Winchester

[amfmxm]

Somehow a thread on the Maryland board morphed into a Winchester review, so it seems there's some interest...

Here's the big question in Winchester. A year or two into operating the former Lewis/Mid Atlantic properties, not much seems to have happened. WINC-FM plugs into Billy Bush for 7-Mid, but otherwise sounds the same as they have for the past decade or so--a very average small-market Hot AC. The 104.9/105.5 rock twins just cruise along playing rock tunes uninterrupted by those pesky commercials. And 1400 continues to roll 24/7 with networked rightwing loonies in a Blue State. No change that I can hear.

And with the region's biggest FM stick, they continue to get clocked by a 2-to-1 margin by a Clear Channel outfit hanging on by its fingernails, according to yesterday's (6/29) San Antonio Express.

The question remains: Why?

 

[ratingsgeek]

Think Centennial promised the Lewises that they wouldn't touch their brilliant programming?

From what I've heard, the only significant change the new GM has made is to raise rates and push 10-second spots on clients for the same prices that used to get them 60's. Right out of the "How to Make Friends and Influence People" manual! Isn't he a large-market sales guy who got blown out in the bigs and landed in Winchester as a last resort? "All problems are sales problems!"

Not in this case. Don't gotta be a Mensa member to fix this cluster, but it will take more than just beating on the sales staff.

I have noticed a little tweaking beyond Billy Bush--a feature or two on 92.5--but the rockers are a waste, and the AM is too.

 

[redneckriviera]

The Lewis bunch had it right the first time with 105.5 and 104.9: Country. They just didn't do a good job of it, that's all. Lousy promotion, more than anything else.

Still it helped keep WUSQ closer to the earth--narrowing the gap with 92.5.

But having screwed it up once, I'm not sure it would be the way to go now. Lot of options, since there's really no competition. Just Centennial & Clear Channel.

The way they've wasted 1400 is really sad, though. Perfectly good little stick. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

 

[bk77]

The Lewis bunch had it right the first time with 105.5 and 104.9: Country. They just didn't do a good job of it, that's all. Lousy promotion, more than anything else.

The Lewis Family also made a BIG mistake in bringing Jenny Lynn to Apple Country from Q102. Even though Jenny was tops when she was on Q102..the rumors, stories, bad-mouthing of other jocks at other stations ( including WINC's Barry Lee, WFTR's Kemp Miller and WKMZ's Cliff Maxwell & Gary Michaels ), the firing of popular Q102 jocks like Wendy Robbins, Jimmy Lee and Warren Gosnell, trying to block Q102's then-owner Benchmark from buying WFQX-FM 99.3 ( they did it anyway BTW ), reports that her marriage to randy Woodward was on the rocks, rumors of affairs..most of which the listeners had heard about, anyway all of this had turned against Jenny Lynn by the time she got to Apple Country. Actually I am very surprised they hired her at all her considering at one Q102 function she was making fun of Barry Lee's wife and calling Cliff Maxwell's teenage daughter a "slu t"...and they both were working at WINC-FM at the time as Jenny was at Apple Country...bet that made for some tense moments.

 

[mleach]

I have noticed a little tweaking beyond Billy Bush--a feature or two on 92.5--but the rockers are a waste, and the AM is too.

Actually there is a big change coming to 1400 this fall...for the first time in almost 30 years WINC-AM will be doing live high school play by play. WINC-AM for a time last year even had a live morning show but for some reason WINC canned it even though acording to the local paper WEEKS before the show was conacelled was billing quite well and had guest booked. Maybe the morning guy had quit and WINC-AM didn't want to bother. Who knows.

The Lewises...about 10 years ago there was actually a book that was published by written by local author Laura Stotzell (?) titled "Froogy 99 is EVERYWHERE". "Froggy 99 being the HOT AC local WFQX had for a brief time in the mid 90s, a quite infamous station actually but that is a long story. Anyway the book did give a rather detailed history spanning 25 years ( 1975-2000 ) of the stations in the Winchester market and gave a pretty good idea of how The Lewises, The Bells ( AM 610 & 102.5 ), Kemper Miller ( WFTR ), John Luce ( WXVA ) Bill Prettyman (WKMZ/WEPM )and Bruce Spector & Jim Mathias ( Benchmark Communications ) did their business. Some of that book was actually quite funny and bizarre too like Bill Prettyman spending 50K back in 1995 by installing an elevator for his DOG ( bark controlled too ) at his mansion in Ocean City, MD and the Lewises they spent money too..when they sold their local Winchester TV Cable to Adelphia in the late 80s, John Lewis put out almost as much money as the "Prettyman Elevator" for his personal 75 seat movie theatre at his house in Winchester. I am sure he really needed THAT. Well if you have the money..why not spend it. ;D

Anyway the book did made the Lewises out to be hot/cold people. Good people to those who gave a lot to WINC but total butts to others but then again thats the nature of the biz anyway. Whoever said radio was a "fair" business. There is an interesting story in the book about The Lewises and how they con Jay Young from taking a job at Cumberland's WKGO "GO 106" by having him think that he will remain as program director of WINC AM/FM even though they had just hired Pat Evans as a "consultant and nothing more" so says The Lewises. However within days of Young turning down WKGO, The Lewises fhad fired Jay Young and who did they pick as the new PD? Pat Evans !!!

I am pretty sure "Froggy 99 is Everywhere" has been out of print for sometime however as recently as three years ago I did see a copy for sale on Ebay. Since my copy is long gone I should had bought it when I could .

 

[MarquisP4]

This market keeps getting entertaining as time goes on..what a DMA!

 

[mleach]

This market keeps getting entertaining as time goes on..what a DMA!

