WONE "980 Homer" broadcasting Bob and Tom at 2:30 am?

[alans613]

Well said. Springfield has been in the toilet economically for at least 25+ years that I'm aware of. Not exactly a paradise by any means. On the other hand, does WONE gain -anything- from simulcasting on WIZE? Is anybody over there selling?

It would appear to be a throw-in from here...barely worth the electricity to keep it on the air, but since CC bought it at one point, what else could they do with it?

It's not like people are lining up to buy a standalone AM in Springfield. Heck, the only other one is now a religious station.

I can't express what I saw the one time I drove through downtown Springfield a couple of years-ish ago. "A war zone" would be almost an appropriate phase. The economy passed it by some time ago, and it certainly can't have gotten any better with the recession.

"A war zone"? Not quite. Since then they have begun construction on a new hospital(To be completed and opened in Jan. 2012) and have torn several old buildings in the adjoining area down. However, some eyesores like the Crowell Collier building and Metallic Casket's old building still stand...and it doesn't look like they're coming down any time soon.
It's sad to see what's happened to WIZE...a once proud Top 40 station that was extremely popular(Not to mention a one-time AT 40 affiliate!) and owned by Great Trails Broadcasting has diminished into a repeater for WONE. Sell it to Joe Mullins...at least he'd put a simulcast of music programming back on there. IMO CC should've just left WONE/WIZE Adult Standards and called it a day. Since they flipped to Sports back in '03 they haven't done any kind of ratings. I'd also like to know if anyone is selling anything on those signals since basically no one listens.

 

[gr8oldies]

I don't know that Joe Mullins even wants it. I don't know that he made a bid on WULM.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Maybe calling downtown Springfield a "war zone" was a bit over the top, but the place has definitely seen its better days.

Add that to the fact that we're talking about a standalone AM station here, and the number of bidders is probably close to zero. If Mr. Mullins isn't interested, and the Ave Maria folks already have 1600...even K-Love doesn't generally buy standalone AMs.

 

[stereolane]

Springfield isn't unique. Anderson, Indiana is very similar, and the radio stations there have ended up the same way. Standards is a dying format for (literally) a dying demographic. For what it's worth, I always assumed Jerry Staggs killed WIZE.... Under his leadership (or lack thereof) the place was a revolving door.

Not sure why CC would bother with this throwaway signal unless they are getting agency buys. Then again, in this recession, I have to wonder if anybody is placing buys on WONE, let alone on WIZE. This is why the big conglomerates are in trouble. It's all about clearing the inventory.... The business model doesn't work.

 

[techie2]

Not sure why CC would bother with this throwaway signal unless they are getting agency buys. Then again, in this recession, I have to wonder if anybody is placing buys on WONE, let alone on WIZE. This is why the big conglomerates are in trouble. It's all about clearing the inventory.... The business model doesn't work.

I don't know for certain, but it sure seems like there are very few advertisers on the local afternoon drive show, and quite a few PSAs. Sports is supposedly a format that bills better than the ratings would indicate, but it just doesn't seem like there are a lot of advertisers period, and those that are on there may even be combo buys with other stations in the cluster.

 

[DToTheJ]

How many of these commercials consist of P-I spots?

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Really, in this economy, it's not like there's a line to buy 1340, or even 980!

Cox doesn't need 980, since they put WHIO on FM. And you can bet they are keeping WHIO on FM, even if they move it to 95.3's new facility, whenever that hits...

So, CC has to put something on the stick(s), and sports off the bird is a low-maintenance option. Not sure how long that local show will be around, tho...

 

[techie2]

Really, in this economy, it's not like there's a line to buy 1340, or even 980!

Cox doesn't need 980, since they put WHIO on FM. And you can bet they are keeping WHIO on FM, even if they move it to 95.3's new facility, whenever that hits...

So, CC has to put something on the stick(s), and sports off the bird is a low-maintenance option. Not sure how long that local show will be around, tho...

I'm not showing any applications for new facilities on 95.3 in the FCC database.

 

[gr8oldies]

The 95.7 application to move to Cincy has been cancelled

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

I haven't been following that corner of the state much since Jeremy started up. (Well, aside from a WLW item or three.) Wasn't there at one time an app to move 95.3 west?

Wonder if they can move 95.7 - in its current form - further south to be a more central Dayton signal?

 

[gr8oldies]

My understanding is those apps would have been mutually exclusive...they can't move 95.3 as long as 95.7 is there.

I had heard spots on WONE/WIZE were going for as little as $5 a pop

CC is staring to donate some stations....if they donated the combo to say, Central State or Wilberforce (historically black colleges), could they hang onto 94.5 and/or 106.5?

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Right, so if the 95.7 move to Sharonville has died, 95.3 wouldn't be able to move closer to Dayton. I just wasn't keeping direct track of that.

CC's donations have been to the MMTC, and I think the idea is to put the stations with minority businesses as commercial stations. Still, there's nothing stopping CC from donating either WIZE or WONE to those universities separately. I have no idea if they're interested in picking up an AM station, though...

 

[amfmxm]

My understanding is those apps would have been mutually exclusive...they can't move 95.3 as long as 95.7 is there.

I had heard spots on WONE/WIZE were going for as little as $5 a pop

CC is staring to donate some stations....if they donated the combo to say, Central State or Wilberforce (historically black colleges), could they hang onto 94.5 and/or 106.5?

