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Worst radio market

C

charlestondxman

There are many markets around the country which are talked about (New York, Atlanta, Boston, several others), who are thought of as the worst radio market on their boards.

Now, I want to know what really is the worst radio market in the country.

Here are my opinions:

Worst AM market: Myrtle Beach, SC. There is one pip-squeak sports station on 1050 which is simulcast with an FM, talk radio at 1450 which is 90% simulcast with their FM talk station, religion, a AM oldies station on 900 (the only good station on the dial), and a bunch of out-of-town stations (like WOKV, WBMQ, and Wilmington).

Worst FM market: Athens, GA, I believe. In Athens, most of the stations are owned by two companies, and there is a limited choice of formats for most due to Atlanta being 70 miles away, with most of their stations coming in weak.

What do you think are the worst markets?
 
I wish you well in your search. Let me cover you up with cliches. ;D

Like the dog who finally caught a passing car.... what are you going to do with it if you indeed locate the WORST market.

Who will be the final judge in your contest. Remember, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

Or. "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

Or. The all-time great: "Beauty is only skin deep, but UGLY goes all the way to the bone!"

I will wager that when you have found the country's WORST market, you and I can go there, walk down a street where the local populace is plentiful, and we will start a sidewalk survey and find a number of people who think they have just delightful radio in their town.

"Good Radio" may be dependent on the EAR of the beholder. So is BAD radio.

Here we go: First nomination for worst: Terre Haute, IN.
 
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
Here we go: First nomination for worst: Terre Haute, IN.
Click to expand...
Seconded. Largely due to Crossroads mismanagement and three vacant allocations
 
I make 3, I drove through there once and there wasn't a single station (outside of the Chicago stations) that I could stand listening to.
 
Jay F: None of the three people voting for Terre Haute actually live in the market. :p
 
charlestondxman said:
What do you think are the worst markets?
Click to expand...

Based on billings in the market, number of viable stations, etc., most of the difficult markets are in the West and Southwest where there were not lots of cities even when FM began.

Among the ones worthy of mention are Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, Reno, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, El Paso, Salt Lake City and Boise.
 
At one point some years ago, Tallahassee, Fla. was one of Arbitron's worst-rated AM markets.

I doubt that it has improved much. Sports 1270 is the only AM that shows in the book. The other
four AMs are Christian talk, EWTN, and two gospel stations.

I worked in AM radio here for 24 years. It may not be the worst but it is a tough market.
 
The worst market I can think of ( I am sure there are others that I don't know about ) is sadly, my hometown Winchester, Virginia.

92.5 WINC-FM: even though they are under new ownership now for years under the Lewis Family they were scared to death of CHR so instead they stick with HOT AC, Morning guy is Barry Lee. Very nice guy but being a guy in his mid to late 50s, he really knows nothing about who is who when it comes to HOT AC. Hopefully under the new ownership WINC-FM would change for the better.

Q102: The market's number one radio station for the last 25+ years depsite some major turnover in staff over the years. However with that being said Q102 does have a problem...the local paper ( Winchester Star ) really hates their guts. Why? Their staff doesn't have a morals clause in their contracts. The Star considers that a "problem" so whenever Q102 does something good for the community the Winchester Star pays zero attention to them. But still despite that the Star , it is the best station in the market and that is coming from soneone who doesn't like country music.

99.3 The Fox: the main jock there is Elwood King who tracks the overnights. Boring station overall, playing the same Who tune "Won't Get Fooled Again" several times a day. Also Elwood is very insecure. When I worked in Hagerstown, MD ( the next market to the north ) I have heard stories for years about Elwood going after people who dare say they don't like him on the radio. I believe Elwood actually tried to sue a website some years back over that very reason. The Fox for some time also was the home of Warren Gosnell and like King, he too would get very upset whenever someone tells him they don't like his voice.

98.3 KISS-FM: a very boring CHR station. Nothing special at all !!!! Their local jocks sound like they came straight out of high school.

