Stations run no more commercials than they did in the 50's and 60's. Why is it, of a sudden, your subject of criticism?
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WTAM
- Thread starter skiwest
- Start date
It was Sunday overnight. Back in the old days, radio stations either signed off or did transmitter maintenance at this time.
I wonder if you were listening to their old Seven Hills transmitter. If I remember from what I read correctly, the Seven Hills site was slightly directional to minimize signal over Lake Erie.
I think in the 1970s, 1100 went back to their original site on Snowvile Road in Brecksville, where they are now with the omnidirectional big stick. When I've visited friends in Michigan I've had WTAM on for the entire drive back home at night with a solid signal (at least within my threshold of "solid signal"), until you get to that skywave/groundwave cancellation zone....
But WTAM does have a HUGE signal from Brecksville.
The latest report I found states WTAM had $11.1 million in annual revenue. Most goes back to corporate to pay off debt and investors, not a whole lot is spent on personnel for sure. I wonder how different it would be had the industry, not gone into massive debt overpaying for stations years ago? Would they have embraced their low-cost operational model as much?
And yes, it just seems like IHeart owns half the radio stations in the US! The other half is owned by Audacy!
And yes, it just seems like IHeart owns half the radio stations in the US! The other half is owned by Audacy!
There is also good portions of stations owned by Salem and Radio One/Urban One.
Cleveland radio clusters:
iHeart - 7 (WTAM, WARF, WAKS, WGAR, WMMS, WMJI, WMVX)
Audacy - 4 (WKRK, WNCX, WDOK, WQAL)
Urban One - 4 (WJMO, WERE, WZAK, WENZ)
Salem - 3 (WHKW, WHK, WFHM)
Ideastream 2 - (WKSU, WCLV)
So that makes 20 stations owned by 5 companies
One hit wonders include Good Karma (WKNR), Cleveland Catholic Radio (WCCR), Moody (WCRF), Rubber City Radio (WNWV)
Cumulus, TownSquare, all manner of small regional chains and independent stations, too.
But none in Cleveland.
Now you go down the road a bit to the west to Toledo, then it really is (except for a straggler here and there) a 2 horse town between iHeart and Cumulus owning just about everything.
In between CLE and TOL in the Sandusky/Vacationland area, BAS Broadcasting has a near monopoly, with only Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting having any other real presence.
The point is that most stations did, and if they did, most listeners didn't know because it's Sunday night. That's why they did it.
My bet is the total audience for WTAM at that time is the number of people posting in this thread.
And yes, it just seems like IHeart owns half the radio stations in the US! The other half is owned by Audacy!
There are 16,000 radio stations in the US. 850 are owned by iHeart. Audacy owns 235. That leaves another 15, 000.
When I was a teen in the early 70s, I stayed up all night on Sunday to find out which stations signed off, what time they did it and what time they came back on. I guess I didn't have much of a life back then.
And hasn’t iHeart offered up their smallest stations to anyone who wants them since 2006? They nearly sold them to Dean Goodman back then but he backed out; in hindsight, he dodged a bullet.
Because it seems like every time I stop by their frequency a commercial is on. It probably seems like that many since they're [meaning almost all stations] are running 8 or more minutes of commercials in a row.
They closed out their Aloha Trust of stations that were left over from the original Clear Channel purchases. They donated some AMs to a minority group. Last I checked, quite a few small markets are still on the block, but with no takers. But since the bankruptcy, they're trying to shrink their footprint.
You're not the only one Back in the early/mid 70s I remember waiting for WDBN to sign off at midnight for transmitter maintenance so I could pick up an oldies station out of Michigan. It's now WCSX out of Birmingham.
Through the 60's and into the earlier 70's 1100 signed off at midnight on Sunday through 5 AM Monday for maintenance, as did nearly every station in the country.
In the early 60's from Cleveland, I'd be able to hear a variety of stations on 1100 on Monday mornings after my local went off... the most common were Radio Reloj from Bogotá, Colombia and, occasionally, tests from San Francisco and the early sign.-on of the station from Carrolton, GA.
As equipment got more reliable in the later 60's, more stations stayed on 24/7, but it was not until somewhere in the earlier 70's that nearly all stations went "round the clock" all 7 days of the week.
In the later 60's, I'd sign one of my stations off every Sunday morning at 1 AM to do routine maintenance, so with 3 AM/FM simulcasts, two indie FMs and one indie AM, they would run 24/7 for five or 6 weeks between maintenance. But nearly all of the other 30 station in the market signed off at midnight every night, so I could afford a little down time.
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Willie wasn't off. We ran him.
WTAM is not one of iHeart's big performing 50Ks. They have a cume of only 180,000 (WMJI is over 500,000) and are usually at the bottom of the top 10 AQH.
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