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WLCL is back....

S

sdskees

I happened to accidentally stumble upon 93.9 today and noticed music playing.... First it was Land Down Under by Men at Work, followed by I'm Alright by Kenny Loggins... I thought at first I was picking up a distant 93.9 but then I heard a bumper at the top of the hour that said "93.9 WLCL." I wasn't able to listen any further since I was just on a work break, but something is clearly happening there!
 
Upon listening further, I've noticed it is a slightly less than an hour repeating loop of about 10-15 songs, with station identification every other song. Songs on there include a mix of classic hits that seem to be more 80s focused, with songs like "Boys of Summer," "Oh Sherri," "Summer of 69," but also songs that are a little older like "Don't Fear the Reaper" and "Cecilia." It is also worth noting that classichits939.com no longer redirects to the Cumulus website as of the past few days (as it did for the past four years!)
 
I heard WLCL this afternoon on the way to work and they were broadcasting in stereo.Tonight they are broadcasting in mono.I heard the same songs in the same order each time.I guess that they are testing the equipment.
 
I don't remember the Classic Hits 93.9 station identification at all (in fact, I don't think I ever listened to that station), but do you know if by any chance they are using a truncated version of that station ID with Classic Hits cut off at the beginning of the ID? It seems surprisingly professional for a filler ID... and also like something is missing.
 
sdskees said:
I don't remember the Classic Hits 93.9 station identification at all (in fact, I don't think I ever listened to that station), but do you know if by any chance they are using a truncated version of that station ID with Classic Hits cut off at the beginning of the ID? It seems surprisingly professional for a filler ID... and also like something is missing.
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I don't remember the exact station ID from before but I know that it was a different voice.I agree that the ID they are using seems professional.I have a feeling that the station wont be classic hits.With them turning off the stereo signal,I'm thinking maybe a sports or talk format.
 
I think I have way too much time on my hands, but for anybody who is curious, here is their entire 19 song playlist, in order:

"Piano Man" - Billy Joel
"I Wish" - Stevie Wonder
"Summer of '69" - Bryan Adams
"If I Can't Have You" - Yvonne Elliman
"Let it Be" - The Beatles
"Sunshine" - Jonathan Edwards
"Locomotion" - Grand Funk Railroad
"Can't Help Myself" - The Four Seasons
"Don't Fear the Reaper" - Blue Öyster Cult
"Land Down Under" - Men at Work
"I'm Alright" - Kenny Loggins
"Bad Moon Rising" - Creedence Clearwater Revival
"December, 1963 (Oh What a Night!)" - The Four Seasons
"Boys of Summer" - Don Henley
"You Make Loving Fun" - Fleetwood Mac
"Do You Know What I Mean" - Lee Michaels
"Dream On" - Aerosmith
"Oh Sherrie" - Steve Perry
"Cecilia" - Simon & Garfunkel
 
Well the music is gone now, and replaced by the Viewpoints syndicated public affairs radio program (which airs Sunday mornings at 6 AM on all of the Summit Media stations locally). They keep looping the same program over and over again, with the commercials intact. What I haven't heard (in listening for two hours straight) is a single station identification. They'd better be getting on that...
 
They are just playing something to be playing something. You can't just turn off a radio station and leave it off, otherwise the FCC makes you surrender the license. You are required to broadcast a certain minimum number of hours per week, and at full power. (-10% to +5% of licensed value)

Now the next issue is how they are serving their community of license. They've bought themselves some time by putting something on it, but that won't be good enough forever.
 
greg.hahn said:
They are just playing something to be playing something. You can't just turn off a radio station and leave it off, otherwise the FCC makes you surrender the license. You are required to broadcast a certain minimum number of hours per week, and at full power. (-10% to +5% of licensed value)

Now the next issue is how they are serving their community of license. They've bought themselves some time by putting something on it, but that won't be good enough forever.
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My guess is that today's 24 hour marathon of the same episode of Viewpoints is part of their plan to serve the community, as sad as that is.

