• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WMKI-AM 1260 Available?

L

Laurence Glavin

Guest
Tom Taylor's radio blog reports that the folks at Disney are contemplating the sale of some of their bigger market AM's. Right now, it's just their Disney kids's station in Nwarleans, but could Boston be among the outlets under consideration as well? They're practically giving them away. It's been mentioned here many times that WMKI-AM doesn't cover the market very well but blasts into Boston's inner-city neighborhoods. Or, how about this: directional arrays are like the late Leonard Bernstein...they go both ways. For example, for some reason, WGIR-AM 610's signal beams northwest of COL Manchester during the day and then southeast TOWARDS Manchester at night (never could figure that out). Same with WNNZ-AM 640 in Westfield, MA: towards the boondocks all day, toward Springfield at night. Could this solve WJDA's tower problem. 5K NDA days, 5K or some other power directed towards Quincy at night.
 
That station would be good to put on "The Touch" format (Citadel Media Networks) "The Touch" has been around since ??? 1995? They were briefly on in Boston around 1997 on 1150am. They're a great Urban AC format.
 
Was wondering the same thing. Would this be a good home for ESPN Deportes (provided the rumor
of Eng language ESPN to 850 comes true?). They could take a chance on The Touch, R&B, prog talk
who knows....
 
It's a nothing signal in a town that's now officially shown its distaste for any AM that isn't WBZ. It'd have to be REAL cheap, and run by somebody with lots of cash to blow and a sick radio hobby. I don't think that station would ever make money on its own again.

... And this from a guy who still loves and listens to AM radio. I just know that I'm in the miniscule minority, and I'm ready to make peace with the reality in which I live.
 
That didn't take long. I wondered if Lauro or Rapking would be first to bring it up.
And as much as it pains me to say it, he might be right. If it was on the bird, expenses MIGHT be low enough to scrape out a living. Maybe. It could appeal to older adults who don't have the AM prejudice younger folks have.
Of course, the Mouse could put ESPN Deportes there since they own it. Something tells me it would make more $$ than Touch.

LAUROJRM said:
That station would be good to put on "The Touch" format (Citadel Media Networks) "The Touch" has been around since ??? 1995? They were briefly on in Boston around 1997 on 1150am. They're a great Urban AC format.
Click to expand...
 
Let's bring back the old WILD minus the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Warren Ballantine and Rev. Al Sharpton. We need live d.j.s playing soul music all week long with Sundays given over to Gospel music all day and night. And let's keep Brother Andre off the air!
 
To the OP or the writer of the article: Is WMYM 990 Miami on the block? They already have dropped their precious HD. :)

No, I don't have the money to buy.

cd
 
ANY AM station along and inside Route 128 can make money, if owned by the right person/people (except for the horrendous rent charged by the tower-site owner for 1510).
 
I was staff engineer at the then WEZE 1260 in '79. Good signal daytime for 5 kW ND, and the 3 tower night DA made the signal go north through Boston. It would be good for an Urban format or ESPN Deportes.
 
carmen said:
is WEZE callsign available. i could go for an easy-listening format. smooth jazz, konpa fasil, ambient
Click to expand...

I guess you don't live in the Boston area. When Salem bought 590, they moved the WEZE calls there. They did not sell 1260 right away, but installed the WPZE calls there. Then they sold 1260 to a company whose name I've forgotten, but it was a "stalking horse" for Disney and it ultimately sold a bunch of Radio Disney affiliates, including the Boston 1260, to Disney itself. Somewhere along that road, 1260 dropped the WPZE calls, which no longer applied, and became WMKI. As Dave Gardner pointed out, 1260 has a dynamite signal in inner-city Boston--including downtown, but a rather miserable signal in the rest of the market. It would be ideal for a "solid gold soul" format, and in the hands of a knowledgeable broadcaster who was not heavily in debt, could probably at least generate positive cash flow, if not an out-and-out profit. Radio One should be persuaded to change the calls on 1090 so that 1260 could become WILD.
 
DanStrassberg said:
carmen said:
is WEZE callsign available. i could go for an easy-listening format. smooth jazz, konpa fasil, ambient
Click to expand...

I guess you don't live in the Boston area. When Salem bought 590, they moved the WEZE calls there. They did not sell 1260 right away, but installed the WPZE calls there. Then they sold 1260 to a company whose name I've forgotten, but it was a "stalking horse" for Disney and it ultimately sold a bunch of Radio Disney affiliates, including the Boston 1260, to Disney itself. Somewhere along that road, 1260 dropped the WPZE calls, which no longer applied, and became WMKI. As Dave Gardner pointed out, 1260 has a dynamite signal in inner-city Boston--including downtown, but a rather miserable signal in the rest of the market. It would be ideal for a "solid gold soul" format, and in the hands of a knowledgeable broadcaster who was not heavily in debt, could probably at least generate positive cash flow, if not an out-and-out profit. Radio One should be persuaded to change the calls on 1090 so that 1260 could become WILD.
Click to expand...

What has the 35+ inner city audience been listening to since urban AC and soul oldies left the Boston market? Kiss? Jammin'? Magic? Oldies? Those are all FMs. Is a new AM station playing the music they really prefer going to bring this audience back from FM? If they wouldn't think of listening to Beyonce in AM sound quality, what makes you think they'd bail out on the FM band to listen to the Spinners on AM?
 
Sound quality (and interference) is indeed an issue but AM has become the home of some formats that there's no room for on FM, including children's, ethnic (well a select few FMs have that), standards
(WJIB, WJTO), live-and-local community outlets (WNBP, WCAP), religion, Spanish religion, and some
talk (680, 1200, 1510--oh, and that station at 1030, 8pm-till-morning drive). Don't forget WILD with its
CRI programming.

Maybe 1260 will just go silent and a pirate can set up there....
The money is in FM mostly, and indeed many of these listeners do tune to Kiss, Jam'n, etc.

btw I did notice the 103.7 from Saugus, formerly Salem, // WSMA 90.5...dead air signal. A waste. I went
past their old transmitter site on Highland Ave in Salem and heard the 103.7 WEEI sister station
from RI coming in faintly, no sign of the religion, but did pick up the dead air 103.7 nr Suffolk Downs,
and also on Rt 1 Saugus. Dead...air.
 
1260 is perfect for a station aimed at the inner city audience. Spanish is pretty well covered, but I can't help but think that there would be a market for an adult-oriented classic soul station (satellite with maybe a local morning show) with maybe some Caribbean, reggae, gospel and talk programming on the weekend.

By the way, the non-directional day signal is actually quite good considering it is only 5Kw. They get up and down the coast pretty well. The transmitter location (Squantum salt water marsh) is a fine spot, as this station was originally major player WNAC years ago, as I recall. Of course, there was less interference back then. The directional night signal cuts pretty deep SW toward Norwood at night, but it is still very strong into the city and coastal regions.

Someone could do something with this run lean and played to targeted audience.
 
blackgold said:
Hey! I could hear WESX 1230 this morning clearly! Guess Radio Disney dropped their AM HD signal!
Click to expand...
their lower sideband is -10dB from upper at the moment, IBOC inclded

also a major WMKI harmonic at 3780 in afternoon that disappeared w/ switch to night-pattern.

maybe someone's been messing with it cuz i havent seen these snomalies before the past day or two
 
LAUROJRM said:
;) Let's not confuse the Program Management personel!! They should just put "The Touch" format on there as I suggested earlier. Let's just leave it at that? ;)
Click to expand...


Sounds wonderful to me. Do you think it will really happen, Lauro?
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom