WARM 93.9fm

[IKE_IKE_Baby]

We have a Hot 96.3, and a not so hot 93.9. It's time for a new Cool.

Now that's funny right there.... Since we had kul, no wait get a klu.... an new cool could be refreshing.

 

[gr8oldies]

Still waiting for any positive suggestions as to what they should do instead of what they're doing. What legitimate format holes (other than oldies) are there. And at least one poster here constatntly reminded us that The Song didn't say Jesus enough.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

While the format switchover was lackluster, I was recording it and all less than 1 minute of it can be listened to and/or downloaded at radio.bobandtanya.com

 

[IKE_IKE_Baby]

Still waiting for any positive suggestions as to what they should do instead of what they're doing. What legitimate format holes (other than oldies) are there. And at least one poster here constatntly reminded us that The Song didn't say Jesus enough.

Active Rock...Active Rock...Active Rock would be my first choice since the majority of any new rock doesnt get played in this market and partnered with JJK and FMS, ouch. 8)

 

[Rowdy1234]

AC sounds like a good move in terms of sales. Plus, they may attract the at-work crowd that find B to be too old and ZPL as too contemporary for their tastes.

Best of luck to them with Warm. The format works well in Cincinnati, and could work in Indianapolis as long as it's programmed with Indy in mind.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

AC sounds like a good move in terms of sales. Plus, they may attract the at-work crowd that find B to be too old and ZPL as too contemporary for their tastes.

Best of luck to them with Warm. The format works well in Cincinnati, and could work in Indianapolis as long as it's programmed with Indy in mind.

Cincinnati is a full class B on a 1000' tower in the middle of the city. The "At Work" angle will probably be their downfall...from my years at WENS, I know that a potent, well engineered Class B doesn't always penetrate office buildings at 15 miles. Scale that to an A and the building penetration issues begin well down into the single digits. That makes Catleton a maybe and the Downtown, Greenwood & the entire west side a no-sale. That leaves the east side...you know, the place where all the businesses are leaving and the old Eastgate Consumer Mall...oops, Eastgate is a year or two away from being back as a business office complex...that's another format or two from now in 93.9 years. I don't know Chris Wheat, but from all I hear, he's a sharp broadcaster. My guess? He had little to say in this matter...and Atlanta had much to say. Put me on record as saying that like all other Class A's outside of I-465, it will struggle to get a 2+ share unless it programs something not available elsewhere on the dial...preferably something that commands a lot of in car listening. Way to go Atlanta!

 

[IKE_IKE_Baby]

AC sounds like a good move in terms of sales. Plus, they may attract the at-work crowd that find B to be too old and ZPL as too contemporary for their tastes.

Best of luck to them with Warm. The format works well in Cincinnati, and could work in Indianapolis as long as it's programmed with Indy in mind.

Cincinnati is a full class B on a 1000' tower in the middle of the city. The "At Work" angle will probably be their downfall...from my years at WENS, I know that a potent, well engineered Class B doesn't always penetrate office buildings at 15 miles. Scale that to an A and the building penetration issues begin well down into the single digits. That makes Catleton a maybe and the Downtown, Greenwood & the entire west side a no-sale. That leaves the east side...you know, the place where all the businesses are leaving and the old Eastgate Consumer Mall...oops, Eastgate is a year or two away from being back as a business office complex...that's another format or two from now in 93.9 years. I don't know Chris Wheat, but from all I hear, he's a sharp broadcaster. My guess? He had little to say in this matter...and Atlanta had much to say. Put me on record as saying that like all other Class A's outside of I-465, it will struggle to get a 2+ share unless it programs something not available elsewhere on the dial...preferably something that commands a lot of in car listening. Way to go Atlanta!

Ding Ding Ding.... Give that man a cigar! Hell... give him two!

 

[radiowannab]

I have given it a listen and I must say I hear very little difference between 1057 and 939. Why do stations keep repeating themselves? Isnt there someone out there that can give us listeners new ideas?

 

[Rowdy1234]

AC sounds like a good move in terms of sales. Plus, they may attract the at-work crowd that find B to be too old and ZPL as too contemporary for their tastes.

Best of luck to them with Warm. The format works well in Cincinnati, and could work in Indianapolis as long as it's programmed with Indy in mind.

