WARM - What a waste!

[ScottSanfilippo]

It's hard to believe how the "Mighty 590" is sounding lately. The other day I dialed it up in the car (in Wilkes-Barre) and had to crank the volume all the way up to even hear what was going on. It's a shame that Citadel has let that station deterioriate to where it's at today. What is their plan, if they even have one, for WARM?

 

[John1]

> It's hard to believe how the "Mighty 590" is sounding
> lately. The other day I dialed it up in the car (in
> Wilkes-Barre) and had to crank the volume all the way up to
> even hear what was going on. It's a shame that Citadel has
> let that station deterioriate to where it's at today. What
> is their plan, if they even have one, for WARM?
>
The Mighty 590 '70's era used to come in clearly here in the northern Philadelphia suburbs on a transistor radio. Now I can barely hear it on a good car radio, and can't even figure out what they are saying or what talk shows they're running. Too bad the Doo-Woppin' Oldies didn't last, at least it was something different and a nod to their heritage.

 

[RoyD]

To those of us that worked there and remember what it was like before the day of corporate vultures, it sucks! It all boils down to some little corporate weenie, who is totally clueless as to what "LOCAL" radio is all about. No matter how much these corporate stations try to shove it down the throats of the listeners, they could care less about being "local", they just want to pass it off as sounding local and go for the local $$.

This is a case of RoyD Rage!

 

[DowntownHazleton]

> To those of us that worked there and remember what it was
> like before the day of corporate vultures, it sucks! It all
> boils down to some little corporate weenie, who is totally
> clueless as to what "LOCAL" radio is all about. No matter
> how much these corporate stations try to shove it down the
> throats of the listeners, they could care less about being
> "local", they just want to pass it off as sounding local and
> go for the local $$.
>
> This is a case of RoyD Rage!
>
For the most part it is Citadel company policy to essentially spend zero dollars on it's AM's unless, and only unless, the AM in question actually delivers ratings & dollars. FM's no matter how worthless get continuous attention. WARM has been allowed to literally fall apart mechanically, and it's been officially "For Sale" since Citadel purchased the cluster. When it comes to a point someday where something major will fail, and it will cost mega-money to fix whatever it is, don't be suprised if Citadel, merely turns it off, and turns in the license.

 

[RoyD]

> >
> For the most part it is Citadel company policy to
> essentially spend zero dollars on it's AM's unless, and only
> unless, the AM in question actually delivers ratings &
> dollars. FM's no matter how worthless get continuous
> attention. WARM has been allowed to literally fall apart
> mechanically, and it's been officially "For Sale" since
> Citadel purchased the cluster. When it comes to a point
> someday where something major will fail, and it will cost
> mega-money to fix whatever it is, don't be suprised if
> Citadel, merely turns it off, and turns in the license.
>
I had heard Disney Radio offered them 2.5 million and they turned it down.
Are they afraid of some competition (on AM, yeah,yeah,right)or are they looking for some local schmuck to buy it. Who then wouldn't be able to do too much, because they spent so much for improvements....which is really neglect on the part of shitadel.

More RoyD Rage!

 

[PA_Radio]

No matter
> how much these corporate stations try to shove it down the
> throats of the listeners, they could care less about being
> "local", they just want to pass it off as sounding local and
> go for the local $$.

You just hit the nail on the head! Take a good look around. Local service??? Where? Local service is more than lip service! The coporate raiders come into the market and claim that they are gonna be the next big thing,,, local service, local news, local local local. But what do they always end up doing? Cutting expenses to the bone so much so that even if the local puppet managers that they put in place want to provide local service they can't do it, taking local dollars out of the market, pumping up profit margins by gutting operations to the bare minimum and doing a lot of short term selling at the expense of long term business! By the time it catches up with them, it's somebody elses problem for they have moved on to another market to do the same thing all over again. The GM, showing a healthy income and expense statement, moves up the ladder, leaving a lot of carnage in his/her wake. Meanwhile the local people get burned yet again and more of them turn to alternative means of advertising so that when the next regime steps in they just have to cut expenses even further and screw the people even more. Local service is gone. Say what they will, nobody at the top really gives a damn about anything local except for how many local dollars they can suck out of the market and send to the home office!!

 

[yonkstur]

>Say what they will, nobody at the top really gives a damn about anything local except for how many local dollars they can suck out of the market and send to the home office!!

It speaks volumes about the affection people still have for the might 590 whenever there is a post about what happened to WARM. WARM is something very
close to everyone's heart. I worked for Citadel and saw first hand the
disregard for people, advertisers, staff, listeners, equipment and other
media. The sales staff did a valient job to sell the local product like
Rob Nyehard and Kevin Lynn. We sold more than the station at the time deserved. Advertisers were buying WARM in 1998 through 2000 for what they thought it was,
not for what it really was.
Some on this board have said "give up the ghost" and to an extent they
are correct. There will never be another WARM. And to restore it would
take a powerball winning. (I'm still trying).
I also agree with the post that Citadel gave up too quickly with the
DooWop format but that's par for the course. They do that all the time.
The best we can do with WARM is do what die hard baseball fans did during
the baseball strike of the 90s. Cherish the old memories and players of
the past, and look to alternative courses of entertainment that
simulate what attracted us to WARM in the first place. Whether it be
satelitte radio, homemade burned cds, WICK, whatever, that's the way
to cope.
yonkstur
P.S. AND NOW FOR A SHAMELESS PLUG: the situation of WARM paralells the
perils of WSUN, the Nifty 1050, a former top 40 station that becomes a
newstalker in the ever popular novel, "A RADIO STORY/We Wish You Well In
Your Future Endeavors". I'll be at Tudor Book store, Wyoming avenue in Kingston this saturday, aug 6th from 2 to 3pm signing and selling my book. I might even wear my WARM shirt.

