WTUV - Eminence - Dead air for a week

[The King Bee]

Excellent point, Radio Rob, about WLOU possibly being to Louisville what WDIA is to Memphis...the heritage R&B station in the market. I believe a true Urban Oldies station, as opposed to WMJM's tepid version of UAC, would go over very well here.

Also, I hear you, Bengalsfan, with your thoughts about regaining good news and information on the air with the use of AURN. I didn't say that I would leave both WLOU and WLLV as Gospel stations...I'd certainly entertan the idea of changing one to Urban Oldies, and consolidating the Gospel format onto tbe other.

As far as correcting WLOU's signal problems day and/or night, I'd be looking into moving the WLOU tower array to the WTUV-AM site off of Allison Lane in Jeffersonville. You could perhaps fire WLOU SE to SSE from there right to the city at night in a solid lobe without shooting anything towards Bardstown, Cincinnati (adjacent channels) or Kokomo (co-channel). But that engineering study and any resulting tower move will take bucks Golden Door is NOT willing to spend.

I can recall back in the mid '80s when Urban AC WDGS (1290 KHz) shot a solid lobe due south with 1kw through a brand-new Harris/CRL transmitter-processor combo from Potters Lane in Clarksville and embarrassed WLOU with a vastly superior signal, particularly at night. As far as WTUV goes, the Latino community here deserves a competently-run station as well and I wouldn't neglect its programming and operational needs.

 

[Bengalsfan]

Moving WLOU to 620's site would be too far east. You would be swapping nulls over Louisville. You still have a southwest null that would fall over Louisville. The ideal place to put WLOU would be at 1080's site. Putting it there would place the big southeast lobe of WLOU's signal right squarely over the city and you'd be able to loosen up that southwest null a little to still cover western Jefferson county. The null to the northeast would then be directed out over Also three of 1080's four towers are laid out similer to what WLOU's antenna is now so getting it to fit would be a bit easier than putting it at 620's site with it's in line tower layout.

 

[The King Bee]

Sorry, Bengalsfan...I meant SW/SSW from Allison. But you still think that's too far east, being about 5 miles NE of Downtown Louisville?

 

[Bengalsfan]

Sorry, Bengalsfan...I meant SW/SSW from Allison. But you still think that's too far east, being about 5 miles NE of Downtown Louisville?

Yea, you'd just be swapping nulls. Right now the deep null is to the E/NE over Spaghetti Jctn. Move it to 620's site and you'll have that southwest null right over Louisville. If they cut a deal with CC and put it at 1080, you'd have the whole city in that lobe to the southeast. No nulls anywhere over Louisville. The southwest null would be over the river and the northeast null would go out toward Sellersburg. The only reason it's where it's at now is because the land was cheap, it's an old landfill.

 

[WildcatGuy]

Perhaps I'm a contrarian, but I honestly believe if an AM station doesn't already have a substantial audience in 2010, it's not going to build one in the future. It's like opening a store on a street where nobody drives anymore.

 

[Bengalsfan]

Perhaps I'm a contrarian, but I honestly believe if an AM station doesn't already have a substantial audience in 2010, it's not going to build one in the future. It's like opening a store on a street where nobody drives anymore.

If you sell in that store items people can readily get in a place like Walmart, then no it won't work. However, if you sell items in your store that people can get nowhere else, they will come.

In an era where people crave information, radio has really shot itself in the foot by taking news and information off the air. The only three stations I can think of that do news in Louisville is WHAS, WFPK, and WGTK. I think WLRS makes a stab at it, but it's half hearted at best. WHAS' is just half assed since they close their newsroom down after 8 and on weekends/holidays.

Complaints I hear about todays broadcasters is that it's boring and the playlists are stale. Give people something they can't get on their ipods, satellite and internet outlets, and they will come regardless of the delivery method.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Perhaps I'm a contrarian, but I honestly believe if an AM station doesn't already have a substantial audience in 2010, it's not going to build one in the future. It's like opening a store on a street where nobody drives anymore.

If you sell in that store items people can readily get in a place like Walmart, then no it won't work. However, if you sell items in your store that people can get nowhere else, they will come.

In an era where people crave information, radio has really shot itself in the foot by taking news and information off the air. The only three stations I can think of that do news in Louisville is WHAS, WFPK, and WGTK. I think WLRS makes a stab at it, but it's half hearted at best. WHAS' is just half assed since they close their newsroom down after 8 and on weekends/holidays.

Complaints I hear about todays broadcasters is that it's boring and the playlists are stale. Give people something they can't get on their ipods, satellite and internet outlets, and they will come regardless of the delivery method.

Well said! WTRE AM in Greensburg,IN pours on the local news, school lunch menus, swap shop, multi-hour live broadcasts from the county fair...and the listeners are there, even though the delivery method is a 500 watt day/36 watt night AM station.