Cincinnati is a full class B on a 1000' tower in the middle of the city. The "At Work" angle will probably be their downfall...from my years at WENS, I know that a potent, well engineered Class B doesn't always penetrate office buildings at 15 miles. Scale that to an A and the building penetration issues begin well down into the single digits. That makes Catleton a maybe and the Downtown, Greenwood & the entire west side a no-sale. That leaves the east side...you know, the place where all the businesses are leaving and the old Eastgate Consumer Mall...oops, Eastgate is a year or two away from being back as a business office complex...that's another format or two from now in 93.9 years. I don't know Chris Wheat, but from all I hear, he's a sharp broadcaster. My guess? He had little to say in this matter...and Atlanta had much to say. Put me on record as saying that like all other Class A's outside of I-465, it will struggle to get a 2+ share unless it programs something not available elsewhere on the dial...preferably something that commands a lot of in car listening. Way to go Atlanta!

For some reason, I thought they already upgraded and moved to their new tower in Marion County. I stand corrected.

What kind of coverage would a B1 really do on 93.9? Would the station get decent downtown penetration?

 

[BobOnTheJob]

AC sounds like a good move in terms of sales. Plus, they may attract the at-work crowd that find B to be too old and ZPL as too contemporary for their tastes.

Best of luck to them with Warm. The format works well in Cincinnati, and could work in Indianapolis as long as it's programmed with Indy in mind.

Cincinnati is a full class B on a 1000' tower in the middle of the city. The "At Work" angle will probably be their downfall...from my years at WENS, I know that a potent, well engineered Class B doesn't always penetrate office buildings at 15 miles. Scale that to an A and the building penetration issues begin well down into the single digits. That makes Catleton a maybe and the Downtown, Greenwood & the entire west side a no-sale. That leaves the east side...you know, the place where all the businesses are leaving and the old Eastgate Consumer Mall...oops, Eastgate is a year or two away from being back as a business office complex...that's another format or two from now in 93.9 years. I don't know Chris Wheat, but from all I hear, he's a sharp broadcaster. My guess? He had little to say in this matter...and Atlanta had much to say. Put me on record as saying that like all other Class A's outside of I-465, it will struggle to get a 2+ share unless it programs something not available elsewhere on the dial...preferably something that commands a lot of in car listening. Way to go Atlanta!

For some reason, I thought they already upgraded and moved to their new tower in Marion County. I stand corrected.

What kind of coverage would a B1 really do on 93.9? Would the station get decent downtown penetration?

At this time, per the FCC website, they don't even have a B1 CP. They have an application for a B1 at their present site, which is in the far eastern part of Marion County. It specifies a height increase of 40' or so from their present height and--in round numbers--a power increase from 3kw to 7kw. Anyone who's seen a 3KW increase to 6KW and been left asking "is that all there is?" will be prepared for this change. This one will be somewhat better than the 3 to 6KW example. The power ratio will be about 2.3 vs 2 in the Class A case. That's minimal. Throw in another 40' of height and the you add another minimal improvement. Two minimals make for a notable improvement. In theory, the signal strength should roughly double (it takes 4x the power at the same height to double the signal strength). A B1 (25KW at 328') is almost exactly 4x the power of an A (6KW at 328'). Therefore, it could be stated that a B1 is twice as strong as an A. Note that only means that it's twice as strong at a given location, not that the distance the station can be heard is anywhere near that 2x number.

Forgetting the numbers, here's what it means in real life...if the signal is penetrating fairly well now, it should be solid or very close to solid as a B1. If it's not there at all now, it's most unlikely to be listenable after the upgrade.

 

[pbf1]

I have given it a listen and I must say I hear very little difference between 1057 and 939. Why do stations keep repeating themselves? Isnt there someone out there that can give us listeners new ideas?

93.9 is mainly 105.7 without 70's stuff.

Problem is, people (in general) want to hear what they want to hear...not "new ideas"

 

[IKE_IKE_Baby]

I have given it a listen and I must say I hear very little difference between 1057 and 939. Why do stations keep repeating themselves? Isnt there someone out there that can give us listeners new ideas?

93.9 is mainly 105.7 without 70's stuff.

Problem is, people (in general) want to hear what they want to hear...not "new ideas"

Sometimes true but...No... CC has proven that you can prescibe to people what they want to hear... look at WRZX. Every year you can always tell who is going to be playing at X-Fest by listening to them a month to two months out from their announce dates...ALWAYS. Because some obsure sucky song gets spun over and over and over. Day to day they tailor a middle of the road, bland format that leaves out the majority of any new music in the rock format. Before they were bought and were a new station facing WFBQ they featured nothing but cutting edge new music with very few standards, Q FREAKED! They were playing Guns N Roses, Metallica and other new bands at the time. Hurt'em so bad they bought them to protect their back door and have always programmed it to be second fiddle to their gem station. Now they still play Metallica, an OLD band and are lucky to here 1/5th of anything new and edgy. Hence the mediocre Fall Creek homoginized formats we face daily in radio today from everyone including Emmis, Cumuls, etc etc etc. Because now programmers dont have to think or work, they can just run middle of the road safe choices, no real work, no real imagination involved, no "Real" radio research, just formulas like calculating kw's and antenna height formulas for building penetration. The only folks doing anything "edgy" right now in format song selections is 96 and HEY LOOK.... They are currently number 2 in the market according to the great bible of Arbitron ratings.... Hmmm... Interesting, very interesting!

