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WCKL Returns as "Family 560" on June 15th

:eek: Don't want to sound to negative, but I did have the chance to listen and they sound worse than a college station. At one point it seemed they were limited to about 6 songs as they were playing the same one's in a VERY tight rotation. How are they financially going to survive? Is it through advertising or fund raising? I would like to see this station come back again, but from what I have heard it will probably be dark in 6 months to a year.
 
MusicRadioUSA said:
Can someone please report what WCKL's format is during the week/weekend ? Local ?
Click to expand...
I took the opportunity to listen to WCKL over the weekend while up in the Catskill area. From Friday evening through Sunday night it was unattended really mellow Adult Standards, without any announcements or ID; although it's possible I missed the TOH legal. I was not listening continuously. Come Monday morning ‘Cousin Brian’ Dodge played Christian music. The conversation was generic and lame. He wants to put on a ‘cats skill’ parade in July to promote the station (groan). Listeners are to bring their cats or rent one to walk down Main Street and show their skills. In addition, Family 560 is joining with two Catskill auto dealerships to collect food for a food pantry. At 9:00AM, the music reverted to Adult Standards with few interruptions. At 2:00PM another jock came on (I forget his name) he announced almost every song. He left at 5PM and Brian came back until 6PM. I guess it went back to auto standards then, but I was back in Hyde Park by then. The new operators have improved the signal. Even when Clear Channel operated the station, it struggled to make Kingston. Now, although it is to weak and staticy to listen to WCKL now reaches Hyde Park (barely) during the day. Overall, the sound ( not the programming) is good and clear for AM. Although I was not paying close attention, I didn’t notice excessive repetition.
One big surprise is that Family 560 announced their intention to begin carrying the Boston Red Sox starting very soon. I guess that is attributable to Brian Dodge’s Ma. Roots, but it also sounds like a small station wanting to sound big. They need to work on their presentation however, it sounds really hokey, and amateurish.
As far as funding is concerned, not surprisingly there was no commercials yet, nor any fund requests. They do have a promotion running with The Lunch Box deli in Catskill.
Sorry I can't do air checks.
 
Several weeks into their broadcasting, they are a joke. One thing the owner is, is a good "storyteller" cause most of what he talked about to the newspapers is not going to happen. They have a very poor music selection, only give a legal ID when there is an announcer in the studio. There are no commercials now, and with their sound, there shouldn't bee too many in the future. They are doing a lot of stunting around town....but you really need a decent sounding product to get people to stick around and listen. Given the choice of WCKL off the air, or this?...the station is better off dead. Oh, and their sales manager has already quit.
 
I think that perhaps I may have initially misjudged the moniker 'Family'. In the case of Family 560, it may mean it is operated by friends and family of Brian Dodge, with no on air experience. In some ways, it reminds me of what has been derisively called here as 'hobby radio' -WHVW. There is a female who sounds terrified and muffs the legal id every time. Brian Dodge promised Red Sox Baseball , which I found implausible , to which he added "as soon as we figure out how to use the receiver we got” !Perhaps he is going for the homey feeling, but it sounds silly . He promoted Swap Shop and Computer Repair call in shows for Saturday morning (by a sponsor repair shop in Catskill). I don’t know if this actually happened or if anybody called. I share your thoughts that Brian promised much more than he can deliver, but it is early yet. The lack of commercials this early is expected. When Pamal took over WBPM there was very few commercials for months; and (I am going to date myself here), when WHVW debuted they had very few sponsors, but quickly became the dominate Poughkeepsie station of the sixties and early seventies. Granted this will not happen with WCKL.
 
Here's my 2 cents.

When someone is "live" it sounds more small-townish and "folksy" than ANYthing I ever heard... and that's not a compliment. Someone said "they have no on-air experience"... they SURE DON'T! Someone with less than 2 weeks radio-lab training would sound more professional.

