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WNTY Oldies 92.5 is gone...

H

HadYourPhil

Even though it had higher ratings than WINK-FM, Meridian blew it up for Fox News. Open the pot and go home...
Have to say, 92.5 was a garden variety oldies station with predictable music and harsh processing. Now, the only thing that passes for oldies in the Ft. Myers-Naples market is WKII 1070. And they don't pass...

First, Oldies 95 self destructed, and now this one is gone. Too bad 1410 and 1660AM didn't stick with Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel instead of the hopelessly bizarre music mix they switched to...

Oh well. Radio continues to fade away.

Why didn't they blow up WINK-FM? It's day has long passed.
 
I just posted about the same thing the same time you made this post it appears. I was not happy this morning when I turned on my radio only to hear that irritating Mandy McConnel on 92.5. I was thinking just what we need a third station with the same old Beck/Limbo/Hannity blather all day.

I agree Phil. I was wondering the same thing. If I was them I would have blown up WINK FM. Oldies was getting better ratings and it would have put them on a much stronger signal.

Oldies 92,5 was not bad as oldies stations go. It was nothing out of the box but I think they were a bit above average as oldies stations go. They did have live dj's during the day and they seemed to have upbeat personalities.

What do you think Ft Myers/Meridian will do with 1240 & 1270 in the long term? I get the impression that they may make some sort of change with the two AM's as they are no longer calling it WINK news radio but Fox 92.5.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but just because Meridian and Ft. Myers Broadcasting have a shared sales or management agreement doesn't mean they're flipping each others stations. WINK-FM is a Ft. Myers Broadcasting station while WINK-AM is Meridian. The Meridian FMs are 92.5, 93.7, and 94.5. Look at the Oldies 92.5 web site... it suggests people go to Lite 93.7 or Arrow 94.5. No mention of WINK 96.9. Again... I don't know what the exact ownership situation is and who's actually making the format decisions but it appears to me that 96.9 is not available to Meridian for the news/talk format.
 
Ft Myers Broadcasting and Meridian Broadcasting are indeed one and them same. All their stations are located in the same building and share many of the same news/traffic people. If my memory serves me correctly the only reason their is two different "companies" was to get around FCC laws on how many stations in one market one owner could have.

I do not recall all the details on how it was originally set up about ten years ago but trust me the two companies one and the same along with WINK TV.
 
swfl is correct.
 
After reading the article in the News-Press it appears that they intend to leave all three stations running the same exact thing. Amazing!. Well all the right wing neo cons around here should be ecstatic.

Looks like Meridian is cutting back expenses all around. I think all there other music stations have gone to syndicated morning shows too. Now add to that the fact they have three news/talk stations, two sports stations all running syndication all but three hours a day so the whole operation is pretty much automated now.
 
The whole thing defies logic, but hey! That's the radio business of today.

The AM's were #1 in last fall's book and regularly finish in the top five, so why the change???
Dumb.
 
I wonder if they moved the talk to FM because of the new Arbatron Lee County market split. Arbatron will soon rate Inner and Outer Lee County seperately as opposed to just the whole thing together. Both AMs have poor signals at night and at dawn and dusk in Bonita, Estero and san carlos Park. This would lob off alot of AM listeners if they arn't factored in.
 
92.5: 5 formats since 2005

Active Rock
Mainstream Rock
Country
Oldies
Fox
 
captbob said:
I wonder if they moved the talk to FM because of the new Arbatron Lee County market split. Arbatron will soon rate Inner and Outer Lee County seperately as opposed to just the whole thing together. Both AMs have poor signals at night and at dawn and dusk in Bonita, Estero and san carlos Park. This would lob off alot of AM listeners if they arn't factored in.
Click to expand...

That's interesting news. It is the first that I had heard that. You are correct both AM's don't cover Bonita and Estero areas very well at night. They cover that area well during the day even overlapping in a large area but after dark it's a different story.

I do understand their wanting to move their successful news/talk programing to FM. What is hard for many of us to understand is why the took the oldies station away. It was actually their highest rated FM station during the last ratings period.

I still think that in time they will indeed come up with some other format for the two AM signals but I am not sure what it would be. Most all the formats are covered in this market except oldies with this latest move.
 
