Will Radio One Spin Off WILD-AM?

[Laurence Glavin]

MStreet Journal reports that Radio One is in the planning stages of spinning off more of its outlets, including its station in Boston, namely WILD-AM. Gee, who would buy it? And if anyone agreed to run it as an LMA, could it become an Air America affiliate? Some of AAR's stations are daytimers.

 

[DanStrassberg]

MStreet Journal reports that Radio One is in the planning stages of spinning off more of its outlets, including its station in Boston, namely WILD-AM. Gee, who would buy it? And if anyone agreed to run it as an LMA, could it become an Air America affiliate? Some of AAR's stations are daytimers.

Umm, it hasn't been M Street Journal for at least 18 months. Name was changed to The Radio Journal back then. And The Radio Jounal (and M Street Journal before it) focus mainly on the parts of radio that are of interest to engineering personnal--applications for new facilities, signal upgrades, antenna-site moves, CoL changes, and the like. That's not to say that The Radio Journal hasn't reported on Radio One's plans to shed more properties. In fact Tom Taylor has also covered that subject in his two most recent columns right here at Radio Info.com. And, indeed, it is a major topic thoughout the industry.

 

[JIBGUY]

Who would buy it, you ask? How about Cash-for-Christ outfits? Or someone who wants to air all infomercials. Or ethnic brokered-time broadcasters? Colleges with FM's who want to have an alternate voice; colleges without FM's... Amongst those categories, the number of buyers could be endless. - I am actually surprised that it hasn't been sold yet. This announcement of its being available is old news. If I had the $$, I'd buy it and do 1955-69 rock oldies or Classic Country. Meanwhile there are at least 3 more stations that need an owner too. Had I been airing diet-pills infomericals over the past 16 years at 740, then perhaps I would have had the money.....

 

[rapking]

If I had the money , I would buy it .I would Change WILD-AM back to the old WILD-AM Format ( Urban A/C or Urban Oldies and Black Gospel on Sunday ) .

 

[NHRadio]

If I had the money , I would buy it .I would Change WILD-AM back to the old WILD-AM Format ( Urban A/C or Urban Oldies and Black Gospel on Sunday ) .

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree. Urban AC was the only format that moved the ratings needle at AM 1150. The drawbacks are the daytime-only license, and convincing people under 40 that AM is still worth listening to. If I owned it the first things I'd do is fire up the HD and set up a web presence.

 

[radiojay1]

Ed (rapking), if you did have the money, I would suggest also increasing the daytime power so that other urban areas like Providence and Worcester could hear it, not to mention all the fans of classic soul and R&B in the area beyond Boston. Also, you should give it a web site, unlike Radio One (which took years to even give WILD one), that allows you to also listen to it online.

 

[rapking]

Ed (rapking), if you did have the money, I would suggest also increasing the daytime power so that other urban areas like Providence and Worcester could hear it, not to mention all the fans of classic soul and R&B in the area beyond Boston. Also, you should give it a web site, unlike Radio One (which took years to even give WILD one), that allows you to also listen to it online.

You are right on point , If I had the money . With that crappy talk station in Baltimore , I dont know if WILD-AM can get a better signal .

 

[NHRadio]

There's practically no way WILD could increase its signal. Power levels for daytimers are calculated so they don't (theoretically) mess with the co-channel clear(s) they share. I'm sure Mr. Strassberg can provide details.
Getting a WWZN or WNSH-type directional pattern to protect WBAL Baltimore and even possibly XPRS would require a bunch of new towers, and in today's NIMBY world, it ain't gonna happen-not to mention the huge costs of land and engineering.
If I were Radio One (and if I wanted to stay in Boston) I'd sell 1090 and buy an AM with better coverage, like WBIX, WTTT or even AM590-the calls escape me. Maybe WWZN IF there was a way to get out of that overpriced tower rent.
What about Manchester NH? The only stations available would be WKBR or possibly WDER Derry. AM Rap? Black oriented talk? UAC?

Ed (rapking), if you did have the money, I would suggest also increasing the daytime power so that other urban areas like Providence and Worcester could hear it, not to mention all the fans of classic soul and R&B in the area beyond Boston. Also, you should give it a web site, unlike Radio One (which took years to even give WILD one), that allows you to also listen to it online.

You are right on point , If I had the money . With that crappy talk station in Baltimore , I dont know if WILD-AM can get a better signal .

 

[flatcar]

It sounds like Radio One wants to sit and wait for the money they want for WILD. There are also hidden costs in this sale. The only way to change WILD's signal is to pay the "crappy talk station" in Baltimore a huge sum of money which probably will be more than what WILD s worth. btw I believe the Baltimore talk station is aso wned by Radio One.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

It sounds like Radio One wants to sit and wait for the money they want for WILD. There are also hidden costs in this sale. The only way to change WILD's signal is to pay the "crappy talk station" in Baltimore a huge sum of money which probably will be more than what WILD s worth. btw I believe the Baltimore talk station is aso wned by Radio One.

