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Why did B-106.5 WRTB Washington flip to Country in 1993

  • Thread starter Mid West Clubber
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Mid West Clubber

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This happened at a time when all the CHR top 40 stations where changing to country... I wouldnt say B-106.5 was a straight ahead CHR, it was more of a Rock top 40, and then skewed into a very Dance Friendly CHR,,, so it was more like localised Top 40, since the CHR format wasnt exactly established as we know it today. And why can I not get it in Martinsville anymore? I used to get it in Martinsville back when it was top 40ish,, but I cant anymore. Is it still the same tower and power as the top 40 days???? Did WSTO cause B-106.5 to bail on the format, they have a signal in Washington, but not a real strong one.
 
Why did ANYONE in the early '90s switch from CHR? CHR was still a viable format if done right, yet everyone switched from CHR.

I used to get M Street Journal, and it seems like America would lose at least 5 CHR's every week. Many weren't replaced for years.
 
WFML/WTRB/WWBL has been on the same tower since it signed on in the mid 50s. US 50, Washington. Don't know about the ERP, though.
 
The reason WRTB flipped to country was because it was caught up being a CHR when no one wanted to be a CHR. As has been mentioned, the format was seeing an average of 2 defections a week in the early 90's. The format was fragmenting between mainstream, dance and rock CHR, and advertisers didn't want it. Keep in mind that we were also in a recession in the early 90's (that was what cost Bush I re-election in '92), and a lot of advertisers were being more watchful of their spending. This meant many were buying only 25-54. Rather than trying to grow the segment of their audience that overlapped with the 25-54 demo, many CHR's decided it would be easier to just change formats to something that naturally attracted that demo.
 
The real answer is MONEY. WRTB was sold in '93 to Old Northwest Broadcasting at the time co-owned by Mark Lange and Dave Crooks. It had been losing money for years as CHR. If you look at the demographics of Daviees county and surrounding areas and ask what the most listended to music would be...the answer won't be CHR. Plus, pulling the plug on that format would serve to drive more listeners to Lange's only stick at the time WZDM in Vincennes. WZDM is not CHR but CHR listeners with money will listen to AC, those who won't are too young to shop seriously anyways. Moving RTB to WWBL with a classic country format, in terms of the money they made, was one of the most brilliant decisions in the history of radio ever. Period. They were basically swimming in cash. Within 3 years they were billing more in 3 months than RTB did in a year. The downside is NONE of the money went back into the infrastructure of the station, it's transmitter, it's tower or it's people. When you're billing a consistent 70 - 80K a month for several years, and only paid 250K for both it and WAOV, to not put money back into it is stupid, shortsighted and the reason it has not maintained it's dominance (this doesn't even add in the 15K or so a month WAOV was/is billing). Plus Crooks left and is giving Lange a run for his money now across town with the WAMW's.
 
Wasn't WRTB really more of a Vincennes station than a Washington station? I remember a brief mention of it in Billboard referred to it as a Vincennes station.
 
Their TOH ID said Washington Vincennes.. The stick was licensed to Washington, but I think the advertising was mainly in Vincennes... That signal made its way into Bedford and Lagotee and Jasper pretty well too,, I think they had some Ads in those towns, it was once a flame thrower and really did serve much of South West indiana, even Evansville, and quite a ways into Illinois.. The signal was even slightly audible to DXers in Indianapolis, but this was before Bill Shirk signed 106.7 on.....
 
