WEMR

[normhill007]

My last gig before I got somewhat smart, was WEMR and was hired by Jim Petrie who had gone there for sales from Oldies 92 and was made GM-After I started there, Jim told me I was the last chance for the station to survive as Norm Werkheiser and Don Sherwood were tired of pouring money in. Jim asked me if I knew anything about country and I said...NO..he said I'd learn..And the really funny thing is, the AM was making money until they put in the FM and whoever wired the place had impedence mismatches on each pot so the mike pot had to be wide open and the cart and cd sliders each had differant levels to get 100 percent. And an automation system that was next to worthless. spots that were missed and never made up was staggering..But the AM made money.. Jim would go out on a Monday morning and we wouldn't see him until Wed or Thursday when he'd have a fist full of clients that he had to work his tail off to get clients because nobody in Tunkhannock would buy, Had to sell in Montrose, Towanda, and every one horse town in between. as one merchant put it, "Don Sherwood has enough money"., Jeff Laird came on with a cash infusion and Jim tried to explain the uniqueness of the area and Laird wouldn't hear of it so Jim was fired because, "he didn't know the radio business". Well, we had lots of revenue, and Jim was paying all the bills on time and catching up with the ones that were sitting on the desk.. 107.7 was Rock and the rightful one to call ourselves Rock 107 and I kept saying go for it as I'm sure some of Rock 107's numbers were ours, (not that we had any of our own-18 books in Wyoming County don't a ratings powerhouse make) but Laird Poo Poo'ed that one because we became....BRIGHT 107...simulcast on the AM..It was supposed to be Magic with an edge..We were sold a pig in a poke by westwood 1..their sample playlist looked fine..Elton John, Michael Jackson (Still King of Pop), Fleetwood Mac...but when it went on live we had at least 1 of each every hour..I did my thing but the real estate lady downtown became the ad hoc music director..(She'd call Jeff and ask why I played this and why I said that)..So when Bright was finally gasping it's last, went back to rock on FM and country on AM..couldn't recover..Ronnie Schact had to ride up the mountain to the tower on his motorcycle at least once a week to put us back on because the cheap-A**generator wouldn't start..That includes blinding snowstorms..I'm amazed he's still alive after some of those trips. Laird kept hiring long legged sales girls who would be praised for selling 500 dollars a week..I can count maybe 5 times that he actually went out to make a sales call. Then we got EJL or Rock 107's OLD automation system for the FM and that also screwed clients out of their advertising dollars..but that was ok as, because of sales girls who couldn't sell, I did tons gratis during morning drive just so I could fill 3 3 minutes spot clusters and maybe sound like a real station. Then, to make matters worse, Citadel bought the thing for twice what they would have taken for it. 875,000...Don and Norm Werkheiser, it's rumored, wanted to keep the AM and take less money but Citadel wanted it all..I stayed as a favor to Bill Betz because he asked me to stay as "station manager" 8-5 for public files purposes..as a side note, Regina Todd wanted the file cabinets so she had me throw out the public files..I wish the FCC would have visited..One highlight, We got the Luzerne County Fair one year for some wierd reason..We had a mascot Called "Dinger the Duck" and an "I'll try anything once" part timer who loved playing Dinger...We were set up at the top of the hill just before going down into the pit and Dinger was playing the crowd..they had a bungie jump on the far side of the grounds..I was in the middle of a cut away when I see this Yellow thing being pulled up by the crane..Yup, it was Dinger..They cut him loose and there were yellow feathers flying everywhere..How he kept the 15 pound duck head on I'll never figure out.

