Since I'm in Atlanta and listen to Wdjo-1160 online from time to time I was wondering how long they have been oldies. I know they were WBOB with a sports format under Salem. Did Salem sale the station or is it just listed under Christian Broadcasting. Salem has a habit of listing in the FCC database under different ownership names with different markets. I know they are 4 tower directional with 5.0 kw daytime and 3 tower 0.99- 990 kw nights and licensed to Florence KY. What kind of signal do they have and do they cover Cincinnati well? I see most of the good guys from the former 1530 are there. I'm glad they found another radio home. Any info appreciated. al
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WDJO-Question
- Thread starter amlover
- Start date
Their daytime signal is very good. I receive them north of Dayton, Oh on I-75 until I'm well north of Piqua. At some point, WIMA, Lima, Ohio on 1150 begins to interfere. I've heard WDJO in Columbus, Ohio, too. Especially in the suburbs, away from electrical interference. South of the city, I hear them in Lexington, Ky.
Their night time signal is bad, and is very local.
Their night time signal is bad, and is very local.
Of all of the stations I find myself “rooting for” [and that’s a quickly-diminishing total these days], WDJO tops the list! They are simply the best oldies upstart I have witnessed. They excel in nearly every aspect – save elaborate promotion, which they likely can’t afford - and nighttime signal coverage, which they inherited and can do little [or nothing] about. I say this as a soon-to-be 50-year-old who cannot claim their early/mid-60s music concentration as a personal favorite. That withstanding, EVERYTHING else about WDJO is superb and is emblematic of the importance of LOCAL ownership guided by radio enthusiasts.
“Ten thousand oldies have taken over this frequency – 11-60 Amplitude Modulation” made its appearance in early 2006 after Salem sold the former WBOB [and its AM sister, 1050 WTSJ] to Christian Broadcasting System, LTD. They agreed to lease the 1160 facility to an enterprise which included longtime Cincy radio vet, and Hamilton County Auditor, Dusty Rhodes. The company assembled a “who’s who” of classic Top-40 talent from the market and boldly challenged wavering FM oldies outlet WGRR with the hunch that they’d soon join other full-power large-market FMs and abandon the ageing format. This has yet to [fully] happen – WGRR still clings to much of the late-60s/early-70s music I suspect WDJO was counting on eventual exclusivity with. These guys love the 50s/early-60s, but they’ve also been up ‘n down the tower so to speak, and are well-versed with the fortunes [rather misfortunes] of that music format. Most were from similar RealOldies 1530 WSAI which CCU pulled the plug on earlier. Hopeful and supportive optimists [myself included] predicted an eventual 3-share – that did not happen [YEP – I love them – wanted, and still do – to give them every hope for success]. ‘DJO debuted with just shy of a 2 and has fallen since.
The favorite culprit appears to be their deficient night signal – I’m not sure that I completely agree. The signal problem most aggravating occurs during critical hours [before their power-down and even after resumption of their daytime facility] when 50kw WYLL in Chicago begins it’s roll-in. This affects WDJO in Cincy’s immediate [and lucrative] northwestern-belt communities where many of their older and affluent audience works and lives. During winter months, this will occur as early as 3-4PM and haunt them beyond 9AM. This technical situation combined with the lingering WGRR which shares critical music has put a dull on that ’57 Chevy’s luster.
There’s a lot more, but a better-informed local resident should pick up at this point...
“Ten thousand oldies have taken over this frequency – 11-60 Amplitude Modulation” made its appearance in early 2006 after Salem sold the former WBOB [and its AM sister, 1050 WTSJ] to Christian Broadcasting System, LTD. They agreed to lease the 1160 facility to an enterprise which included longtime Cincy radio vet, and Hamilton County Auditor, Dusty Rhodes. The company assembled a “who’s who” of classic Top-40 talent from the market and boldly challenged wavering FM oldies outlet WGRR with the hunch that they’d soon join other full-power large-market FMs and abandon the ageing format. This has yet to [fully] happen – WGRR still clings to much of the late-60s/early-70s music I suspect WDJO was counting on eventual exclusivity with. These guys love the 50s/early-60s, but they’ve also been up ‘n down the tower so to speak, and are well-versed with the fortunes [rather misfortunes] of that music format. Most were from similar RealOldies 1530 WSAI which CCU pulled the plug on earlier. Hopeful and supportive optimists [myself included] predicted an eventual 3-share – that did not happen [YEP – I love them – wanted, and still do – to give them every hope for success]. ‘DJO debuted with just shy of a 2 and has fallen since.