 

[pbf1]

I have given it a listen and I must say I hear very little difference between 1057 and 939. Why do stations keep repeating themselves? Isnt there someone out there that can give us listeners new ideas?

93.9 is mainly 105.7 without 70's stuff.

Problem is, people (in general) want to hear what they want to hear...not "new ideas"

Sometimes true but...No... CC has proven that you can prescibe to people what they want to hear... look at WRZX. Every year you can always tell who is going to be playing at X-Fest by listening to them a month to two months out from their announce dates...ALWAYS. Because some obsure sucky song gets spun over and over and over.

Big difference between drumming up interest for an upcoming concert and formatting an entire radio station.

 

[IKE_IKE_Baby]

I have given it a listen and I must say I hear very little difference between 1057 and 939. Why do stations keep repeating themselves? Isnt there someone out there that can give us listeners new ideas?

93.9 is mainly 105.7 without 70's stuff.

Problem is, people (in general) want to hear what they want to hear...not "new ideas"

Dude... that was a mere example... Their whole format is Homoginzed and prescribed. Not by its listenership either.
Sometimes true but...No... CC has proven that you can prescibe to people what they want to hear... look at WRZX. Every year you can always tell who is going to be playing at X-Fest by listening to them a month to two months out from their announce dates...ALWAYS. Because some obsure sucky song gets spun over and over and over.

Big difference between drumming up interest for an upcoming concert and formatting an entire radio station.

 

[radioho]

I somewhat agree with Ike. I think there is a void between Q95 and X103.

The only hope for something new in this town, something truly innovative, creative and passionate - died with the only independent station being sold to an individual who tried to show how brilliant he was by COPYING his competitors - now sits on the sidelines looking in ... playing oldies . . .

. . . sighhhhh :-\

It's understandable that risks are not being taken by corporate radio because it's a profit-oriented business where profit is more important than reputation.

So why, if you are not dependent on profit for survival (going commercial free means you don't need the money), and can do anything you want, no corporate tape to cut through, would you SETTLE for a boring, vanilla mush of a moldies format when you can get creative and show some TRUE personality?

That's what people are asking for when they ask for something like WNAP's Buzzard. Why would you be afraid to take a few creative risks? Maybe you'd win listeners just for trying!

 

[indiehipster]

Wasn't WNAP's Buzzard a complete failure?

 

[11south]

Wasn't WNAP's Buzzard a complete failure?

depends which one you are talking about...the 90's version was a failure. The 70's version was a masterpiece. Then Hilliard left and the Buzzard became road kill.

 

[DangerousLoner]

The People Meter will reward solid Soft ACs when it comes. It's smart of Cumulus to position a new station in that format.

 

[ten_four]

Wasn't WNAP's Buzzard a complete failure?

the 90's version was a failure. The 70's version was a masterpiece.

I feel most of the success of WNAP in the 70s was due to personality, music that other hit music stations did NOT play (evening/night play of album cuts that were hits), and a heavy involvement in the local/regional music scene (Faith, Roadmaster, Bill "Talking to Stars" Wilson, Rastus, SRC,etc.) The reincarnation of WNAP in the 90s forgot those key elements.

 

[IKE_IKE_Baby]

The People Meter will reward solid Soft ACs when it comes. It's smart of Cumulus to position a new station in that format.

Time will tell but I dont even think they will get the curtiuos first book on the "People Meter" nor the second and judge it will flop before a year comes around to it... Who needs the Fat Lady when Santa comes around yearly. They have done NOTHING to create a difference in what is already available. If you already enjoy this soft AC stuff you already have it in Aces. You cant tell me that dropping 70's out of the equation is gonna make so much a difference to the core base to create that difference.

I agree that most likley an Atlanta decision was forced and Chris Wheat will get his chance to place something in there. This gives him time, time to make well laid plans. The thing is with Oasis investing so heavily in the promotion of his Oldies format there really isnt anyone else out there that can pounce on something creative to fill the "void" giving Mr Wheat all the time in the world.

Speaking of promotion.... Anyone see any investment by Cumulus behind this?? I've seen no TV, No Billboards, no investment, and if there is any its been half hearted and non commital....Hmmmmm?