WWFF 93.3 Huntsville - Stunting

[RollTide]

Nate, I guess I'm just as mature as you because I laughed too LOL!

100.3 could see some audience erosion. That's on top of the down books they've had lately. Wouldn't it be nice if Clear Channel fired a shot back at Cumulus and launched "100.3 Hit Music Now"?
But there's the Rick & Bubba problem...

I actually mentioned the possibility of CC flipping 100.3 The River to a real CHR/Top 40, and I still think that's a great idea. I think it would be smarter for Black Crow to flip Star 99.1 to CHR/Top 40 first, but I'll take it wherever I can get it. Both of those stations are certain to take a hit of some kind and both of them really can't afford that with the struggling numbers they have now so I'd look to one of them to flip, hopefully to a format screaming all of us in the face as a no brainer choice, CHR/Top 40!

 

[tomservo]

The question here then, is… who'd do better with CHR — CC or Black Crow?

I'm sure rubberchicken's been reading the Pensacola threads about Cumulus flipping a station down there to Journey, and CC changed the branding of their 107.3 signal to "Hit Music Now" to better reflect it's format.

 

[RollTide]

Yeah that's a good question. I know what to expect from a CC CHR station, I've heard lots of them. It would be a HUGE improvement over WZYP but they would likely put Ryan Seacrest on, which I'm not totally opposed to, but not a big fan of either. I prefer local jocks. That would likely force 102.7 Kiss FM to drop Seacrest because of their overlap in coverage into the Huntsville market area. I've never heard a Black Crow CHR before. Do they even operate one anywhere? Maybe I could check out a live stream?

"Hit Music Now is mighty close to 102.7 Kiss FM's slogan "Today's hits now," so I'm not sure if they would use that. I'd like something a little more original. What about something like "The Hits Channel"? If it were up to me, I'd launch with HEAVY current Top 40 hits with very little recurrent to differentiate myself and blast WZYP & other stations in town for playing too much old stuff.

I've been listening to WZYP a little more since the "Journey" launch to see if the 90s music and the 80s lunch has been pulled off of it and to my unsurprisement (is that a word LOL) it has not. I'll bet money the "Friday morning free for all" all 80s morning show garbage will still air this Friday as well without a hitch. It boggles the mind why Cumulus would compete with themselves like that.

 

[jsu5381m]

Yeah that's a good question. I know what to expect from a CC CHR station, I've heard lots of them. It would be a HUGE improvement over WZYP but they would likely put Ryan Seacrest on, which I'm not totally opposed to, but not a big fan of either. I prefer local jocks. That would likely force 102.7 Kiss FM to drop Seacrest because of their overlap in coverage into the Huntsville market area.

Aren't there stations where Seacrest overlaps like ZBQ Tuscaloosa and 103.7 the Q Birmingham or Kiss FM Melbourne, FL and XL 106.7 Orlando? Does anyone think WZYP plays too many commercials comapred to Kiss FM 102.7?

 

[RollTide]

There are cities where there is overlap with Seacrest but usually those two stations keep to claiming their own market area. ZBQ doesn't claim any of Birmingham's market area and The Q doesn't claim any of Tuscaloosa's. The difference with Kiss FM in Florence is they mention Decatur in their legal ID sometimes which is part of the Huntsville market area so as long as they are claiming part of the Huntsville market as part of their territory there might be an issue with overlapping the two shows. If CC went CHR with one of their stations in Huntsville they may want Kiss to either drop mention of any part of the Huntsville market area or drop Seacrest.

It's not surprising that Kiss has less commercials that WZYP with them still being very new, plus Florence is much smaller and doesn't have nearly the amount of revenue potential as Huntsville does. I usually don't consider Kiss as being part of the Huntsville market, even though they do reach some of it. Maybe they'd consider getting a descent translator in Huntsville if none of the Huntsville stations are willing to make the change. They are pretty clear in Decatur and Athens already. If they added Huntsville coverage they'd have most of the market covered. It'd be better than nothing, but Huntsville still needs its own full power CHR.

 

[MikesDailyPodcast]

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.

Hey Zach,

Your recollection of that meeting only goes to show the fantastic communication skills Bill West had.

Mike

 

[jsu5381m]

So what will the transmitter in Elora become?

 

[jsu5381m]

Amazing. Coming back from Athens I could actually pick up Star 94.9 in parts of Madison ok. Did they increase their wattage?

 

[RadioZack]

So what will the transmitter in Elora become?

The transmitter in Elora has been gone for quite some time (since the dawn of "The Wolf" back in January 2008). Now it's just a tower with nothing on it. In fact, shortly after the transmitter was removed, some vandals (read: meth-heads) came and stole all the copper out of the transmission line from the building and as far as 20 feet up the tower.

 

[mrjay]

interested to see where this transmitter was. any chance you could post a link to it from google maps?

 

[JimmyJames]

It's going to become Alabama's first disco and dance station with gay lifestyle talk in between.

 

[RadioZack]

interested to see where this transmitter was. any chance you could post a link to it from google maps?

http://g.co/maps/dwf5m

The tower is located behind a lumberyard, and to get there, you have to drive the length of a creekbed, which is usually about 2 feet deep. It's virtually impossible to get to this site unless you're in a 4WD pickup truck. Fortunately, most of the time I was living in Alabama, we were experiencing drought conditions, so the creek was drier than normal, and the site was easier to reach.

Remember that WWFF was originally licensed to Tullahoma, Tennessee before having its COL moved to New Market when the transmitter was moved to Drake Mountain. Interestingly, there was one other FM licensed to Coffee County, Tennessee. That station was WWTN, which Cumulus also owns, and which is in the Nashville market. (Its transmitter is between Murfreesboro and Franklin, and the COL has been relocated to Hendersonville in recent years). So, Cumulus ended up moving both of those COLs out of Coffee County and closer to their respective markets.

 

[TheDingo]

I remember seeing that stick south of US64 on a motorcycle ride a few years ago, just a big tall tower out in the middle of nowhere.

 

[mrjay]

THanks - was looking at its location for the possibility of wireless internet (not sure why since cumulus still owns the tower), but it's good to know it's location.... :0