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WHNY McComb officially gone

I used to run up to the junior college in Summit back many years ago, and there were places you could see the WHNY towers quite clearly at night but not pick up the signal at all. And this was in the early 70s, before a lot of MRM became an issue like now.

From a theoretical perspective only, I wonder how difficult it would be to resurrect the signal... It may not be practical in real terms, which is why I said "theoretical."
 
kruxman said:
Holt-Robinson communications, which owned WHHY AM/FM when I was there in the early 80's, later had financial problems and had to sell the Montgomery stations.
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Charlie's financial blunder, which he himself admitted, was building a TV station in Tallahassee, FL. Is Charlie still alive?
LF
 
I remember when WHNY was the only local source of Top 40 music

I remember WHNY well. Our family moved to McComb in 1980, when I was 10 years old. Back then, if you wanted to listen to Top 40, you either listened to them or listened to distant stations in Baton Rouge, Hattiesburg, Jackson and New Orleans (WTIX came in pretty clear during the day even on a $5 transitor radio).

It definitely started struggling once K-106 came on air in 1982, giving WHNY stiff competition. They did switch over to news/talk in the early 90s. I think sometime in the mid or late 90s the sports format was tried. It was obvious that the station's days were numbered.

RIP, WHNY
 
Well I cant say this is a shock. WHNY has been silent for at least 5 years. It came back on in the late 90s as sunny 1250 WHNY. Then switched to talk. It flopped! My best friends dad was the GM there in the early 70s. And again in 96. Charlie has no idea what he is doing! But than again for those that dont know...Charlie Holt is 90 years old!!!! Yep 90!!! I also got my start in radio at WHNY till Mr Holt switched the format to standards back in 91 or 92. I was let go on the phone LOL :) It switched back to oldies about 2 weeks later. than oldies/ talk...before finally going silent in the early 90s..93 I think. Our favorite liner was Leave off the N and youve got why..why are we on the air 1250 WHNY :) LOL ( Rod Steigner 1992)
 
flytrap said:
Why did they let WHNY go downhill so bad? Looks like with 5000 watts they could have put sports or talk on it. I haven't heard the station in such a long time I thought it was either on low power or gone years ago.
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One reason was the fact that you could barely pick it up past the transmitter in its last days. The signal was going straight up in the air. Engineering blunder. You coulnt pick it up on Deleware but it was crystal clear in Little Rock at night in the early 90s. We got calls nightly from there cause it was interfering with a station there. omeone complained to the FCC and they had to fix the tower.....and pay a fine :)
 
I have a publication showing DA-N patterns as of 1971. WHNY's shows its main lobe due south, with minor finger-like ones to the east, west, and north. Null to SE apparently to protect Tampa, one to the SW to protect Port Arthur TX, one to the NE to protect Charleston SC/Danville VA, and one to NW which appears to protect Little Rock and Topeka KS. I think it was 500 w night, not 1 kw, which someone else mentioned.

If the pattern was so screwed up that it was interfering in Little Rock, it would have been 180 degrees reversed from what it should have been.
 
beachguy3b said:
From a theoretical perspective only, I wonder how difficult it would be to resurrect the signal... It may not be practical in real terms, which is why I said "theoretical."
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Hey beachguy3b, long time, no hear.
I don't know if I can offer any theoretical perspective, but bear with me. The largest obstacle to overcome is the antenna system and ground system. Returning the station to it's original configuration is probably not viable. One could bring it back as a 5kw daytimer with minimal night power (100) all omni directional, but a new tower, or folded unipole on an existing tower, might work, but some sort of ground system would still be needed. I do not think transmitter nor studio gear would be salvageable.
Again, theoretically, bringing the station back to original spec would be very expensive. That night pattern really stinks because the major lobe misses alot of the city, and as you have cited, north, east and west of the city, at night suffer, due to the deep nulls. But we can dream, eh?
 
If you look at the Arbitron ratings for larger cities... take Jackson for example ... you don't see any AM pulling numbers that in my opinion justify erecting and maintaining a DA-N pattern. WJDX 620 has a great signal, great dial position, a heritage set of call letters, but cannot break a 1 share. WSLI 930, the legendary station back in my day, is barely an also-ran today. Why would one think an AM in McComb would be viable?
 
