format a chance at all.
I guess they have a good reason why it is what it is, but I wished the consultants would show us why? One thing about Cumulus that I hate is the company is "unpredictable" on what they do whith thier operations across the country. Lew is a businesses man that knows how to hide his tracks very well.

 

[jetfli]

I do agree with you totally on this one. We both know they have filed a Rule Making with the FCC to moved and relicense the station to Millersville, this is still not going to help them.
Actually, Steve Newberry has a station on 106.7 in licensed to Horse Cave Ky, so they may have to go to a directional pattern with WNFN if this rule making is approved.
With such a weak signal, they were better off doing the Kiss Format. I don't know what's on the minds of Lew Dickey's consultants with that station, but I agree that Jazz, Black Adult Contemporary was the best thing for that station. They didn't give the format a chance at all.
I guess they have a good reason why it is what it is, but I wished the consultants would show us why? One thing about Cumulus that I hate is the company is "unpredictable" on what they do whith thier operations across the country. Lew is a businesses man that knows how to hide his tracks very well.

I believe the Horse Cave station is supposed to move to 106.5 as part of the massive jockeying that will give WNFN a better signal. It's been approved, and I believe there's a deadline of sometime in 2010 for making all of the changes.

I also remain of the opinion that the programming of sports on 106.7 is part of a cluster strategy aimed at keeping a ratings point away from the Zone. Personally, I would think that with all of the trouble they're going through to get an improved signal, they'll want to do something more profitable with 106.7 once all of the changes are made. But, what do I know? Seems to me like they'd have a better idea for 97.1...

 

[roadrunner]

How much more power can they give 106.7 in Nashville? What about WDXE w/ 6k watts in Lawrenceburg, TN? Seems like those two should interfere with eachother as it is. Cumeclueless really needs to change that format..they're latest rating was a .8 - that's below a 1.0 .. they can't keep this up. Maybe they should move WAMB back to 106.7 .

 

[firepoint525]

How much more power can they give 106.7 in Nashville? What about WDXE w/ 6k watts in Lawrenceburg, TN? Seems like those two should interfere with eachother as it is. Cumeclueless really needs to change that format..they're latest rating was a .8 - that's below a 1.0 .. they can't keep this up. Maybe they should move WAMB back to 106.7 .

What goes around comes around! ??? : :-\

 

[w9wi]

How much more power can they give 106.7 in Nashville? What about WDXE w/ 6k watts in Lawrenceburg, TN? Seems like those two should interfere with eachother as it is.

It just barely fits. If they use contour protection (a directional antenna) then a Class C3 station, like WNFN has applied for, must be 119 kilometers from a Class A operation like WDXE. WNFN does propose such a directional antenna - see http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/polarplot?temp=80819&rotate=0.00&p0=1.000&p10=1.000&p20=1.000&p30=1.000&p40=1.000&p45=1.000&p50=1.000&p60=1.000&p70=1.000&p80=1.000&p90=1.000&p100=1.000&p110=1.000&p120=1.000&p130=1.000&p135=1.000&p140=1.000&p150=1.000&p160=1.000&p170=1.000&p180=0.879&p190=0.700&p200=0.700&p210=0.700&p220=0.879&p225=0.940&p230=1.000&p240=1.000&p250=1.000&p260=1.000&p270=1.000&p280=1.000&p290=1.000&p300=1.000&p310=1.000&p315=1.000&p320=1.000&p330=1.000&p340=1.000&p350=1.000&p360=1.000& (and note that the "notch" in the pattern is in the right place to protect WDXE)

The Sinclair TV tower, where they propose to move WNFN to, is 121km from WDXE. (the Channel 4 tower, where WNFN is now, is only 106km from WDXE. That's why the power increase proposal requires a tower move - and probably why they propose to change the city-of-license to Millersville. Presumably they can't get a city-grade across Belle Meade from the Sinclair tower. (which seems a bit strange, unless you take terrain into effect)

 

[scottwmro]

How much more power can they give 106.7 in Nashville? What about WDXE w/ 6k watts in Lawrenceburg, TN? Seems like those two should interfere with eachother as it is.

It just barely fits. If they use contour protection (a directional antenna) then a Class C3 station, like WNFN has applied for, must be 119 kilometers from a Class A operation like WDXE. WNFN does propose such a directional antenna - see http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/polarplot?temp=80819&rotate=0.00&p0=1.000&p10=1.000&p20=1.000&p30=1.000&p40=1.000&p45=1.000&p50=1.000&p60=1.000&p70=1.000&p80=1.000&p90=1.000&p100=1.000&p110=1.000&p120=1.000&p130=1.000&p135=1.000&p140=1.000&p150=1.000&p160=1.000&p170=1.000&p180=0.879&p190=0.700&p200=0.700&p210=0.700&p220=0.879&p225=0.940&p230=1.000&p240=1.000&p250=1.000&p260=1.000&p270=1.000&p280=1.000&p290=1.000&p300=1.000&p310=1.000&p315=1.000&p320=1.000&p330=1.000&p340=1.000&p350=1.000&p360=1.000& (and note that the "notch" in the pattern is in the right place to protect WDXE)

The Sinclair TV tower, where they propose to move WNFN to, is 121km from WDXE. (the Channel 4 tower, where WNFN is now, is only 106km from WDXE. That's why the power increase proposal requires a tower move - and probably why they propose to change the city-of-license to Millersville. Presumably they can't get a city-grade across Belle Meade from the Sinclair tower. (which seems a bit strange, unless you take terrain into effect)

Doug,
From the looks of the application, does the meat of the signal cover the city of license (Millersville) from the Sinclair TV Tower? That's what the commission is going to look at. I just could imagine the money being spent to do all of this.

