WSTL vs. WRIB

[N1WVQ]

Does anyone know how WSTL is doing these days? When I think of religious radio, I still think of WARV as being the top dog. Especially after how the former WRIB folks were treated by the WSTL'ers when they took over 1220 it's always struck me as a bit against their own teaching (Do unto others...).

As for 1220, it seems the frequency would be perfect for an all-Spanish station as it seems to go where the Spanish-speaking audience is most heavily populated but not much beyond that (Olneyville, South Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket). I wonder if Videomundo has made a play for this so they could be on 24 hours. Personally, I always enjoyed 1220's Spanish mix when it was but 1110 & 100.3 play too much Bachata for me (which is understandable considering a considerable number of the area's Hispanics are from the Dominican Republic).

In Brockton, a church bought WMSX/1410 & aired C.C.M. there but sold the station last year for just $100k. I wonder if WSTL is long for this world.

 

[aaronread]

Why would a limited-signal daytimer AM be perfect for all-Spanish when Providence already has Spanish-language programming on 1290AM and 100.3FM, among others?

 

[DG02816]

Aaron,
I worked at WRIB during its religious/Spanish weekday programming. The station had a very loyal audience and the personalities were well known. We would even do a remote from time to time. The station also aired Red Sox baseball from the team's Spanish network; one of the announcers was Luis Tiant. Putting Spanish Tropical back on 1220 would be good for the older listeners. Hearing you shrug off AM's like 1220 and 1290 with your dismissive statements just makes me shake my head sadly. I've been in this business 35 years, and still think AM has a place if done well. I used to look forward to tuning in 1290 when coming back for a visit to family and friends. But now, I have to put up with a patchwork of low-powered FM's for anything north of perhaps Exeter. What you guys did smacks of being so smart that it overrides common sense. I expected better from RIPR, but I've been proved wrong.

 

[aaronread]

What you guys did smacks of being so smart that it overrides common sense. I expected better from RIPR, but I've been proved wrong.

Yes, the numbers prove you wrong. : Our cume is up 90% and our AQH is up 30% since the move to 88.1 in late 2011.

And you completely mis-read me. I didn't shrug off 1290 at all. Why would I? It's a pretty decent Class B AM station. It's not so great in a lot of areas, but in many areas it's pretty strong. Unfortunately it's NOT so great at night, especially in certain neighborhoods/demos that matter a lot to public radio...hence why our numbers are way up since we moved to FM.

I did, however, shrug off 1220 because it's not all that great a signal during the day and it has no real night signal. It's got an FM translator, true, but that thing's gotta be a real limited use given how low it is (the road behind it is literally higher than the antenna is) and how low the ERP is (30 watts). Modern 24/7 media expectations do not tolerate daytime-only AM's very well these days, nor do they tolerate AM in general nearly as much thanks to a much higher noise floor than just 10 years ago. It's a very different landscape.

 

[reelyreal]

Uh huh, and how do you get the under-40 listener to find a station on the AM band?

You don't.

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

you cannot do a soft shoe around the fact that in the heart of the state, in the meat of the day 1290 is heard better for longer as the person drives than 88.1, 91.5 or 102.7. That is unless you count switching from channel to channel as you leave and then enter different parts of the state. Then even at that, 88.1 and 91.5 are still extremely localized signals.

I agree completely. Speaking for just my little-ole-self, I just find it inconvenient to keep switching frequencies as I drive into and out of different areas.

If RIPR were looking ahead, they would start saving thier pennies and perhaps try to pry away one of the Cumulus AM's....just to provide an additional place where folks could find RIPR.

 

[N1WVQ]

I'm 33 & listen to nearly nothing BUT A.M. radio as what's on F.M. these days is so BAD (conversely, my 37-year-old wife will NOT listen to radio AT ALL). The exceptions are mainly between 88-92 with college/community radio (just discovered yesterday my borrowed car can hear WICN/90.5!) and WATD-FM/95.9. At least on A.M. I can hear a ballgame now or music (WOON, WINY, WMRC) or eavesdrop on a community (again, WOON, WINY, WMRC but also WVBF, WPRO, et al.).

As for 1220's signal, the derisive comments about the signal prove what I was saying: where the majority of Spanish-speaking Hispanics in R.I. live, it comes in well. That's why it would be the best use for the signal. You have a highly-centralized population and the signal isn't as horrible as it's made out to be: it transmits from the water so THAT adds an extra bit of oomph to it! I can hear it in Fall River at 4A.M. driving into work.

I like the idea of bringing back Red Sox games in Spanish to Providence. I know 990 had it in 2005 but also remember what DG02816 was saying about them being on WRIB in years past.

 

[haverhill01835]

I know I'm writing out of market (being closer to NH than RI), but I would lean towards a foreign language station proving very successful on the AM band, even with the "flaws" AM has. Because there are very few "commercial" (read: FM) stations for bi-lingual speakers, AM is probably the new home for foreign language radio for the distant future (brokererd or otherwise). Case in point: WHTB in Fall River. Was once a pretty popular local, English full service station. Once the Karams purchased WSAR, they made what I consider a smart business/radio decision and flipped it Portuguese. A bit closer to me, Costa Eagle has a fairly successful business model with brokered Spanish programming on 1490 (full time) and 1110 (weekends).

 

[N1WVQ]

Expanding on your idea, Haverhill 01835, I am surprised Providence has gone this long without another station flipping to Portuguese. I remember as a kid 1290 was Portuguese-language WRCP. It was weird seeing those calls on an earlier Philadelphia station that played Country music!

 

[haverhill01835]

I'm going to speculate that WJFD still has a hold on the market down there? They can do music well (and if I recall) they did some local news, etc.

 

[RI Radio Nut]

I remember that N1WVQ. That Philadelphia station was 1540 WRCP (Real Country Power) in Philadelphia. It used to come in pretty good at certain times here in Rhode Island back in the 70's.

 

[aaronread]

WJFD is all about the Portuguese population, which is large and historical population in Rhode Island and it's very separate from the "Latino" population (Mexico and Central America) here. The former is definitely shifting to the latter in terms of being a power base.

in the meat of the day 1290 is heard better for longer as the person drives than 88.1, 91.5 or 102.7.

No kidding. If we could've kept RIPR programming on 1290 we would have. There were a myriad array of reasons why we didn't, none of which I'm too comfortable talking about in a public forum.

 

[DG02816]

WRCP when on 1290 stood for Radio Clube Portugues. 1540 here in Philly was indeed Real Country Power as WRCP.