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WARM Gone?

M

masterg

Another NE PA media board is reporting that WARM is off the air, this time for good. That's it, no other details, no specifics, nothing else to tell you.
 
Not for good, only until Citadel or someone else puts some money back into it. I hear the site is a mess. Let's start a collection plate.
 
waunderlust said:
Not for good, only until Citadel or someone else puts some money back into it.
Click to expand...

Citadel putting money back into WARM? Yes, that will happen right after they rehire all the people they let go at Citadel/WB. Shouldn't be too long, eh? I wouldn't hold your breath on WARM.

Now......where are the next cuts coming at Baltimore Drive, because you know there are more coming......
 
Straight from their website:
WARM-AM is currently still off the air for unexpected transmitter maintenance.
We’re sorry for the inconvenience - please keep checking our website for any updates.
Updated 4/14/09 3:30pm

Does not sound good....
 
Citadel has always had a corporate directive that requires that unless under "special circumstances" all AM programing, maintenence & upkeep comes absolutely last on their list of priorities. The special circumstances are those AM stations that generate significant revenue. Ratings do not count in this equation, only revenue. So there are certain AM stations in the Citadel company that do get at least a modicum of support, but only as long as those stations continue to generate revenue. WARM has not been in that equation since the day Citadel took over. There's certainly no need to list all the formats and changes, since there are others here better versed in WARM's history than I am. What people need to understand that WARM was doomed the day Larry & his merry band of snake oil salesmen took over from Ira Rosenblatt's TeleMedia group. Prospects only got worse when Larry & Co. sold out to the Forstmann family and along came Farid and his magic carpet salesmen. In a sense, it might be better for WARM to just go dark, and put this station and those who loved it out their misery. Citadel will never give a wit for it, and by the time a new owner might possibly purchase it, the repair cost would be astronomical. There might just as well be an organized wake at the Polish Club for the Mighty 590, and let the poor thing die.
 
waunderlust said:
Not for good, only until Citadel or someone else puts some money back into it. I hear the site is a mess. Let's start a collection plate.
Click to expand...

Yes, for good. It's over, done, gone, off the air and not coming back. No more money will be spent on WARM. If you're starting a collection, let me be the first to say no. Let it go, it's been years coming, WARM is no more. There's a Citadel memo circulating that confirms all of this, but any quotes from that memo need to come from an employee, and I am no such thing.
 
WARM will be back under new ownership. The transmitter repair is about a half a mill. A lot is happening behind the scenes...stay tuned...
 
Tom Woods said:
WARM will be back under new ownership. The transmitter repair is about a half a mill. A lot is happening behind the scenes...stay tuned...
Click to expand...
It would be interesting to know what might have changed. Farid was dead-set solid that WARM's sales price even in it's miserable condition was to be 3.5 mil. So if the repair costs are what you say (.5 mil) then you are talking 4 million dollars before a single song or spot is played. That's a lot of hay to bale. Route 81 (or whatever they call themselves today) is only asking 2.5 mil for 94.3, WNAK & WCDL. Throw away the 2 AMs and you've got an FM for a little more than half of what the possible cost for WARM is. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be trying to make payments on any FM before I tried going down the long road of trying to make an AM pay off. WARM was indeed a grand station in it's day that did very grand things. But like so many other things we might care deeply for, sadly their time has come & gone. As I said earlier, it would be better to have a fine wake organized and send the Mighty 590 off with some dignity.
 
BaltimoreJack said:
What people need to understand that WARM was doomed the day Larry & his merry band of snake oil salesmen took over from Ira Rosenblatt's TeleMedia group.
Click to expand...

Back up your timeline a bit to say that WARM was doomed when Susquehanna sold to Ira, and then you'll be correct. Saddest day in my radio life to this day. Dave Kennedy actually cried in the staff meeting when it was announced.

I hope the predictions for a "resurrected" WARM are true, but it will be a long, uphill climb.
 
Sam Ligouri...what a great, decent guy! One of the Accu-Weather guys once gave Sam the nickname of "The Barber" because he didn't come into work on Mondays. It would be great if one of the other stations picked up Sam's polka show.
 
arehkopf said:
BaltimoreJack said:
What people need to understand that WARM was doomed the day Larry & his merry band of snake oil salesmen took over from Ira Rosenblatt's TeleMedia group.
Click to expand...

Back up your timeline a bit to say that WARM was doomed when Susquehanna sold to Ira, and then you'll be correct. Saddest day in my radio life to this day. Dave Kennedy actually cried in the staff meeting when it was announced.

I hope the predictions for a "resurrected" WARM are true, but it will be a long, uphill climb.
Click to expand...
Agreed!
 
WARM's downfall started toward the end of Susquehanna. What station has a 50th anniversary and not a single promotion dollar, or a salesperson who goes out and at least trys to barter some kind of prize. We had a 2 hour staff meeting a couple of months before the "magic" (pun intended) day and threw out all kinds of prizes we could give away that were gold (gold jewelery, gold cars, etc). After that, not a whimper. No promotion dollars. They were all going to Magic, even though we were still out billing and had substantially higher ratings. Plus we already knew something was wrong with the physical plant-started getting dead zones in places we use to boom into.
 
Guess I'm sad and mighty p*ssed off at the same time. I realize money is tight, but there are some fire sale deals on AM transmitters, like the BEE in radioworld magazine (free mag by the way..excellent). You can't tell me that a decent CE couldn't either fix one of those old transmitters, or get a deal on a used one. Of course it's all dictated by some horses *ss bean counter at citadel. That's beating a dead horse anyway. As far as a resurrected mighty 590, maybe one of you guys have something in the works and if so thats great. Maybe the thing to to is wait 'till it goes dark, 1 yr with no activity, then possibly buy the license at hopefully a decent price from the FCC. Or maybe the Nazis at citadel will surrender the license. Of course, then u gotta start from scratch of course, equipment wise,but with the new technology in transmitters, it might not be too bad. And as one of the guys said, you could by 'nak and 'cdl both for 3.5 mil, and thats 2 fms....hmmmm....

Lets get a conversation going on about a resurrected WARM....sure beats lamenting the loss of the ol' girl....geez,the only dignity is the newspaper articles....I can still hear "rockin' around the christmas tree" By Brenda Lee, blasting out of my grandfather's Atwater-kent console radio in '60... :'(

Not gonna do a(N) R.I.P YET!!!

WARM590/OLDIES4EVER ;D
 
This is sad news, but not unexpected.

Many directional AMs have suffered poor maintenance over the last decade or two. The money simply isn't there...at least not in sufficient quantities to keep shoveling it into black holes with little or no chance of return on investment.

AM has long been a technological dinosaur whose efficiencies only look promising when compared to Internet radio. Sack the money vampires in favor of keeping more employment at the viable stations.

R.I.P., WARM. My memories of waiting for Harry to read off the school closings are as clear as yesterday. I'd rather have that memory be dominant rather than continuing to watch a slow death that fewer and fewer people even care about.
 
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