• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Who IS doing it right?

R

radiogaga603

The boards are always filled with ..... these guys stink, this station sucks, blah blah blah....and the occasional 'good job'.

So, I am curious.....if you took all the stations in NH ONLY....which one would you like to work for? I dont want to know about the BIGGEST station.....I would like to know....what station would be a good station to work for, overall.
 
I bet the Saga folks in Manchester and Keene are descent and credible. The GM and GSM have been there in Manchester for years, that has to mean something is good there. I suspect that any group that is not leveraged to the moon is a safe bet. I'm sure Jeff Shapiro's new group will be fine all said and done.
 
NO DAG, Radiogaga603, sounds pretty good...! Word is, and I do mean word is...My big girlfriend at cc told me there are somethin's stirrin' in Hanover NH. I'm not sure what is going on, yet, however I did locate a couple of ol' radio buffs over there...through myspace!...and they do seem to be re-building somethin', and the word is they are bringin' in people that will make an awesome team to work for! Not to mention, great benefits, incredible pay...and you get to do what you love to do...radio! I must say, if I wasn't strapped to the farm up here in Sharon! I would be all over it!!!! wink-wink!

Ms. Mary ;)
 
Wish the Saga folks decided to move a bit westward into the ravaged city of Rutland. They have done a very good job with their 5 Keene NH stations which is appears to be a somewhat parallel situation. Pamal's Team Titanic in Rutland could not hold any water to the Saga's 5 Keene Stations. I'd love to see the tale of the billings between the two similar markets, who cares about ratings. There's seems to be a small local group in North Conway that seems to fly under the radar of this board. That's probably a good thing. Niot sure if Lunderville has any staff for his stations in the North Country. What about Puffer Broadcasting in Wells River / Woodsville, they are quiet survivors..
 
You make a good point JoJo, about "billing" versus "ratings," although sometimes, one leads to another. However, if you have a good operation, with loyal advertisers, like a lot of small mom and pop radio stations, it doesn't matter whether you have ratings or not. They will support the station. It is when you start taking those folks for granted that things go south.

I've heard mostly good things about Saga and the north country cluster.

Jo Jo Kracko said:
Wish the Saga folks decided to move a bit westward into the ravaged city of Rutland. They have done a very good job with their 5 Keene NH stations which is appears to be a somewhat parallel situation. Pamal's Team Titanic in Rutland could not hold any water to the Saga's 5 Keene Stations. I'd love to see the tale of the billings between the two similar markets, who cares about ratings. There's seems to be a small local group in North Conway that seems to fly under the radar of this board. That's probably a good thing. Niot sure if Lunderville has any staff for his stations in the North Country. What about Puffer Broadcasting in Wells River / Woodsville, they are quiet survivors..
Click to expand...
 
WKBK 1290 in Keene is a great talk station with good sounding imaging. I've had the pleasure of touring their very modern studios. I don't listen to music radio so I can't really comment on their other stations.
 
As far as ratings go, the issue we have in this area(Concord/Lakes Region Market) is that the area is sooooooo VAST that only a couple of the market's stations actually cover the entire market. NH is primarily dominated by class As, with a few class Bs and the two powerhouses on top of Mt Washington. In NH, I suspect that, outside Manchester, billing is much less dominated by ratings than it is in other areas.
 
If ratings totally dictated the revenue stream then stations like WEQX in Manchester VT, or the "The Point's (WNCS / WRJT / WDOT stations) .. (Jo Jo Kracko's personal terrestrial favorites) would be billing like my grandmother would say, "bubkas" . Those stations I would think bill well north over a million dollars by themselves, but with ratings that show towards the bottom of the pack, especially in the case of WEQX. I'm sure VAB Hall of Famer Brooks Brown is saying, "whose me, we have no ratings, we can't sell our product, or get descent rates, or put out a great air product, or have a good pressence in the markets we serve'.. yeah right, fat chance.. Yet the number one and number two top rated stations in Market 179 are having troubles getting rates on the street over the $10.00 mark from what the retailers are saying, with stopsets playing a fair amount of public service matter. What a dichotomy.

