WKDD marching northward

[Rick Rose 2.0]

As expected 98.1 WKDD has just filed an application to move its transmitter closer to Cleveland. WKDD recently changed its city of license to Munroe Falls which was stage 1 in moving its signal into Cleveland. The previous WKDD signal (96.5) upgraded its signal into Cleveland a few years ago.

 

[radiogeek07]

...and the thinking behind this is?... First off, they can't get too close to Cleveland because of 98.5.

 

[Speaker of Truth]

Anyone remember the Great Signal Swap of a few years ago? WKDD was sent to 98.1 to move it out, more or less, of the Cleveland market..at the time, WKDD was canabilizing Clear Channel's Cleveland ACs..it drew numbers in both Cleveland and Akron for a while..96.5 was then given over to CHR, to put it in a better position to draw listeners from Cleveland and Akron suburbs..

 

[SonoSational18]

Anyone remember the Great Signal Swap of a few years ago? WKDD was sent to 98.1 to move it out, more or less, of the Cleveland market..at the time, WKDD was canabilizing Clear Channel's Cleveland ACs..it drew numbers in both Cleveland and Akron for a while..96.5 was then given over to CHR, to put it in a better position to draw listeners from Cleveland and Akron suburbs..

Apparently the new app calls for a directional signal... basically a cardioid pattern with a null to the north, which is probably to account for the short spacing with 98.5. There is also another smaller null to the northeast, perhaps to alleviate spacing issues with 98.3 in Ashtabula. There is also an adjacent channel issue with 97.5, but the new site doesn't seem to be any closer than the old one so I guess no harm, no foul.

WKDD wasn't sent to 98.1 to "move it out"... it was sent there because 96.5 could be a Cleveland move-in and the owners felt that there was a hole in the Cleveland market for CHR. Since WKDD had always been a player in Akron and Canton the 98.1 facility was the natural place to put it.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Bear in mind... the 98.1 license was traded over to CC by Salem. By 2001, Salem had two stations in Akron/Canton: WHLO/640 - which operated at that point from the Independence complex - and 98.1, which was a repeater of WHK/1420.

That license became expendable when 1420 was given to WCLV/Radio Seaway, in exchange for the 95.5 license. WHK's calls and "Word" format moved over to 1220, making the point of a repeater in Akron meaningless.

Problem was... CC must have forgotten the limitations of the 98.1 license, b/c they had to build a new tx in haste to regain some of their AKRON listeners... otherwise, it disappeared off the face of the earth in the Cleveland proper.

Otherwise... 96.5 was a logical move-in into the Cleveland market. Kiss worked decently - and even pulled nice ratings - when it was on the 104.9 rimshot signal.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Just noticed this...and of course, this was posted on OMW a while back...

This is not a "march northward" towards Cleveland. 98.1 will never be a serviceable full market Cleveland market signal. even when this goes through.

There are any number of limitations outlined both in the item and here in this thread that prevent the new WKDD site (which is in reality the former 96.5 site!) from performing even to the extent that 96.5 did in the Cleveland market. And of course, CC moved 96.5 off of that Bellaire Lane stick to the WTAM tower in Far South Brecksville to turn it into a full-market signal.

This application is meant to give 98.1 a final home with a strong signal in the *AKRON* market. It costs them very little, since the tower was (last I checked) still sitting there on Bellaire Lane...and with the Munroe Falls COL, they can do this.