I notice some markets don't keep a station that plays oldies around, WSGL 104.7 should go oldies, maybe they would go from 20th. and up in the ratings.

Someone in Indianapolis told me, may been the ad agencies, there staffed with 25 year olds and they don't want to advertise on a station that plays oldies. Maybe people need to start telling them if someone don't want to play oldies, you will buy SirrusXM, and maybe they would wonder what happened to all there listeners. No 1 goes to McDonalds, etc. because a radio station is there but everyone listens to SirrusXM.

I also think the company that does the ratings in this area need to do it more often, there is markets smaller, and they do it more often than this market. Which some of that didn't make sense.


AM stations could use FM translators in areas where they have good coverage during the day but bad coverage at night.

The use of FM translators, FCC rules on AM broadcasting Class D facilities allowed to originate programming on such FM translators, when AM station is not operating. We take these steps to permit AM broadcasters to better serve their local communities and thus promote the Commission bedrock goals of localism, competition, and diversity in the broadcast media.

Click here: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-59A1.doc

I thought WNTY was a good oldies station. Indianapolis just lost WKLU oldies 101.9, changed to K Love after 6PM on 9/14.
 
Before an AM can use an FM translator, there has to be one avaliable first, and it has to be an existing license. Not likely to happen in Ft. Myers-Naples as the religious groups have snapped up all the avaliable ones.

WSGL has always had a poor signal in Ft. Myers. Their focus is primarily Naples. The Renda station that is the weakest of the bunch, both in ratings and signal, is 98.9 WGUF. What they should do is go back to a smooth jazz format which they had throughout most of the 90's.
 
There has been many times, I got WSGL 104.7 further north than WBTT 105.5, Naples Park and 105.5 is around 10 miles north of WSGL. I got WSGL in the car up around Venice before Q 105 in Tampa started to come in.

I think WSGL would do better with oldies over the other format. There is ways to bump translators but the existing class A and class C stations may lose some of there benefits, depending on how it's done to open.

Example let's say Beasley wants to add a FM translator for 770 AM at there studio. They apply to move WPOW Miami west to bump that 96.5 translator.
 
There are already two 96.5 translators on in this area.
 
The translators on 96.5 would have to go if WPOW moved west of Miami. Translators hold no protection to other class stations.
 
Why would WPOW want to move west? They currently have excellent coverage of their market. I can see no reason or justification for them to move. I don't follow your reasoning.

And, you can not apply for a new translator to augment your AM signal! The translator has to be one that is already licensed. What you propose for WWCN doesn't make any sense.

And, WBTT has much better coverage than WSGL. WSGL's coverage is spotty in Ft. Myers and Cape Coral. I'm sure they don't care how they are received in Venice. I would not look for a format change on WSGL in the near future.
 
Let's throw 104.9 WCVU into the discussion. Their transmitter is in the city of Solana, and is pretty much hit or miss along Southwest Florida. Plus, I think Clear Channel owns them.
 
Yes CC owns them, it's not going any where unless they sell there stations not in a major market, I heard some where that may happen not exactly sure where.

WSGL could move to the WAVV tower site, increase tower height to 649 - 757 feet, reduce power for the height, use a 2 bay or 3 bay antenna. There has been times at night around FT Myers where I heard WDUV 105.5 but WSGL came in fine. WSGL may not do oldies but I don't see there ratings getting better. I have seen class A stations do oldies with a poor signal, and do better than stations with a good signal with 50k watts with other formats in other markets.

With more little stations popping up, rim shots are going to be harder to hear with a little signal.


Other things that could be done is move WPOI 101.5 to the WHPT tower site to bump a translator on 101.5, then move back north so a rebidding process should take place. This would take years to do, fastest way is buy a current translator license, then if they don't want to sell then you pull this stunt above, down the road it would be a worthless license.


101.9 C1 mx to 102.3 down grade to C2, locate near Henderson,
102.3 A mx to 101.9 A,
102.3 A mx to 101.9, A open option to upgrade another station to a C1 details not enclosed.

Also ways to move and make rim shots in a different market around Nashville.
 
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