A radio stations' and stations' marketing representitive's fine reputation to deliver the results to advertisers is much more important in places like Rutland, Keene, Brattleboro, Montpelier, Lebanon, Laconia, Concord, Newport VT and NH, matters way over the large ratings companies published 'numbers' anyday. Anyone hung up on 'ratings' in those places is expending a lot of wasted energies that could be better served to solve a customers marketing objectives or problems. The average retailer wants results and resourcefulness from their 'marketing consultants', and in most cases know more about the radio stations than the 'marketing consultants' themselves.

Nuff said..
 
I agree with FTL_Ian, WKBK does indeed sound great. And the rest of the Saga cluster there seems to have it together as well with five stations working functionally, and not to hammer on the Pamal's Team Titanic that's taking on a lot of water in Rutland, any listener can tell that those are clearly five stations that work totally disfunctionally, and that falls squarely on "The Captain" and "the Professor" that have steered that ship on it's present course to ruin.
 
Good point, which also makes the case that there should be two separate markets - Concord and the Lakes Region - not one.

In addition, according to a someone I know who would know such things, the only two companies who subscribe to the Arbitrons are Clear Channel and Nassau. So, the bulk of the stations can't use the numbers or don't even know their numbers, unless they get pirated ones.

cooper said:
As far as ratings go, the issue we have in this area(Concord/Lakes Region Market) is that the area is sooooooo VAST that only a couple of the market's stations actually cover the entire market. NH is primarily dominated by class As, with a few class Bs and the two powerhouses on top of Mt Washington. In NH, I suspect that, outside Manchester, billing is much less dominated by ratings than it is in other areas.
Click to expand...
 
Anthony Schinella said:
Good point, which also makes the case that there should be two separate markets - Concord and the Lakes Region - not one.

In addition, according to a someone I know who would know such things, the only two companies who subscribe to the Arbitrons are Clear Channel and Nassau. So, the bulk of the stations can't use the numbers or don't even know their numbers, unless they get pirated ones.













Come on do you think they really get the pirated numbers? ;) Most of the smaller stations could care less about numbers why bother? If the numbers are good then agencys are gonna call them wiether or not they BUY the book. Plus in these small markets Jans danceorama could care less about numbers. Plus your right about separtion of markets, but it wont matter anyway when Nassua and CC stop buying the book.
Click to expand...
 
Lebanon / Rutland / White River Junction by definition is a pretty farcical. The only stations that can almost make the claim that they cover the entire market are the three Pamal stations, Z 97, WEBK, and WJJR. Though hearing any of those stations on a table radio in Lebanon or White River Junction is a pretty tall tale.
On the other side, all of the stations in Lebanon do not make it past the mountains into Rutland county, though Kixx 100.5 and Oldies 104 do have enough juice to be heard in most parts of Rutland, and certainly any residence that faces east with no obstructions.

Thank Nassau, and perhaps Pamal and Clear Channel, for making the big ratings company define the area as a rated market. This is what allowed Pamal to get away with owning 5 out of 6 commercials broadcast facilities in Rutland.
 
Funny how Pamal gets away with owning such a large share of the Rutland market...without a little breath from the lib-anti big company-crowd...not to worry...with Pamal, the Professor and Mary Anne bringing slowly floating the SS Minnow to obscurity, the newly re-vamped Nassau will soon rule the market...sounds like they are getting it right! Question is...will the Howell's step in before the Minnow sinks?
 
One would have to think that "The Howells" who are very successful in business outside and inside the radio industry cannot expect to survive, prosper, grow and keep good talented hard working people if everyone of their businesses is run like the way things appear to be operated in the Rutland Vermont group.

"Oh Lovey".... ???
 
In response to a couple of posts earlier on...

As far as folks getting pirated numbers... I don't know if they were pirated, but back in the day when WFRD was rated "number 1" they seemed to get their paws on one.

