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WRKA Louisville getting bigger?

C

collegeDJ86

I was surfing through REC Networks' FM Table of Allotments and stumbled upon Docket 6-77.

It appears that Cox is looking to significantly boost the WRKA 103.1 St. Matthews signal by moving the COL and tower to Lyndon, KY, just northeast of Louisville proper. The station, if the change goes through, will go from a class A to a class C2. This means that WRKA will be able to cover cities like Shelbyville and LaGrange on the KY side, and cities like Scottsburg, Madison, Salem, and Corydon on the IN side.

In order for this to happen, Cox sister station WVEZ "Lite Rock" 106.9 will move its COL from Louisville to St. Matthews. Also, cochannel signal WXCH 103.1 Versailles, IN will move to Hope, IN and begin to serve the Columbus, IN market. There are other channel assignments that must be reconfigured to the west and east as well.

If the move goes through, does this boost WRKA's ratings? If Cox does take away the oldies, what is a likely replacement? 106.9 is a ratings monster as an AC, 107.7 WSFR is a solid performing classic rocker, and 103.9 WTPI is just playing country trying (unsuccessfully) to dent WAMZ. Could we see an FM sports talker with carriage of University of Louisville sports (I remember reading WHAS 840 was taking UK basketball over UofL basketball back on the other board about a year ago) and Louisville Riverbats baseball? Could we see a sale? Or does Louisville still love its oldies enough to keep WRKA like it is?

Just trying to stir some action on this Kentucky board...
 
This should work well for Cox. Shelbyville and LaGrange could use a better Oldies signal, as WLUE has made serious inroads on WVEZ in that part of the Louisville market. I could also see WRKA swapping frequencies with WPTI or WSFR in an attempt to gain some ground on WAMZ or some distance on WQMF. There's certainly enough ratings, but I don't know if there's enough money for another Urban/Urban AC station in town. Unless if Cox has plans on putting both WZKF and WDJX out to pasture, or doing the same to WTFX and WLRS, any form of CHR or Rock is out the window too.

FM Talk will yield the same result as trying to compete with WAMZ; WHAS-AM will fall from #1 only when it is replaced by WHAS-FM. U of L is signed on with WKRD-AM and isn't going anywhere in the short term.

For those not familiar with the Louisville area, Lyndon and St. Matthews are next door to each other. St. Matthews is inside I-264, Lyndon is outside. Both towns are situated along Shelbyville Road (US 60).

Maybe with WXCH moving further away someone can shoehorn WYSB 102.7 into the Louisville market.
 
collegeDJ86 said:
Just trying to stir some action on this Kentucky board...
Click to expand...

Louisville...is that in Kentucky? Haha just kidding, although a lot of folks down my way don't claim it :)

I saw a swap a whole lot like this in my old stomping ground of Asheville, NC a few years back. A heritage station's COL was changed to a smaller town, so a smaller allotment licensed to that little town could be moved closer to Asheville. The move was genius, and worked like a charm for Clear Channel.

Bottom line, WRKA will be more valuable if this move works out.
 
collegeDJ86 said:
Also, cochannel signal WXCH 103.1 Versailles, IN will move to Hope, IN and begin to serve the Columbus, IN market. There are other channel assignments that must be reconfigured to the west and east as well.
Click to expand...

If 103.1 WXCH moves to Hope, what becomes of 102.9 WYGB in Edinburgh, IN (which also serves Columbus)? Is WYGB moving to another frequency? If not, how can 103.1 serve Columbus.

Does anyone know of the other stations affected by this proposed upgrade?
 
So does anyone know if actual paperwork for the move of WXCH to Hope and WYGB to 100.3 has been filed and if so, the chances this will happen?
 
if u are talking about an upgrade to 100.3 for louisville, isn't WLUE-FM at 100.5
 
William_Yeager said:
This should work well for Cox. Shelbyville and LaGrange could use a better Oldies signal, as WLUE has made serious inroads on WVEZ in that part of the Louisville market. I could also see WRKA swapping frequencies with WPTI or WSFR in an attempt to gain some ground on WAMZ or some distance on WQMF.
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seems like a pal in that market has told me that in the past several attempts have been made to cut into WAMZ with zero success. wpti would be doing up against (according to radio-locator) at 100kw powerhouse with a very small signal. taking a share or two off a monster is like a mosquito bite-no big deal

agree that oldies has got to be history-doesn't look like they've ever been top 5 (25-54) in the market and the format is dying anyway(tho i don't really know if wrka is a typical '60's based oldies or is heavily into the '70's).

also wsfr is presently losing to wqmf big-time especially in the last couple of ratings books (25-54 adults anyway). wlue not only cut into wvez but also into wsfr which has allowed wqmf to get its act 2gether and pull ahead in the classic rock 'n roll race. wsfr is probably the typical cox robotic 275 song playlist template anyway. dunno if cox is into fm talk but it's a growing format. also putting a good contemp christian top 40 could work since it appears the salem stations have rimshot signals at best
 
radiofriend1 said:
if u are talking about an upgrade to 100.3 for louisville, isn't WLUE-FM at 100.5
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I Was talking since the original Connersville 100.3 is moving to Cincinnati aka Norwood. with the pending move of WYGB to 100.3 in the move along with the change of COL of WXCH to Hope means Korn country 102.9 soon to be 100.3 all in terms replaces WIFE in East Central Indiana
 
oh, sorry-yes, that all makes sense. mistook the wrka discussion with 100.3 moving into louisville market
 
There are actually two oldies stations in the Louisville market. Neither has done spectacular, but both have done better than many of their counterparts have fared. WLUE has also cooled considerably on its 12+ numbers from its fast start. If Cox keeps Oldies on the new-and-improved WRKA, this surely cannot bode well for WASE. I'd see WASE flipping first if WRKA stays Oldies. If WPTI swaps out with WRKA, then WASE shouldn't have much to worry about.

