Rest of Indiana WIOU Kokomo to leave air May 31.

[gr8oldies]

WIOU is 5000w watts day, 1000watts nights, directional on 1350.
Facebook announcement: "At the end of the broadcast day May 31, 1350 WIOU will cease operations. We thank you all for the support you have given the station through the years, and hope that when you think of WIOU in the future, you will smile."

Fox Sports Radio 1350 WIOU | Kokomo IN

Fox Sports Radio 1350 WIOU, Kokomo, Indiana. 159 likes · 87 talking about this. Fox Sports Radio WIOU 1350 is your local sports station based in Kokomo, Indiana. The network concentrates on sports...

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Another report states the remaining stations in the cluster will move to new, downtown studios. This post from a former staffer. Log into Facebook

 

[Mediafrog+]

Looking at the coverage maps WIOU has a brutal pattern…it’s as if they are going out of their way to avoid any population centers. Small wonder they are shutting down.

 

[gr8oldies]

Looking at the coverage maps WIOU has a brutal pattern…it’s as if they are going out of their way to avoid any population centers. Small wonder they are shutting down.

The patterns hit Kokomo from south of the city, but not much else for 5000 watts. It was weak in Frankfort.

Scott Fybush and friends visited WIOU/Z93, and several other Central Indiana radio stations during an ice storm in 2005. A selection from a decade of visits to tower and studio sites in the Northeast and beyond

 

[K.M. Richards]

Sidebar: CBS aired a short-lived television series titled WIOU from October 1990 to March 1991. It was a drama about a perpetual also-ran station with the call letters WNDY. I still remember driving down Cahuenga Blvd. when that show was in production and seeing the fictitious calls mounted over the front door of a vacant office building that was used whenever an exterior shot of the station was called for.

Guess this makes the second time WIOU was "taken silent".

 

[PTBoardOp93]

Sidebar: CBS aired a short-lived television series titled WIOU from October 1990 to March 1991. It was a drama about a perpetual also-ran station with the call letters WNDY.

At the time that show aired, the WNDY calls were on 106.3 in Crawfordsville, Indiana, which is just down the road from WIOU. As the bird flies, it's about 45 miles, a little further by car. I wonder if one of the writers was from the area.

 

[Voicetrack of Reason]

Uniblab syndicated sports talk is rarely successful. At a minimum, you need some sort of play by play to go along with it.

 

[gr8oldies]

Uniblab syndicated sports talk is rarely successful. At a minimum, you need some sort of play by play to go along with it.

It helps if you have a major college or pro program in town, though with Indianapolis being 45 miles away, there'd be plenty to talk about. More than likely there's a deal for the Real Estate on 26, or will be soon.

 

[epmarkr]

Although WIOU is shutting down May 31st, wouldn't Hoosier hold the license for a year on the chance a potential buyer would emerge?

 

[K.M. Richards]

Although WIOU is shutting down May 31st, wouldn't Hoosier hold the license for a year on the chance a potential buyer would emerge?

Legally, they have the option to file a STA request for silence, but they are under no obligation to do so. If, as has been suggested, it's a case of the real estate being worth more than the license, down come the towers and you'd be hard pressed to find a buyer for the license with no operable facilities.

Without towers, a new owner would have to either find somewhere to erect new towers or diplex on other towers. Either way, it's an engineering challenge and expense that a new owner is unlikely to want to take on, and one which does not guarantee even the existing "brutal" directional pattern ... or even the same output power.

This is becoming the reason for AMs going permanently silent more and more. I think we are already at the point where we should stop asking that question.

 

[epmarkr]

Yup, very understandable with the lengthy STA situation down the road with WFNI on 1070. In reality, Hoosier didn't need 2 stations dupping the same broadcast (from WMRI) over the same daytime footprint. 3 Towers appears to have held on until midnight before saying "no" to taking on WIOU.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

3 Towers appears to have held on until midnight before saying "no" to taking on WIOU.

3 Towers Broadcasting hasn't shown much interest in buying AMs.

 

[gr8oldies]

3 Towers Broadcasting hasn't shown much interest in buying AMs.

WIOU signed off this morning June 1, at 12:15am, reportedly with a "eulogy" by long-time staffer Rob Rupe.