And WEBK I used to get in an office on a table radio in downtown Lebanon... of course, it was like 5th floor up in the building that used to house First NH Bank turned Citizens but all the same... :)
 
Obtaining a set of pirated 'big ratings company' numbers are not that difficult to come by all said and done. It used to be funny when WFRD was number one in the "Grafton County" county-by county lists. This was way before the area became "Market 179". Grafton county is a rather large in terms of geography, and by no means does WFRD cover the entire county. What else made those quite interesting was that it was based on a very very small amount (less than 100) which determined the entire county. You could go 'across the street' to Windsor County, and have a totally different story.

If your getting WEBK on your table radio in the Citizens Bank building in Lebanon, I take it your window must be facing towards Killington. I was thinking of places such as on 12A in West Leb, downtown West Leb village, White River Jct. that can be tough for the 50kw's from the Peaks of Killington. WJJR used to operate a translator in Hanover in the pre-Pamal days at 103.9 which now rebroadcasts VPR classical. They even had a chance to move it to 98.5 and get the translator away from the powerful nearby neighbor at 104.3. Not sure if Clear Channel got a translator frequency for Z 97 during their time of ownership.

One interesting attempt at full market coverage before the market was defined as #179 was Q106's on-channel booster that was on Pico. When it did worked properly, the booster did help Q106 get a good signal into Rutland city and beyond.
 
Actually, I was kind of pigeonholed in a closet with no windows, lol :D. But the rest of the sales office had windows that overlooked the FarmFare IGA at the time. That was the illustrious second home of the Talk Radio Shopper with me being the 3rd graphic designer to tackle it (with no formal training other than a high school course thank you very much!) 8)

For you history buffs, the Shopper (and WNTK-Lebanon sales offices) moved twice after that, of which I was a part of both. One in temporary offices above a pet store (can't remember the name of it now... Steve's?) on Mechanic Street adjacent the street. In a different building closer to the river was the now-defunct Blacksmith Bakery, of which Janine Weins was an avid customer. Mentioned them on the air a few times on the old Twin State Journal... broadcasting live from the Your Idea Bookstore, lol! Shortly after dealing with the horrible heat that was the second floor office, we moved to a new location opposite the Colonial Deli Mart in the basement of the building that housed Gnomon Copy and dang if I can't remember what else was in it! I believe that those offices are still in use to this day. And this time I had a window! lol ;D
 
Great point Dudeman !! That was how 101, The Fox (The WEXP side) got's it's signal to the 100.7 (Always known as "Oy Vay" to me) frequency on top of Mount Snow some almost 70 air miles away. They used a FM receiver to pick up WEXP, and sent the signal via STL to a Mount Snow, a very long STL hop. The equipment there was originally used to make WHDQ-FM1 in Rutland work (sometimes) . The set up was reasonably reliable for a few years, I understand Nassau has found other sophisticated ways to take are of the getting the Fox to the "Oy Vay" signal.. Used to find it interesting when the "Oy Vay" translator on top of Stratton would rebroadcast WZLX 100.7 in Boston instead of the mother frequency from Mount Snow..

Back to topic.. What about the folks at WFTN and that group ? WYRY in Hindsdale ? Both of those NH operators seem to fly well below the radar of this board..Both have been owned by the same people for a long long time. The WFTN in Franklin group seems to have prospered in the face of big company competition. WYRY seems to hang in there, even though they have a direct compeitor in the Saga group in Keene..
 
I think that WPNH got a long overdue facelift from Jeff Fisher and friends. (Geez, I hope I got the right guy lol.) Not only that but they commenced transmitting from Tenney Mountain which I'm sure really helped their coverage.

The WFTN/WSCY/WPNH cluster is doing pretty well from what I've heard. Or at least holding their own and yeah they have been around for quite a while.

Here's an interesting bit of trivia:
Did you know that WNTK's first transmitter for its New London signal at 99.7FM was originally the transmitter for 100.1 WPNH?
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom