WFLA AM 970 on one of CC's FM HD channels

[Parttimer]

To an extent, (Don62) you're falling into the same trap that people do when they're discussing music formats, namely, "This is what I like, so if they put it on it would be a huge success."

You're assuming people would choose local talk over national shows. Maybe local vs. national has nothing to do with it. Maybe the national shows are national because they are more talented and entertaining. If Glenn Beck and Lionel still just worked at WFLA you'd probably think they were great. Schnitt DOES originate from WFLA. You're assuming that a stable of entertaining local hosts could be assembled from an industry of liner-card readers. You're assuming someone wants to make the investment to put this on the air (actually that might be the biuggest assumption of all). Plus you disagree with the idealogical slant of WFLA's programming, so in your mind it's a bad thing. Many disagree.

People watch CNN over local news. They watch ESPN over local sports. They watch the Weather channel over the local meteorologists. Why? It's a better product.

Times have changed. Lassiter is unfortunately no longer with us. Move on.

 

[RadioGeek06]

CC is doing the same thing in MIAMI with WIOD-AM 610.

It had been on WMGE-94.9HD2 for several months, but as of Monday it switched to WLVE-93.9HD2. Rumors in this market are that WLVE 93.9FM is flipping to WIOD-FM soon anyway...makes sense here. Decent billing on WIOD-AM and simulcasting cuts all the expenses out from the WLVE budget completely!

I'm hoping WIOD-FM happens...and moving to 93.9HD2 seems like the next logical step...see more on this in the MIAMI-FORT LAUDERDALE Board.

WFLA 97FM makes perfect sense to me! Remember, they also have WFLA-100.7FM in Tally!

 

[Don62]

To an extent, (Don62) you're falling into the same trap that people do when they're discussing music formats, namely, "This is what I like, so if they put it on it would be a huge success."

You're assuming people would choose local talk over national shows. Maybe local vs. national has nothing to do with it. Maybe the national shows are national because they are more talented and entertaining. If Glenn Beck and Lionel still just worked at WFLA you'd probably think they were great. Schnitt DOES originate from WFLA. You're assuming that a stable of entertaining local hosts could be assembled from an industry of liner-card readers. You're assuming someone wants to make the investment to put this on the air (actually that might be the biuggest assumption of all). Plus you disagree with the idealogical slant of WFLA's programming, so in your mind it's a bad thing. Many disagree.

People watch CNN over local news. They watch ESPN over local sports. They watch the Weather channel over the local meteorologists. Why? It's a better product.

Times have changed. Lassiter is unfortunately no longer with us. Move on.

It wasn't ever about the amount of talent. It was only money.

The minute CC came in they wanted to kill Lassiter's show and replace it with cheaper syndicated programming. CC could care less about quality of hosts or what the audience wants.

The fact is, CC knows little to nothing about running talk radio stations. This is evident in the way they've dumbed down once-great stations like WOAI, WFLA, WIOD and many more that are mostly syndicated.

 

[naughtytalker]

It wasn't ever about the amount of talent. It was only money. The minute CC came in they wanted to kill Lassiter's show and replace it with cheaper syndicated programming. CC could care less about quality of hosts or what the audience wants.

One last effort to unstick stupidity, then I must move on. The talent fees wasted on Bob Lassiter were ultimately spent to hire Glenn Beck, who became a local sensation and went on to national syndication. CC Tampa obviously recognizes exceptionalism and retains only those who achieve that high standard.

 

[billalm]

I agree with the fact that a number of top tier "nationally known" talents have started at or rolled through the radio stations in Tampa Bay including heritage stations like WFLA, WFLZ and WRBQ... However....

The management and people in charge at that time are not the same ones running the larger radio clusters today. So to say that "Clear Channel Tampa" knows talent or talk radio is not completely accurate. It was some of the ownerships and managers from the last 2 decades who knew how to spot talent when they heard it.... not the guys behind the desk today.

 

[smedge2006]

The talent fees wasted on Bob Lassiter were ultimately spent to hire Glenn Beck, who became a local sensation and went on to national syndication.