The music, when automated, is what I like best. It seems fairly well-rounded to me, and the lack of annoying chatter is somewhat refreshing. (at least it's far less annoying than afternoon's with Bob Green on Magic 590 :p)

As another poster noted... it's hard to imagine that this is going to be the big hit that was promised, however the ONLY incentive for advertisers to jump in would be the Red Sox... but again, I can't see anyone there knowing how to execute the feed!! :D
 
Here's a good thing. How about a satellite syndicated "Music Of Your Life" on 560. That's a good thing. Hudson Valley never had MOYL since 2001 when it was heard on 4 AM stations including WKIP, WHUC, WGHQ and WELV. These are the four stations that carried MOYL for a few years until 2005 where these four stations dropped the ball. If WCKL will carry MOYL on 560, that would be a great idea to go with along with Brian Dodge and a few shows including the "Swap Shop" and then some along with the satellite syndicated MOYL. That would be great. WCKL never had a hourly newscast including CBS News. Why not put an hourly TOH CBS newscast on 560? WKNY did that every hour as well as WCBS-AM and WROW. That will fit there as well.
 
I'm not sure where they're getting their music from, however everytime they talk they're always joining a song in progress. Sometimes the song only has 30 seconds left.

Still NO legal ID, except when they are "live" and something is VERY out of whack with their signal. They're not supposed to be getting into Kingston. No news, local or network yet, and no commercials. I don't think they'll be able to live off the funneled money from the religious stations very long
 
:) Recently I spoke with Mr. Dodge. I've sent along a cover letter, short resume' and a long resume'. From
the sound of Mr. Dodge over the phone "Family 560" is going to be a fun place on the AM dial!! Stick around, I'm
sure all things radio will improve! Happy Radio everyone
 
they have no ads, except for a company that's selling public service ads. They also lost their afternoon drive guy.
 
I have not been up to the Catskill area in about 10 days. The last time I was up there the mid day-ish female did a couple of live read commercials .She also invited listeners to a WCKL party in mid August, at I think the Rip Van Winkle Golf Club , where they might win $10,000 or even maybe even a new car. She made no mention of any on air contest or how someone might win. I wonder if this is just more Brian Dodge BS.I have never heard any radio station, including college stations so badly run. Brian has no idea how to run the board. Someone posted here that the music just fades in when the announcer is finished talking. I have heard this, and I think that is because they don’t know how to start/ stop play so they let it run in the background, turned down. Brian does a call in show on Saturdays. I listened a bit what a mess. A supposed off air conversation was going over the air, while the person talking ‘on air’ was barely audible. Brian said what he thought was off air that the speaker was pegging the needles. When the ‘off air caller convinced him he was wrong, several minutes of dead air followed. In my Communications 101 lab class 3 seconds of dead air was an automatic fail.
Scot Fybush said early in this thread that Brian’s operations were barely legal. I wonder if it’s because Dodge is a scofflaw or just clueless.
 
I thought Charlie Profit ran WXCT, Marc?

Depending on what happens with 101.1 in Chicago and 101.9 in New York, I suppose the vibe I'm getting here is that Brian Dodge is the anti-Randy Michaels.
 
DToTheJ said:
I thought Charlie Profit ran WXCT, Marc?
Click to expand...

Charlie and I both ran that station along with JR Morgan, Kurt Schmede, Thom Morgan (no relation to JR), Courtney Rao, Shirley Blothe, Michelle Drake, Fran and Bill, etc.

Everyone who hosted a show (paid for or not) and/or ran the board "ran" the station.
Charlie was the GM/PD and hosted the afternoon show.

I was a board operator and eventual show host.

JR was the News Director (at one point).

Kurt was the Sports Director. (At one point)

Thom Morgan was the morning man.

Courtney Rao took over as News Director after JR Left.

Shirley, Michelle, and Fran & Bill were all show hosts.
 
MHVRadiofan said:
Brian Dodge promised Red Sox Baseball , which I found implausible , to which he added "as soon as we figure out how to use the receiver we got”
Click to expand...

They must've figured it out! The Sox were on today!!

I couldn't listen long enough to hear whether there was dead-air when they paused for a station ID... or what they filled the air with during a local spot break.
 
Dodge is constantly putting callers on the air, without telling them they are live. That is an FCC violation. And have you caught their "local" news? It's somebody off site (I heard him on the phone)..Reading right out of the newspaper
 
Well, after being gone all last week, the morning show is back this week. Last week was much better to listen to
 
I won't put myself through listening to WCKL very often but I have noticed that a few weeks ago they added USA Radio news TOH, lending a few minutes of professionalism per hour. They have also now have some sponsors, although the ones I heard sound like live read, with the fumbling and mistakes, it could be just poor production.
 
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