I never tried it, but in the last week, while driving all over, I wanted to check out the range of the urban guru Tony Q's pet failure, that he has been trying to pump life into for over ten years, and acting like its a Wilmington station. BUT...To my surprise this little 3pluskw signal from the Southwest Jersey swamps/marshes, really gets out. It was coming in gangbusters in all parts of Philly, south of Market Street, into Delco, Bucks, Northwestern suburbs and all of South Jersey, plus most of the Diamond state, at times better than NJ101.5. The signal is crisp and clean, although the music is not my cup of tea. This was in a car mind-you at home in Center City it was spotty but the high rises would account for that, and I had a small antenna, did not try other areas of the house. I talked to a friend who lives near Chestertown in Maryland and he said he can bring it in. I would imagine the signal can reach from 5 to 6 million people or many more, in the 4 state coverage area. Not a bad stick and good move for Delmarva, it has plenty of potential even without moving the Xmtr.
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wjks
- Thread starter hangman
- Start date
A "pet failure" that regularly appeared respectably in the Wilmington Ratings and survived on it's own financially for 10 years? Not a bad "failure" at all
U
Unregistered
Guest
Right, a constant 0.9 to 1.3 year after year, very impressive..
Right, a constant 0.9 to 1.3 year after year, very impressive..
It survived for 10 years. They were doing something right with the stick.
I don't know the facts, I do think TQ kept it for a hobby, he has deep pockets and probably thought he was filling a void, even though the main signal would of supported a Country Classics format to serve that particular area. I just hope Delmarva does something different with it, lets say Alternative, Standards or Classic Oldies. Time will tell, the first is tomorrow...
Not only that, it bills just under $1 million a year and apparently outbills WILM. That is hardly a failure for a small signal.
There are only 56,000 people in the 65 dbu contour.* Usually, 95% of a rated market station's in-home and at-work listening comes from inside that contour.
The exceptions are when a station has a format that is unique, which may cause people who want to hear it to put up with a bit more difficult reception to get it. Obviously, the WJKS format is getting some of that fringe listening in order to cume just under 50,000 persons in the Wilmington market ratings.
* Even the 60 dbu only reaches 79,000 persons
My guess is, 101.7 will simulcast 1150 WDEL News/Talk, and become WDEL-FM [the sort of thing many in Philly want KYW to do]. Delmarva also picked up AM 1510. My guess for that station is it will simulcast WXCY's country music format. Any thoughts?
If you were Pete Booker at Delmarva, what would you do with both 101.7 and 1510.
If you were Pete Booker at Delmarva, what would you do with both 101.7 and 1510.
1510 - Standards, Classic Country or Classic Oldies
101.7 - Main stream Alternative, but please not Graffiti Radio
A
atrainradio
Guest
I would do what mike said. For 101.7 simulcast WDEL and for 1510 am have a country classics format. Makes way more sense for signal as well is weak (2.5kw) and just a daytimer! From the Wilmington area, you can still have Praise 103.9 or WTMR 800 to tune to for gospel.
F
FredLeonard
Guest
Outbilling WILM is setting the failure/success bar pretty low. And they "survived" with their so-called "all news" format and red ink for almost 30 years. Survival is not the same as success - especially for a hobby station that makes "WKRP in Cincinnati" seem like a Harvard B School case study.
$1 million in billing is not insignificant. If a music format FM in an unchallenged format can't turn a profit with a frugal operation at that billing level, it would be surprising.
and now we know why his pockets were so deep. http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...r-qc-communications-exec-must-return-700k-in-
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