WWBA AM 820

[Louis_009]

What a waste of nothing for a 50,000 watts daytime WWBA-AM 820 lately alot of paid promg and not much real talk shows. Is there any other good stuff to replace this? I know they add the NY Yankees baseball not long ago.

 

[SarasotaJim]

Unless you're the top-gun talker in town it's all but impossible to keep afloat financially without being niche programmed or brokered out.

Please don't forget that time brokering provides a very real public service in its own way. Even though it may not be your particular cup of tea, it provides a voice for a lot of people who would otherwise have none.

 

[Frank Ferreri]

For me, it always hurts to see a good signal not maximized. Like having a great car that stays in the garage, however, having said that, time brokering gets bad bad press. It is easy to throw jabs at an owner who vends air time. It is easy to be a purest. It all comes down to paying the bills. When we had 1470 as our AM counterpart to WLVU we were faced with severe signal limitations. We did time brokering as the only option to avoid red ink. Was it pretty? No. However, income every week and one employee to pay. With our attention on the FM time brokering it made sense at the time. You've all read Jeff Laurence's posts here and if there is one person who can be creative with a facility under used, it is Jeff. Otherwise my game plan would be Adult Standards or Country Gold. Yes, either would skew older and be a small niche, however, the listenship would be loyal. You would have to "make love" to your listeners and, of course, selling it would be a challenge. You could start with something crazy...The all Sinatra station...or, if country..the all Hank Sr. station....

 

[dwtpa97]

Very thoughtful reply by Frank Ferrari. The bills have to be paid.

And regarding his second point, I, for one, would be thrilled with either adult standards or country gold.

Even though I've always understood the argument about demographics, I find it hard to understand why owners keep slicing off pieces of the same demographic pie until each only has just a thin little piece.

 

[Mike_Hennessy]

Country music programmers are especially guilty of cannibalizing their audience. There are an awful lot of good country artists getting shuffled to the bottom of Selector's deck. I would start building my play list with a simple but crude method: I'd chart what 99 and 103.5 are playing around the clock over the course of a week or so and figure out what they're NOT playing. I guarantee you'll find enough great artists who aren't getting played to build a kick-a** rotation. That would be a start, then start going with as many trade outs and "small time" radio gimmicks as possible. Nobody would get rich, but I bet the bills would get paid and everyone would have a boat load of fun!

 

[radioboy]

A LONG time ago, this station was WRFA and played a Southern Gospel format along with some paid Christian programs..actually sounded good back then. This station's troubles started when the
then-elderly owner was talked into running a "local" talk format.

It probably hasn't been out of "debt" since.

 

[benale]

Unless the format has changed in the last couple of days. WWBA runs America's Radio News during the week augmented with local news and they sound pretty good. Unfortunately. on the weekend WWBA like so many other news or news talk stations are a wasteland running brokered programs and specialty programs.

Talk radio,especially in small to medium markets, is a vast wasteland on Saturday and Sunday with a few exceptions. I do realize those brokered shows and infomercials pay the bills.but the listening audience must be quite small or non existent.

 

[dwtpa97]

I have a long-ago WRFA aircheck of Roy Boddin playing oldtime country music. I value it highly!

 

[Frank Ferreri]

Very thoughtful reply by Frank Ferrari. The bills have to be paid.

And regarding his second point, I, for one, would be thrilled with either adult standards or country gold.

Even though I've always understood the argument about demographics, I find it hard to understand why owners keep slicing off pieces of the same demographic pie until each only has just a thin little piece.

Great point. If everyone is after basically the same demo...why not OWN a demo that no one is going after...ears are ears whether they be on a 65 year old or 25 year old....heck, ever see a retailer turn away a customer with money in hand because they aren't in the store's target?

 

[IckPodcastGuy]

Very thoughtful reply by Frank Ferrari. The bills have to be paid.

And regarding his second point, I, for one, would be thrilled with either adult standards or country gold.

Even though I've always understood the argument about demographics, I find it hard to understand why owners keep slicing off pieces of the same demographic pie until each only has just a thin little piece.

Great point. If everyone is after basically the same demo...why not OWN a demo that no one is going after...ears are ears whether they be on a 65 year old or 25 year old....heck, ever see a retailer turn away a customer with money in hand because they aren't in the store's target?

Exactly

And this formula can work with other minor subgenres. Punk Rock. Folk. "Real" Country (not that pop country mess you hear 99% of the time). All of these, sure, may not have huge numbers, but they are LOYAL numbers who support the businesses who support them. At least in theory lol

 

[smedge2006]

If you make more money on Saturday and Sunday by driving away your audience than you do Monday through Friday drawing in an audience, something's wrong with your business model.

 

[dwtpa97]

WGUL, when it was an adult standards music format, used to run brokered programming on Sunday mornings. That seemed like a compromise that everyone could live with, and regular music listeners knew ahead of time that there wouldn't be any music on Sunday mornings. But I think if WGUL had run the brokered programming into Sunday afternoons, it probably would have conflicted with the overall success of their music format. Like so many aspects of their programming, WGUL did it just right!

 

[coolaid213]

I generally enjoy brokered programming more than the regular weekday fare on 970, 860, or 820. The art of talk radio is dead on weekdays. Political propaganda sucks. I could care less man. What ever happened to a show host just trying to entertain the listeners without dividing them? The only creativity and passion that I hear anymore IS on the brokered shows... and I'm not talking about prerecorded nutritional supplement infomercials, or shows hawking super colon blow. I'm talking about the aspiring host, trying his or her heart out and bleeding his or her bank account trying to be the next Rush Limbaugh. OK, those shows suck too... but at least they're trying! I produce brokered radio all day long, and I enjoy most of the shows for the novelty factor alone. It beats the hell out of listening to 8 hours of left/right political nonsense.

 

[JerkyBoy33707]

I remember the one dude who works on a brokered show said he has no sympathy AT ALL for the families of the St Pete policemen that were killed - because those men took the job knowing it was dangerous. Now who WAS that ?

 

[coolaid213]

Sounds like something I would say. What's your point?

 

[JerkyBoy33707]

doh!!!!

 

[coolaid213]

...and I don't work on "a brokered show", I work on many shows, brokered and otherwise. Get it right.

 

[missammusic]

What a great signal for the aforementioned formats, either Country or Adult Standards. No one is touching the stuff and btw, format is right next to me on my external hard drive. I am raring to go, but it takes $$$.

 

[JerkyBoy33707]

ok cedric you make 8 bucks an hour on MANY brokered shows. I'm sure the families of the murdered St Pete police officers have no sympathy for you, because you knew it was a low paying job going in !! DOH !!!!!!!

 

[flwfg]

How about an ALL BEATLES aka= Beatles a rama format.... ??

I would like to hear either County Gold / Classic Country format or a MOL format... and if it was at least partial local and live like WGUL USED to be would be even better...

But.... the odds for THAT happening are slim, I'm sure...