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Where's WILD ?

Did I miss something, or did WILD-1090 disappear off the ratings? If so, its the first time in recorded history it's done so.
 
Earlier this year, after they switched to the black talk network, they either fell off the 12 + or went down
to a very low number...
 
JIBGUY said:
Did I miss something, or did WILD-1090 disappear off the ratings? If so, its the first time in recorded history it's done so.
They're still here...been told to return to the Gospel format after 10A following the syndicated Tom Joyner show. Everything's automated with a skeleton staff (veteran PD Rick Anderson & a few sales /support folks). They would have been better off flipping to Classic Soul for greater appeal!
 
JIBGUY said:
Did I miss something, or did WILD-1090 disappear off the ratings? If so, its the first time in recorded history it's done so.
The ratings published to the public (in Radio & Records, etc...) are not showing any stations below a .04 12+ share in the Boston book. A station could get a .03 share and not show in those published ratings. But, WILD does seem to be at an all-time low with a canned contemporary gospel format and an owner that apparently doesn't care about the station anymore, and are just biding time until they sell it.

starchild said:
They're still here...been told to return to the Gospel format after 10A following the syndicated Tom Joyner show. Everything's automated with a skeleton staff (veteran PD Rick Anderson & a few sales /support folks). They would have been better off flipping to Classic Soul for greater appeal!

I doesn't seem like Radio One cares about WILD's appeal at this point. It looks like they just want run the station with as low overhead as possible until they can unload it for an acceptable amount, and then complete their retreat from the Boston area.
 
>>just biding time until they sell it.

exactly...if not for the fact that they go off at sunset, they could be a good signal for prog-talk/AAR or
maybe ESPN (though maybe the current ESPN home at 890 is even better; but certainly not at night...)
Or certainly old school R&B...
 
raccoonradio said:
If not for the fact that they go off at sunset, they could be a good signal for prog-talk/AAR or
maybe ESPN (though maybe the current ESPN home at 890 is even better; but certainly not at night...)
Or certainly old school R&B...

It may have been able to survive as an Urban AC or Classic Soul station if it had been 24 hours. I used to listen to it in wideband AM Stereo until they discontinued running it in September 2004. Believe it or not, it sounded really good!

You can't compare 890 at night to 1090 at night though, because WBAL Baltimore bombs up here at night almost like a local, which always prevented WILD from making any sort of night arrangement on 1090. Even during WILD's low-power half-hour post-sunset signal WBAL cuts them up more than a few miles from their Everett transmitter some evenings. I've even heard WBAL behind their full-power day signal some late afternoons.

890 has WLS Chicago, but that's a lot farther away, and it doesn't have a salt water coastline to carry the signal up here like WBAL does. Still, WLS skywave is a match for WAMG's night signal here in Somerville some nights.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
890 has WLS Chicago, but that's a lot farther away, and it doesn't have a salt water coastline to carry the signal up here like WBAL does. Still, WLS skywave is a match for WAMG's night signal here in Somerville some nights.

Where I live (Arlington Heights near Lexington line about 0.5 miles north of Route 2), WAMG's night signal is surprisingly good, albeit not free of WLS and--I think, sometimes--a Cuban in the background. WAMG holds a CP to increase its night power from 3.4 kW currently to 6 kW and to modify its night pattern somewhat (fattern it up a bit and add minor lobes to the north and south of the Ashland Tx site). From what I've heard about Jessamy Tang, however, she's probably afraid that her investors will pull the plug if she spends the money on the upgrade. So I expect that the work, if it's done at all, won't start until just before the CP is about to expire. Then the CP will be tolled because of the equipment supplier failed to meet its delivery commitments. The sad part of this story is that this really is a minor upgrade and not a prohibitively expensive one. A new antenna phasing unit is not even required--just replacement of some parts in the existing unit. And a major part of the cost--preparing the application and sheparding it though the FCC--has already been spent.
 
Eli, you're correct re: Urban AC & Classic Soul format in a 24 hr. lay-out. Because the CS format on AM ran hotter #'s than R1's FM Hot 97(WBOT at the time) was a key reason for the birth of WILD FM! Mismanagement by trying to "cheat the edges" with CS during the day and retaining the Hip-Hop after drive-time spun things counterclock-wise.Changing of the guard from GM down to PD came too late for recovery. Even Anderson couldn't save things.
 
You can't compare 890 at night to 1090 at night though, because WBAL Baltimore bombs up here at night almost like a local, which always prevented WILD from making any sort of night arrangement on 1090. Even during WILD's low-power half-hour post-sunset signal WBAL cuts them up more than a few miles from their Everett transmitter some evenings. I've even heard WBAL behind their full-power day signal some late afternoons.

I once heard that WILD was supposed to get a spot on the expanded AM band and would become a 24 hour station.

Martin
 
A long long time ago, 1090-WILD and 740-WCAS were to change dial positions... kind of... Back in the 1980's, WILD was to go to 720 and WCAS was to go to 1090. But that never happened. I imagine these were the days when one owner could not own two AM's in a market, which is why WILD didn't just buy 740. - Withn WILD going to 720, I don't see a huge advantage there, as their nighttimne signal would have been 6 watts. (I once had a study done, on 740 moving to 720, and the result was 6 watts at night, a notch above the 5 watts that 740-WJIB currently enjoys). But maybe the WILD folks wanting 720 had a plan to make 720 directional beaming east; away from WGN in Chicago.
 
JIBGUY said:
A long long time ago, 1090-WILD and 740-WCAS were to change dial positions... kind of... Back in the 1980's, WILD was to go to 720 and WCAS was to go to 1090. But that never happened.

1090 WILD had various other reported plans over the years which never happened, including either buying or leasing 1150 at one point, and another was a potential nighttime time-share arrangement with WUMB 91.9 at U. Mass Boston. Neither happened.
 
why not buy some time and keep the format going?

I will be glad to talk to anybody about their buying time on 1470. Listen to the day/night
signal in the areas you wish to serve, and you decide for yourself. If you think the
format has an audience, why not try it? What do you have to lose? The opportunity
is there for somebody who has the vision and is entrepreneurial...


Jeff Kline
General Manger,
WLYN/WAZN
[email protected]
 
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