WSB-AM Debuts On FM Today at Noon

[Wildstyle K]

So why would a non-radio geek care to seek out the Beat on HD2 (again, with no local content to speak of?)

It makes less sense than the available options online. I seriously doubt many people follow these versions of formerly favorite mainstream stations online or to HD.

Duh!!!! People tune in music stations BECUASE THEY LIKE THE MUSIC!

Nobody really gives a damn about DJ's and jingles, except radio geeks. What draws the audience is the music.

If you work in radio as a "personality", you need to make a real big sign that says "It's the music they tune in for. it's not for you". Put that where you see it every minute you're on the air.

In most cases...

Here in Az there are still complaints about a morning show that added music to their morning show.
Also, my mom actually tuned in to a station and kept it there because a dj was doing a good mix on the radio and did it proper style. After the mix was done, so was my mom and listening to that station. I'm sure she isn't the only person who stayed tuned in all because of the dj mix.. My last example of "in most cases", I was talking about Big Boy's Neighborhood to a dj friend of mine (who works for another station) and how I loved the mixes and the music on the station. He kept telling me "remember, BIG BOY is the star, not the music. We might like the music and mixes, but the listener is tuning in to hear BIG BOY. He brings the ratings.."

Jingles are good because it helps the listener remember the station name, whether they consciously wish to or not.

 

[JimmyJames]

Talk_Dude, you're completely missing my point.

My point is if a fan of 95.5 The Beat likes rhythmic music, there are tons of online options commercial free and with no DJs.

Why would a fan of the Beat follow the station to internet or HD IF there is no local content or presence?

 

[TJB]

So what happens to News Talk 103.7 WXKT......its basically the same format and in the same coverage area, except for the local news.
Its a COX station too.

 

[Talk_Dude]

Talk_Dude, you're completely missing my point.

My point is if a fan of 95.5 The Beat likes rhythmic music, there are tons of online options commercial free and with no DJs.

Why would a fan of the Beat follow the station to internet or HD IF there is no local content or presence?

Because there is more to "the music" than just shoveling out big heaps of songs indiscriminately. If there are two or more stations playing the same format, then whatever station has the best selection of songs wins. If the Beat has a better selection of songs, it wins. If it doesn't, it loses. People whose idea of music doesn't extend beyond which of the official radio formats a song is pigeonholed into will never understand this simple truth.

The only time the music doesn't matter is a program that has built an audience of people who prefer spoken word entertainment to music. Some people are like that. Did anyone ever notice that sometimes a club has musical acts and sometimes it has stand-up comedians? If a club that normally books musical acts throws in a stand-up when the audience doesn't expect or want a stand-up, things go badly. The same is true if they throw a singer to the crowd at a comedy club.

 

[OgOgglby]

What does a great sounding AM station sound like on FM? Like crap, apparently. Hey engineering....can't you make it sound like an FM station? Sounds like a feed from the internet!

 

[jabba17]

I'm assuming they are promoting it strongly on air for AM listeners who'd like a nice stereo FM signal. Plus, there's a lot of word of mouth about this already.

They have the stereo flipped off. Not uncommon for talk on FM as it reduces noise and increases listenable range. The old WGST-FM did the same thing, as does WXKT.

I do agree with the other poster above about the processing--they tweaked it a little for FM, but it still sounds mostly like AM processing on an FM signal.

 

[jabba17]

#2. IMHO this move probably kills any chance of an all news station in ATL. A well done all news operation would possibly hurt 750 even more than WABE is doing now.

I wonder if someone could take a second-tier AM signal and just put on a network news feed...

 

[jabba17]

To charlestondxman, why separate programming night and overnight? it's your lowest ranked time period and makes the least amount of money. Sorry, but that's crazy.

The one thing they WILL do it this: if they ever have a conflict with games, they will run one on 95.5 and the other on 750. It's a great move.

I could see separating programming if you had some programming that really pulled in the overnight listeners but didn't have mass appeal (like a truckers' show or Kook to Kook), and you put it on the AM side to take advantage of skywave.

Or they could save their money and just run ReBoortz.

Right now, the only games that WSB has is UGA football and hoops. UGA hoops is such a small draw that they could just put that on 104.1 and come out ahead, while keeping the WSB-AM simul going.

 

[jabba17]

it wasn't clear channel that owned WGST when they were competive in the 80s and early 90s. Jacor actually invested in the station but CC has not. Cox had News Talk and AC handed to them by CC, Jacor would have never destroyed WGST and we would have had Peach 94.9 keeping B 98.5 on its toes. I know jacor got tricked into planet radio but they killed it pretty quick.

WGST would kill to have back the ratings it had back in the Planet Radio days. And Peach was beating B98.5. I agree, the Jacor ATL cluster was hot before CC bought Jacor.

 

[jabba17]

So what happens to News Talk 103.7 WXKT......its basically the same format and in the same coverage area, except for the local news.
Its a COX station too.

Martha Zoller gets more hours?

If WBTS moves from Chateau Elan to the downtown tower per their CP then they won't have much overlap at all.

 

[gr8oldies]

Processing is an issue for WSB Jr., WHIO, 1290 AM and NOW 95.7 in Dayton, which started an FM simulcast a few years ago. No punch, just an AM station on FM. Best news-talk FM processing I've heard is WIBC Indianapolis

 

[Mr11WXIA]

Ok what I want to know is this new 103.7 in Gainesville has Neal Boortz, Clark Howard, Sean Hannity and the UGA bulldogs coverage. How can 95.5 carry any of the WSB shows at the same time if 103.7 is airing those shows? Only Neal's first two hours have been cut at 103.7. The rest of the shows air at the same time WSB-AM is airing them.