Scott

 

[w9wi]

From the looks of the application, does the meat of the signal cover the city of license (Millersville) from the Sinclair TV Tower? That's what the commission is going to look at. I just could imagine the money being spent to do all of this.

Best I can tell from the FCC releases, yes. The Sinclair tower is 15.5km from the "reference coordinates" of Millersville; with the proposed facilities (2.95kw/294m) they'll provide 77dBu across the center of town. They only need to provide 70dBu; on the other hand, they need to provide it across the entire community. The 70dBu contour extends 23.2km from the tower, so as long as no part of Millersville is more than 8km from the reference coordinates they should be OK. I'm not that familiar with Millersville but I don't think it's that big.

Their application online says Attachment 24 proves the necessary coverage, but it doesn't look like Attachment 24 is accessable online.

I'm pretty sure Cumulus wouldn't have filed this application unless they'd already checked the engineering. It may get kicked out for some other reason but I don't think they're going to have any technical issues with this.

 

[Mad Mike]

Cumulus CP | was: WAMB on 99.3 FM

The construction permits have been granted 12/17/07.
WQQK
WWTN
WRQQ
WNFN

MM

 

[scottwmro]

Re: Cumulus CP | was: WAMB on 99.3 FM

The construction permits have been granted 12/17/07.
WQQK
WWTN
WRQQ
WNFN

MM

I was thinking, with all these emails I get about "localism articles" I get from the NAB, Radio Ink, claiming that the FCC is so concerned about stations providing local service to the communities they are licensed to, these minor changes that they are allowing Cumulus to do makes no sense.

I was under the impression if a city of license had only one station or allocation assigned to it, the station could not file a minor change for a city of license change, if it was the only voice the city of license had. Sounds like we have a lot of lobbyist and politics involved.

 

[w9wi]

Re: Cumulus CP | was: WAMB on 99.3 FM

The construction permits have been granted 12/17/07.
WQQK
WWTN
WRQQ
WNFN

MM

I was thinking, with all these emails I get about "localism articles" I get from the NAB, Radio Ink, claiming that the FCC is so concerned about stations providing local service to the communities they are licensed to, these minor changes that they are allowing Cumulus to do makes no sense.

I was under the impression if a city of license had only one station or allocation assigned to it, the station could not file a minor change for a city of license change, if it was the only voice the city of license had. Sounds like we have a lot of lobbyist and politics involved.

If I'm not mistaken, (and I might be) that applies only when they want to combine the move of the allotment and the change of the station's COL in a single proceeding.

In this case they got the channels allotted first (in a MASSIVE proceeding!) and *then* filed to move the stations. It's that later filing that Mad Mike is saying was approved yesterday. (I sure wish they'd speed up the Public Notices, it still hasn't appeared there, nor in the CDBS database.)

In any case, all communities that lost their only station in this proceeding got another station to replace it.

 

[scottwmro]

Re: Cumulus CP | was: WAMB on 99.3 FM

The construction permits have been granted 12/17/07.
WQQK
WWTN
WRQQ
WNFN

MM

I was thinking, with all these emails I get about "localism articles" I get from the NAB, Radio Ink, claiming that the FCC is so concerned about stations providing local service to the communities they are licensed to, these minor changes that they are allowing Cumulus to do makes no sense.

I was under the impression if a city of license had only one station or allocation assigned to it, the station could not file a minor change for a city of license change, if it was the only voice the city of license had. Sounds like we have a lot of lobbyist and politics involved.

If I'm not mistaken, (and I might be) that applies only when they want to combine the move of the allotment and the change of the station's COL in a single proceeding.

In this case they got the channels allotted first (in a MASSIVE proceeding!) and *then* filed to move the stations. It's that later filing that Mad Mike is saying was approved yesterday. (I sure wish they'd speed up the Public Notices, it still hasn't appeared there, nor in the CDBS database.)

In any case, all communities that lost their only station in this proceeding got another station to replace it.

Oh I see, these moves are probably a part of a different marketing approach that Cumulus wants to make to increase listenership and reveune numbers so thier portfolio looks better to ad agencies. Moving WQQK makes sense to move it more into the heart of the county, as that is where thier audience is. Same goes for the other stations as well.

Where WQQK transmitter sits now, it doesn't cover the southeastern part of the county well with a strong signal on portable radios. In the car, it's good, but can get "hissy" in spots.