The favorite culprit appears to be their deficient night signal – I’m not sure that I completely agree. The signal problem most aggravating occurs during critical hours [before their power-down and even after resumption of their daytime facility] when 50kw WYLL in Chicago begins it’s roll-in. This affects WDJO in Cincy’s immediate [and lucrative] northwestern-belt communities where many of their older and affluent audience works and lives. During winter months, this will occur as early as 3-4PM and haunt them beyond 9AM. This technical situation combined with the lingering WGRR which shares critical music has put a dull on that ’57 Chevy’s luster.
There’s a lot more, but a better-informed local resident should pick up at this point...
O
onegreatplace
Guest
yes...I will. I'll give them another year.
K
kirkiefan
Guest
Huge fan of WDJO north of Dayton. Can pick it up in my car with the engine shut off so I listen mostly online. Dusty Rhodes'(and buisiness partner Brian Kauffman) company Alchemy Broadcasting leases the frequency off of Christian Broadcast Systems. Great jingles and imaging. Charlie VanDyke does the IDs and liners as he did for Real Oldies WSAI.
Been oldies since February of 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WDJO
Seems that there are some suits on this board that are still dissin' the oldies but WCBS-FM in NYC made a comeback this week with their 60s oldies..spiced with some 70s oldies as well.
Been oldies since February of 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WDJO
Seems that there are some suits on this board that are still dissin' the oldies but WCBS-FM in NYC made a comeback this week with their 60s oldies..spiced with some 70s oldies as well.
O
onegreatplace
Guest
FM my friend, FM.
kirkiefan said:
Is it true that the pre-Charlie VanDyke voice during the 10,000-song countdown [Miss “Amplitude Modulation”] was the daughter of a local Ford dealer and early WDJO sponsor? Despite her amateur status – I thought it was a cool effect.
onegreatplace said:
Since “Run To You” [Bryan Adams] and “Faithfully” [Journey] are now considered “oldies” [per the new CBS-FM] – I guess I’ll have to act my age and admit that :'(
I DID catch “Faithfully” last week on a rouge-AM station that managed to score some fairly hot processing. YIKES! Was is it the radio - my ears – or that dose of Ambien
I think I remember reading years ago, that the 1160 in Chicago and the 1160 in Florence were co-owned. (It could have been Salem, but I think it was before them). This owner applied to the FCC to improve their Chicago pattern at the expense of our 1160 Florence friends. But this has been years ago, and I ask for help from other members to verify or shoot down my remembrance.
Around the station, we like to refer to what Salem did to 1160 Florence as "they WOWO-ed it". Salem used the co-ownership to improve the WYLL pattern by allowing interference to the Florence station, then sold it off. Exactly what Inner City did to WOWO so they could improve the WLIB signal in New York. Shameful.
Oldies on FM sound lousy with today's digital processing. They sound thin, flat, or the stereo mixes do not re-create the sound of the songs as remembered by the audience. If you forego HD and use good analog processing, you can make FM oldies sound good, but the Stalinist forced march to HD has pretty much put the kibosh on that.
As WDJO continues to educate the audience about streaming and builds out its bandwidth, expect slow growth for the next three years or so. After that, unless a surge in younger demos occurs that drives new listener interest, I believe that's about all anyone could expect of this project.
And I'm lovin' every minute of it (even if that is an 80s hair band song).
Oldies on FM sound lousy with today's digital processing. They sound thin, flat, or the stereo mixes do not re-create the sound of the songs as remembered by the audience. If you forego HD and use good analog processing, you can make FM oldies sound good, but the Stalinist forced march to HD has pretty much put the kibosh on that.
As WDJO continues to educate the audience about streaming and builds out its bandwidth, expect slow growth for the next three years or so. After that, unless a surge in younger demos occurs that drives new listener interest, I believe that's about all anyone could expect of this project.
And I'm lovin' every minute of it (even if that is an 80s hair band song).