The viability of an AM is probably greater if there's nothing much else to listen to in the town or community it serves. That doesn't necessarily mean few choices on the dial, but giving the community a format it can't get elsewhere, like local news and talk or carrying the local high school football games.
 
Not meaning to make a shameful plug, but WJNT in Jackson is pulling in adequate numbers,especially in Adult Men 25-54 and 35-54. Of course,having Laura Ingraham, Rush,and Sean Hannity doesn't hurt. As the top Newstalk-er in the market JNT has better numbers in some demos than Miss-103,for example (Arbitron,2011). I imagine the operational costs in smaller markets would make it difficult to maintain such a focused effort,however, and most of your revenue is going to come from daytime power programming.
 
WJDX pulls lousy numbers because it has a pathetic format that is badly done.

AM can still be viable with a well executed format. Not a lot of stations in a market can succeed, but a good signal and the right format can usually produce a couple of winners that are profitable.

What became of the station's physical assets?
 
WJNT does well not just because of the big names but at least during the day it's one of the city's better signals, right? I wonder if having WJDX's position would improve their ratings at all? I know 1180 get hammered at night, and that special FM nights-only thing only reaches so much of the metro.

I guess the point is it's not just talent, but AM has the extra hurdle over overcoming man-made noise. Which I seem to recall is extra, er, noisy in Jackson.
 
J Alex Bowab said:
I have a publication showing DA-N patterns as of 1971. WHNY's shows its main lobe due south, with minor finger-like ones to the east, west, and north. Null to SE apparently to protect Tampa, one to the SW to protect Port Arthur TX, one to the NE to protect Charleston SC/Danville VA, and one to NW which appears to protect Little Rock and Topeka KS. I think it was 500 w night, not 1 kw, which someone else mentioned.

If the pattern was so screwed up that it was interfering in Little Rock, it would have been 180 degrees reversed from what it should have been.
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I was there when the calls were coming..It was the ONLY calls :) LOL Yea it was seriously screwed up..But I dont know engineering so I cant tell you.
 
Zach said:
WJNT does well not just because of the big names but at least during the day it's one of the city's better signals, right? I wonder if having WJDX's position would improve their ratings at all? I know 1180 get hammered at night, and that special FM nights-only thing only reaches so much of the metro.

I guess the point is it's not just talent, but AM has the extra hurdle over overcoming man-made noise. Which I seem to recall is extra, er, noisy in Jackson.
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Wouldn't think having another dial position would matter,Zach. JNT covers the market efficiently. And JDX's night-time signal is pretty weak,too,for that comparison. Hate to be blunt for the engineering types, but it's about revenue, and marketing the station to advertisers that determines the success of a property. If the on-air product is poor and nobody listens,then the cleanest signal in the spectrum won't make money,IMO.
 
WJNT has a 50 KW daytime signal. That really covers up the AM noise around Jackson. Daytime is where they make their splash in the ratings and revenue. They run a very tight directional pattern at night which really kills their signal where I live out by the reservoir. I know it kills them in the winter when they have to cut back around 5 PM. As for the Holt organization, here's what we always said the call letters represented and it pretty much told the story...

WHNY Where Holt Needs You (He really needed all the help he could get in McComb)
WHSY Where Holt Screws You (Home office. Nuff said.)
WHHY Where Holt Has You. (Holt's best station)
 
Oh, to answer your question Larry. Yes, Charlies is still around. In recent years he resurected WBKH in Hattiesburg as WHSY. He's running a news/talk format on at at 950 with 5 KW.
 
beachguy3b said:
On the topic of WJNT... my only thought is that the website took me back to 1995. And not in a good way.
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I was gonna chime in with a quip about Supertalk Mississippi's website, but I see it's been redesigned right into 2002.

(This from a guy whose core data pages look no different than they did in 1998!)
 
beachguy3b said:
On the topic of WJNT... my only thought is that the website took me back to 1995. And not in a good way.
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You aren't the first person to mention that. I've seen the new WJNT website - needs a few more tweaks but should be online in a few weeks.

RFB
 
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