I worked at Hit-96 and 106.5 from the fall of '83 to the fall of 87.... WRTB(for Robert, Tom and Daddy Bob Green of Green Broadcasting) was bought from the old owners and studios were moved from the American Bank in Downtown Vincennes to The Penthouse Rooftop of Green's Executive Inn Hotel/Restaurant and Bar on the northeast side of Vincennes (just of St. Rd. #61 and US 41-50).....It was a class "A" that powered down and went on a nice taller stick... We were something like 1.4 or 1.8 KW at 96.7Mhz... In '85 with our billings up in the 50k to 60k a month range, Green bought Draper (Newspaper Owner in Washington) out and we gave 96.7 to the Vincennes University Foundation that made 96.7 / WFML (taking the old Washington call letters for 106.5).... We moved the studio in ONE NIGHT on a Friday and signed on at 6:am with "Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones on that Saturday morning.. WAMW-AM stayed in Draper's hands while Greene Electric (on Main Street in Washington) filed to buy and move it to the shop a block away from the WAMW-AM/WFML-FM studios on VanTrees in Washington... We built out new backroom studios and WAMW moved... Greene Electronics to Dave Crooks who got Class "A" 107.9 on, later and now runs off a new tower(s) west of town and across the White River in east Knox County... 1580 briefly ran post sunset at 6 watts or so, until the tower move...There (four miles west of town), they would not cover the city of license at night.. They went back to daytime operation..... 106.5 became the new home for the rockin' Top-40 and we did do well while I was there! We were billing between 60K and 80K a month, and along with Country WAOV-AM in Vincennes, we were always near or above 100k a month.. I think the talent booked between '88 and '91 and that included the best sales people.. Thus it went down fast... Lange was smart to go country, but still has a tendancy to not invest in the quality sound and staff that would gleem him a higher loyalty... He has no competition, per say in the multi-station cluster (WAOV-AM/1450 Vincennes-News/Talk....WZDM-FM/92.1 Vincennes-AC.....WWBL-FM/106.5 Washington-Real Country....WUZR-FM/105.7 in Bicknell-Country....WQTY-FM/93.3 Linton-Oldies....WBTO-FM/102.3 Petersburg-Classic Rock).... The anti-CHR binge hurt and the times had changed.. We had a hot Optimod in Washington and less than a mile of equalized 15k stereo broadcast loop to the tower! We were only about 350 feet HAAT, but on a hill.. We smoked to the fringes of outer towns and cities.. We caused 'STO-FM's sales staff problems in Jasper.. WITZ prefered their clients bought our cheap rates as the second buy over the high Evansville-Owensboro adds.. We were more geared to the German-American 18 to 34 tastes in the day and had strong support from the 34 to 44 demo and hit the 12 to 25 demo in the evening.... Good news, Jam Jingles and a fun crew... Sales and Programming worked, partied and lived in our area as a unit... Fun was had! We saw some county by county stuff that a former 'STO sales person snuck to us for a peek... 'STO hated us in Dubois, Gibson, Pike and Wabash(IL) Counties..... When 'STO lost their 1,000 foot tower in our 96.7 days, we picked up loyalty from Gibson County (as we were next to them on the dial)... When we went 50,000 Watts and to 106.5, Jasper-Huntingburg was there for the pickins... WITZ and WBDC were the full service and country outlets, we were the regional 'sneek in'.... I would always give the Vincennes , Washington AND Jasper temps on the weather! Danny Wayne did a GREAT job in picking music that please a station audience that was a 55/45% mix of Women to Men.... I think WRTB and WCIL-FM in that era definded the regional/small market CHR sound that made big bucks while the CHR was considered the young and upcoming buying audience..... Mitch "In The Morning" Cooley (PD), Keith Jones (Production) in the midday, Danny Wayne (Music/Promotions) in the afternoon, Herb "Bogie" Bogart (Promotions) nights, Lady "Di" Diane and then Me in the late evening, and "Marvelous" Michael J. Malloy was the out of site Overnight guy! Matt Moade was a great weekender... Our old WFML engineer Paul as wonderful and gave me the Optimod key to make sure that it was smokin' and the Uri-Mic-Compressor was slammin'.... 'STO was dominate in the ADI due to no major Evansville competition (after 'KDQ went Country) and really was a Hot-AC in the day and CHR at night.. Promoting itself as a HIT STATION to the audience and promoting itself as a HOT AC to the advertisers.. Smart move and Barry (PD) Witherspoon was fantasic making it a wide demo Top-40.. They're only kick, was they we're processed AC and we were so loud, proud and IN YOUR face.....Coal miners and their wives loved that...... We knew our market was: Knox, Daviess(IN), Martin, Sullivan, Greene, Gibson, Pike, Dubois, North Spencer and North Warrick, South Owen, South Clay(IN) and South Vigo in Indiana and Lawrence, Wabash, Edwards, Clay(IL), Crawford(IL) in Illinois... It was those Bedford bluff listeners that made us smile.. We did remotes in Beford! You'd lose us in the valleys coming to Bedford from Shoals, but when you got on the ridge a few miles west and south of Bedford, BAM, we came back in with a decent car radio signal! The signal is way down from those days...
 
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