Not immediately -- the numbers on 970 cratered when he first came on board.

Remember too, that at the same time, not only was Lassiter canned, but EVERY other local talk show then on the air in Tampa was canceled -- Marvelous Marvin was canned, Larsen quit, even Rocky D was silenced over on 1250 after a couple of months. So for about a year and a half, Beck was the only thing going in Tampa -- 860 was still music and 1040 was going through various lame pay-for-play shows and getting no numbers. There was speculation that this was done so as to give Beck a monopoly on local talk, thus inflating his numbers and helping his marketability when they got around to syndicating him -- which seems to have been the plan all along. Glenn Beck is a great example of the pre-fab, corporate cramdown talk host -- made into a "sensation" by the ability of a large company at the peak of its power to put him on the air anywhere and everywhere. Few have done less to earn such success -- many have done far more for less. Whatever one might say of Lassiter's numbers at the end (when he was stuck with Dr. Laura as a lead and the "support group" mentality that talk radio was becoming), his rise was certainly more organic than Beck's.

 

[naughtytalker]

So for about a year and a half, Beck was the only thing going in Tampa -- 860 was still music and 1040 was going through various lame pay-for-play shows and getting no numbers. There was speculation that this was done so as to give Beck a monopoly on local talk, thus inflating his numbers and helping his marketability when they got around to syndicating him -- which seems to have been the plan all along.

That's quite a conspiracy theory you've dreamt up there. What do you have on the WTC?

 

[Debbi64]

Wellllllllllllllllllll, I'm in Pasco County and I did get an HD radio, plus, up until today and probably for the foreseeable future will be using 2 indoor antennas!

Yep! Using it for WFLA970-HD2 ~ so I don't get static and can receive at night!

Has it been an uphill struggle? Well, was told the New Port Richey antenna would be working 7/15 ~ still have some problems....but it's better than nothing!

 

[John Waywoods]

It wasn't ever about the amount of talent. It was only money. The minute CC came in they wanted to kill Lassiter's show and replace it with cheaper syndicated programming. CC could care less about quality of hosts or what the audience wants.

One last effort to unstick stupidity, then I must move on. The talent fees wasted on Bob Lassiter were ultimately spent to hire Glenn Beck, who became a local sensation and went on to national syndication. CC Tampa obviously recognizes exceptionalism and retains only those who achieve that high standard.

Beck explained when he originally came on the air in Tampa that he was brought in to gain experience running a talk show. The plan, from day one, was to take him into syndication. It was not what you described. If I am wrong then Mr. Beck misled the audience.
Also, I have an HD radio for two stations- the AAA on 107.3 and the Remixes on 98 Rock. I now listen to 102.5's HD2 instead.

 

[Interstate4Jammer]

Can anyone tell me what kind of signals the HD stations are bringing to Lakeland? I wanna know before I commit to purchasing an HD radio?

 

[radiosanchez]

Can anyone tell me what kind of signals the HD stations are bringing to Lakeland?

Sir, your former station put HD to shame when I visited the area in 2000. WHNR is the one station that (back then) sounded like a true "FM on AM". I later found out it was all due to a Gates Level Devil and a Western Electric transmiter from the 30s.

They don't make them like they used to.

To answer your question though, I believe WWRZ/98.3 is HD (although with no sidechannels), and you might get some Tampa stations...I don't know...I haven't been up that way since HD became popular.

 

[jeff560]

I recently bought the Sony XDR-S10HDiP clock radio, which has HD. Here in New Port Richey it receives all of the FM HD signals fine, including 94.1, with just a short wire antenna. I like to listen to talk to go to sleep by, and up here at night on AM we can only get AM-1500, which is Greek, and AM-620 (sort of). So I go to sleep either listening to WFLA on 97.9-HD2 or some sort of BBC programming on 89.7-HD2 or WQYK on 99.5-HD3. For AM the radio has an external loop antenna. In the daytime, it receives AM-620 in HD but not AM-970, I think because of the noise I'm picking up in this location. I think that adoption of IBOC was a probably a mistake, but I do like these extra HD-2 and HD-3 offerings for sure.