WVLG successful with 55-plus in Villages

[davideduardo]

So, they must already be in The Villages but they have to decide whether they want to move from where they are.

Again, how many visitors to the model homes will spend time listening to a local radio station?

That may be what they are referring to. It doesn't seem to be on this site based on what I've looked at so far, but I think it was a Facebook post.

The station is essentially "home town radio" for actual residents, and it is filled with notices about events, activities and the like along with ads for local merchants and service providers.

 

[K.M. Richards]

@vchimpanzee: In light of the rebuttals, I suggest that anything you hear from someone "here on this site" or "somewhere else" should not be treated as fact unless proven.

David said everything I would have. What you "heard" makes no logical sense.

 

[amos1001]

This station is just a long ad for The Villages. I stream it sometimes, and the music is constantly interspersed with promotions for whichever open house is happening that day - it's not a station standing on its own two feet, it's an audio billboard for The Villages real estate.

I heard either here on this site or somewhere else that the target audience is not the people who live there but the people young enough to be considering moving there, and so advertising is in fact for those trying to get people to move to The Villages.

Sure, David is right in that it's programmed to the residents with information and ads catered to them, but the fact that it's interspersed with promotions for open houses speaks to the fact that they are using the station as promotion for the Villages.
I would think that "people young enough to be considering moving there" wouldn't be their target audience. That would be a waste of a signal. But if they didn't at least think they would attract some potential new residents on the station, why the open house promotions?

 

[davideduardo]

Sure, David is right in that it's programmed to the residents with information and ads catered to them, but the fact that it's interspersed with promotions for open houses speaks to the fact that they are using the station as promotion for the Villages.
I would think that "people young enough to be considering moving there" wouldn't be their target audience. That would be a waste of a signal. But if they didn't at least think they would attract some potential new residents on the station, why the open house promotions?

Open houses offer a property for sale... and advertising them can also be directed at renters or those wanting to upgrade to a better model or area in the community.

 

[KilowattKat]

Sure, David is right in that it's programmed to the residents with information and ads catered to them, but the fact that it's interspersed with promotions for open houses speaks to the fact that they are using the station as promotion for the Villages.
I would think that "people young enough to be considering moving there" wouldn't be their target audience. That would be a waste of a signal. But if they didn't at least think they would attract some potential new residents on the station, why the open house promotions?

Possibly for current residents looking to move within the Villages. My grandmother when she reached her early 80's, moved from her large house to a much smaller condo in Sun City, AZ.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Open houses offer a property for sale... and advertising them can also be directed at renters or those wanting to upgrade to a better model or area in the community.

If it's okay to post it, in the process of finding the statement about advertisers, I found this on a web site for people living in The Villages:

WVLG is a marketing tool. It plays what those in charge believe will appeal to the demographic considering purchasing new homes in The Villages.

Now this wasn't from someone in authority, so it could be just opinion.

Here's another one. Not from someone who necessarily knows this is the truth.

The listening audience is any potential Villages home buyer, or any existing Villager who might be looking to sell their home and relocate within the Villages. The reason the station had to add another frequency is because the Villages became to geographically large to be covered by one signal.

 

[amos1001]

Open houses offer a property for sale... and advertising them can also be directed at renters or those wanting to upgrade to a better model or area in the community.

certainly. no argument there. but it could be also directed at friends of current owners who may be visiting, thinking about moving there. or possibly to owners who may share this information with friends.

 

[davideduardo]

certainly. no argument there. but it could be also directed at friends of current owners who may be visiting, thinking about moving there. or possibly to owners who may share this information with friends.

Again, I really don't think that visitors seek out local radio stations when "just visiting".

 

[amos1001]

Again, I really don't think that visitors seek out local radio stations when "just visiting".

i guess this isn't a fair question, because you're a radio guy. so am i, although not the the extent or experience you have.
but when you visit somewhere, don't you turn on your radio? i discovered john sebastian's wow factor totally by accident driving into phoenix from vegas.
i guess if i had needed a personal injury attorney i would call rafi rafi, call rafi rafi.

 

[davideduardo]

If it's okay to post it, in the process of finding the statement about advertisers, I found this on a web site for people living in The Villages:

WVLG is a marketing tool. It plays what those in charge believe will appeal to the demographic considering purchasing new homes in The Villages.

Now this wasn't from someone in authority, so it could be just opinion.

Keep in mind that The Villages management also owns the local newspaper, a magazine and a cable channel. The Daily Sun newspaper is among the United States' twenty five highest circulation print newspapers.