 

[shawnshannon]

the good old days!
i was brought into WEMR to do the night shift after my stint with the defunct Q102 .. Aldo Cardoni (the PD of the century in my opinion) remembered me .. met with Jim Petrie .. and all was history.
Norm .. was doing his shift on the first remote i was at ... and kept calling me Shadow Shannon or Shawn Steele ... those were damn fun times.
As Norm said ... that station made money for itself. Our paychecks were there each week, and i don't recall one time we were worried whether the lights would be shut off.
The problems with the wiring and boards were always a fun thing to go through.
during my shift on the AM .. the FM would be on automation .. and the cart machine would get stuck, and i'd have to leave the AM station and run the FM station .. hence bringing in the old Rock 107 cartwheel machines. Ron the engineer said they were crap when EZX threw them away ... and yet .. we used them anyway.
they'd get stuck just as much or more...
who could forget hearing the same commercial for an hour and a half ... then all of a sudden having the nearest person to the station to go there and try to fix the situation ... which was usually me... since i lived right in town.
It all started going downhill once Jim left and shortly after .. Aldo was let go.
They had me wearing all sorts of hats ... calling record companies ... doing shifts on the AM and FM ..
then .... had the idea it was good to sell to Citadel and we'd all be in a better position.
I had a few jobs with the new company ... then just sat at a desk until Bill Betz was transferred ... that was my last day.
Norm stuck around until Regina must have found out we actually had someone in Tunkhannock.

that's the last radio gig i had, as well.

i miss the feeling of everyone is in it for the same reason.
not the feeling of what i witnessed with the new position and company... where people were just looking out at numbers and out for themselves.

it may be a dog eat dog world ....... but the rest of the animals have to eat, too.

i miss the old crew.

 

[Nairda]

WHEW

 

[Skunkboy]

My entire post-college radio career was at WEMR. I came in during the RockFM/CountryAM phase, initially just needing weekend work, but ended up being tossed into middays on the FM side after the longtime midday guy got fired for falling asleep during his Sunday gospel show on the AM side.
I did that for a month or so, then middays went to automation until Shawn's afternoon drivetime show. After that, I was pretty much only on the FM when Shawn or Nicole were doing a live remote, or if the automation went down, and Jeff needed a human being at the board.
I did end up taking over the Sunday morning gospel show, since nobody else wanted it. At the end of that show, we just broadcast a tape of a service from one of the churches in town, and I'd work on the list of ads and PSA's that Nicole would leave for me, until it was time to just do "board-op" during the MRN feed, running the local spots.

I learned a lot at WEMR, even if a lot of it was what not to do.

 

[yonkstur]

First off, I'm glad to be back on the board. After getting a new computer and a trying new job, password troubles on Radio Info were not the top priority. But I finally figured it out (I'm a slow study) and I'm here.
First order of business, HELLO NORM HILL! Norm and I shared an affinity for ragtops and I think I gave Norm a spare boot for his LeBaron. Norm, still driving a ragtop and letting the sun shrink what's left of my brain. One of the funiest stories I had about Norm was when I asked him to do voice overs for my little Sunday morning radio show on WBAX in the late eighties and his PD at WARM told him he couldn't do it because I was the competition. What flattery, sandwiched between the Rosary and the Polkas, the PD at WARM thought I was competition. Made my sorry ass career, I'll tell you that.
Jim Petrie and I have lunch every few months and he is one of the finest, smartest radio guys out there which is why he doesn't have a job in radio and Jeff Laird does! Jim constantly told me about WEMR and everything he and Aldo did there was not rocket science, just common sense. Image the station, sell the station, and people listen to it. Petrie's ideas at other stations were all shot down because they made sense. The man had so much too impart but no one lstened. Anyway, Jim is a great friend (I met him when were at Rock 107 together) and it is a testament to the type of GM he was that no one has said a bad word about him and the way he ran the place.
When I got to Citadel, I remember a couple of sales guys going out to WEMR and trying to sell advertising it to the people of Ttown. One of the things I noticed about Wyoming County folk is they won't throw their hard earned money at something that is not nearly an institution. Petrie and his sales staff built a successful sales base because they were trusted. After the sale and the varied formats, no one bought. The sales guys thought they were gonna ride in and get some quick loot. Not there, so they spent their days virtually raping what was left of the physical studios, coming back with all of the old country CDs and I think a battered office chair. That's was after Regina discovered someone was there.
And speaking of Radio Stories, just a shameless plug here, "A RADIO STORY/WE WISH YOU WELL IN YOUR FUTURE ENDEAVORS" is still in your local Barnes & Nobles stores. Autograpghed no less or you can reach me at [email protected]. Also, my other book, LEGIS VITAE, 26 Rules of Life is also on sale there too.
Glad to be back.
Yonkstur

 

[masterg]

Good to see you back, Yonk. This board is the better with you here. Sadly, I don't believe I ever once heard WEMR, so commenting on it's image/sound is out for me. T-Town was once the personal domain of the late Bert Miller, WARM Sales Rep. WARM all but owned Tunkhnannock, and much of it had to do, of course, with WARM's signal being the only decent one in town. Those Five Towers of Power were right down the road.

