Before someone comes on here and starts the CC bashing, about how 2 of their radio stations are off the air, I am taking WPAP and WFSY off the air tonight (Sunday) at 10pm to move them into new state of the art transmitter facilities. We hope to have them back on the air before 5am.....at least that is the plan.
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WPAP and WFSY to be off the air tonight.
- Thread starter cceng1
- Start date
Here is a link to a power point about the transmitter move....including many pictures....
Charlie
www.sunny98.com/pages/transmitter.html
click on TXMove
Charlie
www.sunny98.com/pages/transmitter.html
click on TXMove
No one loves their job more than you, sir! Beautiful looking system(s). Impressive. Hey Charlie, sorry to bring this up,
but was 'PFM still broadcastin' on 'PAP or even 'FSY when you took 'em off Sunday PM? Had to go there.
You all rested and rolling again? Any others in the cluster are up for changes?
but was 'PFM still broadcastin' on 'PAP or even 'FSY when you took 'em off Sunday PM? Had to go there.
You all rested and rolling again? Any others in the cluster are up for changes?
same licenseeCharlie -
Congratulations on the new plant for WPAP and Sunny!
It's been quite a haul from the day we launched Sunny 20 years ago (1/1/87) from the 300 foot tower out back of the 15th Street studios.
But then... seems like I did get a *40* share that first book! (Bet that doesn't happen anymore)
Best...
David Nolin
Program Director
WPEZ/WIFN/WAYS
Cumulus Broadcasting
Macon, Georgia
Congratulations on the new plant for WPAP and Sunny!
It's been quite a haul from the day we launched Sunny 20 years ago (1/1/87) from the 300 foot tower out back of the 15th Street studios.
But then... seems like I did get a *40* share that first book! (Bet that doesn't happen anymore)
Best...
David Nolin
Program Director
WPEZ/WIFN/WAYS
Cumulus Broadcasting
Macon, Georgia
Charlie: great-looking work on the new site. Everything at right angles, even the cable-entry grounding looks good. First-class work, but then again I would expect no less from CC's engineer_of_the_aeon! Even the old CCA at the original site looked to be in great shape.
Paul E. Burt
Baton Rouge, LA
Paul E. Burt
Baton Rouge, LA
Thanks Paul...the CCA and the Continental 816R5 will be moved over into the new building tomorrow....thanks to United Van Lines....tooooooo heavy for me. I hope to have them wired in and on line by Friday afternoon....feels nice to finally have backup transmitters....I think we are the only ones in the market...my other 3 FMs don't have backup...my AM does.
Was Sunny beautiful music WGNE right up to 1987?
8
850RadioDude
Guest
cceng said:
Must we speak the name of evil that has destroyed so much.
850RadioDude said:
Yes, but you're missing the point, 850RadioDude...
WGNE/WDLP was a bloody mess when Ken Woodfin bought out Mr. McBlustery... er, um... McCoy and Mr. Lindholm. It was turned into a really good operation in short order with the launch of Sunny and the move of the Bonneville Ultra B/EZ format to AM590. The success came because The Woodfin Group brought in some good management and programming staff, like Jim Dooley (PD/Mornings), Dave Sargent (middays) and Frank Watkins (nights) [all market vets in Panama City at the time] and consulting by Dennis Winslow, then of WFOX in Atlanta. I was there when it happened, as the first PM Drive guy/MD for Sunny 98.5, having come over from WPAP. I've been through format launches in my career, but I don't ever remember one where there was as much electricity in the air and as positive a feel as there was on 1/1/87. Sunny (pre-consolidation) was something special. Now, it's just another Clear Channel AC (not that they're all bad...)
Our board-buddy cceng (aka Charlie Wooten) was also part of the success of Sunny. It was his expertise that turned truly crappy studios into something that we could live with, and ultimately he was behind the build of the WFSY tall-tower in Fountain, which did wonders for the coverage. I'm glad Charlie's doing well with Clear Channel. They've got a jewel of an engineer in their midst.