K
kirkiefan
Guest
onegreatplace said:
It was used breifly on FM at 106.5 the Greenville frequency...what was once "the spark in the dark" WDRK back in the day now Smooth Jazz WDSJ
Cary Pall said:
VERY shameful considering the destructive interference to the exceptional effort at WDJO – for NO other reason than to improve reception of the judgmental ranting of one Brother John to a few-dozen followers keeping hogs company in the cornfields of northwest Indiana... Salem, REPENT
THANK-YOU Cary! I knew there HAD to be a group of common-sense allies [with credible hearing] out there somewhere!
How many times have we heard the phrase [even from non-radio types]: “That music just sounds better on AM”? Ask a neural-professional, and the explanation becomes simple to understand. The FIRST impression made on the mind is nearly-always the most significant and durable [as they often say with regard to a social exchange: “First impressions are lasting”].
Consider those first hearing “Catch Us If You Can” in 1965... There is a 99.999-percent probability that such occurred via AM RADIO. The “aural baseline” was established at that instant. Then fast-forward 25-years to Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” – more than likely experienced first on FM RADIO. Today, when I hear the Dave Clark Five on WDJO – I NEVER CONSIDER what I may be missing because I’m not tuned to WGRR instead... I simply enjoy hearing the song. Earlier in this post, I mentioned hearing Journey’s “Faithfully” on an aggressively-processed AM station – I happen to enjoy “potent broadcast audio”, but hearing that song on AM caused a “YIKES” reaction and a “What am I missing” in my mind [despite my appreciation for AM radio]. “Faithfully” is a song I will always equate with B94 [FM] Pittsburgh where I heard it first.
Consider the Rolling Stones... I have never been gratified hearing “Get Off My Cloud” or “The Last Time” on FM radio [they just sound “different” in an unpleasant way to me], but I cannot imagine tolerating “Emotional Rescue” or “Mixed Emotions” modulated anciently. In the “Sunday Night” thread, Cary mentioned working at WNOE [AM] NOLA. In 1979, I was tuned to a local day-timer on 1060 on a large Sony table radio with very-good AM fidelity. At sunset sign-off, WNOE came basting in [for about 15-minutes before their pattern change] airing my first exposure to Patrick Hernandez’s “Born To Be Alive”. I was amazed at the compelling audio, and will never forget the impact of the staccato piano chord thru the speaker on that Sony radio... It would never be the same when I later heard it on local FM – nor was it the same later when I acquired it on CD in the Rhino Disco Box.
All this becomes less-and-less relevant [in AM’s favor as a remaining music medium] as “pre-modern music” progresses into an era where most heard it only on FM.
‘Not if the “soldiers” refuse to march over to Best Buy and squander a few-hundred bucks on a [so-called] “HD Radio”... OOPS [I forgot] – Best Buy isn’t marching either
Hippo: you are right on the money. People crave hearing a favorite song AS THEY REMEMBER HEARING IT. That's why we have worked so hard on the WDJO audio to make it reminiscent of the great AM music stations as they were heard in the mid-late 70s, when AM audio technology was at its peak. Specifically, we have tried to emulate the sound of CKLW, a station we also tried to copy in the 70s at WSAI during the E. Alvin Davis era. On a table radio in 1977, WSAI's AM audio sounded cleaner than most of the FMs in town. This was no accident; we worked very hard on the audio chain (we brought in NBC AM engineer John Bailie from WMAQ in 1977 to help us; he also set up WNBC when Bob Pittman took over) and re-dubbed the library on then state-of-art equipment. Jim Loupas at WCFL, Ed Buterbaugh at CKLW, Bailie in Chicago and Krause in New York at NBC, along with the greatest AM antenna engineer of all time, Harv Rees, had these AMs sounding incredibly good. If you ever go to Gunnison, Colorado, listen to Harv's little AM there. It sounds GREAT.
Music of the late 70s and beyond was designed to be heard on a wideband medium like FM, and tend to sound brittle and metallic trying to be shoved through the narrow bandwidth of AM. In '77 at WSAI, we had to work on songs like "Cold As Ice" in pre-production to make them sound right on AM. And, before the revisionists diss the WSAI of this era, remember this: in 1978, WSAI was the only heritage Top-40 to regroup, rebound and beat its FM competitor in Arbitron in any market I know of during the era when FM overtook AM.
