WWJZ 640

[Radio Wreck]

I'm surprised this station has lasted this long as Radio Disney. It seems like the biggest waste of space on the dial today. Can't someone take that powerhouse signal and do something worthwhile with it? Has it ever gotten ratings whatsoever?

 

[DXingRadio]

Guess Disney feels it's worthwhile and they own it. If they ever sell then the new owners can do something "worthwhile". Not sure what that would be though, music on AM is a non-starter and how many more talkers does the Philly area need?

 

[cd637299]

I don't live in the area, but in Miami we have WMYM 990 which has been Disney since 1999, and with an absolutely pitiful signal. At least WWJZ would be a "stop" on any auto scan there, wouldn't it?

A couple of years back, when RD was dumping stations, that WMYM would surely be on the list. Nope. The only "change" in our station is dumping HD last year.

BTW I caught WWJZ in the daytime on my trip to Bermuda in 2005. So maybe the kids in Bermuda need a signal of their own....

cd

 

[rtetro]

The problem with their "powerhouse" 50KW signal is that they switch to .95KW flea power at night, with a pattern that misses a substantial portion of the market. If they had moved to western Montgomery County and raised their night power to 25kw as they had planned in 2007, their market penetration would have been vastly improved.

 

[DG02816]

Who on 640 could WWJZ be protecting with the drop to 950 watts at night? My best guess would be the 640 in Toronto.Can't see anything for KFI, WOI, or WHLO.

 

[benale]

WWJZ has an incredible signal, and like WQEW, another 50,000 watter, runs Radio Disney. It would be so nice to have some programming on those signals that people would actually listen to.

Prior to Disney, both WWJZ and WQEW ran a Standards format. Yes, I know a Standards or an traditional oldies station(50's,60's) would attract a very old demo, but it sure would be nice to have something I would listen to. 740 in Toronto,which booms in at night has a very listenable standards/oldies format and I'm sure has many listeners in the US.

Disney wants their programming in major markets. I just wish they could be on stations that don't have incredible signals.

 

[rtetro]

Who on 640 could WWJZ be protecting with the drop to 950 watts at night? My best guess would be the 640 in Toronto.Can't see anything for KFI, WOI, or WHLO.

Primarily, CBN in St. John's, NF. To a lesser degree WHLO, CFMJ, and WXSM.

 

[TimeIsTight]

It seems like the biggest waste of space on the dial today.

Actually, being a Radio Disney O&O is about the best thing that could have happened to WWJZ with its current signal, and it is serving an otherwise under-served audience.....kids. It's the one and only station just for them, and I've seen kids in my family discover it for themselves, and make a real effort to listen to it, even when the signal wasn't great.

For Disney, the signal stretches far past the Philadelphia market and all of South Jersey, and in addition to Bermuda, it's reportedly also available to kids along the shore in Rhode Island, Long Island, and even Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. The kids there will listen if they find it on the dial, and the programming is just as good to kids there as it is to kids in South Jersey, and kids is kids, and all potential business drivers, to Disney.

In the summer, when kids are home from school and can listen after dinner, the station is still on high power until 8:30-pm, which is about their bedtime anyway, and in the winter when the older kids are at school, they can still catch it for an hour or two after school and before dinner. And after dinner is homework time. So, the nighttime power reduction isn't as much of a limitation as it might be with an adult format, and given the state of adult formats on AM, it might otherwise just be a block time station, or non-stop snake oil selling infomercials outlet.

This way it's owned by a reputable company with good standards and deep pockets, it serves an otherwise unserved audience and turns the next generation onto radio, and, hopefully, it continues to be worth the effort for Disney to keep paying the power bill, because what comes after Disney will not likely be up to the quality it is now.

(I have no connection to Disney at all, and the kids in my family have long since all grown up and discovered FM and stations like WPST instead)

 

[jhguthlac]

The station is programming Top 40 to kids. What else can they do? Nothing really. And they are aimed at an audience that does not show in the ratings. A win-win.

 

[benale]

At the other end of the age spectrum..how about a station that programs 55 plus..like standards or 50's 60's oldies. They don't count either. Asides from Disney's imaging, much of the music they play can be heard on CHR stations. Asides from the Internet or satellite radio, where can you hear Standards or traditional oldies anymore? There are a few stations that do it, but they are few and far between.

Yes..I know the usual argument..nobody buys 55 plus. If Disney didn't run their stations, we wouldn't have Radio Disney. It;s nice to have a station for kids 12 and under. There are a whole lot of us over 55 who would love an alternative to the music programming on terrestrial radio.

 

[TimeIsTight]

At the other end of the age spectrum..how about a station that programs 55 plus..like standards or 50's 60's oldies.

If station owners could figure out a way to do it and make enough money they certainly would, it's only the sophisticated ad agencies for the big national advertisers who aren't interested in the older demos. Local merchants, like stores, services and restaurants, just want more paying customers. And the commercial stations that want to serve the over 55 population have to settle for the smaller local advertisers.

Before it was sold to Disney, you have to wonder how WWJZ survived playing 40s music? When you add up just the payroll, and the power bill for a 50-kw transmitter, they had to sell a lot of local plates of restaurant food to bring in enough dollars to make the nut every month. What I remember about listening WWJZ then, was the local small town restaurants that were advertising on this big signal where 95% of the people who could listen would never travel that far for a meal.

