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WEGO 980 in Winston-Salem
- Thread starter DubbaDon
- Start date
I still remember maybe 11 years ago I talked with Mutter Evans about her station (when WEGO was WAAA) and the possibility of buying it from her, and her answer was that she wouldn’t consider selling it to a Hispanic guy that will put Spanish programming on it.
tropicanamedia said:
And your point is.....
stafferman said:
The “tale” of my comment is, that she lost the station in a very bad way. My name and my reputation mean a lot more to me than Dollars. She and her name probably would stand in better grounds these days if she had rid of the station when somebody threw a line to her.
Okay, I'm not "Mr. GM" of WSJS. But I do know for a fact the News is not farmed out. It's still live and local. Outside the fact I hate the Dave Ramsey show, I like the changes on WSJS. Love the News at Noon. It's live. Clark Howard is so much better than Dave Ramsey. Bob Campbell is live and local. No one else is doing that. Only change I did not like was not leaving Dennis Miller on at 10 am to follow JR. Not sure why so many of you take shots at WSJS all the time. To each their own.
2BZ4BS said:
I honestly can't speak to much of the Mid-Day stuff or even afternoon. I'll have to listen to the Noon News, I honestly didn't even know that existed. I just saw it on their website under the Program Schedule. But I do know this, they used to have an absolute KILLER afternoon drive evening news hour with Skip Staples. I don't know if he retired or got canned but I know they didn't replace him. It makes a lot more radio sense, to have a live evening news hour if you're going to do a full news hour. Not at Noon. That just screams mismanagement. You have a "live news hour" at noon? when everyone is at work or eating lunch? and a canned news hour at 5 or 6 when they're on their drive home. AKA in their cars AKA the only place people listen to radio. And their current news hour at night is canned, the guy doing it sounds like a robot.
I do get a chance to listen to Bob Campbell every now and then. Bob is a good broadcaster for sure, it's just an odd show....they still bill themselves as "The Triad's News Radio". They were talking about soap operas one afternoon when I tuned in...I'll give them credit for being live and local in the afternoons. Anything beats Hannity or as Michael Salvage calls him, the Wallbanger lol.
But WSJS used to be an absolutely unreal station to listen to with the news & content that they had. News was top notch, personalities top notch, tons of features/live reports. Just balls to the wall great news.
They have jumbled so much crap over the past 3 years, it gets to the point where it's too much to keep track of and it's just lost. There's a big term radio consultants like to use called "appointment listening". When you fire well known people (smith patterson) , change shows around, constantly jumble thing it makes the listener confused and when the listener is confused they're changing the dial. The average listener could sum up the past 5 or so years at that station by saying "they just got rid of the best news guy in the market and I have no idea what shows are on anymore".
Also, the Hungerfords were WSJS loyalists. They were on in the morning, they sounded awesome in the 9 a.m. hour when J.R. Snider had them on. They were financial guys that were so good at not sounding like an infomercial, which can be tough to do.
Did they leave just out of the blue? Did Smith get fired out of the blue? Did Brad and Britt just take off for the hell of it?
They're legendary morning news voice is gone and one of their top annual advertisers leaves the station. Is it all one big conspiracy of angry radio listeners? I just don't think they're being managed right and haven't been for a long time. When Tom Hamilton got fired I thought they would be on the up and up with some new management but I guess that's not really the case.
It was a once tremendous radio station that is beyond a shell of their former self. But you do have to give them credit for airing Bob Campbell in the afternoons.....
upon further review, I have determined that the entire WSJS in-house news department consists of Ed Skurka and one of the rejects from WZTK. That's still better than running nccn's AP copy readers all day, but its hardly anything worth bragging about.
To stafferman. You hit it on the head with the term "mismanagement." That's obviously Don Curtis's new mantra. "Keep 'em guessing" is his latest theory along with "AM's gonna make a comeback!" He wanted WZTK to be his "legacy" station, so instead of letting the great management team he had do what he hired them for, he kept stepping in and stirring the pot. That confused everyone and therefore they had no way to sell time and make money on the station. So when he decided it wasn't working he simply stepped in front of the management team and TOLD them what to do next, go hispanic! It's actually MORE than mismanagement, it's called bungling. : THAT'S his legacy!
THAT'S his legacy!With all due respect to a few folks, the current WSJS would have not survived at 101.1FM.
Long ago lost sight of the reason people listened to the station - quality content - and sacrificed it for the dollar. When you start selling the privilege to host a program with no consideration for how much audience appeal they might be for it's content ..... The more narrow the subject, the smaller the potential audience. Some of the paid topics (not identified as infomercials, but that is what they were) had such a narrow appeal they drove of the regular listener - who found alternatives.