 

[DToTheJ]

640 's Signal in all reality isnt that great, considering that they are 50kw and I agree with Am lover they either have to fix the am and stop all of the national syndicated shows, and fix signal issues, or its over for them!

Three words: Bring back Kimmer!

 

[Rogue]

Ok what I want to know is this new 103.7 in Gainesville has Neal Boortz, Clark Howard, Sean Hannity and the UGA bulldogs coverage. How can 95.5 carry any of the WSB shows at the same time if 103.7 is airing those shows? Only Neal's first two hours have been cut at 103.7. The rest of the shows air at the same time WSB-AM is airing them.

Cox owns this facility, so no issue there.

As far as duplication, at least currently signal wise, it is substantial.

Longer term, the 95.5 signal may wind up with a different pattern (as discussed earlier) which will negate much of the crossover. Or, I suppose it is not out of the question that Cox might do something different in format with the 103.7 signal.

 

[DToTheJ]

... I suppose it is not out of the question that Cox might do something different in format with the 103.7 signal.

One would think that all the "research" Bob Neil says that his crack Cox crew has performed started sometime after the launch of news/talk on 103.7. Otherwise, one wonders why they didn't move "The Beat" to 103.7.

 

[GRS86]

I'm not an engineer, but I wonder has Cox's engineering team ever given any thought to moving the AM 750 transmitter out of the strip shopping center across from Northlake to a marshy or swampy area somewhere in the general vicinity that would be a lot more conducive for the ground conductivity that a 50K watt AM signal needs. With the right ground conductivity, WSB's daytime ground signal could easily cover a 250 - 300 mile radius much like WGN in Chicago, or WLW in Cincinnati does now. WSB's nighttime signal isn't an issue, considering that it covers 38 states and parts of Canada.

yes, and no. Soil conductivity all over north Georgia sucks, but it's particularly bad in and around Atlanta. And since there are no swamps near Atlanta, they would have to build the swamp. Conductivity Around Atlanta including WSB's Dekalb county transmitter site is a 1. Maybe 1.5 milliohms per meter. This includes Gwinnett, Dekalb, Henry, parts of Walton, Newton and Spalding counties. It improves east of Atlanta but you have to get out in far eastern Walton & Newton, Morgan and Jasper counties. That's too far away from Atlanta.

For comparison, the stations you mentioned. The conductivity for WLW and WGN are 8 milliohms per meter and seawater is 5000 milliohms per meter.

And the reason for the bad soil, you need to look no further than Stone Mountain for the tip of the answer. Atlanta sits on a big ole piece of granite.

Outstanding technical breakdown!!

 

[jabba17]

Processing is sounding better this morning. Still not all the way to a good FM feed, but improved. A lot of the hissy noise from yesterday that would simply get lost on AM is now gone, and the bass is filling out somewhat.

Can WSB split their airchain into separate AM and FM feeds to provide processing optimized for AM and FM, or do they have to try and find a happy medium or sacrifice one band's processing for the other? I ought to tune in AM and see if it sounds "worse".

 

[Bengalsfan]

And the reason for the bad soil, you need to look no further than Stone Mountain for the tip of the answer. Atlanta sits on a big ole piece of granite.

Outstanding technical breakdown!!

Thank you. It's what I do. ;D

 

[TheRealOtherNeil]

Here are some observations:

Someone needs to tell Captain Herb that he can mentioned WSB AM/FM. Every report I heard this morning he said "News Talk 750 WSB." Either that or maybe he isn't doing team traffic and he has gone rogue.

As for Boortz and Hannity being on FM - with the digital clarity of the FM bad I guess now I hear that they were not bashing Obama but really praising him.

Something to ponder, if WSB-FM is a sustained success, what will Cox do with WSB-AM?

 

[tlyle]

I'm not an engineer, but I wonder has Cox's engineering team ever given any thought to moving the AM 750 transmitter out of the strip shopping center across from Northlake to a marshy or swampy area somewhere in the general vicinity that would be a lot more conducive for the ground conductivity that a 50K watt AM signal needs.

This is not about coverage, it's about the age of listeners and sales.

With the right ground conductivity, WSB's daytime ground signal could easily cover a 250 - 300 mile radius much like WGN in Chicago, or WLW in Cincinnati does now.

The conductiviy of N. Ga. is terrible. No matter how damp the site itself is, the ground conductivity, like that around WSM, will not permit the same kind of coverage that a station like WGN gets in the high conductivity area that surrounds it.

WSB's nighttime signal isn't an issue, considering that it covers 38 states and parts of Canada.

Most AM listening is in the daytime hours, and most ad sales are in that time period. And with the interference on 750, and the protection now in effect, the reliable skywave coverage is perhaps 400-500 miles around. Of course, the 100 kw station in Venezuela does not help, nor does all the junk on 740 from the Caribbean, Mexico, etc.

Since radio is bought locally, the local Atlanta metro is what matters. There is really no significant revenue to be gotten from outside that area.

Part of the reason why the Braves became America's team was because of TBS going to cable nationally and WSB being able to air the games at night on the 50K Blowtorch of the south. I lived in another state and would tune into WSB just to hear the Braves play. There are many other Braves fans in other states who can't hear the Braves on radio anymore because their local stations are not in the Braves' network. For many years, WSB got revenue from night airing of Braves games.