FWIW, both WONE and WIZE are actually pretty good sticks, as AMs go. It all starts with coverage, and the WIZE signal with a non-directional killowatt on 1340 is basically as good as a small class A FM. Springfield is still a city of 60,000 in a county of 140,000 people, and that's plenty big enough to support one well-run local radio station, regardless of the economy.

WONE's DA pattern takes their signal out of some South Dayton suburban neighborhoods at night, but it still serves a shitload of human beings. It's still a great signal. Gotta put some great programming on the damn thing and promote it as though it's a real business.

As far as I'm concerned, what has happened to these two stations is a textbook case of the downside of consolidation. It's what happens when one company has too many sticks. Some just get forgotten.

As a result, WONE & WIZE were too deep in the pile of CC properties in the Dayton/Cincy region and never got the time of day from CC management. At the end of the day they looked around and said "Oh, yeah, what do you want to do with these sticks?" It's a shame.

But an owner who gave a shit could do alright with either one-or-both of these.

 

[gr8oldies]

That's assuming people in Springfield would support it. Maybe they did in the 70s, but now they think of themselves as being just another part of Dayton.

 

[schmave]

That's assuming people in Springfield would support it. Maybe they did in the 70s, but now they think of themselves as being just another part of Dayton.

Even with Columbus barely farther away? Clark County seems like it'd be independent enough of both cities to support true local programming. Xenia would be another story with the suburbs encroaching on it.

 

[gr8oldies]

It's been tried on another AM recently. Even with Columbus being as close as it is, Springfield is solidly tied with Dayton. The media has been promoting "Dayton-Springfield" for years.

 

[nmoore6676]

That's assuming people in Springfield would support it. Maybe they did in the 70s, but now they think of themselves as being just another part of Dayton.

Even with Columbus barely farther away? Clark County seems like it'd be independent enough of both cities to support true local programming. Xenia would be another story with the suburbs encroaching on it.

I lived in and grew up in the area out by Lawrenceville and North Hampton for the first third of my life and I think the reason Columbus is not a factor is that at least out my way the Columbus stations just didn't come in well. I remember that at our house our radios mostly were tuned to WLW, WBLY, WIZE, WHIO, and WING. The kids that I went to school with considered WING hipper than WIZE for whatever reason even though they mostly played the same music, as did their sister station WCOL. I remember they had those music lists at the record stores and we could get one of each to compare.

I suppose that we could have brought in WTVN or WRFD and WOSU on AM but we never really listened to any of those. WCOL at only 250 watts back then would have been hard and WBNS has signal issues even in some areas of Columbus.

On the opposite end, WBLY and WIZE didn't penetrate much into Dayton, I can remember driving to Dayton and with the street trolley overhead wires WBLY got wiped by the static and WIZE was only at 250 watts back then. So it was inevitable that with their greater power that the Dayton stations would dominate. Maybe if Smilin' Bob had ever got WBLY up to 5kw it might have survived but he didn't and it did not survive unfortunately.

Toward the end of Champion City Broadcasting it was the FM that was the money maker and that is what they sold to retain the AM when it went to RAY broadcasting. Now the FM has been moved to an Urbana COL but is really a Dayton station. Once the WKSW transfer to Enon is done it will be the end of any kind of local programming for either Springfield or Urbana. A real shame but I guess as others have noted that the support is just not there.

 

[gr8oldies]

Even recently, I don't think I ever walked into a Springfield business and heard WNCI, WCOL, WLVQ, WSNY or WLZT (the strong Columbus signals). It was all Dayton signals. Springfield has lost just about every media source they've ever had, from WBLY AM/FM to channel 26 as anything tied to Springfield. Wonder how much longer there will be a separate Springfield News-Sun.

 

[nmoore6676]

Even recently, I don't think I ever walked into a Springfield business and heard WNCI, WCOL, WLVQ, WSNY or WLZT (the strong Columbus signals). It was all Dayton signals. Springfield has lost just about every media source they've ever had, from WBLY AM/FM to channel 26 as anything tied to Springfield. Wonder how much longer there will be a separate Springfield News-Sun.

Interestingly enough I now reside in Ottumwa Iowa which was always smaller than Springfield and yet similar in the central important industry, (IH there, John Deere here) and yet we still have two strong radio groups, one locally owned and the other local and distant owners. We also have a local TV Fox affiliate and a local TV ABC affiliate shared with Kirksville MO. Also a local newspaper but it like the News Sun is a group venture.

I have noticed on the Web that many stories are the same with the same writers in both the Dayton Daily news and the News Sun. I remember as a kid thinking that somewhere in that big building at North and Limestone were Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and all. Do they still print there?

Here even though John Deere is smaller than it one was, and Morrell meat packing, once headquartered here, has been replaced by Cargil / Excel we still have a bus system that can actually get you someplace. Maybe because Dayton is so close there and here there is no big city as nearby is why it has not declined but more or less held on to what always has been.

 

[gr8oldies]

I lived in Quincy IL briefly in 1985 and remember KTVO channel 3 "Kirksville-Ottumwa" and a couple of the radio stations. Ch. 3 used to have a lot of comercials for radio stations. The difference between places like Ottumwa or Quincy and Springfield is that they are isolated.