• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WBZR 105.9 Atmore & WBZR-AM 1000 Robertsdale sold to Texas-based company

N

Nate Wesley

From what I've heard about the people behind 21st Century, they have a history of running stations into the ground rather quickly. If that's true, they probably aren't long for this earth. The current owners never did get the AM back on after it got hit lightning a while back.
 
Could the AM frequency be "reused" in Mobile (or some other Gulf Coast Community), if WBZR lets the AM die? They have some pre-sunset and pre-sunrise service so there is a little RF "wiggle room" with AM 1000 Chicago. You could duplex on another directional site and maybe have a decent signal in a well populated area. Of course the COL issue would make moving the existing license anywhere difficult
 
Pretty tough these days to regain listeners and advertisers to an AM station that has been dark. Not to mention the costs associated with building a new or revamped facility.
 
I remember Dixie 1000 having a remarkable daytime signal in the city of Mobile. I think the station is still viable to someone. I'm surprised Hale hasn't gone after it for another Ticket.
Not to mention someone with a translator cp could bring 1000 back to life in a heartbeat.
 
poledo said:
I remember Dixie 1000 having a remarkable daytime signal in the city of Mobile. I think the station is still viable to someone. I'm surprised Hale hasn't gone after it for another Ticket.
Not to mention someone with a translator cp could bring 1000 back to life in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...

Right, a translator would allow them to program a format 24/7 for central Baldwin County. It's the only way a daytimer like this could still be viable, but I know of at least two dormant translators in the area just sitting, unloved and unused. It sure beats the past history of the station, running 24/7 illegally for what… a decade or more?

One thing's for certain, they should really consider separate programming for the FM in Atmore. I just don't see the synergy for the two stations simulcasting. Atmore and Robertsdale, not exactly kissin' cousins when it comes to business activity.

I've always though a true dedicated oldies outlet targeting the snowbirds at the beach each winter might be viable, but 1000's too far away for an FM translator to do any good there. And the FM in Atmore needs to do anything but country because that area is overrun with country as it is.

We'll see what the future holds. I hate to be an eternal pessimist but I'm not holding my breath for a comeback for either facility.
 
Other cities comparable to Mobile have some marginal AMs programming Mexican. None in the Mobile area though. How about that?
 
Ever since the tough Alabama immigration laws went into effect, the target audience for such a station high tailed it out of the area. So, probably not the best option.
 
I thought our wonderful politicicians had run all the Mexicans out. Farmers are having a hell of a time finding labor the last couple years.
105.7 WCSN has run Mexican programming at night in the past and I know Robertsdale has more than one business with only Mexican speaking employees...

Dunno. From what I know of demographics I don't think Mexican (or any Latino/ethnic format) could work on any signal between Mobile county and Panama City.
 
Are there more than Arbitron's Mobile 3% (16k of a 505 k 6+) local Hispanic population? BTW Hispanic programming is not homogeneous so you who not get all of that market even if you had a market covering signal which I do not think we are dealing with here.

IMHO what ever becomes of this station (and nationally a lot of class C & D AM & Class A FMs on the fringe and not covering rated markets), It will not be successful unless it has local news and programs for the population in it's coverage area. You have to have something the average local listener can not get from the nearby city.
 
It just happens that the COL, Robertsdale, had the area's highest concentration of Mexicans. That was before the state started cracking down on Mexicans, so that may have changed in the last couple years. We don't have a measurable amount of Hatian's, Puerto Rican's, Cuban's or any other Spanish speaking audience around here. In fact, I don't think we have any ethnic group around these parts big enough to buy a block of time on someone else station. *unless that Mexican Disco is still buying time on WCSN*

Who owns the still unloved translators? Are they all in the 103.? frequency range? How much more time can these folks sit on translator CPs without lighting them up?
 
Charles1 said:
The native languages of Haiti are French and Creole. But I digress.
Click to expand...
Well that makes perfect sense and I would have probably gotten that right on a multiple choice test.

I guess I stereotype the south Florida Hatians right along side the Cubans and Puerto Ricans. Now I'll be able to tell them apart next time I go south.
 
poledo said:
It just happens that the COL, Robertsdale, had the area's highest concentration of Mexicans. That was before the state started cracking down on Mexicans, so that may have changed in the last couple years. We don't have a measurable amount of Hatian's, Puerto Rican's, Cuban's or any other Spanish speaking audience around here. In fact, I don't think we have any ethnic group around these parts big enough to buy a block of time on someone else station. *unless that Mexican Disco is still buying time on WCSN*

Who owns the still unloved translators? Are they all in the 103.? frequency range? How much more time can these folks sit on translator CPs without lighting them up?
Click to expand...

"Mexicans" being a catch-all phrase, since a lot of them are Honduran, Guatemalan, Salvadoran and who knows what else. The cook at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Fairhope went back home to Guatemala and the Mexican cook that replaced him isn't nearly as good! But that's also a digression. ;)

What Mexican Disco was buying time on WCSN? I know they did some Spanish-language programming but I didn't know it was a nightclub buying time. Seems like there was a Mexican-oriented club in Foley south of town, but it closed and became another club, then a church, sometime well before the new immigration law came into affect.