Sure it is a business, who's goal is to make money. In 2004, the station billed over $4 million! No where near that today, I am sure.
Long ago lost sight of the reason people listened to the station - quality content - and sacrificed it for the dollar. When you start selling the privilege to host a program with no consideration for how much audience appeal they might be for it's content ..... The more narrow the subject, the smaller the potential audience. Some of the paid topics (not identified as infomercials, but that is what they were) had such a narrow appeal they drove of the regular listener - who found alternatives.
Sure it is a business, who's goal is to make money. In 2004, the station billed over $4 million! No where near that today, I am sure.
goatboy said:
funny.
i knew that the old 980 was WAAA. what i didn't realize was that 107.5 had been WAAA-FM. so, while they're not connected now, they do have that past connection.
here's another. for a while in the 90s, they were 107-5 the Eagle.
so now, coming full circle, we have 980 the Eagle. i hate that eagle sfx though. too screechy for my ears.
it seems to me there are a few things SJS easily could do to improve their situation in short order:
1) Either carry ramsey or clark howard, but not BOTH for crying out loud. Just how much consumer advocacy radio can people listen to on a daily basis? Personally, I would ditch ramsey in a heartbeat. He's soooooooooo preachy and soooooooooo boring, and likes to talk endlessly about the financial mistakes he made when he was young and foolish. Way too much self-admonishment. Also, why does he constantly have to impose his religious perspective on listeners during a financial program? Yuck.
2) Find a nice conservative talker--local or syndicated--for middays, someone who can be engaging without ranting the way Savage does. If jason lewis becomes available, get him.
3) Get rid of that disjointed news hour at 12p.
4) Get rid of that automated-sounding NCNN news hour at 6.
5) One weekday evening nascar program per week is plenty.
1) Either carry ramsey or clark howard, but not BOTH for crying out loud. Just how much consumer advocacy radio can people listen to on a daily basis? Personally, I would ditch ramsey in a heartbeat. He's soooooooooo preachy and soooooooooo boring, and likes to talk endlessly about the financial mistakes he made when he was young and foolish. Way too much self-admonishment. Also, why does he constantly have to impose his religious perspective on listeners during a financial program? Yuck.
2) Find a nice conservative talker--local or syndicated--for middays, someone who can be engaging without ranting the way Savage does. If jason lewis becomes available, get him.
3) Get rid of that disjointed news hour at 12p.
4) Get rid of that automated-sounding NCNN news hour at 6.
5) One weekday evening nascar program per week is plenty.
disgruntled said:
Ramsey pays them to be on the air.....there's no way they're getting rid of him, by default because of the situation they're in they can't get rid of him
They had an absolute silver platter GOLDEN opportunity to pick up Mike Huckabee and 980 beat them to that. Do they have a P.D. at WSJS? You would have to be an idiot not to try and get that show....A nice, non yelling/non-conspiratorial conservative talker who is SOUTHERN on top of it.
Noon News should be at 5pm. Hands down, easiest switch to make, you're right
Anything, ANYTHING is better than NCNN. They should get away from that whole brand immediately. A statewide radio news network? It doesn't make any sense and it sounds terrible. Might as well as Metro Networks, at least they have professional broadcasters at Metro.
The NASCAR thing could be a good move...although Curtis would probably want that on "The Triad Sports Network"....anyone remember those stations? Yikes
Bob Brown bought WAAA AM and FM and gave the AM to Mutter Evans. He changed the FM call to WKZL and later sold it to Nationwide. He owns WKBC AM and FM at present.
Anyone who has been in radio the last 10-12 years know that Program Directors and Operation Managers have NO say so in what goes on the air anymore. They can make suggestions, but all decisions come from the top. Then the PD's and OM's are made to do the dirty work. And yes, they take the blame too.
I feel WSJS is doing what every other AM radio station in the world is doing...adapt and survive. That is the name of the game. News At Noon is capitalizing on at work listening. Not to mention online listening as well. Online listening is the "in" thing now. If TV is doing News At Noon, why not radio? The same can be said about traffic reports at lunch. Why have them? Because someone said it was needed.
I wish WEGO and WSJS all the luck in the world. No matter if you like the programming or not, I hope both stations survive and make an impact.
I feel WSJS is doing what every other AM radio station in the world is doing...adapt and survive. That is the name of the game. News At Noon is capitalizing on at work listening. Not to mention online listening as well. Online listening is the "in" thing now. If TV is doing News At Noon, why not radio? The same can be said about traffic reports at lunch. Why have them? Because someone said it was needed.
I wish WEGO and WSJS all the luck in the world. No matter if you like the programming or not, I hope both stations survive and make an impact.
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