WSFR, when I've listened to it recently, seems more like a Classic Hits station than a Classic Rock station - perhaps 107.7 SFR overadjusted when Louie came on the air?
 
William_Yeager said:
There are actually two oldies stations in the Louisville market. Neither has done spectacular, but both have done better than many of their counterparts have fared. WLUE has also cooled considerably on its 12+ numbers from its fast start. If Cox keeps Oldies on the new-and-improved WRKA, this surely cannot bode well for WASE. I'd see WASE flipping first if WRKA stays Oldies. If WPTI swaps out with WRKA, then WASE shouldn't have much to worry about.

WSFR, when I've listened to it recently, seems more like a Classic Hits station than a Classic Rock station - perhaps 107.7 SFR overadjusted when Louie came on the air?
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nobody cares about 12+. wlue-fm is currently 4th 25-54 -- my bet is they are very happy with that
nobody guages success or failure on 12+. case in point: the Dove in Tampa........#1 12+ almost every book but not in the top 20 25-54..........all their biz is local & direct becuz agencies don't place spot buys outside of the top 5, maybe top 7 in a market like tampa. there are rock stations not even in the top 10 12+ but are top 2 or 3 18-34 which means (if they are turning those #s into revenue) they are very successful

WRKA won't stay oldies---there is no future in oldies the way their playlist looks on yes.com
plus wase is licensed to elizabethtown ky, which looks like it's too far out to be able to compete signal wise in a metro as big as l'ville
 
I figure WRKA's oldies are going away as well-- for several reasons: 1) the format has been slipping recently nationwide because of the older audience. However, RKA has been pushing things more to the 70's side of the music. If they would let go some of the bubble gum hits, they could probably get some better results. 2) WASE's tower is located in Southern Bullitt County and with 25,000 watts the signal reaches the Louisville Metro quite well. Probably too well for WRKA and Cox because you have two oldies formatted stations right next to each other on the dial. Confusing for listeners. 3) the ads aren't too bad on the station, but they're only getting local agencies as it sounds and definitely nothing from national ad agencies.

I would hate to see the format go and I think there is still a chance it might stay since there isn't a lot of choices out there in the Louisville market. IF, and it's a big if, they get this change to go through I expect to see country on 103.1. Whatever is on 103.1 now would move to 103.9. Since that is a weaker urban signal, it would fare well with an urban or urban AC/urban oldies station, if they do something different. Radio One is doing well with that format on a relatively weak signal in the Louisville area. There are other options, but the Louisville market doesn't lend a lot to opportunities. FM Talk could work on 103.1, given Cox's syndicated offerings, but going against WHAS will be very, very tough. The country crowd might be their best chance-- and that would be just as tough if not tougher than going against WHAS. People have tried that numerous times before with little, if any success. I don't see success happening here either in the current form of country on 103.9.
 
Cox has several heritage Country stations (Dayton and Tulsa come to mind).Whether they could pull good ratings off as the challenger remains to be seen.
 
But who remembers when WRKA almost moved to 106.9?

The early 80’s owners of WRKA had decided to purchase WAKY/WVEZ and transplant WRKA to 106.9. Since this was before deregulation, the owner had to divest 103.1. A potential buyer was found who had plans to take the frequency urban but withdrew his offer at the last second.
 
Possibly a little late on this post, but I was hired by Capitol Broadcasting as fulltime Chief Engineer to make the transistion to the WVEZ frequency, which would have moved them to the 106.9 slot and higher power. They were going to divest 790 and the Class A frequency to the new owner. The very day I was leaving from Florida to make the move to Louisville, I was notified the ownership-frequency swap was not going to happen, but they (Capitol) decided to go ahead with their promotional plans on the Class A frequency and told me to come on up and build out their new studios as they had invested thousands on the Linn Station Road facility for the new frequency. They decided to make a go of Classic Rock/Oldies on their present Class A. They even had my business cards printed up showing WRKA on 106.9 and I wasn't even there yet! The station was in such corporate termoil then, even my new position lasted only six months. The staff was great, but corporate was dealt such a financial blow due to the frequency swap fiasco, I often felt they just lost interest in the Louisville market. This was a case of EVERYONE knew of the station, but no ratings. I used to walk into businesses all over town and heard the station being played, but nothing in the ratings. Never could figure that one out. I hope WRKA gets the upgrades they are seeking. Probably does not mean much in the modern day ownership monopolies, but as a veteran broadcaster, more POWER to them!!!!! :D :D
 
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