I am not so sure about that one

Actually the Winchester market of today is quite boring actually "sucks" might be a better word in this case considering what that market was like 12 years ago. A great HOT AC ( WINC-FM ), a great country station ( Q102 WUSQ ), good classic rock ( WKMZ ), a cool modern rock station ( 99 Three The Frog ), classic country ( WFTR-FM ), great oldies ( WAPP ) and even talk radio in Winchester was better then with Joe Pasquali & John Shriner doing mornings on WNTW-AM 610.

However as they say...."the sh*t hits the fan !!" And that was exactly what happened in that market in 1999. Pasquali & Shriner and the Frog Staff were fired, WINC's Jason Taylor got busted for child molestion. A jock at WFTR angry at his station had drove his car into a local Wendys while another WFTR jock tried to kill himself and some bigshot at Q102 in a newspaper article implied that WKMZ had too many "gay people" on their staff. Drama !! Drama !! Drama !!

Christine Richie from NYC WPLJ-FM ( she was at WINC-FM in the early-mid 90s ) several years back once compared the Winchester radio market to being locked in a room with "crazy people who aren't taking their meds". I can see her point.

Winchester wasn't a dull market back then..but for all the wrong reasons.

 

[redneckriviera]

With all due respect, mleach, I'm not sure the average listener really gives a shit about all the personal stuff you've noted, whether it's decades-old sexual shenanigans or spending habits of millionaire corporate chiefs. So, rich people have "home theatres" and elevators. Who cares? Ask home builders around Winchester how many of those they've installed locally over the past decade--you'll be shocked. (Rich folk spend differently than you & me. Money buys all sorts of stuff).

Point is, the average listener doesn't care. And neither do most employees--as long as the weekly check clears.

Listeners care about what they hear--or don't hear--on the radio.

What I hear on Winchester radio is a well-run, but very conventional, Country radio station at 102.5... a Hot AC with an entrenched-but-unexceptional morning guy and not much else very interesting at 92.5... a canned/predictable automated CHR at 98.3... twin rockers with an odd playlist and no commercials at 104.9 & 105.5... static at 610... a repeater for syndication at 1400...

What do you hear?

 

[shadough]

Well there will be at least one small change this weekend. Casey Kasem will no longer be heard on WINC fm, a staple on sunday mornings for I'd say 15 years or so. Kasem has now retired an sunday was his last show. I do wonder what WINC will air on sunday mornings from now on?! Maybe the Ryan Seacrest version of AT40? Probably just music hours.......

 

[murphy123]

RE: personal stuff and background noise - WELL PUT redneckriviera ! Many people have commented about all the drama that is spewed forth about Winchester on this site and the DCRTV site for years. NO ONE CARES...Who cares who's gay or who's had drinking problems. Geez...And is BK77 and mleach the same person? - always seems like their posts follow one another and always about Winchester and its "drama" Truth is closer to redneckriviera than not. Listening to WINC has always been like watching paint dry. Do they have to play Rick Astley? I had them on one Sunday between noon and 1 a few months ago and the jock did this :30 second on and on live liner/promo for some feature on the morning show about movie releases that happens every tue - blah, blah, blah. I started to glaze over - before he went into another lame song. Killer signal and certainly tied into the community (or at least they were under the Lewis') but the music has always been the stuff that won't offend anyone - SAFE list stuff and everything else is as vanilla as you can get. Plus, like a lot of mom/pops - they've never dropped some of the "radio" stuff that listeners have shown they dislike (like live reads for bits in the morning show just because someone in sales says you have to read it 30 times a week). Beyond WINC and WUSQ and WFQX, its a tough market for formats since the NOVA signals typically score better than the other locals. Kiss on 98.3 does OK but even it could be more adventuresome musically. Its sister 93.7 seems to hit the "hits" better. DC101 scores better than the Centennial rockers in market.

As for Apple Country and its failure. They didn't offer anything different from Q102. No real reason to switch. Same playlist, etc. WSIG (when it was based in Mt Jackson) scored as well or better than the old Apple Country proving that the blue collar country (less top 40 and more classic stuff) works in the valley - doin OK now in Hburg. Many people 35+ don't really care about Taylor Swift and even less about Darius Rucker...But now I am straying...

 

[jackandcoke]

There would seem to be a lot of evidence that a country oldies would do real well in Winchester, and I suppose that the Berryville/Strasburg FM twins would be the most likely candidates--once they figure out that DC101, WFQX & The Eagle gobble up too much share to make rock a realistic position. (But since they're currently advertising for a new rock PD it ain't gonna happen soon). FWIW, I cringe at the term "Classic Country" since it seems to imply shitloads of Hank, Sr. and Kitty Wells & Grampa Jones. Joel Raab's syndicated Country Legends format (92.1 in Hagerstown) is closer to the mark, minus the pop/rock stuff. In Winchester, of course, a little Patsy Cline always works...

 

[radiolifer105]

First... I totally agree with your take on J.L. NOW, you should know that her behavior goes way further back than WINC, Q102 or Apple Country. At one point, she was a secretary, Traffic Manager at a Berryville, Va. station known as WWOO "Country 105." Now known as 104.9/105.5. Although Jenny Lynn is not affiliated with the later. At the WWOO, she had a real reputation just like the one at Q102. Any male with a uniform, a badge and a wedding ring was full on game for Jenny. When the station WWOO was in the process of being sold, Jenny Lynn & then General Manager Rob Thurston (an entire trilogy of terror stories in himself) went out and made many shady deals with local merchants in exchange for advertising which they both knew would never be honored. It's for these reasons, your own posted accounts of her and much more that she has now gone basically... radio dark! She is married to The River 95.3's morning host Randy Woodward who was a fixture at Q102 as well. If anyone out there knows whatever happened to that character "Rob Thurston" I'd sure like to hear from ya; about it. Thanks for reading.