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WSEV-AM 930 "Grand Crown Radio"

If, (and that can be a BIG IF sometimes) if the transmitter is where the FCC records have been told it is, it would be one mile north east of where the hiways cross in downtown Seveirville. From the satellite map it appears to be on top of the ridge near a house. Lots of woods. Cannot spot the tower in the satellite photo.

Go to www.radio-locator.com and punch in the call letters. When you get the page for the station up click on the lat/lon co-ordinates and it will take you to a map. Zoom in. Top right gives you a choice of map or satellite photo.
 
AM 930 doesn't have the signal it once had when the tower was on Middle creek rd behind the old studio. I don't know what changed,it may be the ground system isn't as good or the ground conductivity of the ridge they are on now. The station has been every format under the sun the last several years from sports to gospel.
 
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
If, (and that can be a BIG IF sometimes) if the transmitter is where the FCC records have been told it is, it would be one mile north east of where the hiways cross in downtown Seveirville. From the satellite map it appears to be on top of the ridge near a house. Lots of woods. Cannot spot the tower in the satellite photo.
Click to expand...

Yes I can verify that there are at least two, maybe three, towers at this site. Although you can't tell from the satellite photo, the wooded area is actually a very large hill. I have actually driven up the hill to find the tower of another station that is located there, W266AA-FM (101.1 FM) which is a translator for WJXB.

I don't know about WSEV-AM's tower, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was there, because like I said, there are at least two towers on that hill.
 
I can verify that the transmitter and tower are up on top of the hill. I have worked on the transmiter. It was a 5 KW Continental Power Rock. Part of the output tuning circuit had been removed.

The top of a hill is not a good place for an AM site. A poor ground system exacerbates the problem.
 
I believe that transmitter was installed around 1980 or 81 at the Middlecreek Rd studio. They still had the old Collins 5kw rig for backup purposes when I worked there in 1981.
 
For those of you who would like to know what kind of things you can hear on this station, I have put up a "video" on YouTube with nearly 15 minutes of that station (I recorded it during my Pigeon Forge vacation, which I just got back from today). The video picture is a still of a station billboard. Are there really similarities to other stations? I'd like to know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSNeQSHTk-c
 
This is a Visitors Information Radio format for commercial radio. These are very beneficial radio stations for tourist oriented communities. WSEV serves the visitor and tourism is the big moneymaker in the area.

Revenue is from advertising. Some have been clever enough to be non-commercial in content with a portion of the local hotel tax dollars going to the station.

There have been lots of stations with this format. Most don't last long because the trick is in selling packages, not spots. You need billboards to make it work so visitors can find the station.

For the most part, these are very cheap to run and don't require lots of billing to survive. Considering the plight of AM stations, especially daytimers, it might be likely such stations might be simply dark if they hadn't opted for the format.

Most formats of this type repeat every 15 minute to 30 minutes with spot packages mostly sold with a 'one per half hour' or one spot every 15 minutes' package that might include a printed visitors guide and coupon booklet.

92.1 in Adel was unique in that they were all advertising except for a weather forecast or trivia bit every few minutes. The owner had tons of billboards he owned along the freeway so he had his own in house promotion.

Nearby was a station billed as Florida Visitor's Radio. Their 40 minute loop brought people to a Florida Visitors Center to pick up coupons and travel guides.

A Chamber of Commerce ran an excellent Visitors Information format on a non-commercial FM position. Their 15 minute repeating format had a few underwriters and a wide variety of voices in their 30 second segments.

While these are unusual uses of radio as we know it, they do servbe a purpose. For tourist-intense communities they keep people in jobs and towns happy because of the tourists that might spend a bit more money than they planned.
 
There's not much else you're going to do with a station like that. East TN Radio Group's WSEV-FM (Mixx 1055) has the Hometown Radio for Sevier County pretty well covered.
 
Well, it may be awhile before I go to Springfield next, but I'll try to remember to bring a boombox and get a recording of KLFJ. Although I'm only 2 hours away, I don't get there as often as I used to. Dad died unexpectedly last October, and Mom lives in Oklahoma. So, I'm usually just passing through when I go to Springfield as Mom would rather me either come to Oklahoma or meet me in St. Louis or Kansas City, both of which are about as far away for me as Springfield.
 
Sammy Reed said:
For those of you who would like to know what kind of things you can hear on this station, I have put up a "video" on YouTube with nearly 15 minutes of that station (I recorded it during my Pigeon Forge vacation, which I just got back from today). The video picture is a still of a station billboard. Are there really similarities to other stations? I'd like to know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSNeQSHTk-c
Click to expand...

Wow, and we thought WNOX was bad... ::)
 
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