What's Next For WWCS?

[hypwr]

Pay 15K per month to bill 5K per month....sounds to me like that's a steal.

 

[trefdawg]

I guess the correct response to the threads question is.....dead air. sad

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Someone is gonna LMA the thing. Birach is gonna have to come down on the LMA price when he has dead air for too long.

 

[Parttimer]

He made millions on it running Radio Disney, he'll wait until late in the year when the license becomes an issue.

 

[kenhawk1160]

Given the fact that the station was essentially a computer at Ardmore Blvd, I would guess that either Birach will have to construct a studio, or that will be up to whomever buys or LMA's it.

My guess is that it stays dark until one of those two things happens.

He has a year before he would have to turn the license back in to the FCC.

There's actually a studio setup at the transmitter site, but an engineer would have to spend about a week cleaning it up just to get it into serviceable condition.

 

[kenhawk1160]

It is curious why he would program oldies in Flint/Detroit and not here. Although that is a good oldies
market as well (for reasons I don't quite understand...the typical Michigan retiree grabs his UAW
pension and heads to a state with lower taxes and better weather faster than you can say
Walter Reuther. Pittsburgh retirees on the other hand tend to stick around for the long term).
Maybe a lot of guys like me there who enjoy music a bit before their time.

Detroit is a good oldies market for a couple of reasons...one, it's the birthplace of Motown Records. Second, it's substantially larger than Pittsburgh. Metro Detroit's fabled "East Side" is primarily made up of older people who are nearing retirement age or already there and prefer to stay because they like being near the water more than they do in warmer weather.

However, WOMC is well-marketed, the heritage "oldies" station, and pretty much "owns" the segment that still listens to oldies. Deano Day from the old "Honey Radio" had a daily show weekdays on AM 560 and then AM 1460 in the 90s, but it involved him paying for the time and then selling commercials to his advertisers. He did a remote from each one each day they were on the air. Deano had owned WACY 1160 in Fenton at one point, but the venture wasn't successful.

So oldies in Detroit is not much different than it is in Pittsburgh...'pay to play'.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Someone is gonna LMA the thing. Birach is gonna have to come down on the LMA price when he has dead air for too long.

Birach's WDMV/700 in the Washington, DC area has been silent, off and on, for several years now (it was up a bit a year ago playing oldies music just to keep the license active).

Unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised to see the same fate befall WWCS.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Birach's WDMV/700 in the Washington, DC area has been silent, off and on, for several years now (it was up a bit a year ago playing oldies music just to keep the license active).

700 has a big problem, aside from being a daytimer that gets wiped off the dial by WLW at night...it really isn't a Washington, DC station.

Here, take a look at its pattern on R-L:

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WDMV&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

The station only has a serviceable signal in the Frederick area, and a very, very small chunk of suburban DC...basically, the I-270 corridor between Frederick and the DC area. WWCS' 500 watt night signal, even, is a powerhouse into Pittsburgh by comparison.

Birach was also trying to program it himself (maybe his son was) as a talk station, "DC Radio 700". It eventually moved to business and brokered talk before going off.

 

[cingram]

Birach's 540/700 combo had a CP to diplex, upgrade both stations, and serve the DC area better, but
the NIMBYs stopped the new array from being built.

C.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Ah, yes, Clarke...I remember the talk on DCRTV about it.

How in the world did WAGE manage its upgrade with all the NIMBYs in that region?

 

[FreddyE1977]

It is curious why he would program oldies in Flint/Detroit and not here. Although that is a good oldies
market as well (for reasons I don't quite understand...the typical Michigan retiree grabs his UAW
pension and heads to a state with lower taxes and better weather faster than you can say
Walter Reuther. Pittsburgh retirees on the other hand tend to stick around for the long term).
Maybe a lot of guys like me there who enjoy music a bit before their time.

Detroit is a good oldies market for a couple of reasons...one, it's the birthplace of Motown Records. Second, it's substantially larger than Pittsburgh. Metro Detroit's fabled "East Side" is primarily made up of older people who are nearing retirement age or already there and prefer to stay because they like being near the water more than they do in warmer weather.

However, WOMC is well-marketed, the heritage "oldies" station, and pretty much "owns" the segment that still listens to oldies. Deano Day from the old "Honey Radio" had a daily show weekdays on AM 560 and then AM 1460 in the 90s, but it involved him paying for the time and then selling commercials to his advertisers. He did a remote from each one each day they were on the air. Deano had owned WACY 1160 in Fenton at one point, but the venture wasn't successful.

So oldies in Detroit is not much different than it is in Pittsburgh...'pay to play'.

I used to listen to Deano back on the old 560. That station put a helluva signal way out north
of 8 Mile. Birach now owns 1160 in Fenton and it is temporarily running the oldies format that he
had on 1460. 1460 is dark due to some sort of tower location issue (I think it may be similar to
WZUM's dispute with Crafton Boro).

Back in the day when I lived in Michigan you could scan the dial and get 8 to 10
very decent oldies stations. 1250 WXOX in Bay City comes to mind.

 

[kenhawk1160]

Ah, WXOX. What a turbulent history that station has had since the 90s. They and the FM co-located with them both went dark, the FM went to another owner, the AM stayed dark, then Doc Bell bought WKNX 1210 in Frankenmuth so 1200 in Taylor could have a 50,000 watt daytime signal. Then Bell moved 1210 across the state to Kingsley, bought the dormant 1250 and operated it from the Frankenmuth studios, then sold it to John Blehm, who upgraded the antenna and gave it nighttime power. Then he sold it to WNEM-TV and now it's Newsradio 1250 WNEM. Man...what a history.