B-94, eh? Now there's a station that had AM-like audio on FM. Very compressed, yet clean. Joe Reilly's FM in Berwick/Bloomsburg, PA has similar sounding audio. He uses a newly rebuilt Optimod 8100 XT. No HD, no digital processing. The classic hits sound the way his listeners remember them.
As for the critical-hours problem, if they would simply make WYLL go to night pattern at Cincinnati sunset times, that would help. The problems are worst during that time window where we are at night power and WYLL is still on day pattern. But WDJO will never cover the northern suburbs, even if WYLL went dark.
Music of the late 70s and beyond was designed to be heard on a wideband medium like FM, and tend to sound brittle and metallic trying to be shoved through the narrow bandwidth of AM. In '77 at WSAI, we had to work on songs like "Cold As Ice" in pre-production to make them sound right on AM. And, before the revisionists diss the WSAI of this era, remember this: in 1978, WSAI was the only heritage Top-40 to regroup, rebound and beat its FM competitor in Arbitron in any market I know of during the era when FM overtook AM.
B-94, eh? Now there's a station that had AM-like audio on FM. Very compressed, yet clean. Joe Reilly's FM in Berwick/Bloomsburg, PA has similar sounding audio. He uses a newly rebuilt Optimod 8100 XT. No HD, no digital processing. The classic hits sound the way his listeners remember them.
As for the critical-hours problem, if they would simply make WYLL go to night pattern at Cincinnati sunset times, that would help. The problems are worst during that time window where we are at night power and WYLL is still on day pattern. But WDJO will never cover the northern suburbs, even if WYLL went dark.
Thank-you Cary – that’s very kind coming from you! After my last post, I recalled another good example of how the neural sub-conscience may affect our [my] appreciation of an emblematic 60s song heard on AM versus FM. Last spring [not long after WDJO’s debut], I was in the area for a week and decided to drive to Cincy to lunch with a friend. Early that morning, the FM band was open, and I was able to hear WLDE [FM] Fort Wayne on my father’s nice Sangean “Wooden” table radio connected to an otherwise-unused outdoor TV antenna up 40-feet. WLDE is an exception to the “oldies sound like crap on FM” paradigm – their audio is aggressive but judiciously-processed, and the songs are ever-so-slightly “hyped” [about 1.5-2%]. Jonathan King’s “Everyone’s Gone To The Moon” appeared [a favorite] – I found myself thinking: “good song, that’s nice” and went about my business.
Three hours later, I was in my father’s Buick on I-275 northwest [at the Regan interchange] listening to WDJO. Jonathan King re-appeared... Instead of hitting the band switch to WGRR [because I had heard the song earlier] – I reached down and cranked that Delco up; found myself really enjoying the encore; and realizing that it was [somehow] more-compelling on 1160AM. I swear to you – this was NOT some aging broadcaster’s attempt to rationalize the alleged deficiencies of AM radio – it was a genuine phenomena!
You’ve just tagged the “Trinity” of AM engineering, Cary! All TOO often. TOO many marvel at their Star Trek-ish Omnia AM box firing a reasonably-modern rig – and think they have all the bases covered. TISK-TISK! [Recalling a political statement regarding the economy] “IT’S THE ANTENNA, STUPID!” I was fortunate to have a contract engineer [a Harv Rees “disciple”] who worked with me on an AM upgrade in the early-90s that preceded a flip from “AM Only” [off the bird] to locally-programmed Oldies. NO transmission hardware [with circuits] changed... NOT our stack of CRL components fed via carefully-equalized Telco by an Aphex Compellor – NOT our impeccably-maintained decade-old 1kw Harris MW-1 rig [we even flushed-out its notorious IPM despite the lack of AM-stereo]. Save the original steel on the tower, the antenna was completely rebuilt... New Andrew line; a custom-designed folded uni-pole skirt [designed to achieve “flat” system impedance/bandwidth and low J-factor [not the mythical increase in field-strength]; and a HOME-BREWED antenna ATU in a new Kintronics box – literally built on the floor of our AM control room. Oh what a beautiful sight that finished box with its shiny-new Delta base-current meter was to behold! ‘Shame it lived behind an eight-foot stockade fence to keep people and grazing cattle at bay. While the prior facility sounded good and coverage was a bit beyond the norm – we were entertained by the challenge to be better... The result was MUCH BETTER! Audio quality, density, and “impact” were off-the-scale [causing one to fondly-appreciate his choice of the radio profession]. The 180-watt [ND] night signal bettered the heritage AM in town with 500-watts [DA] at night – and they paid dearly for it come acquisition time ;D
On a Monday morning, we hit that big green button on the improved facility and inaugurated our Oldies format with Lighthouse’s “One Fine Morning” followed by Chase’s brassy “Get It On (In The Morning Now)”, then Giorgio’s “Son Of My Father” [for my engineer dad and I]. The titles were chosen for their message - but also their sonic quality. I was at home listening on a Carver TX-11b wideband AM tuner on my living room system... Taking a line from “The Shawshank Redemption” – “I nearly soiled myself” It WAS the ANTENNA, stupid!
