WFLA format in FWB??

[Rob]

I heard something that Pensacola/Ft Walton may be getting an WFLA format station.
I don't know how true these facts are. PCB has one, Tampa has one, I believe Jax has one..

98.1 WFLA news talk?? (since their signal does cover pensacola)

Since MW here is useless to say the least.

But, we really need one (or something) on the FM band. I hope the folks at "the ticket" will reconsider and offer us a clear Coast to Coast AM aff here in the Gulf Coast.

-Rob

 

[preferprivacy]

Jacksonville does NOT have an FLA station

Strangely, CC has never been interested in n/t in Jax - I guess WOKV has scared them off

 

[Rob]

Well, I don't know your MW situation but thanks to the lovely international agreement, our local talker goes down to what? 5 watts?

we have NO coast to coast AM aff. anymore. WWL stopped carrying it, WRJM is toast (93.7) as it's another.. COUNTRY station (great choice, guys..how many country stations in the wiregrass area?.. 96.9 95.5 and I think one other)

I would like to say one thing, the programme directors need to think twice.. I know country is #1 (here in FWB on country 105.5) but why do we need 10,000 of them??

This area desperately needs an oldies station and a smooth jazz station that one can hear outside of Destin. I can pick up 98.3 on occasion (mobile) and that seems to be doing well $$$ wise.

we have enough "70s 80s and today" bullcrap already on the spectrum.

102.1 and 103.1 are now virtually alike (fort walton beach) Dan TRIED a "talk" format on 103.1 for about what? a week? that lasted (had a morning pre what's his name from texas show show and an afternoon drive show)

I do enjoy the homegrown sound of 104.7 as I enjoy classic country from time to time takes me back to radio of the early 80's in rural america.

I give up..

-Rob

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

Well, I don't know your MW situation but thanks to the lovely international agreement, our local talker goes down to what? 5 watts?

we have NO coast to coast AM aff. anymore. WWL stopped carrying it, WRJM is toast (93.7) as it's another.. COUNTRY station (great choice, guys..how many country stations in the wiregrass area?.. 96.9 95.5 and I think one other)

I would like to say one thing, the programme directors need to think twice.. I know country is #1 (here in FWB on country 105.5) but why do we need 10,000 of them??

This area desperately needs an oldies station and a smooth jazz station that one can hear outside of Destin. I can pick up 98.3 on occasion (mobile) and that seems to be doing well $$$ wise.

we have enough "70s 80s and today" bullcrap already on the spectrum.

102.1 and 103.1 are now virtually alike (fort walton beach) Dan TRIED a "talk" format on 103.1 for about what? a week? that lasted (had a morning pre what's his name from texas show show and an afternoon drive show)

I do enjoy the homegrown sound of 104.7 as I enjoy classic country from time to time takes me back to radio of the early 80's in rural america.

I give up..

-Rob

What makes YOU think the area DESPERATELY needs an oldies and a jazz station?

 

[Poledo]

Fort Walton's top 5 radio stations are stuck, and Cumulus owns all 5 of them. I can't imagine a format change has ever been considered for 93.3, 96.5, 99.5, 105.5 or 1260.

Cumulus owns the news/talk AMs in both Fort Walton and Pensacola... but would they want to combine them? Hummm... good idea, but there's nowhere on the dial for it. 95.7 could theoretically work, but I think that would be a downgrade for the larger city of Pensacola, unless they simulcast WCOA on 95.7... which is a great idea, but I also assume Cumulus is maxed out on the number of Fort Walton FM stations they can own.
But isn't Santa Rosa county, including the Fort Walton suburb of Navarre, considered part of the Pensacola DMA? Wouldn't that make 95.7 a Pensacola station, as far as the FCC is concerned, if Cumulus wanted to buy it? Could this be Rob's only hope?

And where did you hear that Clear Channel might be bringing another WFLA to the Fort Walton/Pensacola market? They aren't going to buy 98.1, heck, they traded it to that hated fella for a class A station in Ocean Springs. Clear Channel couldn't wait to throw away WTKE.