WBAL is owned by Hearst/Argyle.

 

[NHRadio]

It sounds like Radio One wants to sit and wait for the money they want for WILD. There are also hidden costs in this sale. The only way to change WILD's signal is to pay the "crappy talk station" in Baltimore a huge sum of money which probably will be more than what WILD s worth. btw I believe the Baltimore talk station is aso wned by Radio One.

WBAL (top 20 market and decent coverage of top 10 DC) is a 50kw station on a clear channel.
WILD is a 5kw daytimer with (I think) no PSA or PSRA operation. My guess is it's worth a tiny fraction of WBAL.
I'd guess WBAL is worth approx. 25-40 million. WILD would be lucky to command 2 million, if that.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

WILD is a 5kw daytimer with (I think) no PSA or PSRA operation.

WILD was running some sort of low power for just a half-hour after local sunset since sometime in the late 1990's. I don't know how much it is, it doesn't appear to be listed in the FCC database. I think it was less than 100 watts. It barely covered within Route 128, and less on certain evenings when WBAL was already coming in. I haven't checked lately to hear if they're still doing that after sunset, they may still be. I pretty much quit listening to them when they dumped the Classic Soul format.

After that low-power half-hour, the transmitter used to just drop off the air in mid-song, mid-commercial, whatever, without any legal signoff or even an ID. The transmitter must've been on a timer. I live in Somerville close to their Medford transmitter, so I know that they didn't go down to some even lower power. They just dropped off the air for the night a half-hour after sunset.

 

[flatcar]

Thanks Eli, I stand corrected. That would mean even more money to pay out to WBAL to change patten or lower night power.

 

[webcastboy]

I'm sure Dan can explain the particulars, but is WBAL is the main reason why WILD can't have night power? If so, I wonder...because WILD diplexed with WXKS a few years ago, didn't they? Couldn't they use WXKS's second tower to create a similar pattern to 1430? Just eyeballing the azimuth it seems about right.

Granted, it'd probably mean that WILD's signal wouldn't reach most of Boston, but it'd beat shutting down completely after critical hours ended.

 

[HHH]

I will ask again:

There is no group of African-Americans who are willing to pony up a few hundred thousand apiece and retain Boston's only black hertiage station?

Can't Radio One solicit this station for this purpose among the black business community?

Or are they going to cash this out to yet another religious outfit?

 

[flatcar]

Radio One is in it for the money. They are having difficulties in their other markets as well. There was a large shake-up on the BOD and now they are looking for the big bucks. Why do you think they sold 97.7 for 30 Million?

 

[rapking]

I will ask again:

There is no group of African-Americans who are willing to pony up a few hundred thousand apiece and retain Boston's only black hertiage station?

Can't Radio One solicit this station for this purpose among the black business community?

Or are they going to cash this out to yet another religious outfit?

U.S. Supreme court Judge C.T. knows more about Black business community , than Radio One. So-Called Black Leaders of Boston, need to stop looking at what going on at WRKO , and start looking at, what is going to happen to the late great ,1090 WILD-AM .

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I'm sure Dan can explain the particulars, but is WBAL is the main reason why WILD can't have night power? If so, I wonder...because WILD diplexed with WXKS a few years ago, didn't they? Couldn't they use WXKS's second tower to create a similar pattern to 1430? Just eyeballing the azimuth it seems about right.

Granted, it'd probably mean that WILD's signal wouldn't reach most of Boston, but it'd beat shutting down completely after critical hours ended.

From what I understand, WBAL's 50 kW skywave is so much more powerful in New England at night than any of the 5 kW stations on 1430 that WXKS contends with, that it would preclude the possibility of WILD running any kind of (feasible) signal at night, whether directional, low power or whatever.

And even if they could do something like WXKS at night, it wouldn't make sense to have any kind of Urban or African-American format transmitting from north of Boston that couldn't reach Boston at all. WBAL would completely wipe any kind of signal like that out in the Boston area most every nights.

 

[NHRadio]

If there was any group that thought they could make money with a standalone AM daytimer someone would have bought it. Many urban stations find it harder to attract mainstream advertisers than other formats.
I don't, though, see how any potential buyer would have to be black.
The big groups are at their lmit as to number of stations but Nassau, Northeast, even Mr. Mindich could run it from their existing clusters-IF they could make a profit...and unfortunately it's not likely without brokering a big block o'time-and as a daytimer that isn't possible.

I will ask again:

There is no group of African-Americans who are willing to pony up a few hundred thousand apiece and retain Boston's only black hertiage station?

Can't Radio One solicit this station for this purpose among the black business community?

Or are they going to cash this out to yet another religious outfit?

 

[newsbot]

Not to pick a nit, but WBAL Radio is owned by the Hearst Corporation, not Hearst-Argyle.