I remember the sign-on for "The Wolf" well. It was nothing big, because we had to move the transmitter from Elora, TN to Drake Mountain in Huntsville and that took MUCH longer than anyone had anticipated, thanks to some politicking by Clear Channel (WWFF rents tower space from WDRM -- yep, they're both on the same stick).
We ran the station in the studio without transmitting it for several days just to get the kinks worked out, so the logs were being produced about a week in advance of the launch.
So, after running a loop telling the WHRP listeners that their favorite station was now exclusively on 94.1, we shut off the transmitter in Elora and turned on the one in Huntsville. Once we turned it on, we ran a one-hour loop of movie scores for a day (calling it "Movie 93.3"), then went silent for a few hours. We had our staff meeting, and when it came time for Matt Michaels (original program director) to make his presentation, he said, "It's ready to go." Our GM said, "What's stopping us?" Matt said, "Nothing. It's ready to go." The GM said, "Why aren't we on the air yet?" Matt: "I'm waiting on you to give us the signal." GM: "Okay, let's go." So, we all marched down to the studio and basically just pressed the PGM button on the board. The first song on the station was "Our Song" by Taylor Swift, only because that was the song that was on the log for that time of day (around 10:15am on a Monday). There was no big produced launch or anything. We just started playing country music as if we always had. It was quite underwhelming. But the circumstances were presented that way because of the transmitter move.
We ran the station in the studio without transmitting it for several days just to get the kinks worked out, so the logs were being produced about a week in advance of the launch.
So, after running a loop telling the WHRP listeners that their favorite station was now exclusively on 94.1, we shut off the transmitter in Elora and turned on the one in Huntsville. Once we turned it on, we ran a one-hour loop of movie scores for a day (calling it "Movie 93.3"), then went silent for a few hours. We had our staff meeting, and when it came time for Matt Michaels (original program director) to make his presentation, he said, "It's ready to go." Our GM said, "What's stopping us?" Matt said, "Nothing. It's ready to go." The GM said, "Why aren't we on the air yet?" Matt: "I'm waiting on you to give us the signal." GM: "Okay, let's go." So, we all marched down to the studio and basically just pressed the PGM button on the board. The first song on the station was "Our Song" by Taylor Swift, only because that was the song that was on the log for that time of day (around 10:15am on a Monday). There was no big produced launch or anything. We just started playing country music as if we always had. It was quite underwhelming. But the circumstances were presented that way because of the transmitter move.
. The sad thing it could probably get pretty good ratings if Cumulus would invest in it. LIVE jocks, freshen the music by moving titles in and out, BIG promotions, community involvement. Have special features, theme weekends and just be a FUN radio station. This won't happen of course. Maybe one local person and the rest syndicated or virtual DJ's. 350 hits that will never change. They should've called it "Boogie 93".