 

[WildcatGuy]

Well said! WTRE AM in Greensburg,IN pours on the local news, school lunch menus, swap shop, multi-hour live broadcasts from the county fair...and the listeners are there, even though the delivery method is a 500 watt day/36 watt night AM station.

There's a difference between an AM station that's been providing a lot of service for a long time and already has an audience, versus one that's essentially starting from scratch. That gets back to my original point that, if an AM station doesn't already have a decent-sized audience in 2010, it's not going to build one. I have looked for examples of recent AM "resurrections," and have not found any.

 

[Bengalsfan]

Well said! WTRE AM in Greensburg,IN pours on the local news, school lunch menus, swap shop, multi-hour live broadcasts from the county fair...and the listeners are there, even though the delivery method is a 500 watt day/36 watt night AM station.

There's a difference between an AM station that's been providing a lot of service for a long time and already has an audience, versus one that's essentially starting from scratch. That gets back to my original point that, if an AM station doesn't already have a decent-sized audience in 2010, it's not going to build one. I have looked for examples of recent AM "resurrections," and have not found any.

That's because everyone else pretty much has the same attitude that you have, "why bother". It's expensive to do radio right, and most folks who have radio stations are leveraged up to their eyeballs in debt. They don't have any extra money to serve the listeners. Which is why the listeners are leaving in droves.

 

[WildcatGuy]

That's because everyone else pretty much has the same attitude that you have, "why bother". It's expensive to do radio right, and most folks who have radio stations are leveraged up to their eyeballs in debt. They don't have any extra money to serve the listeners. Which is why the listeners are leaving in droves.

Is it the short-sightedness of station operators now, or was it the short-sightedness of the operators over the last 20+ years who let so many of these AM's deteriorate past the point of no return?

It's always easier to stay in good physical shape than to try and get back into shape after you've let yourself go. The same is true for radio stations. The AM's that are successful today are the ones that never let themselves go. The ones that did let themselves go are not coming back. It's too late.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Well said! WTRE AM in Greensburg,IN pours on the local news, school lunch menus, swap shop, multi-hour live broadcasts from the county fair...and the listeners are there, even though the delivery method is a 500 watt day/36 watt night AM station.

There's a difference between an AM station that's been providing a lot of service for a long time and already has an audience, versus one that's essentially starting from scratch. That gets back to my original point that, if an AM station doesn't already have a decent-sized audience in 2010, it's not going to build one. I have looked for examples of recent AM "resurrections," and have not found any.

Look into WSVX 1520 Shelbyville,IN. After being allowed to almost fall off the face of the earth, some local boys bought it a few years ago & it's back. Not sure how profitable it is, but I've heard nothing but good stories about what a "success" it's been. Hopefully someone more familiar with WSVX will chime in.

 

[radiorob2.0]

There are so many of these signals that are rotting because the owner "thinks" it's worth more than it really is. Here in my neck of the woods we have a Class C1 FM operating at reduced power; my estimate is 5kw at times. The owner wants too much money for a private entity and won't sell it to anything resembling corporate. So until the perfect prospect appears, the station just sits there running generic voice tracks and earning a fraction of the potential revenue. Then there is a regional class AM that in its day equaled a WHAS, WVLK, WIBC and so many other full service stations. The format ended years ago. The current owner treats the call letters as a trophy bragging about their "heritage" when his version just sits there.

Radio's last gasp will happen when the "real" value of a license is realized. The fire sale will bring back an independent mindset and radio will be noticed again.

Forgive the rant, I've had a long day.

 

[skippertthomas]

Re: WTUV - Emeinence - Dead air for a week

Here, Here.. Rob has nailed it, : perfectly.

 

[WildcatGuy]

Radio's last gasp will happen when the "real" value of a license is realized. The fire sale will bring back an independent mindset and radio will be noticed again.

Ninety years is a great run for any consumer product / technology. That's way more than most products get. (Look at music CD's. They're fizzling out after only 25 - 30 years.)

AM radio had a wonderful success story for a very long time. However, that time is over in most places, and is rapidly approaching in the rest.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

There are so many of these signals that are rotting because the owner "thinks" it's worth more than it really is. Here in my neck of the woods we have a Class C1 FM operating at reduced power; my estimate is 5kw at times. The owner wants too much money for a private entity and won't sell it to anything resembling corporate. So until the perfect prospect appears, the station just sits there running generic voice tracks and earning a fraction of the potential revenue. Then there is a regional class AM that in its day equaled a WHAS, WVLK, WIBC and so many other full service stations. The format ended years ago. The current owner treats the call letters as a trophy bragging about their "heritage" when his version just sits there.

