• 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

WNCR2

They went through some so-so years until landing on Country as a winning format. In fact, 99.5 was the first "Kiss-FM". As such, they were a Beautiful Music station joining WDBN, WDOK, WQAL, and the one out of Elyria at 107.3 who had a big booming signal that ate up a large part of the FM band on the right-hand side of the FM band on my little radio. Was there an AM Beautiful Music station? Did we need that many elevators (music) in the market?
 
johnbasalla said:
They went through some so-so years until landing on Country as a winning format. In fact, 99.5 was the first "Kiss-FM". As such, they were a Beautiful Music station joining WDBN, WDOK, WQAL, and the one out of Elyria at 107.3 who had a big booming signal that ate up a large part of the FM band on the right-hand side of the FM band on my little radio. Was there an AM Beautiful Music station? Did we need that many elevators (music) in the market?
Click to expand...
"The one out of Elyria" ... WBEA !
 
Beautiful, or elevator, music was the first big thing for FM. Cleveland was one of the first, if not the first, major radio market where an FM became number one overall and that was beautiful music WDOK which was WIXY's FM at the time, around 1970.
 
johnbasalla said:
I've heard there was/is a book about Beautiful Music that credits/pays tribute to WDBN-FM, Medina, Ohio.
Click to expand...
I'm can't remember for sure but I think WDBN was #1 a few times. And they had some technological wizadry going on....one of the first FM stations to broadcast in stereo. One of the first to automate programming [BOOOOOOOO!] and when FM stations were limited to 50,000 watts, their 188,000 watt signal was grandfathered in and if I remember correctly at one point had the most power wattage of an FM station in the nation at one time.
 
Yabadabado1 said:
I'm can't remember for sure but I think WDBN was #1 a few times. And they had some technological wizadry going on....one of the first FM stations to broadcast in stereo. One of the first to automate programming [BOOOOOOOO!] and when FM stations were limited to 50,000 watts, their 188,000 watt signal was grandfathered in and if I remember correctly at one point had the most power wattage of an FM station in the nation at one time.
Click to expand...
One of the most powerful for sure, but there were a few other stations who had even more wattage. WJEF-FM in Grand Rapids, Michigan reportedly ran 500,000 watts on FM at one point, but backed it off to 320,000 watts, which is what its descendent WBCT is currently running. The problem with WDBN was that their tower was not very tall, and they had a hard time putting a consistent signal into certain parts of the Cleveland market. When the station was sold, the new owners moved it to the Channel 49 TV tower. The original WDBN tower is still up on Tower Road, but is used for cell phone antennas these days.
 
radiofollower said:
The problem with WDBN was that their tower was not very tall, and they had a hard time putting a consistent signal into certain parts of the Cleveland market.
Click to expand...
I think the original tower was destroyed in a storm, insurance refused to pay for a new one, so they basically did what today would be called a "Go Fund Me" system where listeners/advertisers and the station ponied up money to replace it. So I am assuming since they did it themselves the replacement probably wasn't the original height and was done as cheaply as possible to get the biggest bang for their buck that they could afford. Drove by the site on Tower road numerous times and was amazed how short that the tower actually was. I never saw the orginal tower, as it was destroyed before I had moved to the state. And at one point I owned a car wherein the radio was screwed up and the ONLY station I could pick up was WDBN. Unlike most teens of that era, I sorta liked the music but there were days when I wanted to listen to a WGAR [AM] or G98 or ANY other station.
 


Back
Top Bottom