When was talk on 103.1? I either missed it or completely forgot about it.

Oh, and Mobile doesn't even have an oldies or a jazz station. The closest they have is jazz in the evenings on 91.3 and jazz on 99.9 HD-2, and Mobile hasn't had Oldies since a Pirate took over the station. Lets just hope that the next format of 104.1 or 100.7 will be oldies.

 

[Rob]

because a lot of FWB's (radio) listeners are older adults.
smooth jazz on 99.9/2? I'll have to ask for an HD radio for yule and a beam antenna.

when i first moved here i heard oldies on 92.1 and thought "wow an oldies station i can hear"

i guess that didn't do so well eh?

-Rob

 

[Poledo]

I would guess that the majority of Fort Walton radio listeners are active duty military and their families. That would make Country 105.5, 99 Rock, Z96 and Coast 93 and WFTW the most popular formats. WSBZ has a unique location covering rich people that like to play golf.

There's a thread on the Mississippi board about WOSM 103.1's 100kw CP expiring in a couple of weeks. I wonder if WMXZ might move or upgrade if WOSM doesn't get their power up before the CP expires. There was that strange move of WMXZ changing their city of license from Defuniak Springs to Valparaiso a couple of years ago. WOSM getting out of the way would open up the door for WMXZ to move in with the other Fort Walton stations which would give it a good reason to change formats... but I doubt they would try talk radio. Qantum has done some strange stuff with their Fort Walton stations in the last two years. For awhile 92.1 was giving Z96 some competition and Wave 102 was giving people an alternative to 99 Rock. Now they have 3 bland radio stations... who knows if they are capable of doing something good.

Rob, too bad you missed out on the New Age format 103.1 tried years ago.

 

[jmtillery]

I would guess that the majority of Fort Walton radio listeners are active duty military and their families. That would make Country 105.5, 99 Rock, Z96 and Coast 93 and WFTW the most popular formats. WSBZ has a unique location covering rich people that like to play golf.

There's a thread on the Mississippi board about WOSM 103.1's 100kw CP expiring in a couple of weeks. I wonder if WMXZ might move or upgrade if WOSM doesn't get their power up before the CP expires. There was that strange move of WMXZ changing their city of license from Defuniak Springs to Valparaiso a couple of years ago. WOSM getting out of the way would open up the door for WMXZ to move in with the other Fort Walton stations which would give it a good reason to change formats... but I doubt they would try talk radio. Qantum has done some strange stuff with their Fort Walton stations in the last two years. For awhile 92.1 was giving Z96 some competition and Wave 102 was giving people an alternative to 99 Rock. Now they have 3 bland radio stations... who knows if they are capable of doing something good.

Rob, too bad you missed out on the New Age format 103.1 tried years ago.

I seriously doubt that WMXZ can upgrade past its current C2 status due to the fact that there is a C2 co-channel in Tallahasee, approximatley 150+ miles East of the current WMXZ tower site. I was the one who initially conducted a channel search for WMXZ when it was WQUH licensed to Defuniak Springs and determined a C2 upgrade was possible for that station on its existing 103.1mhz frequency, and I passed along my findings to the former owner Arthur Dees. IF WMXZ can move its tower further West by approximately 25-miles without causing a short spacing with any other stations, then, perhaps, an upgrade to a C1 may be possible.

Mark Tillery,
Ocala, Florida
[email protected]

 

[MN Maniac]

Wouldn't that put WMXZ too close to (second-adjacent) WXBM?

I seriously doubt that WMXZ can upgrade past its current C2 status due to the fact that there is a C2 co-channel in Tallahasee, approximatley 150+ miles East of the current WMXZ tower site. I was the one who initially conducted a channel search for WMXZ when it was WQUH licensed to Defuniak Springs and determined a C2 upgrade was possible for that station on its existing 103.1mhz frequency, and I passed along my findings to the former owner Arthur Dees. IF WMXZ can move its tower further West by approximately 25-miles without causing a short spacing with any other stations, then, perhaps, an upgrade to a C1 may be possible.