104.9/105.5 Everything That Rocks: They fired the best announcer they ever had a few years back ( and who got the ratings ) Joe Sanchez. In his place..Ron Baker..a guy who never could get the ratings. As a matter of fact in Hagerstown, MD when he worked in radio there, Baker actually got a ZERO share a few times. Of course 104.9./105.5 ratings have been down since Baker arrived. Not a surprise.

95.3 The River ( oldies ), Randy Woodward is the morning guy, however he had a problem? He has a lisp !!! HRandy also tends to go overboard on the air talking about his wife..Jenny Lynn ( a long time Winchester radio vet in her own right..last I heard she was a checker at a local supermarket ).

Also it needs to noted that a number of radio stations that do appear in the Winchester book, such as Harrisonburg, VA's WSIG-FM can't be picked up in Winchester.

AM...

WINC-AM 1400: Format is News/Talk however after just a few months, WINC got it rid of its only live show. The show never had a chance.

WFTX-AM Sportstalk 610: this station actually went dark recently due to real estate issues so instead Winchester's sports talk moved to another station ( Charles Town, WV's 1550 WMRE ) whose nighttime signal cant even make it 5 miles much less to Winchester.
 
mleach said:
The worst market I can think of ( I am sure there are others that I don't know about ) is sadly, my hometown Winchester, Virginia.
Click to expand...

Can I pick your brain a minute.... maybe "mess wit'cha" a little bit.

Now my road atlas may not be up to date on population but a quick peek at Winchester along with Clark and Frederick Counties tells me that you have a market of maybe 80,000 population and you've got 7 or 8 stations trying share all that plus a pick-up load of NCE translators.... Do you really expect award winning programming under those circumstances. Not having been to Winchester, tell me what I'm missing here.

Now here is where I'm going to Mess Wit'cha. You are unhappy that one station is scared of CHR. Then you list another station that plays CHR but they're not good enough at it to get an attaboy from you. You're a tought critic!
 
Alan McCall said:
At one point some years ago, Tallahassee, Fla. was one of Arbitron's worst-rated AM markets.
Click to expand...

what do you mean by "worst rated?" Tallahassee has always had a large percentage of listening to the non-coms, but the PUR overall has been pretty good for the market size.
 
I think Alan meant the AMs had the fewer shares than the AMs in other markets.
 
David,

Yes, I meant AM only.

Arbitron had a "bottom 30" list, and Tallahassee was #30.

I was operations manager for one of the AMs - back at that time, it actually showed in the book.
 
Alan McCall said:
David,

Yes, I meant AM only.

Arbitron had a "bottom 30" list, and Tallahassee was #30.

I was operations manager for one of the AMs - back at that time, it actually showed in the book.
Click to expand...

Yes, the combination of mostly bad signals with horrible ground conductivity does not make for good AM reception. I was in charge of WNLS for a number of years (actually picked those calls... wonder why?) and doing anything with an AM there is a challenge.
 
I think WNLS was a good choice for call letters. It is still on the air broadcasting sports.
 
David: No ListenerS?
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
David: No ListenerS?
Click to expand...

Nope... Noles. With sister WTNT, the Voice of the Florida State Seminoles and the flagship of the Seminoles radio net.
 
I second David Eduardo's comments regarding Boise and SLC. Having worked in SLC and adjacent to the Boise market, I can verify it! SLC has a ton of rimshots and at least locally, they say the most stations per capita in the US. Not only that, the agencies ONLY buy 6-7 deep. If you are out of the top 10 stations, forget it. Local merchants are a bunch of tight a$#es too.

Boise is a similar story. For being a mid-sized market, it has 4 Regional Mexicans, 3 CHR's, 3 Country, 3 N/T! Too much for too little.
 
How about Flint, Michigan? It's original heritage station, WFDF, was bought by The Mouse, who moved the
transmitters down south of Detroit and started beaming Radio Disney all over Michigan at 50kW. The legacy
rocker, WTAC, now runs brokered preachers at 1kW. 1470 does the Generals hockey games, but the signal
barely made it to my place nine miles east of downtown. The major national talkers are on a pip-squeak
signal at 1570. 1330 is syndicated sports, when they aren't broke and off the air. (the studio and towers
are weirdly situated in the middle of a large trailer park!) 1160 is a revolving door of formats and a really weak signal.
 
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