Quick story about a WARM account, one that I do believe is still in business in Tunkhannock. This certain retailer was having a big "Sidewalk Sale" on a Saturday in July. It was hazy, hot, it was humid. The NWS had issued a severe thunderstorm watch early, and by mid-day, the warnings had started to pop all over NE PA, including several for Tunkhannock and Wyoming County. We, of course, we're doing what we were supposed to do and airing the warnings with some frequency. That's why we're there, on the air, live and all, right?

Well, that ain't how this certain merchant(he was a regular sponsor) saw things. He called repeatedly, in a complete apoplectic tirade, POed because we were driving his customers away. Each time he called with a profanity-laced attack, whoever answered the phone at WARM(there were at least three of us on duty)would listen politely, then hang up on the guy. Five mintues later, we'd mention the warnings, there he'd be again, and again, and again. This went on for hours.

Finally, with my shift ending, I took one last call from this dude. Only this time, I'd had it, I launched on him, called him all sorts of things, a lot of words with "k" in them. I mean I nailed him such that I full well expected at least, at the very least, some serious consequences come Monday, maybe even getting my butt fired...but nothing happened. Such was WARM at that time; duty and obligation to the listener first, sponsor second. He had complained. He'd been told that, with life and limb at stake, we'd done the right thing, case closed. His complaints would be duly noted, but that was it.

Oh, what a different game it was...

 

[kenhawk1160]

The last I heard, WEMR was off the air. Is that still the case? Does anyone know why it's off or if it's ever coming back?

Norman Werkheiser had interviewed me for station manager before they decided on Jim Petrie. I was working at a station in Indiana County at the time, and I sent one of our guys up there to do news and sell for them (Dan Miller).

I remember Norm once telling me that everything was going OK up until the FM went on the air. He really loved that station, but didn't love shoveling money into it all the time. Good guy...class act.

 

[wirelessinnepa]

WEMR has resumed programming. It went back on on August 31st. We do have big plans for this station. We took it off for the summer to help realize those plans, and we're still working on it.

Incidentally, the last poster mentioned Norm Werkheiser. What a great guy Norm is...when we took over the stations three years ago, Norm came up a couple of times and helped out locating things like the system that uses the forced air out of our big RCA 5 kilowatt AM transmitter to heat the building...the well, etc. When we went silent with WEMR in March, the difference in the "Coziness" in our building was immediately noticable, as that transmitter REALLY DOES do a lot toward heating the building! Norm and the guys who came before us really did an ingenious thing by building that duct system...there are two positions to it..."Winter" and "Summer" ...on that first hot day in April or early May, it can get REALLY hot in here with the heat blowing in from the tubes.

Replace the AM transmitter? Well, maybe, but a newer more efficient model certainly won't generate that amount of heat and we'll have to concern ourselves with heating all over again...there are baseboard heaters too, but just like a woodstove, if you've ever heated with one of those, the constant gentle flow of heat, really makes it nice in here in the wintertime.

There's been a little speculation on what WEMR's up to...I suspect that by the first of the year we may have some answers for you all. Thanks for the great stories of the station's early existance....I enjoy them.