Mark Tillery,
Ocala, Florida
[email protected]

 

[Poledo]

Wouldn't that put WMXZ too close to (second-adjacent) WXBM?

I thought about that, but WMXZ staying a C2 and moving to FWB, the tower locations would be the same or almost the same as second adjacents WBLX 92.9 and WNCV 93.3. As a C1 they would be almost the same distance apart as WRKH 96.1 and WZNS 96.5. Even if it was a little close, couldn't they just put a small directional null toward Mobile like WYCT did to protect WFSY in Panama City.

The only reason I have this idea is because of that change of WMXZ's city of license to Valparaiso a couple of years ago. Why did they do it if they didn't plan or hope to move the station to FWB?

 

[Rob]

Well, there's a lot of QRM on MIX 103.1 here anyway. Where is the transmitter located at?

Here is what I would suggest to Danbo:

92.1 News Talk/Coast to Coast AM
102.1 The 70's and 80's station (he needs to fix the problem on the right channel that's getting worse as time goes on)
103.1 Music of Today format.. (to compete with Zed 96)

-Rob

 

[nightcrawler35]

Rob thank goodness your not running Quantum.

 

[Rob]

that bad eh?

 

[Poledo]

Is Qantum's Fort Walton cluster for sale or something? They just quit trying about a year ago.

 

[Tibbs4]

I have no clue, obviously, what's up with the company. But,t here was a OM<GM<PD-type manager who posted on here
a month or two ago from there defending Fly 92. Maybe he or she can add a little imput here about what is up with them.
What exactly leads you to think they are selling, etc? Is there an update on the quality of their sound, power, etc.?

 

[Poledo]

format in FWB??

My observation is that a year or 18 months ago Fly and Wave were on a roll. I think Fly may have had ratings equal to Z96 for a little while and WWAV was mixing in AAA tracks with their Classic Rock format which got them close to 99 Rock and even a spot in the Pensacola and Panama City ratings... 102.1's signal shouldn't even reach Pensacola. Now I know that everyone's cutting costs, but Qantum cut everything and were left with a bland cluster of 3 stations that could barely compete with MUZAK and Cumulus wasn't even fighting back.
What's up? Did they blow all their cash trying to buy 98.1 or did the brains of the operation get sent to rehab?
Sigh, now Hale's satellite fed Classic Rock 100.3 is the best sounding station in Fort Walton. He's even managed to pick up some local advertisers.

 

[Rob]

well, Danbo need to do something about mix 103.1 as it sounds ALMOST a lot like wave

were my format choosing that bad?
i am only guessing here as i don't know the FWB radio audience that well.
which by the advertising slates i've seen are mostly women.

on another note, isn't quantum going to purchase the ticket?

or is that another 3 years down the road?

-Rob

 

[Poledo]

on another note, isn't quantum going to purchase the ticket?

Qantum bought the Ticket a couple of years ago, but they forgot to pick up the keys from the closing agent. The dude in charge transferred out a few days later and no one at the Destin office knows they own it. Hale's keeping his mouth shut on the deal hoping he'll be able to claim squatters rights by the time someone at Qantum audits the books and realizes the mistake.

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

on another note, isn't quantum going to purchase the ticket?

Qantum bought the Ticket a couple of years ago, but they forgot to pick up the keys from the closing agent. The dude in charge transferred out a few days later and no one at the Destin office knows they own it. Hale's keeping his mouth shut on the deal hoping he'll be able to claim squatters rights by the time someone at Qantum audits the books and realizes the mistake.

LOL...

 

[Tibbs4]

That's funny Poledo, I could have sworn I heard talk that there was the same key hanging on a hook over at Crumulushes beautiful
FWB offices.

Maybe it was just the key to Hale's old magic bus...