WBCB ends their format

[Josh Owens]

WBCB really was all over the map with their music. I listened a few weeks ago and they were playing John Denver and similar artists from the 60’s and 70’s on the morning show. The next day they were playing hard rock or heavy metal so it was a very strange mix. Hard to gain a loyal audience that way if you ask me. They were also playing reruns of the Geator in the afternoons which I thought was interesting. I know he was on the station when he was alive but I’m not sure if his estate was paying for that time most recently or if WBCB just ran it because they had nothing else scheduled.

From what I gather by reading this thread, it was right before a format flip and an ownership change, so anything goes and could happen, generally speaking.

 

[John1]

WBCB really was all over the map with their music. I listened a few weeks ago and they were playing John Denver and similar artists from the 60’s and 70’s on the morning show. The next day they were playing hard rock or heavy metal so it was a very strange mix. Hard to gain a loyal audience that way if you ask me. They were also playing reruns of the Geator in the afternoons which I thought was interesting. I know he was on the station when he was alive but I’m not sure if his estate was paying for that time most recently or if WBCB just ran it because they had nothing else scheduled.

Jerry Blavat’s show still runs on some of his affiliate stations like WVLT Vineland and Philly Gold Radio on the internet. The commercials are mostly still relevant although they announce it is an archived show and some promotional announcements may be invalid.

 

[John1]

WBCB really was all over the map with their music. I listened a few weeks ago and they were playing John Denver and similar artists from the 60’s and 70’s on the morning show. The next day they were playing hard rock or heavy metal so it was a very strange mix. Hard to gain a loyal audience that way if you ask me. They were also playing reruns of the Geator in the afternoons which I thought was interesting. I know he was on the station when he was alive but I’m not sure if his estate was paying for that time most recently or if WBCB just ran it because they had nothing else scheduled.

Jerry Blavat’s show still runs on some of his affiliate stations like WVLT Vineland and Philly Gold Radio on the internet. The commercials are mostly still relevant although they announce it is an archived show and some promotional announcements may be invalid

 

[myke25]

This new WBCB really sucks! The last five minutes it was some woman host talking about being a boring golf player makes you better… she thanked some guy that hosted another show on 97.5. Then after a brief introduction of the station, which they have removed the 1490 references, they went right into a reggaeton track with no segue, no announcement. The same announcement once again and now some AAA track you would hear on college radio at like 2 o’clock in the morning on automation. And now back to another Spanish track. This is all over the friggin place.

“Local roots, broadcast to all. powered by the Fideri News Network” seems to be their new slogan, which sure sounds better than “WBCBlows!”

I wish them the worst. I really do.

I am far from a republican and really didn’t care for their conservative talk format, but I will say it was a nice local resource for people. The last of truly local radio died the day Reese and the other dude ‘donated’ this station.

 

[Miguelito]

I know next-to-nothing about this station. As I think I previously stated, I didn't even know it existed. What I do know of it, I gleaned after this thread popped up here. I clicked a couple of links and found some random stuff, which I perused lightly for all of maybe four minutes. The feeling I got is that they saw the writing on the wall, so they did this one, final, desperate thing before the whole thing imploded. What I saw read like: "If this doesn't work, we're just gonna take our ball and go home."

 

[b-turner]

I'm guessing it is fill until they lease the station

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Did I read right? Is this historic, epochal cornucopia of broadcast excellence also going out on 107.3 and having people in places therein cutting the cords on their FM radios?
Kinda makes me wonder if that Big C Shopping Center across the highway near there is still in business, or if they sold the land for storage units, a prison or a sewage treatment depot.

 

[wibgradio99]

Talk about the music all over the place, this afternoon the music went from Kung Fu Fighting, to Sukiyaki, to Rat Race the Specials, (great song), to This Boy Beatles, to In My Room Beach Boys, To Kids MGMT, and it’s getting more off the wall. Don’t get me wrong it was refreshing, more of we play whatever we want not the generic Ben approach…

 

[kevtronics]

Music of any kind would be an improvement over the "all inane sports podcasts, all the time" WBCB has been running since the new ownership took over.

Podcasts make for terrible radio, because the hosts and guests assume you know what you're listening to, and that you're going to listen to the whole thing. You can listen for 15+ minutes and never once do they mention who they are or give a brief recap of what they're talking about.

Even the most historically boring NPR shows know better than that, and throw in a "if you've just joined us..." periodically.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Farther up Bucks County, licensed to Doylestown, is the venerable WISP 1570. They have 4 sticks to put a pattern that nicely covers the rather Italy-shaped county.
Known since their sign-on as WBUX before the call change, I believe that they are one of the reasons that the former WQXR 1560 had to go directional in the DAY when WQXR asked for an increase in power. And as you can deduce, religious Doylestown 1570 puts a very nice signal down-county to those communities and arteries between Trenton and Philly, where the vast bulk of Bucks County population lives.
But while the area is ripe for format changes, time is also running out for the AMers at the end of the dial. There are four dozen licensed stations with good signals in Metro Levittown. That's not just saturation. It's suffocation. Things look especially poorly for those upper-band AMers .... 1440 Lansdale, 1460 Burlington, 1490 Levittown, 1540 Philly, 1570 Bucks and 1590 Chester are either religion, foreign language, talk, or gone altogether. That sequence of toppling dominos up THIS way has seen 1450, 1480*, 1530 and 1590 stations just vanish. None of those towers were on any land of note, either.

*1480 WISL Shamokin's four sticks were in a junkyard