All of the above DESPITE having to clean up the Janus Broadcasting (McCoy and Lindholm's company) fiasco.
Besides, Don's got his play-toys in suburban la-la land, plus his huge pile of bling from selling two full-market signals out of his old Macon Georgia cluster to become move-ins to Atlanta, then sliding the leftovers off to Cumulus. He should be able to afford only the best Cuban cee-gars. Yep, I was there when that happened too... still with Cumulus in Macon.
Happy tryptophan napping to all! (and save me a drumstick, please)
TDO (aka David Nolin)
Tibbs2 said:
No, I'm pretty sure he got more for them (7 figures) but because of the intense competition that had moved into that dinky market, he had already lost his arse on them. I was working for him in Columbus, Georgia by the time he sold the PC stations. He did, however, hang on to the tall stick in Fountain for a while, retaining Sunny, WPAP, and WYYX (97X) as clients, plus a few miscellaneous clients, like two-way repeaters, pagers, etc.. He sold the tower in the late 90's. That was the money-maker for Ken in those days, the radio stations... not so much.
Don't know if you remember, but there was a third station involved in that cluster prior to Woodfin's selling it. His son Blaine (orthopedic surgeon in Atlanta) was the licensee of 99.3 licensed (at that time) to Mexico Beach. Hi dad ran it for him along with Sunny and 590. In fact, they essentially moved the B/EZ elements of WGNE-AM over to 99.3; they put the ABC "Unforgettable" standards format on there for a time and moved Paul Harvey, Prior Smith's Canadian News, and other elements of the old "Genie" to that FM, and went all-sports as "The Team" for awhile. In fact, AM 590 was one of the first affiliates of the Florida Marlins network the year they joined the NL. Braves were already taken in the market.
At any rate, simultaneous with Ken Woodfin and his partner, Columbus attorney Milton Hirsch, selling Sunny and AM590, Blaine sold 99.3 to the same guy (cannot remember his name, but this guy owned them for a short time before selling to Bud Paxson, who ultimately folded the clusters he created in PC and other markets to Clear Channel. All of that took place before the MAJOR consolidation of 2000-2001).
Gawd I'm gettin' old... have I really been doing this THAT long?
Geez!
TDO
I do recall that it was over $1M for 98.5/DLP, sorry for MY fading old brain! I think, which means nada, that the $400,000-$450,000 figure was for one of 94.5 selloffs (were the 94.5 call letters WJST or was that for Matowski's 96.5 CP in FWB?) and not to the Woodfins. I seem to also remember that Blaine got a whooping $250,000 for that 99.3 signal back in 'the days.'
I think Charlie will remember all to well, that even the $600,000 figure for WPFM in the mid-80's wasn't cheap enough to make that profitable when there was certainly a lot less competition than today! Look what the beer and beautiful 'beach scenery' has did to
my memories - especially after all of these years. No wonder Charlie's memory is so good, he get's to see the beer and 'scenery' workout
tape LIVE everyday STILL!
I will say this, though, I was always under the impression that 98.5 was profitable when you were there!
I would like to know how many millions (or should that be billions) have been lost by radio station owners in and round Bay County total. The PFM $$$ nightmares were always legendary and well publicized. Charlie, know what ever happened to Jim Martin? Keep the great
stories alive! Happy Thanksgiving!!!
I think Charlie will remember all to well, that even the $600,000 figure for WPFM in the mid-80's wasn't cheap enough to make that profitable when there was certainly a lot less competition than today! Look what the beer and beautiful 'beach scenery' has did to
my memories - especially after all of these years. No wonder Charlie's memory is so good, he get's to see the beer and 'scenery' workout
tape LIVE everyday STILL!
I will say this, though, I was always under the impression that 98.5 was profitable when you were there!
I would like to know how many millions (or should that be billions) have been lost by radio station owners in and round Bay County total. The PFM $$$ nightmares were always legendary and well publicized. Charlie, know what ever happened to Jim Martin? Keep the great
stories alive! Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Jim (Jimbo) Martin is (last I heard) market manager for Clear Channel's cluster in Columbus, Georgia. I couldn't work with the man when M&M partners (the company run by Tommy Milligan and managed by Jimbo) bought out WGSY in Columbus from Ken Woodfin in 1996.