The Villages Daily Sun - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The family owned Villages corporation does everything it can to promote the area and that includes the media outlets that cover everything right down to the thousands of community groups. The radio station is there to both make money from ad revenue and to further promote the whole community.

The Villages, Florida - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[vchimpanzee]

Yes, this all makes sense.

 

[davideduardo]

Yes, this all makes sense.

And! Reluctantly, I used Wikipedia as a source. ( Deduct 10 points from my score )

 

[tvnut]

No points need be deducted. Once in a while I have business in Florida. The 640 outlet is unusual in that it plays music and is full of open house announcements voiced by the DJ. Call them Paul Harvey-style soft sell ads, though usually with the price. Never heard anything like it on any other station.

 

[Miss Tuned]

i guess this isn't a fair question, because you're a radio guy. so am i, although not the the extent or experience you have.
but when you visit somewhere, don't you turn on your radio? i discovered john sebastian's wow factor totally by accident driving into phoenix from vegas.
i guess if i had needed a personal injury attorney i would call rafi rafi, call rafi rafi.

Not really, although I don't drive much these days. On the train, I could listen to the radio but why bother with a portable radio and crackly signals as I pass through places when I can just stream whatever on the smartphone I've got with me anyway?

I used to do it all the time, and I still take a radio if I'm staying somewhere for more than a night, but streaming means I don't really want/need to "check out the local stations" when I visit a place, because I can already hear them all at home if I want to.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

My Folks (originally NYC) moved to the Villages in the mid 90's, shortly after a developer named Harold Schwartz (who had a smaller retirement community just across the main drag through there -- 441/27)-- bought some land and had homes built. Orange Blossom Hills was that first venture; the Villages on the other side now of 441 was like his phoenix of a mid 90's gated Levittown that came to dwarf OBHills very quickly. The developers built a tropical, residential Long Island out from around a large strip mall on 441 and THEN decided to design, craft and present a 'downtown' for it. Backwards in execution it was, but that new business section -- lots of eateries -- was chic and was not only beautiful but it 'cut a rug' for the residents of the era.

First times I visited the Folks, 640 was WHOF, a loud local licensed to Wildwood. Would you believe the format was ****kicking bluegrass C&W during the day and Black Southern Gospel at night??
The rapidly growing Villages established their own small newspaper and its own local channel 2 on the area's cable system for events. Me being a radio nut KNEW that they were going to try for an LPFM when that very first FCC window opened. But the FCC said 'No', that they already ran a TV station and a newspaper already. Can't have a radio station. We had a group ready in the spring of 2000 to pitch them with a non-profit LPFM and play the Standards. But we were too late. Long story (but I did nail one of the frequencies (102.7) they now use, lol). On this 'vacation' I learned that they had bought a station. And I instantly knew which one. It had to be WHOF, Wildwood. And it was.
As 'WVLG' it started out nicely enough, playing the Standards. Acclaim for it was a natural segue. 'Over 55' was the general resident ordinance. I don't recall any promotions -- billboards, remote vans, bumper stickers -- but do know from being a DXer that they were the only game in town no matter what they played. With a good radio only WRZN 720 to the north and WQBQ Leesburg played the American Songbook. WRZN was too far and sounded like it was on life support, and WQBQ talked and swap-shopped and lost petted a lot of the time. And the entire FM dial was the Hall & Oates of Your Life format.
FF to some 12-14 years ago on another visit, and WVLG was Oldies..... Beach Boys, Chiffons, Beatles, Smokey .... and they put up a second studio on a pier, while keeping the original fishbowl studio in the 'historic' downtown. Long Island's own Ed Newlands had an air shift! He had to tone down his rah-rah WLNG chime-time approach and the reverb he was naturally born with, but he aced it.
So now they're Classic Yacht Rock Album Oldies, huh?

 

[Gregg.]

Interesting to note that 640 WVLG Wildwood co-exists with 640 WMEN Royal Palm Beach, both in Southern Florida. WVLG is 930 watts days and 860 watts nights using a non-directional antenna, mostly around the Orlando area. WMEN is 7,500 watts days and 460 watts nights using a two-tower directional antenna, mostly around the West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale area.

640 is a clear channel frequency for KFI, so both stations have to protect Los Angeles. That's 2,200 miles away. But if you go back a few decades when clear channel rules were more strict, only KFI and WHLO Akron were on the air at night on 640 kHz in the entire U.S. There is also 640 CBN in Newfoundland. There were a few daytimers in the U.S. and one in Mexico. That was it. KFI had all that protection.