Ben Smith
WEMR

 

[MCNDRWS]

I Joined WEMR In Mid 1990, I Left WSGD To Go There After Talking To Aldo On The Phone When I Saw The

FM Construction Application In Broadcasting Magazine. I Had Gotten Married In January And Had Been

Commuting The 32 Miles Each Way From Tunkhannock, Where My New Wife Was From, So The One Mile Drive

Up Mile Hill From Our Apartment Was A Dream! I Never Realized It Would Turn Into A Nightmare. I Took The

Open Position Of News Director, And Aldo And I Worked Our Asses Off Putting 107.7 On The Air. We Found

A Satellite Format That We Liked And Could Pull Off Live In The Daytime That I Think Was Called "Rock

And Roll Favorites". Imagine Our Horror When The First Package Came and it Was "Traditional Country"!!!!!

Normie Had Switched Formats On Us. We Convinced Him To Change It Back To Rock, And I signed WYMK On

The Air On October 9th 1990, At 1:07 In The Afternoon.

I Remember The First 2 Songs I Played Were John Lennon's (Just Like) Starting Over And Tom Petty's New

One "Running Down A Dream". Our Airstaff Consisted Of 3 Guys, Joe "Richards" Pinto, (Who Had Been Doing

The WEMR Morning Show With Norman's Son Glenn), Aldo Was Doing 10 to 1 Calling Himself Jonathon Carr.

And I Took The Afternoon Shift From 1 To 5. Once My Show Was Over We Switched To The Satellite. Now

That's When The Problems Started!!!! It Was Bob Graham (George's Brother) That Did All That Horrible

Wiring. And We Had This Nasty Old Automation System That Always skipped Spots. We ran That Way For

About A Year When "The Board" Got The Idea That They Could Save Money On The FM By Getting Rid Of

Everybody But Aldo So I Was Out The Door. Jim Petrie Came In Shortly After That And That Story Has Been

Told In Other Postings.

 

[warmland]

I Joined WEMR In Mid 1990, I Left WSGD To Go There After Talking To Aldo On The Phone When I Saw The

Mr. Dave, Didn't you also work at Froggy for a short time after leaving SGD?

 

[kenhawk1160]

What a great guy Norm is...when we took over the stations three years ago, Norm came up a couple of times and helped out locating things like the system that uses the forced air out of our big RCA 5 kilowatt AM transmitter to heat the building...the well, etc.

Like I said, Ben...Norm is a class act in every sense of the word. He really loved WEMR and I know he probably had a hard time letting it go. It's really a shame that they couldn't make more of a go of it. One problem was that there were too many hands in the pie (as in investors, and not all of them were reputable), and everyone wanted something different. There were too many personalities clashing and pulling rank based on who kicked in the most money.

When Norm was president, he was a "lead by example" kind of fellow. The problem is, not enough people chose to follow it. He didn't know the radio business, nor did he claim to be a radio expert, but he made a very concerted effort to learn. I'll defend him to my last breath.

 

[MCNDRWS]

Mr. Dave, Didn't you also work at Froggy for a short time after leaving SGD?

Yeah I Was The First Of Four (I Think) Jimmy Hoppa's Shortly After Froggy Went On The Air in 1994.

I Was On Air Seven To Midnight .. And Did A Lot Of That Cryin',Lovin' Laughin' or Leavin' Request Stuff.

I Gave Country Music A Try .... But I'm Sorry, It All Sounds The Same To Me. I Just Couldn't Get Into

The Groove. I was There Just About 6 Months When The PD And I Decided That It Was Time I Hopped Off.


RIBBIT! ... "Nuff Said.

 

[kenhawk1160]

WEMR has resumed programming. It went back on on August 31st. We do have big plans for this station. We took it off for the summer to help realize those plans, and we're still working on it.

Ben, I forgot to ask...are you still doing adult standard on EMR? Or has the format evolved into something else?

 

[wirelessinnepa]

I believe the last time that WEMR did adult standards was when Citadel had 1460 WEMR, 1440 WCDL and 1490 WAZL linked doing Standards as a trimulcast. Since we don't own 1440 or 1490 that of course has since ended and when we bought 1460 it was running a simulcast of Cat Country 96 in Allentown. (Complete with legal ID's which ran on all stations, I believe...which really must have made the poeple in Allentown say "Where the heck's Tunkhannock and Carbondale?!? They were also running 94.3 with the Cat Country feed.)