But are they really in danger yet of losing their license over being silent? Of course, this is the second time they've done this in the past five years, and I couldn't exactly make sense of what the FCC considers being silent "too often" these days. It seems that it used to be that they were only in danger if they spent more than one full year off air, but it also seems that has changed, which is a good thing, especially when corporations like Cumulus choose to hold on to a license in a city where they aren't interested in actually operating. I think the frequency would be good for Summit to add to their profile (if I'm not mistaken, they have room for another FM) to give them a larger profile... if Cumulus would let go of it.

Oh, and also... I just checked and they're now off the air once again. I've seen pirate radio stations with less shady operations.
 
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So now it's a month later and they're still silent, and not counting the two days they popped back on air a month ago, they've been silent for almost three months now. That's not to mention that they must have surely known months in advance before WAY-FM left the frequency that this was about to happen. After all, they returned to 104.3 back in February and had to have planned it well before that. Is there nobody that is interested in 93.9, or is it just a case of Cumulus saying "I can't play ball here, so I'm not going to let anybody else do it either?" I remember Cumulus saying in the past that they were determined to see the frequency turned over to non-commercial/non-profit radio (translated to meaning more Christian religious stations, as if we don't have enough locally already), but I'm not understanding why they have this stance, though in all fairness, perhaps there is some tax loophole that I don't understand? It isn't like somebody is going to creep in here and actively compete with them. Cumulus has nothing here for anybody to even compete with. And wouldn't it be a WHOLE lot easier for them to just unload the station already? Leasing arrangements simply don't work long-term, because if somebody else leases 93.9, they'll probably be gone within a few years and they'll be back to being silent... again.
 
It appears that they're once again back on the air again tonight, once again looping the same Viewpoints program over and over again. And they are broadcasting on mono.
 
This is all just a waiting game, my guess is that Cumulus is just waiting for the moment that Educational Media Foundation is ready to buy it to add to their empire like they do with stations all over the rest of the country... because apparently there isn't enough Christian radio in this city.
 
OK, now I'm not even sure WHAT is going on at WLCL right now... they're airing some low-budget talk stuff on there, and it is definitely local stuff and it seems to be live, and they're doing station identifications within the program. They've been talking about all of the "pressing topics" of the day, such as favorite movies, Boy Meets World, Saved by the Bell, and selling meth... very bizarre. I wonder what the deal is...

Edit: They're using the title Rush Hour Renegades, which is the name of the radio show that Jesse and Joey hosted on Full House... and their show is sponsored by Dr. Herman Munster. It can't get any weirder at this point.
 
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Definitely local, but not live. It is a 30 minute repeating loop. It is a host and someone who has supposedly been an intern for the past few months.
 
Unregistered said:
Definitely local, but not live. It is a 30 minute repeating loop. It is a host and someone who has supposedly been an intern for the past few months.
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If it is an intern, I wonder who he is interning for... I can't imagine that Cumulus has an intern working in Louisville. Or even if he isn't an intern, he has to be an employee of somebody... and my guess is that his "guest" is not really a guest, but is also an employee of the same company. But the question is... who do they work for? Considering I didn't hear anything religious pop up and that they even talked about how great it would be to make meth, I'm going to guess it isn't some sort of religious company (which seems a little promising).
 
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radiofan502 said:
I'm pretty sure that 93.9 will be silent again in a day or so. What a waste of a great FM signal in Louisville.
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You're probably right, but I think (and I may be wrong about this) that if they're just popping up for a day or two and disappearing, it isn't really considered being "back on the air." It seems that the FCC has recently made it clear that pulling that sort of stunt isn't acceptable anymore. But as far as that goes, they have been silent since April according to the FCC, so even their random recurrences haven't been official with the FCC. I would love to see anything there, well anything as long as it isn't more satellite delivered "Christian contemporary" music from a "non-profit" that rakes in millions of dollars from donors to pop up on the air. Because to be honest, I don't think that is much better than remaining silent.
 
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