 

[davideduardo]

Interesting to note that 640 WVLG Wildwood co-exists with 640 WMEN Royal Palm Beach, both in Southern Florida. WVLG is 930 watts days and 860 watts nights using a non-directional antenna, mostly around the Orlando area. WMEN is 7,500 watts days and 460 watts nights using a two-tower directional antenna, mostly around the West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale area.

The two cities of license are about 190 miles apart. With the mediocre conductivity in Florida, that is enough. And WMEN is quite directional, protecting anything to the north even in the daytime.

640 is a clear channel frequency for KFI, so both stations have to protect Los Angeles. That's 2,200 miles away. But if you go back a few decades when clear channel rules were more strict, only KFI and WHLO Akron were on the air at night on 640 kHz in the entire U.S. There is also 640 CBN in Newfoundland. There were a few daytimers in the U.S. and one in Mexico. That was it. KFI had all that protection.

WHLO was only on the air "at night" until local sunset time in Los Angeles. That meant that in the summer it might sign off as late as in the 11 PM hour!

Pre-Castro, there was a CMQ "repeater" in Santa Clara on 640 with 15 kw; today there are stations in Cuba at Guanabaca and Las Tunas. They are reported at 50 kw and 10 kw respectively and part of the Radio Progreso network.

 

[Gregg.]

Interesting to note that 640 WVLG Wildwood co-exists with 640 WMEN Royal Palm Beach, both in Southern Florida. WVLG is 930 watts days and 860 watts nights using a non-directional antenna, mostly around the Orlando area. WMEN is 7,500 watts days and 460 watts nights using a two-tower directional antenna, mostly around the West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale area.

640 is a clear channel frequency for KFI, so both stations have to protect Los Angeles. That's 2,200 miles away. But if you go back a few decades when clear channel rules were more strict, only KFI and WHLO Akron were on the air at night on 640 kHz in the entire U.S. There is also 640 CBN in Newfoundland. There were a few daytimers in the U.S. and one in Mexico. That was it. KFI had all that protection.

I just happened to look at the WMEN Wikipedia site. Apparently to overcome Cuban interference, WMEN has special authorization to run 25,000 watts days, 4,500 watts nights, I guess due to that Cuban station David mentions. Amazing that doesn't wreck the signal of WVLG only 200 miles away. Imagine having a 25,000 watt station on your frequency that close by.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Q Gregg.

I'm s'sposing that WVLG supe Steve Rosen is very much live to that available 'window' of listeners that moves through the demos as the world ages. In many ways they're the same factors that now find Classic Rock WAXQ in NYC doing things like de-emphasizing their decades old 'classic rock' identity and their traditional Beatles music block midday; Q-104 is 'New York's Rock Station' nowadays And it seems like everyone in the Villages is from the North .... Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York. (I found my thirsty self once in some 55+ Villages alumnus bar with Ohio State regalia all over the place, and there are other 19th holes dedicated to similar Northern societies.)
But 55+ means you could've been born in Rangoon or Greenland, though. You are still in a demo that was born in 1970 at the youngest. General radio credence (pun intended) mandates you forever form your lifelong musical preference at age 12. That puts the youngest 55+ AARPer being swept off their pubes in 1982. Long ago, in the mid 90's, I'd read in Radio & Records the complaint that the new Classic Rockers were 'playing nothing but 20 year old Jethro Tull and Santana records'.
But WVLG has few worries. They're 'it' for their community. I've only sen them make one book, but it wasn't Orlando. WHen they were Standards they popped into the Gainesville-Ocala book to the north with something like a 0.4. Loud super-directional Standards WRZN 720 in that market didn't do all that much better -- they got like a 1.1.
But WVLG has no worries. They may be the only music station in Florida -- in the country -- bouncing along quite in stride, serving a clubhouse demo of some 100,000 people no other music station wants.

 

[vchimpanzee]

640 is a clear channel frequency for KFI, so both stations have to protect Los Angeles. That's 2,200 miles away. But if you go back a few decades when clear channel rules were more strict, only KFI and WHLO Akron were on the air at night on 640 kHz in the entire U.S. There is also 640 CBN in Newfoundland. There were a few daytimers in the U.S. and one in Mexico. That was it. KFI had all that protection.

I don't know how to prove this but I think WGOC Kingsport TN had a nighttime signal, which if that is true is surprising considering WSM at 650 was so close.