We put our AC format on the station when we bought it, and had some limited success by expanding our Sullivan County station with the AM frequency here in Tunkhannock and also by virtue of the fact that it's on the cable here.

Since that time instead of combining our AM in Tunk and FM in Sullivan County, we have combined our FM's and are planning something different and new for the AM. Right now the AM is simulcasting WCOZ, as we plan/build.

 

[kenhawk1160]

I believe the last time that WEMR did adult standards was when Citadel had 1460 WEMR, 1440 WCDL and 1490 WAZL linked doing Standards as a trimulcast. Since we don't own 1440 or 1490 that of course has since ended and when we bought 1460 it was running a simulcast of Cat Country 96 in Allentown. (Complete with legal ID's which ran on all stations, I believe...which really must have made the poeple in Allentown say "Where the heck's Tunkhannock and Carbondale?!? They were also running 94.3 with the Cat Country feed.)

We put our AC format on the station when we bought it, and had some limited success by expanding our Sullivan County station with the AM frequency here in Tunkhannock and also by virtue of the fact that it's on the cable here.

Since that time instead of combining our AM in Tunk and FM in Sullivan County, we have combined our FM's and are planning something different and new for the AM. Right now the AM is simulcasting WCOZ, as we plan/build.

Ben, I wish you the best of luck. Please keep it Tunk!

 

[carlvenorden]

Hi Ben, this is just my take on things.
I was there when both WEMR and WYMK went on the air. I also saw what Citadel did to the inside of the building. I can not say that they ever took care of the WEMR ground system (and it is pretty well known that the WARM ground system is shot). One day a few years ago I stopped by WEMR to take a few pictures, and inside and outside the property looked dilapidated and non-cared for. I took a walk up by the towers and noticed radials sticking out of the ground. This was when Citadel owned it, and I haven't been up there since (and should have come up since you offered me those cart machines!.....thanx, sorry that didn't happen!).

Now, this is mainly for the posters who will say I do not know what I am talking about, as they have said before. However, for a local station to be successful in it's local area, it needs to program, and be very special, and not replacable to the citizens of Tunkannock. When WEMR signed on, that is exactly what they did.

The fact that WEMR has a very nice signal is a great start. If I were you (again, suggestions here), I would look closely at the ground system which sits if I recall on shale.
It needs to be the best it can be, because the signal has indeed degraded in Wayne County where once it was a powerhouse.

WCDL just recently dumped standards and that is indeed the only format left that an AM can take on (I thought it would work in Carbondale, and it didn't apparently; it may not work in Tunk anymore either).

The solution as I see it for WEMR is to make it a full service radio station.

That is: Some local news in the morning and afternoon drive times, a local air personality between 5am and 7pm (two people, 7 hour shifts, who could also do the local news).
MOR music: up to date, or old, doesn't matter, with community buletin boards inbetween the songs. In Your Face promotion in town, and get the town businesses involved with WEMR, first with very affordable advertising, and let them fly your banner/sign in their store window, saying they support you. School closings live in the winter, wx reports year round.

A very well done similar station is WRNJ in Hackettstown, NJ.
They have several talk shows, done live (or recorded) by people who are actually doing business in town. One is a contractor, who comes on live on Saturday mornings at 9am, and gives advice to callers and listeners as to how to fix what and how. Another of thier shows is a real estate show, another features a psychologist (and yes I believe he has nearly all the cm's in that show too), and takes calls........it is interesting listening. They happen to play oldies, but tend to lean more on the bird than on thier own local personalities which they do have.

Full service AMs have the rep of being very expensive to program. They don't have to be.
What they need is a couple of full time people to staff it during the week, it can be automated at night, and partially on the weekends.

I last worked for an AM in Scranton. The problem here was the owner refused to advertise the station. Result?......its not there anymore, at least the way we had it. A billboard here and there and a newspaper ad (tradeout is fine) will do a lot of good to get the frequency number to the eyes of parents who may just be interested in what happened in the Tunk area overnight.

I don't expect but a music format from Gem, but for WEMR, to give it a chance, I would like to see it take on a full service type format as described, grow it, advertise that it is there, and see where it goes. Other than another on the bird talk format/rebroadcast, WEMR will fluster if that happens.