I also remember seeing WWJZ do a live remote at McGuire Air Force Base, and the tent they were broadcasting from looked like a gathering of the WWII generation. Possibly, the air personalities were really retired and collecting Social Security, and other pensions, and taking only minimum pay for working at the station, and, possibly, the owner was taking a big financial hit just for the fun of owning a radio station he wanted to hear, or to take a tax writeoff. Studios and towers were in a low rent rural area, but advertising the local $7 early bird senior special at a small town store-front restaurant is hardly enough cash flow to support a 50-kw radio station.

When it comes to having radio formats that appeal to the over 55s, like Oldies, Standards, Beautiful Music, or Big Bands, the model most likely to work is non-commercial in the educational end of the FM band. The transmitters, and antennas are relatively cheap, and there are plenty of towers already in place where space can be leased. Studios can be in non-profit tax free buildings like churches. Listeners can donate to support the station, local advertisers can make "grants" to the station in exchange for promotional spots that can't mention sales price and meet other advertising limitations, but will still bring in business. The station can't make a profit but it can pay some salaries, and use volunteers too, or it can just be a computer that plays the music with little interruption.

There is a station like that on the Jersey Shore in an area with a high retiree population.

Check it out, if you haven't heard it: http://wbnj.org/

 

[DG02816]

Don't forget Bob Bittner's WJIB 740 Cambridge MA and WJTO 730 Bath ME. These stations run Standards and Easy Listening, with WJTO running an updated version of the format. For WWJZ to do that kind of format again would take a LOT of listener donations just to pay the power bill at 50 kW if they tried a listener-supported model. WJIB and WJTO are lower powered, running 250 watts and 1 kW respectively Listener support works with those two at their power levels. So outside of yet ANOTHER dollar-a-holler AM'er, Disney is the best fit. Surprised, though that ESPN wasn't put there.

 

[TimeIsTight]

Surprised, though that ESPN wasn't put there.

The WWJZ nighttime signal wouldn't work for a metro sports station. Disney does work.

 

[cingram]

As I recall, WWJZ, WVCH, and WPEN all had plans to build multi-tower arrays to the NW of Philadelphia
(640 would have been a local in Reading!), but the NIMBYs kept that from happening. 950 was able to
find another way, using their existing site in the daytime and WWDB's at night.

C.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Who on 640 could WWJZ be protecting with the drop to 950 watts at night? My best guess would be the 640 in Toronto.Can't see anything for KFI, WOI, or WHLO.

Primarily, CBN in St. John's, NF. To a lesser degree WHLO, CFMJ, and WXSM.

Disney had several proposals for increasing WWJZ's night power. I don't know whether any of those proposals ever got to the CP stage but there sure are a lot of limiting conditions. Being the only broadcast station licensed to Mt Holley seems to be the most restrictive. Can't change CoLs if the station you want to move is the community's only nighttime audio service but changing the CoL seems to be necessary if you can't develop a new site (which seems to be the case with WWJZ). If that were not the case, I'm guessing that a deal could be struck with Salem to add 640 to the 560/990 diplex. Probably couldn't get any more than the present 950W at night but the transmitter location would permit much better nighttime coverage of the market than does the present site. The move would be technically complex and expensive but Salem has a history of being friendly to AM multiplexes--both by adding other companies' stations to its own sites (which is what I am talking about here) and (less often) by moving its own stations to sites already developed by other companies.

 

[jhguthlac]

WWJZ was 50kw only at the beginning. A fight among the owners forced changes ans the power was either 5kw or 10kw. And a sale was the only way out. When your format is restricted to dead artists, you can't survive for long.

 

[John1]

When your format is restricted to dead artists, you can't survive for long.

I know it's a volunteer non-commercial station, but I'm amazed that WRDV Hatboro is still able to maintain a big band/swing format all day weekdays. They are playing music that was "before their time" for people under 75, including most of the currrent personalities. Somehow they come up with enough listeners (like my Mom at 88) & supporters to keep it going. I really thought they'd have gone to an oldies/doo wop format during weekdays by now like their weekend programming - still an "undesirable" demo, but a generation younger that the current format.

 

[TimeIsTight]

still an "undesirable" demo,

It's an "undesirable" demo only to commercial advertisers, folks in the older demos have more time to listen, and far fewer places to find what they want to listen to. And they all get funneled down to those unique stations, and as long as enough of them send in their checks, or donate their time "The Melody Lingers On."

One would expect the focus to move from the Big Band era and into oldies and doo wop, but, apparently, there is still enough of that older audience around to keep supporting the older format. But, never fear, those "youngsters" from the early rock and roll era will get their day, and they "might" someday be replaced by fans of the British Invasion and Motown era.

It's too bad that there aren't more stations like WRDV, for all those listeners the advertisers don't want to pitch to anymore.

 

[billjacobs]

> ... as long as enough of them send in their checks, or donate their time ...

You would be amazed how many of our big band listeners are younger than the music.

Bill

 

[stevations]

Here is WWJZ in 1994

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXRhAiqXw-A