 

[SharkeySharkDog]

Wasn't WARM dead in the water BEFORE tell-a-lie-to-ya bought it from Susquehanna and then sold it to Citadel? I remember hearing there was a fire at the tower site and the signal hasn't been the same since. It would then have taken Citadel mucho dollaros to get the signal back to what it was. As for Disney offering 2.5 million for it, I can't believe they would do that considering how bad the signal is and the sales are. Beisdes, I think Disney is trying to dump their radio properties as we speak so it would be a dead duck any way.

IMHO

 

[ScottSanfilippo]

From what I gather, there was a fire at the transmitter site. There also is a problem with the ground system. I heard, but cannot confirm, that there was also an issue where one of the towers was located and it had to be moved several feet. Again, I heard that one, but can't confirm.

As far as Disney is concerned.... seems like everytime there is a rumor of a station for sale, the Disney name is dropped. They're dumping, not buying.

 

[carlvanorden]

> It's hard to believe how the "Mighty 590" is sounding> lately. The other day I dialed it up in the car (in> Wilkes-Barre) and had to crank the volume all the way up to> even hear what was going on. It's a shame that Citadel has> let that station deterioriate to where it's at today. What> is their plan, if they even have one, for WARM?> This isn't a lie...I just returned to Honesdale from a vacation in Harrisburg...granted the soil conductivity is better than where WARM"S towers sit, but, 580 WHP, 5kw U days, 6 towers favoring the east at night was POWERFUL wherever I went in the three county area around Harrisburg, day, and night. Passing WARM"S towers today, we could hardly hear it at all. Compare it to WKBO 1230 Harrisburg (yes, normally that would be a 1,000w d/n installation, but in this case, it is 480 watts!!).Inside a brick hotel, in front of a running tv, WKBO was a heck of a strong signal, so having not visited the station I would have to guess it is well maintained..................I can't personally see what is gained by keeping it on the air anymore; it is a candidate for having it's licence traded in if they can't afford to bring the plant up to CODE.<P ID="signature">______________
[email protected], [email protected],[email protected]</P>

 

[carlvanorden]

> > To those of us that worked there and remember what it was> > like before the day of corporate vultures, it sucks! It> all> > boils down to some little corporate weenie, who is totally> > > clueless as to what "LOCAL" radio is all about. No matter> > how much these corporate stations try to shove it down the> > > throats of the listeners, they could care less about being> > > "local", they just want to pass it off as sounding local> and> > go for the local $$.> > > > This is a case of RoyD Rage!> > > For the most part it is Citadel company policy to> essentially spend zero dollars on it's AM's unless, and only> unless, the AM in question actually delivers ratings &> dollars. FM's no matter how worthless get continuous> attention. WARM has been allowed to literally fall apart> mechanically, and it's been officially "For Sale" since> Citadel purchased the cluster. When it comes to a point> someday where something major will fail, and it will cost> mega-money to fix whatever it is, don't be suprised if> Citadel, merely turns it off, and turns in the license.> It is very doubtful that WARM will sell in it's present condition....Any engineer that knows due diligence will not authorize purchase of that plant......Citadel will HAVE to put some money into the antenna and ground system before they think of signing a selling contract...otherwise there will be issues......the plant has been neglected to the point where it may need to be totally rebuilt. JMHO.<P ID="signature">______________
[email protected], [email protected],[email protected]</P>

 

[kfitz]

> Wasn't WARM dead in the water BEFORE tell-a-lie-to-ya bought
> it from Susquehanna and then sold it to Citadel? I remember
> hearing there was a fire at the tower site and the signal
> hasn't been the same since. It would then have taken Citadel
> mucho dollaros to get the signal back to what it was. As for
> Disney offering 2.5 million for it, I can't believe they
> would do that considering how bad the signal is and the
> sales are. Beisdes, I think Disney is trying to dump their
> radio properties as we speak so it would be a dead duck any
> way.
>
> IMHO
>
The asking price was down to a million or so last year. They've had tower crews up there over the summer time repairing the top loading. The transmitter is quite old and needs eventual replacement. The ground system is in rough shape, I believe they're working on this too. Some of WARM's problem is the overall problem with the AM band, lousy AM radios manufactured over the past 20 or so years combined with many new AM interference sources (wired computer networks, for example, greatly interfere with AM reception; want good AM reception, get rid of all the computers in the building you are in, or at least shield your computers and use shielded cat5 to wire your networks). Want good AM reception, buy a GE Superradio III or II. There's a few tips. By the way, Citadel recently sold WQXA in York to a religious broadcaster; I believe they want to sell WARM to a non-commercial broadcaster if possible or a small local broadcaster who they perceive won't be any competition.

Kevin