Again gents, this is my opinion of a station in an area where a full service format could really work out (and, it is heard in scranton, too.) To me, this is an opportunity.
Carl
[email protected]

 

[kenhawk1160]

Hi Ben, this is just my take on things.
I was there when both WEMR and WYMK went on the air. I also saw what Citadel did to the inside of the building. I can not say that they ever took care of the WEMR ground system (and it is pretty well known that the WARM ground system is shot). One day a few years ago I stopped by WEMR to take a few pictures, and inside and outside the property looked dilapidated and non-cared for. I took a walk up by the towers and noticed radials sticking out of the ground. This was when Citadel owned it, and I haven't been up there since (and should have come up since you offered me those cart machines!.....thanx, sorry that didn't happen!).

Now, this is mainly for the posters who will say I do not know what I am talking about, as they have said before. However, for a local station to be successful in it's local area, it needs to program, and be very special, and not replacable to the citizens of Tunkannock. When WEMR signed on, that is exactly what they did.

The fact that WEMR has a very nice signal is a great start. If I were you (again, suggestions here), I would look closely at the ground system which sits if I recall on shale.
It needs to be the best it can be, because the signal has indeed degraded in Wayne County where once it was a powerhouse.

WCDL just recently dumped standards and that is indeed the only format left that an AM can take on (I thought it would work in Carbondale, and it didn't apparently; it may not work in Tunk anymore either).

The solution as I see it for WEMR is to make it a full service radio station.

That is: Some local news in the morning and afternoon drive times, a local air personality between 5am and 7pm (two people, 7 hour shifts, who could also do the local news).
MOR music: up to date, or old, doesn't matter, with community buletin boards inbetween the songs. In Your Face promotion in town, and get the town businesses involved with WEMR, first with very affordable advertising, and let them fly your banner/sign in their store window, saying they support you. School closings live in the winter, wx reports year round.

A very well done similar station is WRNJ in Hackettstown, NJ.
They have several talk shows, done live (or recorded) by people who are actually doing business in town. One is a contractor, who comes on live on Saturday mornings at 9am, and gives advice to callers and listeners as to how to fix what and how. Another of thier shows is a real estate show, another features a psychologist (and yes I believe he has nearly all the cm's in that show too), and takes calls........it is interesting listening. They happen to play oldies, but tend to lean more on the bird than on thier own local personalities which they do have.

Full service AMs have the rep of being very expensive to program. They don't have to be.
What they need is a couple of full time people to staff it during the week, it can be automated at night, and partially on the weekends.

I last worked for an AM in Scranton. The problem here was the owner refused to advertise the station. Result?......its not there anymore, at least the way we had it. A billboard here and there and a newspaper ad (tradeout is fine) will do a lot of good to get the frequency number to the eyes of parents who may just be interested in what happened in the Tunk area overnight.

I don't expect but a music format from Gem, but for WEMR, to give it a chance, I would like to see it take on a full service type format as described, grow it, advertise that it is there, and see where it goes. Other than another on the bird talk format/rebroadcast, WEMR will fluster if that happens.

Again gents, this is my opinion of a station in an area where a full service format could really work out (and, it is heard in scranton, too.) To me, this is an opportunity.
Carl
[email protected]

Carl:

Good advice. Provided that you offer all of the staples that listeners are accustomed to hearing on a local radio station, you can't go wrong no matter what kind of music you offer (within reason of course). When I was working in Indiana County, we aired full local newscasts at 6, 7, 8, 9, noon, 4, 5, and 6. Outside of those hours, we aired a 60-second brief of local headlines. We also aired a two-minute ABC newscast at the top of each hour. So we offered local news every hour on the hour. We had an AXS automation system that made this possible, and it can be done with only two full-time announcers.