The translators that spring to mind are one on 103.7 licensed to Loxley and 106.9 licensed to Fairhope, both owned by Goforth Media. Goforth also has one on 103.5 that's on air from Spanish Fort. It originally had a massively directional pattern (seen here) but it either never got built or didn't work to their satisfaction. They apparently wanted to try to serve Mobile from across the bay and it just didn't work. I lose this translator going over the Bayway due to all the nearby RF, even though it's literally line of sight from the highway. The current pattern (seen here) is almost non-directional, so I think they don't have a need for the 106.9 & 103.5 translators anymore.

I feel like somebody, somewhere is missing a minor opportunity with these two licenses, too. I think 106.9 could easily be paired with 660 or 1220 in Fairhope and 103.7 could be moved to Robertsdale to go with 1000.

The 103.7 translator is an iffy proposition though, since the WBHY-AM fed 103.5 is one click over and pretty strong in Robertsdale, and beyond that the interference potential from the rock station in Hattiesburg is a very real consideration. It booms in here most nights and some days, too.

I have a feeling that Hattiesburg's SL-100 is so strong here that it may have caused CC to abandon their question to put something on 100.3 from the WKRG-TV tower, too.
 
When I use the term "Mexicans" it's generic to all South Americans that don't speak Portuguese. I know a significant number of them are from other Central American nations.

As I recall, the Mexican programming on WCSN was some type of live broadcast from a Latino club. I just assume it must have been a dance club. Why would someone broadcast music from a Mexican Supper Club on the radio?

It hasn't been long since CC got hold of the 100.3 CP. Compared to all the other translators in the area I wouldn't expect it to get on the air for a couple more years. I do, however, find it strange that the 99.5 translator in Mobile hasn't gone live.
As for getting clobbered by Hattisburg, can't those engineers "aim" the translator antenna. Since in this case they won't be looking for listeners 20 miles away, seems like they could point the antenna down and get better coverage of a 10+mile radius. I think targeting the city of Mobile with 250 watts from Spanish Fort is impractical. 100.3's audience is going to have to be the Eastern Shore.
 
poledo said:
It hasn't been long since CC got hold of the 100.3 CP. Compared to all the other translators in the area I wouldn't expect it to get on the air for a couple more years. I do, however, find it strange that the 99.5 translator in Mobile hasn't gone live.
As for getting clobbered by Hattisburg, can't those engineers "aim" the translator antenna. Since in this case they won't be looking for listeners 20 miles away, seems like they could point the antenna down and get better coverage of a 10+mile radius. I think targeting the city of Mobile with 250 watts from Spanish Fort is impractical. 100.3's audience is going to have to be the Eastern Shore.
Click to expand...

They can hang it on a leg of the tower so the antenna's facing towards the target area, but it won't help much against the world-class tropo we get down here. Besides what must be favorable terrain between here and Hat-ties-burg, the tropo seems to favor that area a lot of the time, so I can see 250 watts all but disappearing during intense openings.

My experience with tropo and translators is a little limited, but I remember being within eye-shot of a 27 watt translator in Mississippi and not hearing it due to atmospheric shenanigans. I mean, literally seeing the translator's antenna and not being able to pick it up. It's quite awe inducing for a nerdnick of my proportions (obese but loveable.)

Priorities must be different down here for CC, because my expectations are based on the translator build outs in Birmingham (CC). I think CC bought and got the CP for The Vulcan and had it online within weeks, if not a few months. CPs for existing stations usually got put on within days, or a week at most. They have been (or it seems like) very fast moving up there.

Also if you remember the Catholic Radio translator in P'cola, how quick it came on after the CP for Pensacola was issued. It couldn't have been a month from issuance to going on air, right?
 
Also consider that if CC makes no other changes we were expecting 100.3 to carry WNTM as an Eastern Shore simulcast. Most of that listening would take place in the daytime when tropo isn't as bad as it gets after dark.

Would it be possible for CC to pull two consecutive minor changes and try to move the translator to 101.1?
 
poledo said:
Also consider that if CC makes no other changes we were expecting 100.3 to carry WNTM as an Eastern Shore simulcast. Most of that listening would take place in the daytime when tropo isn't as bad as it gets after dark.

Would it be possible for CC to pull two consecutive minor changes and try to move the translator to 101.1?
Click to expand...

With CC, sometimes I think anything is possible. They managed to make on giant hop to get the one watt translator from Gulf Shores to Spanish Fort, so who knows. Last time I was in GS, though, 100.3 was still chugging away relaying WHIL. I bet it's spent more time on air in the last month than in its entire licensed existence.
 
With my past experience broadcasting at 1-10 watts, I find it hard to imagine finding that little 100.3 signal in Gulf Shores... Also considering how close it is to Fort Walton's WTKE 100.3 which also has it's tower right next to the Gulf...

And I got my math wrong with the 101.1 idea. I'd think that the 100.3 translator could pull a minor change and move to 99.7 first (CC wouldn't complain about interference to their own 99.9), followed by a second minor change to 99.5 or 99.3. If CC tried to do a two hop move to 101.1, Cumulus might not like the first hop being on a 100.9, a 100.7 first adjacent... unless Cumulus and CC are playing nice with each other about getting these new 250 watt ATMs on the air.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom