WQOK files to move to Carrboro, halve transmitting power.

[MaxGM]

The agencies making those buys do not care one iota about that coverage when negotiating those buys. All negotiations are made using metro numbers to calculate the cost per point for the buy. Sure… Cato’s has a location in South Hill. But there is also a location in Durham, 2 in Raleigh, 1 in Wake Forest, and 1 In Fuquay-Varina. The agency making the buys is concerned with those locations when planning the buy and gives no extra consideration for the extended coverage. Cato’s also places buys with the stations in South Hill, Oxford-Henderson, Rocky Mount, Roanoke Rapids and Roxboro to cover locations in those areas. They actually do a good job with the small markets and are easy to work with.... as far as agencies go. McDonalds is much the same with, I believe, a separate agency placing the small market buys. The agency for Applebee’s gives the large market stations no consideration for the DMA coverage yet tells the small market guy they don’t need to buy him because they get that coverage for free from the large market station’s penetration. As you can tell I have been on both sides of that one! The local Budweiser has a great amount of say in where the marketing money is placed by Busch Media, and has local money to spend as well. Most of the small town distributors keep the money local. While at ‘TRG in ’89-93 I recall very few buys outside of the Raleigh-Durham metro, especially after the ratings jumped and became more consistent. Most of the advertisers outside of the metro could/would not pay the rate. A few car dealers did but that was about it. Even the on programming side we decided to concentrate our focus on listeners in the metro. We primarily aired calls from those listeners, focused on events in the Triangle, targeted direct mail to hot zips in the metro, etc. Sure it has the big signal but it means very little if it doesn’t produce results in the Raleigh-Durham metro. The extra coverage over the hinterlands means nothing, to programming or sales.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

One thing, fortmill:

They usually rank a point or so in the Triad market. With their new weak transmitting power they will lose all of that. Meanwhile, other 100K R-D stations will continue to have listenership in all those areas.

You make the assumption that Radio One cares about its "point or so" in the Triad, whatever it gets in Rocky Mount, Roanoke Rapids or the like.

It does not.

And it is not a "100K R-D station". It is a 100KW South Boston VA station which reaches the Triangle by virtue of that signal.

The move will significantly IMPROVE its in-market RDU coverage, including in such very important areas as penetration of inexpensive in-market radios.

Here in my home market of Akron OH in 2001, long-time hot AC station WKDD/96.5 lost its frequency to a sister station, which nudged it up into Cleveland (with an Akron COL, still).

WKDD decamped to 98.1 Canton, which it called at the time "the most powerful signal in Ohio". (I'm still not sure where they got that from.)

Immediately, on DAY ONE, people in Akron suburbs started complaining that they couldn't get the signal...particularly on their clock radios.

Clear Channel had to move almost immediately to change the facility. It's still a class B licensed to Canton, but they were able to move it - with lower power - much closer to Akron, in the Canton suburb of Hartville...roughly 10 or so miles northwest of their previous location in Louisville, a far eastern Canton suburb.

Though the stick's ERP is lower, being somewhat closer to Akron, it is a much stronger signal here.

It's all about the in-market radio penetration, my friend.

 

[JoshB]

One thing, fortmill:

They usually rank a point or so in the Triad market. With their new weak transmitting power they will lose all of that. Meanwhile, other 100K R-D stations will continue to have listenership in all those areas.

You make the assumption that Radio One cares about its "point or so" in the Triad, whatever it gets in Rocky Mount, Roanoke Rapids or the like.

It does not.

And it is not a "100K R-D station". It is a 100KW South Boston VA station which reaches the Triangle by virtue of that signal.

The move will significantly IMPROVE its in-market RDU coverage, including in such very important areas as penetration of inexpensive in-market radios.

Here in my home market of Akron OH in 2001, long-time hot AC station WKDD/96.5 lost its frequency to a sister station, which nudged it up into Cleveland (with an Akron COL, still).

WKDD decamped to 98.1 Canton, which it called at the time "the most powerful signal in Ohio". (I'm still not sure where they got that from.)

Immediately, on DAY ONE, people in Akron suburbs started complaining that they couldn't get the signal...particularly on their clock radios.

Clear Channel had to move almost immediately to change the facility. It's still a class B licensed to Canton, but they were able to move it - with lower power - much closer to Akron, in the Canton suburb of Hartville...roughly 10 or so miles northwest of their previous location in Louisville, a far eastern Canton suburb.

Though the stick's ERP is lower, being somewhat closer to Akron, it is a much stronger signal here.

It's all about the in-market radio penetration, my friend.

You maybe right about advertisers wanting to be where the population is, but what happens in the future when the area grows? Right now, RDU only covers 6 counties (Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham, Johnston, Franklin), but 10-15 years down the road metro will likely include Granville, Vance, Wilson, Nash, etc. I could see if was going to greatly improve coverage in RDU from the existing coverage. Besides, most radios today can easily pick up stations. When I visit my parents in the Wilson area, I can easily pickup WQOK on just about any radio in the house, despite not having city-grade coverage over this area, so I know it can't be too hard right now to pick it up in the Raleigh-Durham area.

 

[MaxGM]

It is more likely that the smaller counties and towns will develop into their own markets. This has already happened with the new Rocky Mount/Wilson market designation. Several owners have considered a designating a market that would include Vance, Granville, Mecklenburg VA and a couple of other counties. There is no benefit to the owners in these smaller markets to be included in a larger market such as Raleigh/Durham. They could not compete in the ratings and would loose the Regional and National dollars they already get. There is no real advantage to the bigger market stations either as their share numbers would be diluted by the sheer number of stations added to the market therefore making it more difficult to justify their rates to the already ridiculously low cost per points the agencies push for now. The station owners have a huge voice in setting market designations. I would not expect the scenario you predict. Looking at the Rocky Mount ratings the Raleigh stations make a good showing but there are enoung local stations doing well enough in the top formats to give both agencies and local-direct buyers a good reason to advertise in that market.

 

[JoshB]

^ The problem with that is the fact that a lot of stations are leaving smaller markets for larger one's, b/c that's where the money is. That's what happened with WFMX, they left the Statesville/Hickory market, despite being pretty popular there for a bigger market, the Triad, so where does this leave smaller markets? The FCC obviously doesn't care. Although WQOK didn't "technically" serve the Southside of VA that, it's the only hip-hop station really in the area, but after this move it will the area with no hip-hop station. This all goes back to the local radio debate. Do we ignore rural communities and their needs for the sake of more stations serving the metropolitan areas? I guess the answer right now is yes.

 

[BS1012]

In defense of Fortmill's argument, WQOK can be heard fine in Southeast Raleigh--at least, fine enough where I also can't see how the new move would give them a large, noticeable amount of extra coverage in the area.

How does this new signal really help places like Garner or parts of Raleigh? I don't think it will. From a listeners view, is cutting a station's power in half going to significantly benefit its target area? If this new transmitter was being placed say, in downtown Raleigh then it might be justifiable. But what's the point of moving from out of market [in Virginia] to out of market [in Carborough] while at the same time cutting the transmitter power in half?

Take CC’s move of G105 and Sunny, for example. While I still question that move in itself, there are absolute, definite benefits there; much better coverage of Downtown Raleigh an eastern Wake County. Yes, Greensboro listeners might have a problem with it, but it is definitely a justifiable move and the benefits are easy to see. Is this the same with WQOK? Do the benefits of this move really outweigh the problems with it?

If K97.5 could somehow move to Raleigh itself, the benefits would definitely be noticeable. But as it stands now, I can’t find many advantages to the listeners—and regardless of whether or not they intend to serve them, they’ll definitely drop many listeners.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

See my earlier message about in-building penetration.

I'd have to assume that even with "cutting its power", WQOK will improve in-market, in-building penetration on less than stellar radios. I am not an engineer, but I'd assume that's what they are aiming for.

If your own radios are decent, which they probably are if you're on a board dedicated to talking about radio, you may not notice any problem with the current signal. But in the local case I cited above, listener after listener complained on the station's own message board about a loss of in-market signal on clock radios. Clock radios are generally the worst radio you can get, and...well...morning drive radio depends on them.

"Twice the power" doesn't mean anything if it's out that far away.

I don't know if the planned move would accomplish what they're looking for, though. I'd have to run that by an engineer.

 

[Radio-X]

I'm still thinking it's quite possible they lost their tower lease or they weren't willing to pay $___ for another lease when they had a perfectly good tower in the triangle area. Moving into the RDU area was just an extra bonus. Plus, I have a strong belief that Radio One's engineers are much better at determining where a signal will go compared to we radio peeps.

And, if you want to know the real reason for the VA lottery spots on WQOK? Before NC got the education lottery in '05, guess where everybody went to get lottery tickets? Yep, that's right, Virginia. Where my family live(d)(s) in Clarksville there is a place about 2000 feet north of the State line on US 15...this little redneck place was frequently the #1 seller of tickets outside of Northern VA. Coincidence? I think not.

Radio-X

 

[vchimpanzee]

If your own radios are decent, which they probably are if you're on a board dedicated to talking about radio

Some of us don't have the money. However, in my case I'm lucky to have a couple of libraries nearby with more computers than they need.

 

[carlosswicegood]

this has nothing to do with WKOQ or Foxy. But, I get tired of seeing new threads being started and only one or two replys; anywho.

CC has roughly another month before they are suppose to move to the WLFL tv 22 tower off ten-ten road, in Apex. -- I was just out that way, again on tuesday evening and guess what.

nothing different. not a single 'new' antenna anywhere on the 1500ft structure. so, get with it CC or you're gonna force me to continue listening to 105-1 crystal clear. not that i have anything against that

 

[MaskMan]

this has nothing to do with WKOQ or Foxy. But, I get tired of seeing new threads being started and only one or two replys; anywho.

Maybe no one is interested in the subject matter of those threads. I read the boards nearly every evening and sometimes the subject matter just doesn't interest me. I suspect others feel the same. A format change and/or controversy seems to get 'em goin'.

 

[SuperCFL]

G-105 CP

I may have misunderstood what you were trying to say, carlotwiceasgood, but I'm pretty certain G-105 has another year and a month on their CP. It expires on March 22, 2008.

 

[carlosswicegood]

oh Brain; if you were a telemarketer I would hang up on you. It's hard to hear you own name pronouced incorrectly, let alone spelled wrong. lol. j/k with ya.

and i stand corrected, i had been told by my 'source' about the move. wow will he be ashamed!


question: when was goldsboro ever considered in the RDU market?

 

[vchimpanzee]

this has nothing to do with WKOQ or Foxy. But, I get tired of seeing new threads being started and only one or two replys; anywho.

CC has roughly another month before they are suppose to move to the WLFL tv 22 tower off ten-ten road, in Apex. -- I was just out that way, again on tuesday evening and guess what.

nothing different. not a single 'new' antenna anywhere on the 1500ft structure. so, get with it CC or you're gonna force me to continue listening to 105-1 crystal clear. not that i have anything against that

WKOQ was a country station in Lexington in the 1980s.

It was an active rock station in Michigan until May of last year.

I'm sure you meant WQOK.

 

[carlosswicegood]

yea. my bad. oops :-X

 

[quadraphonic]

No wonder I was having a hard time following this thread!
All the mistakes! *hits forehead, runs off into distance all the way toward the bank, laughing maniacally*