Three hours later, I was in my father’s Buick on I-275 northwest [at the Regan interchange] listening to WDJO. Jonathan King re-appeared... Instead of hitting the band switch to WGRR [because I had heard the song earlier] – I reached down and cranked that Delco up; found myself really enjoying the encore; and realizing that it was [somehow] more-compelling on 1160AM. I swear to you – this was NOT some aging broadcaster’s attempt to rationalize the alleged deficiencies of AM radio – it was a genuine phenomena!
Cary Pall said:
You’ve just tagged the “Trinity” of AM engineering, Cary! All TOO often. TOO many marvel at their Star Trek-ish Omnia AM box firing a reasonably-modern rig – and think they have all the bases covered. TISK-TISK! [Recalling a political statement regarding the economy] “IT’S THE ANTENNA, STUPID!” I was fortunate to have a contract engineer [a Harv Rees “disciple”] who worked with me on an AM upgrade in the early-90s that preceded a flip from “AM Only” [off the bird] to locally-programmed Oldies. NO transmission hardware [with circuits] changed... NOT our stack of CRL components fed via carefully-equalized Telco by an Aphex Compellor – NOT our impeccably-maintained decade-old 1kw Harris MW-1 rig [we even flushed-out its notorious IPM despite the lack of AM-stereo]. Save the original steel on the tower, the antenna was completely rebuilt... New Andrew line; a custom-designed folded uni-pole skirt [designed to achieve “flat” system impedance/bandwidth and low J-factor [not the mythical increase in field-strength]; and a HOME-BREWED antenna ATU in a new Kintronics box – literally built on the floor of our AM control room. Oh what a beautiful sight that finished box with its shiny-new Delta base-current meter was to behold! ‘Shame it lived behind an eight-foot stockade fence to keep people and grazing cattle at bay. While the prior facility sounded good and coverage was a bit beyond the norm – we were entertained by the challenge to be better... The result was MUCH BETTER! Audio quality, density, and “impact” were off-the-scale [causing one to fondly-appreciate his choice of the radio profession]. The 180-watt [ND] night signal bettered the heritage AM in town with 500-watts [DA] at night – and they paid dearly for it come acquisition time ;D
On a Monday morning, we hit that big green button on the improved facility and inaugurated our Oldies format with Lighthouse’s “One Fine Morning” followed by Chase’s brassy “Get It On (In The Morning Now)”, then Giorgio’s “Son Of My Father” [for my engineer dad and I]. The titles were chosen for their message - but also their sonic quality. I was at home listening on a Carver TX-11b wideband AM tuner on my living room system... Taking a line from “The Shawshank Redemption” – “I nearly soiled myself”
It WAS the ANTENNA, stupid!Can I get an AMEN, brother!
I worked with Harv back in the 70s at WBBF Rochester, probably the only antenna farm Harv couldn't fix (due to ownership unwilling to spend the money). He was my engineering mentor (and especially enjoyed hearing "Troglodyte" on BBF as I recall). My uncle and I went on a Jeep Jamboree in Colorado five years ago and saw Harv and his lovely wife Linda at the station in Gunnison during our trip.
I worked with Harv back in the 70s at WBBF Rochester, probably the only antenna farm Harv couldn't fix (due to ownership unwilling to spend the money). He was my engineering mentor (and especially enjoyed hearing "Troglodyte" on BBF as I recall). My uncle and I went on a Jeep Jamboree in Colorado five years ago and saw Harv and his lovely wife Linda at the station in Gunnison during our trip.
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