I never really saw exact figures when I was at Sunny 98.5/WGNE from 1987-1989, but you're right, Tibbs, it was a profitable combo for a time. However, when we launched, there were only five (!) viable FM's in the PC market and two AM's of any consequence. You had WPAP, WPFM, WLVV (Love FM, now Island 106), WJST (94.5... aka "T-94") and Sunny, plus WGNE (590, the old WDLP), and WLTG (1430, at that time Christian). Then you started seeing these move-ins and new stations, i.e. 99.3 out of Parker, 97.7 out of Bonifay, 103.5 out of Callaway, 105.1 out of PCB, 93.5 out of Mexico Beach, and the list goes on. 100.1 (Wave) started up in 1988, as WPCF-FM, just so the pea-shooter daytimer WPCF-AM could stay on the air. 95.9 was a Class A licensed to Springfield, doing some kind of Urban format from a storefront on Business 98 in Millville (right next to the Jr. Food Store... but then again, wasn't pretty much EVERYTHING next to a Jr. back then?). They were owned by some funeral home owner there in PC, and sold to another owner who switched it to WRBA-FM (Bay 96) and put the old Transtar Format 41 soft AC format on there. It just got too danged hard to make a living there, as it is to this day.
I never really saw exact figures when I was at Sunny 98.5/WGNE from 1987-1989, but you're right, Tibbs, it was a profitable combo for a time. However, when we launched, there were only five (!) viable FM's in the PC market and two AM's of any consequence. You had WPAP, WPFM, WLVV (Love FM, now Island 106), WJST (94.5... aka "T-94") and Sunny, plus WGNE (590, the old WDLP), and WLTG (1430, at that time Christian). Then you started seeing these move-ins and new stations, i.e. 99.3 out of Parker, 97.7 out of Bonifay, 103.5 out of Callaway, 105.1 out of PCB, 93.5 out of Mexico Beach, and the list goes on. 100.1 (Wave) started up in 1988, as WPCF-FM, just so the pea-shooter daytimer WPCF-AM could stay on the air. 95.9 was a Class A licensed to Springfield, doing some kind of Urban format from a storefront on Business 98 in Millville (right next to the Jr. Food Store... but then again, wasn't pretty much EVERYTHING next to a Jr. back then?). They were owned by some funeral home owner there in PC, and sold to another owner who switched it to WRBA-FM (Bay 96) and put the old Transtar Format 41 soft AC format on there. It just got too danged hard to make a living there, as it is to this day.
Been deer hunting all weekend....just catching up on the computer....Jimbo Martin is GM for CC in Columbus...he is also over the CC stations in Albany and LaGrange....
Woodfin sold to Tim O'Brien out of Orlando....Tim also had 99.3 and 93.5...so Paxson bought all 6 stations....he had to put 93.5 under his son's company, DP Media until the FCC relaxed the main studio rules through an LMA....then Clear Channel bought 93.5 (they ran it under an LMA until the rule change)....I think more people were screwed by Tim O'Brien that Chris Murray (man that should get some reactions for those in the know ;D ) OBrien was a real operator....he hardly ever paid for anything he "purchased"....I think he and his wife have a little store selling antiques in Dalonega (spelling?) GA....
Woodfin sold to Tim O'Brien out of Orlando....Tim also had 99.3 and 93.5...so Paxson bought all 6 stations....he had to put 93.5 under his son's company, DP Media until the FCC relaxed the main studio rules through an LMA....then Clear Channel bought 93.5 (they ran it under an LMA until the rule change)....I think more people were screwed by Tim O'Brien that Chris Murray (man that should get some reactions for those in the know ;D ) OBrien was a real operator....he hardly ever paid for anything he "purchased"....I think he and his wife have a little store selling antiques in Dalonega (spelling?) GA....
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