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Will Birmingham Get A Black Information Network Station?

I wouldn't expect to see it on any of the iHeart-owned stations in the market. Same goes for the translators they broadcast their HD subchannels. Having never worked in radio a day in my life, but always intrigued by it, the only plausible place for it in the Birmingham market might be WENN (1320 AM). Currently they're simulcasting WAGG (610 AM, 100.1 FM). The only caveat to that idea is that the daytime signal on 1320 is marginal at best, and its nighttime signal is virtually impossible to pick up much beyond the immediate area of its transmitter.
 
Charles35080 said:
I wouldn't expect to see it on any of the iHeart-owned stations in the market. Same goes for the translators they broadcast their HD subchannels. Having never worked in radio a day in my life, but always intrigued by it, the only plausible place for it in the Birmingham market might be WENN (1320 AM). Currently they're simulcasting WAGG (610 AM, 100.1 FM). The only caveat to that idea is that the daytime signal on 1320 is marginal at best, and its nighttime signal is virtually impossible to pick up much beyond the immediate area of its transmitter.
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It's amazing to realize that back in the late 60's and earlier 70's WENN was one of the top stations in Pulse and Hooper ratings!
 
I think I know where B-Ham's home for BIN will soon be heard.

Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted.

Dan <><
 
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DavidEduardo said:
It's amazing to realize that back in the late 60's and earlier 70's WENN was one of the top stations in Pulse and Hooper ratings!
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It was a mighty big fall from a 100,000 watt powerhouse signal that covered much of northeast Alabama in addition to Birmingham, to being calls sitting on a corporately-neglected AM, isn't it?

iHeart is leasing a translator and HD subchannel from someone in Montgomery for BIN, so I don't see why they couldn't/wouldn't do the same in Birmingham, if anyone is willing to lease space out.
 
tomservo said:
It was a mighty big fall from a 100,000 watt powerhouse signal that covered much of northeast Alabama in addition to Birmingham, to being calls sitting on a corporately-neglected AM, isn't it?
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But Blacks, like Hispanics, are a much younger community... averaging at least 10 years in median age younger in most markets.

So the company that owns the remnants of WENN on AM now has what are two of the top three FMs, one contemporary and the other adult r&b. They are serving the community.

Oh, and in the late 60's and early 70's, WENN did not even have an FM on the air until sometime in 1970, and then it was just 60 kw at 600 feet... not even up on the mountain. But still, as a daytime AM, it got huge numbers as the other Black stations were also daytimers (900, 1220 for a while, etc) or that 1400 AM, WJLD, that were not as connected to the community. WENN was, of course, the legacy of A.G. Gaston, an exemplary Black leader.
 
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DavidEduardo said:
WENN was, of course, the legacy of A.G. Gaston, an exemplary Black leader.
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Cumulus may be serving the market with two very successful stations, but I do wonder if something was lost between the times when locals like Gaston and Shelley Stewart had their finger on the pulse of the city. That's probably more of a philosophical question about corporate ownership in general, though.

BIN seems like a no-brainer for the market. It's the sizable black population, and a degree of affluence (at least it was going that way when I left years ago) that seems like a good fit for a news outlet geared towards them. There's no affiliate in my area (Mobile-Pensacola) but I hear them while scanning the AM dial at night. Both the Atlanta and Macon BIN stations come in nicely here after dark, and seem to have a good presentation.

The bug in the lemonade is finding an available frequency to blow up. iHeart already has several black-targeted formats like B 106.5 and 104.1 The Beat and Hallelujah, which they probably don't want to erase. They could stick it on WDXB's HD3 that isn't feeding a translator, but then no one would hear it. Or break off WERC's AM side, but I can't help but think it exists for a reason despite being a duplicate of the FM's coverage.

The other companies running HD already have a pretty full slate of programming, too. Unless they pony up to lease HD3 space from Summit's WPYA to feed that 92.3 translator they've had a CP on for ages. It'd put some signal into the core of the city if it's built out.
 
tomservo said:
Cumulus may be serving the market with two very successful stations, but I do wonder if something was lost between the times when locals like Gaston and Shelley Stewart had their finger on the pulse of the city. That's probably more of a philosophical question about corporate ownership in general, though
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I'm not talking about Cumulus. I am referring to Summit, the group whose programming is managed by Bill Tanner. They have over 20 25-54 shares with the two r&b stations, while Cumulus only has one Black targeted station with less than a quarter of those shares.

Summit retains WAGG and it has a tiny share doing gospel.

And Summit has 48.6% of the AQH listening in the whole market, due to good programming.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I'm not talking about Cumulus. I am referring to Summit, the group whose programming is managed by Bill Tanner. They have over 20 25-54 shares with the two r&b stations, while Cumulus only has one Black targeted station with less than a quarter of those shares.

Summit retains WAGG and it has a tiny share doing gospel.

And Summit has 48.6% of the AQH listening in the whole market, due to good programming.
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D'oh! I should have remembered that it wasn't Cumulus that owned those two stations. Sheesh. It's not like I run a website about Alabama radio or anything. :rolleyes:

It's been "one of those days".
 
Since some of the new BIN affiliates are translators that Iheart is leasing, the only Birmingham stations that come to mind which fall into that category would be W256CD at 99.1 (ALT 99.1), 103.1 W276BQ (103.1, The Vulcan), 104.1 W281AB (104.1 the Beat) and 106.5 W293CM (B106.5). If BIN does show up, I figure Iheart would sacrifice B106.5 and place BIN there. 99.1 isn't doing that well in the ratings these days, so Iheart might scrap the ALT programming for BIN. Iheart recently pulled one of their ALT stations in another market (ironically, ALT 99.1 in Cleveland) to use for a BIN affiliate. I doubt Iheart would yank either the Vulcan or in particular, 104.1 The Beat.

https://www.cleveland.com/entertain...o-inform-engage-and-empower-black-voices.html
 
passtheword said:
I was correct in my theory that W224CK might be the new BIN affiliate.
[Crowd Cheering...]
;)

https://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?729316-W224CK-Vestavia-Hills
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What's the coverage range of the 92.7 signal? Not that I expected much, but it was impossible to pick up along Morgan Road near I-459. And how successful will they be relying on an HD-2 or -3 signal for primary coverage? Aside from some newer vehicles, there aren't a lot of HD radios available on the market that people are buying.
 
Charles35080 said:
What's the coverage range of the 92.7 signal? Not that I expected much, but it was impossible to pick up along Morgan Road near I-459. And how successful will they be relying on an HD-2 or -3 signal for primary coverage? Aside from some newer vehicles, there aren't a lot of HD radios available on the market that people are buying.
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I was in Birmingham not too long ago and didn't seem to have too much issue picking up 92.7 in Hoover near Valleydale, despite the challenging terrain. The antenna is directional to protect WTUG in Tuscaloosa, I suppose. In Bessemer there was no trace of the 92.7 translator thanks to WTUG's HD sideband.

I didn't experience any HD dropouts during my limited time with one of those radios, not anywhere that I drove. It wasn't until south of Alabaster that the dropouts become problematic. I reckon the HD covers the core of the city where the target audience lives. As to whether or not they have HD radios, though…

A similar arrangement is in Montgomery, where WMRK-HD3 is heard on a translator on 99.3. In that case, the translator definitely outperformed the HD, though.

I guess it's only a matter of time now before Mobile gets one of these relays, assuming they can find a translator to squeeze it onto.
 
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