Radio's last gasp will happen when the "real" value of a license is realized. The fire sale will bring back an independent mindset and radio will be noticed again.

Forgive the rant, I've had a long day.

Can't add or subtract anything from this post. Perfecto!

Does remind me that there's an AM/FM in Illinois that carries the rotting to an absurd extreme. The 5KW AM has at least 1 paid religious program. You can count on the AM being on starting at 9:28AM local time on Saturday morning. Beyond that, it may be on for a day, it may be on all week. But if it kicks off sometime during the week, no one turns it back on until 9:28AM on Saturday! The FM has been running at flea power for countless years. Inside the smallest circle of Radio-Locator's coverage map (where the signal should come in on the poorest of radios), you're more likely to hear Paris or Paducah,KY in the 200 mile zone. Odds are they have put the exciter on the air to save electricity costs. This is licensed as a 50KW/full height class B! There's a class A on their tower that carries roughly twice as far as the Class B...how can something so obvious go on for so long? The owner of this station had another station which he sold. It too had a non-existent FM signal at any distance. A DXer had been trying to hear it for years with no success...that is until it was sold. Suddenly the signal is there every day at 60 miles. I know of a station that purchased a used transmitter from these people....the meters in the transmitter had been tampered with to make it appear that it was operating at full power when it wasn't. Now I've heard of people tampering with metering to operate at more power than authorized, but less? These folks take the term "tightwad" to a new low.

 

[Bengalsfan]

Radio's last gasp will happen when the "real" value of a license is realized. The fire sale will bring back an independent mindset and radio will be noticed again.

WKLB in Manchester is one of those. Asked the owner how much he'd sell for. He said not less than $500k. The station is 5kW day 30w night. Does not reach into any of the major cities down there like Corbin, London or Hazard. Clay county has a population of 24k and Manchester has just over 1500 and he thinks he's getting half a mil for it? Hardly. The boom is long gone, the deep pockets have dried up but it seems some of the smaller operators have not gotten the word yet.

 

[BIGradio]

I have enjoyed reading these post - great info. Nice to see this board being used.......

 

[greg.hahn]

I've caught WTUV off the air five or six times again today. their audio just seems to come and go as it pleases.

 

[KyDXIn]

It would cover Louisville about as well as WAKY does were it not for WLRS on 105.9.

Isn't 105.9 WAYI? WLRS is 105.1.

I'm not an engineer, but IMHO something on the dial needs to go dark or get moved between 105.1 and 105.9. Wasn't WMPI 105.3 one of the first stations licensed and operating in that 105 area? I remember listening to them in the 80s in Corydon. It seemed to be a great music and information station for Scottsburg and vicinity, and from what I understand, is still serving the public as a radio station should. What was the FCC thinking when allocating these frequencies? They didn't do the same for the 103 band, or did they?

103.1 WQNU Lyndon, KY
103.3 WXZZ Georgetown, KY
103.5 WAKY RAdcliff, KY
103.7 WKED Frankfort, KY
103.9 WRKA Louisville, KY

105.1 WLRS Shepherdsville, KY
105.3 WMPI Scottbburg, IN
105.5 WLVK Fort Knox, KY
105.7 WTUV Eminence, KY
105.9 WAYI Valley Station, KY

 

[KyDXIn]

There are so many of these signals that are rotting because the owner "thinks" it's worth more than it really is. Here in my neck of the woods we have a Class C1 FM operating at reduced power; my estimate is 5kw at times. The owner wants too much money for a private entity and won't sell it to anything resembling corporate. So until the perfect prospect appears, the station just sits there running generic voice tracks and earning a fraction of the potential revenue. Then there is a regional class AM that in its day equaled a WHAS, WVLK, WIBC and so many other full service stations. The format ended years ago. The current owner treats the call letters as a trophy bragging about their "heritage" when his version just sits there.

Radio's last gasp will happen when the "real" value of a license is realized. The fire sale will bring back an independent mindset and radio will be noticed again.

Forgive the rant, I've had a long day.

Can't add or subtract anything from this post. Perfecto!

Does remind me that there's an AM/FM in Illinois that carries the rotting to an absurd extreme. The 5KW AM has at least 1 paid religious program. You can count on the AM being on starting at 9:28AM local time on Saturday morning. Beyond that, it may be on for a day, it may be on all week. But if it kicks off sometime during the week, no one turns it back on until 9:28AM on Saturday! I know of a station that purchased a used transmitter from these people....the meters in the transmitter had been tampered with to make it appear that it was operating at full power when it wasn't. Now I've heard of people tampering with metering to operate at more power than authorized, but less? These folks take the term "tightwad" to a new low.

Come on Bob, don't be shy-- NAME NAMES