We also aired a vignette called "Hometown Happenings" at least once an hour. It was a 60-second amalgam of local PSA activities. We scheduled it once an hour, then used it to fill breaks on the satellite (we used ABC/SMN's Starstation format). And an affiliate agreement with Radio PA wouldn't hurt. The barter requirements are a little cumbersome, but it's an overall good product with lots of material relative to that part of the state. You have the advantage of being in the county seat AND being an immediate local news service to all of Wyoming County. If The Pink Apple (a lot of WEMR business got done there!) is burning down, you can get it on the air immediately...not like the paper, which isn't going to put out a special run for that.

WinWin Radio promotions can provide you with a lot of promotional support for giveaways and such. Nothing will attract listeners to your station more than freebies. Good prizes, not junk. Here's the link for you, Ben...

http://www.winwinradio.com/index.html

We use them ourselves. This can get you giving stuff away cheap while keeping local clients to paid contracts.

Ben...if the ground system is as bad as Carl says it is, you may want to get that fenced in or covered up as soon as you possibly can. Scrap metal thefts here in Western Pennsylvania are at an all time high, and copper is fetching a premium!

 

[wirelessinnepa]

Carl,

Thanks for the thoughts. We have done a several of the things that you have mentioned about WEMR for WGMF and WCOZ and have tried other things and let them go. It's a work in progress.

Incidentally, you'll be happy to note that we have an excellent example of a full service AM that was literally brought back from the grave (it was off the air) in this market which is run by Joe Rielly in Bloomsburg with AM 930 WHLM. Joe does a GREAT job with this station and by doing many of the things that you mention he has grown an off air AM station into a community entity in Bloomsburg. Local and national news, a mix of AC and oldies, sports, etc. He really does a great job. I know Joe and have stopped to talk with him a couple of times, and although he's mighty proud of 103.5 WHLM FM, when I'm in Bloomsburg, I listen to 930 because I think it's so well executed.

Thanks for the thoughts again Carl. You never know what we might come up with!

Ben

 

[carlvenorden]

You are welcome Ben, and thanks to Ken for his comments too!
Totally correct on Joe Reilly and WHLM in Bloom. I had the opportunity to visit the original studio in the original WHLM building back when I was at the station in Scranton. Joe had hung a straight wire from a tall smoke stack to get the new WHLM on the air on 930. Recall too that the original very very tall towers for 550 were knocked down just before my visit.
I loved the way he reconstructed those studios, with the traditional triangular shaped main studio (all glassed in) still there.
WHLM is a great example of what I was proposing for WEMR.
And yes, I still think it is a viable format.
Who amongst us counted on WARM for all that news and information early in the morning?...........I know I did, and my first radio station was very much like WARM (well, 5 of news on the hour and half hour, community events, lots of wx, ....and back then traffic reports were not neccessary, nor done....garage sales, church events and inbetween all that and the 3 minute spot sets, maybe 2-three minute records an hour). Actually yes I think we maybe played 3 or 4 records an hour, but then, not all of the information we broadcast was something we paid for......even listeners supplied information. We even had a small contest (this gives a local station a real feel of being local).......one of the contests awarded a record album (these days, a CD) for a joke submitted that callers couldn't correctly guess the answer to. If someone guessed the answer, they won the record album.
But it was small things like that ......that made our radio station so successful.

We also had the ability to sign up advertisers for long periods of time. Yes, the spot rate was cheaper than others but we held our clients for years. Not only that, we had events at these small stores that at the time seemed insignificant, but with our call letters proudly displayed out front and perhaps the sandwiches we handed out for free, our businesses did very well, and so did we. All the shops wanted us to come by.
It's radio marketing 101, and I believe it will still work today, if someone chooses to try it.
Ask Mr. Joe!

 

[yonkstur]

I believe the last time that WEMR did adult standards was when Citadel had 1460 WEMR, 1440 WCDL and 1490 WAZL linked doing Standards as a trimulcast.

Add WKQV 1550 AM to that trio. After trying to run Hazleton and Carbondale locals, then a sports station simulcast, they ran "The Music Of Your Life". Started it July 1rst, 1999, 12 noon, first song Sinatra's "Without A Song". Then they let it go to hell. They ran the whole shabang out of a file cabinet in the back area of Citadel broadcasting.

Yonkstur