WAYX Waycross WBKX Kingland

[GeoffR]

Anyone know what's up with these two stations? The last two years when I've driven back to Jacksonville from Atlanta I've taken the back way, getting off I-75 at Tifton and taking Hwy 82 through Waycross. When you get into Waycross there's a little strip mall kind of office complex that has a sign out front for K-Bay 106.3 and also says 96.3 Waycross on it (there's an Army Recruiting office in the complex I'm talking about). Is Kingland's K-Bay WBKX co-owned with WAYX these days (and moved the operation up to Waycross?)

WAYX-AM 1230 is simulcasting on an FM translator at 96.3. The format currently is kind of an all-over-the-place Classic Rock. During the day it's just a jukebox, with NO sweepers, no jingles, no nothing. In the 40 minutes I listened as I passed through Waycross and headed south on Hwy 1/23 to Jacksonville, they ran only one stopset, segueing into it from the song and going directly back into music with no station identifier at all. K-Bay was doing exactly the same thing -- no liners, no jingles, no nothing. Just music segues and segueing directly in & out of spots when they ran a stopset.

What's up with these two stations? Why is it so hard for them to add sweepers and station IDs during the hour? They're just jukeboxes with spots (not so many for WAYX). It sounds like no one at the stations give a crap about what's going on the air, or if anyone knows what they're listening to. K-Bay 106.3 DOES still have a morning show. Why is the rest of the day such a throw-away?

In AM drive, K-Bay just segues back into music with no ID at all. If these owners don't care about running a real radio station, why don't they just sell them?

I'd be happy to give both help in improving the sound of the operation for zero cost. What would it hurt to sound like a real radio station and not a jukebox?

 

[GeoffR]

I needed to drive up to Brunswick so I stopped in Kingsland on the way back to swing by K-Bay...I had been given a tour of the station back about 10 years ago when I knew one of their employees. I recalled that it was West of I-95 so I headed that way off Exit 3 and soon could see their tower with the building in front of it. No sign at all. But there was the tower behind the building and a K-Bay van parked next to it. So I figured I was in the right place. And they actually had 2 ladies behind the front desk. I asked if they were co-owned with WAYX and one of them thought maybe. But she said the FM translator in Waycross was on 99.5, which it is not. Definitely 96.3. They said the person who could answer my programming questions would be back shortly but I never got a call back. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[GeoffR]

Seems as though the translator in Waycross (96.3) was at one time retransmitting WKBX Kingsland. The 99.5 translator that the ladies at WKBX mentioned seems to be on the WKBX stick but not owned by them. It is being fed by the WKBX HD-2 channel and running an R&B Oldies format. I have not heard any commercials being run on it.

The location I passed in Waycross a few weeks ago appears to be the offices of WAYX-AM (which is now simulcasting on the 96.3 translator up there) with a Classic Rock kind of format. The sign out front says "K-Bay 106.3" and in smaller letters "96.3 Waycross". So they've just never replaced the sign. I don't believe that it says WAYX on the office either.

 

[b-turner]

I'm not sure a lack of sweepers means the owners don't care. I'm not sure that means they should sell. For radio it's all about the money (as in those stop sets). I've listened to way too many stations where liners and such were not there. In fact I worked a station that had done extensive research and discovered one of the biggest complaints was interrupting music for liners and/or jocks to ID the station and say little else. This station was live at the time and after years of being told calls or liner were the first thing out of your mouth, it was quite an adjustment. We only identified the station twice an hour as part of the time and temperature on the hour and half hour. In my long 6 hour shift we had about 2 or 3 uninterrupted 30 minute music sweeps.Otherwise we talked every other song and could not announce song or artist unless it was a current hit. We had to prep and were airchecked for at minimum 4 times an hour 'having something to say that was water cooler worthy'. People loved the station locally and even outdid the local competitor. Listening it was as if you eavesdropped on a one sided conversation interrupted by a song after a few seconds. Even in the Austin, Texas market one station entered the stop set with a recorded station promo and never did re-entry liners after the stop set. Research they did showed it really didn't matter. I could grasp that in a PPM market easier than a traditional diary market. I get it goes against the grain of all we've been taught but it seems to work in the instances I've seen.

 

[GeoffR]

I'm not sure a lack of sweepers means the owners don't care. I'm not sure that means they should sell. For radio it's all about the money (as in those stop sets). I've listened to way too many stations where liners and such were not there. In fact I worked a station that had done extensive research and discovered one of the biggest complaints was interrupting music for liners and/or jocks to ID the station and say little else. This station was live at the time and after years of being told calls or liner were the first thing out of your mouth, it was quite an adjustment. We only identified the station twice an hour as part of the time and temperature on the hour and half hour. In my long 6 hour shift we had about 2 or 3 uninterrupted 30 minute music sweeps.Otherwise we talked every other song and could not announce song or artist unless it was a current hit. We had to prep and were airchecked for at minimum 4 times an hour 'having something to say that was water cooler worthy'. People loved the station locally and even outdid the local competitor. Listening it was as if you eavesdropped on a one sided conversation interrupted by a song after a few seconds. Even in the Austin, Texas market one station entered the stop set with a recorded station promo and never did re-entry liners after the stop set. Research they did showed it really didn't matter. I could grasp that in a PPM market easier than a traditional diary market. I get it goes against the grain of all we've been taught but it seems to work in the instances I've seen.

Do you really think anyone knows who they are listening to if the station is only identified once per hour? The station calls itself K-Bay 106.3 but in jukebox hours (9AM-6AM) the legal ID doesn't include that; only call-letters and city. IDing the station in & out of breaks and during music sweeps is not going to get someone to switch to another station. The commercials would be more annoying than IDing the station quickly. And running two spots in the same break for the same car dealership is much more apt to cause tune-out than running "K-Bay 106.3" in & out of the stop sets.

 

[b-turner]

Yes I think people can know what they are listening to without being told. I don't think that is a good idea. In fact,if nothing else I'd say to do the dial position frequently. If you read through my post I said it went against everything I had been taught. I mere stated instances where the station was successful without frequent liners and IDs. If they can sell commercials and get those advertisers to stay on, it must be working for them,,,perhaps not as well as it could be.