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Wasted 50 kw AM signals

WTWP 1500 in Washington, DC. Bonneville moved an established ratings-winning news format off for long-form style news and commentary. It tanked in the ratings. Also, the signal is highly directional with most of it going out over the ocean. Horrible in most other directions.
 
WPHT 1210 AM is another one. For 68 years it was WCAU-AM with good news/talk programming for many years. 1210 AM is crap now.
 
I'll have to agree that WBBR is a waste of a good 50 kW signal. The once-mighty WNEW eleven-three-O has been replaced by an also-ran news station. Too bad Bloomberg didn't end up with a regional 5kW station like WMCA.

Another wasted blowtorch signal (especially at night) is WQEW. I wish WNYC had been able to move up the dial to 1560 instead of Disney.

In the Northeast, a couple of 640 kHz signals are wasted. To wit, WNNZ (Westfield, MA) and WWJZ (Mount Holly, N.J.) air Fox Sports and Disney dross, respectively. Fortunately, their nocturnal power is only 1 kW.
 
KPTK-AM 1090 Seattle. Once the mighty KING-AM (top-40, then full service gold -A/C, then local talk, then classic country). These legendary calls have been reduced to a shadow of their former self by becoming the local outlet for Air America. Not ONE local person appears at anytime on this signal save for the Metro Traffic reporter. Nice job, CBS!
 
And if 1090 were a typical corporate crackerbox airing the standard syndicated all-right-wingnut schedule, would you also object?
 
Julius May said:
WPHT 1210 AM is another one. For 68 years it was WCAU-AM with good news/talk programming for many years. 1210 AM is crap now.
Click to expand...

Nonsense! Where do you get off calling it crap, Julius?

WPHT is Philly's premier news/talker! Philadelphia's local version of WABC or WSB or WLS. They even have a news department staffed by a warm body or two. An increasingly rare thing these days.

If you want to say that their signal is crap for a 50,000 watt station - then I'll agree. But, the programming is just fine for a 50 kw am'er. Hardly a wasted signal.

Certainly not a waste like 1500 from Washington, DC - which has gone down the tube. Washington Past radio? Ha! Or that religious waste of electricity at 1540 from Albany, NY. Now those are crap. Unlike WPHT.
 
BRNout said:
Julius May said:
WPHT 1210 AM is another one. For 68 years it was WCAU-AM with good news/talk programming for many years. 1210 AM is crap now.
Click to expand...

Nonsense! Where do you get off calling it crap, Julius?

WPHT is Philly's premier news/talker! Philadelphia's local version of WABC or WSB or WLS. They even have a news department staffed by a warm body or two. An increasingly rare thing these days.

If you want to say that their signal is crap for a 50,000 watt station - then I'll agree. But, the programming is just fine for a 50 kw am'er. Hardly a wasted signal.

Certainly not a waste like 1500 from Washington, DC - which has gone down the tube. Washington Past radio? Ha! Or that religious waste of electricity at 1540 from Albany, NY. Now those are crap. Unlike WPHT.
Click to expand...
WCAU-AM was better than WPHT and it will always be the case.
 
Julius May said:
WCAU-AM was better than WPHT and it will always be the case.
Click to expand...

That doesn't make WPHT "crap".

It is just as easy to say that the old Musicradio WABC was "better" than the news/talk formatted version of the station. But, then again todays world is different and things change. Perhaps the old WCAU format would not longer be economically viable either. It's all conjecture - no facts.

From what I can tell, the ratings of WPHT are just fine and it does just as good of a job (if not better) than similarly formatted stations in other top 10 markets.

Let's get real here.
 
radiofriend1 said:
WAMB 1160 nashville

is it even OTA anymore?
Click to expand...

It's now part of the Bott radio group.

The old WAMB is now on 1200 AM at lower power but still bringing in $ from what I hear.
 
I have to disagree about KYW and WPHT.

KYW does a very good job with its all-news format. WPHT has more local hosts than a lot of stations. Michael Smerconish and Dom Giordano are much more listenable than some of the syndicated hosts out there. And the Big Talker is the flagship station for the legendary Sid Mark and his "Sounds of Sinatra" program.
 
Evangelist, I fully agreee with you. While there are many substandard 50kw AM stations, KYW and WPHT are certainly NOT among them. Only 3 AM stations in that market have remained successful and they are two of the three.

After 1210 blew up its N/T format in the early 90s, the station flaundered badly for several years. During one ratings book, submitted diaries showed no one claiming to be listening to the station during morning drive. For an AM station to climb out of that hole is remarkable.
 
MarcB said:
I agree WPHT is horrible. Their sister news-talk station in Hartford WTIC is much better.
Click to expand...
I couldn't disagree more. While WPHT has live and local hosts in the evening, what's WTIC doing? Playing a tape-delayed version of Hannity. Lame.

WTIC was great - at one time. But, that time passed long ago.
 
WTUX said:
Evangelist, I fully agreee with you. While there are many substandard 50kw AM stations, KYW and WPHT are certainly NOT among them. Only 3 AM stations in that market have remained successful and they are two of the three.

After 1210 blew up its N/T format in the early 90s, the station flaundered badly for several years. During one ratings book, submitted diaries showed no one claiming to be listening to the station during morning drive. For an AM station to climb out of that hole is remarkable.
Click to expand...
For 68 years, 49 of then on 1210 AM, the station was known as WCAU-AM
 
zumahans said:
And if 1090 were a typical corporate crackerbox airing the standard syndicated all-right-wingnut schedule, would you also object?
Click to expand...

Zuma, You bet I'd object.

It's not the Air America, it's the fact that a once legendary signal has been reduced to syndicated programming 24/7. I'd be just as ticked if they air Fox, EIB or whatever.

This once great signal launched many great personalities. Briefly (in mid 80's they programmed local news/talk and sounded hot with some very edgy left & right wing talkers).
 
Way back there, someone mentioned WYLL Chicago as being "less at night". That's no longer true in that 1160 is 50kw at night also.
 
My opinion is simple: any station; clear channel or whatever that acts as a translator for a network is a wasted signal. I can't even believe they can sell that time.
Pick a 50kw'er, and listen to it's programming. Twist the dial and hear the same elsewhere.
Case closed.
It is these station's faults that radio programming is bland and not exclusive enough to tune their frequency......and keep that radio tuned right there.
 
MediaBoy4Radio said:
I am interested in your nominations for wasted 50 kw signals on AM for anywhere in the USA.........................

I'll start with two...........WCBM Baltimore and WWKB Buffalo.................
Click to expand...

Family radio AM 610 San Francisco........
 
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