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WWYW And WZSR Sold

The stations are not exactly sold....they are in a "trust" waiting to be sold...while the "trust" will get the license, Media Venture Partners are not in the business of owning stations for any length of time as far as I know.

A more exact subject line would be: Next Media is no longer the licensee of WWYW and WZSR.
 
[email protected] said:
The stations are not exactly sold....they are in a "trust" waiting to be sold...while the "trust" will get the license, Media Venture Partners are not in the business of owning stations for any length of time as far as I know.

A more exact subject line would be: Next Media is no longer the licensee of WWYW and WZSR.
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Is this the same thing as the "Aloha Trust" for CC? CC still programmed the stations that weren't sold.
 
An article this week in the Northwest Herald (not to be confused with the Daily Herald) suggests that the trust arrangement could last for quite some time....perhaps even years. OTH, one of Next's properties in North Carolina sold rather quickly.
 
cyberdad said:
An article this week in the Northwest Herald (not to be confused with the Daily Herald) suggests that the trust arrangement could last for quite some time....perhaps even years. OTH, one of Next's properties in North Carolina sold rather quickly.
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The North Carolina station went to EMF... knowing that group's thick wallet, I wonder if they'd be interested in using WZSR to fill the coverage gap between WJKL's new transmitter site and 105.3 WKMZ/Milwaukee (not that I'd advocate for it).
 
No offense to EMF, but if they took over WZSR and/or it's sister WWYW, wouldn't that effectively leave McHenry county as perhaps the largest county in the U.S. with no truly locally-oriented broadcast service?  Kovas blew up WMCW last year or whenever. Not than anyone seems to miss it....or seems to have noticed.  ;D
 
cyberdad said:
No offense to EMF, but if they took over WZSR and/or it's sister WWYW, wouldn't that effectively leave McHenry county as perhaps the largest county in the U.S. with no truly locally-oriented broadcast service? Kovas blew up WMCW last year or whenever. Not than anyone seems to miss it....or seems to have noticed. ;D
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Well, I don't mind offending EMF one bit by stating that I fervently hope they do not take over either station or anything else in this area. They represent the worst trend in broadcasting - the totally automated station. No local traffic reports, no news, only recorded/voice tracked religious content coming to you from California or Indiana.

And, to make matters worse, they're usually begging (in the name of Jesus, no less) for you to send them money, even though they already have more cash on hand than any other broadcast entity in the country! I believe that the going rate is $30 per month. Sadly, this takes advantage of the more vulnerable members of our society, many of whom can scarcely afford life's basic necessities, let alone to send money to a rich out-of-state corporation. It's sickening to listen to them manipulate people in this way. Add to this their propensity to buy up stations and translators from one end of the band to another and you have a virus that kills off local radio in a lot of small markets.

You want a prayer request? Mine is that EMF keeps their meathooks off of these stations.

Local radio is a rare thing these days and the folks at Y103.9 and Star do a great job serving their local areas in McHenry/Kane Counties and the far NW suburbs. Let's hope it stays that way.
 
BRNout said:
cyberdad said:
No offense to EMF, but if they took over WZSR and/or it's sister WWYW, wouldn't that effectively leave McHenry county as perhaps the largest county in the U.S. with no truly locally-oriented broadcast service? Kovas blew up WMCW last year or whenever. Not than anyone seems to miss it....or seems to have noticed. ;D
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Well, I don't mind offending EMF one bit by stating that I fervently hope they do not take over either station or anything else in this area. They represent the worst trend in broadcasting - the totally automated station. No local traffic reports, no news, only recorded/voice tracked religious content coming to you from California or Indiana.

And, to make matters worse, they're usually begging (in the name of Jesus, no less) for you to send them money, even though they already have more cash on hand than any other broadcast entity in the country! I believe that the going rate is $30 per month. Sadly, this takes advantage of the more vulnerable members of our society, many of whom can scarcely afford life's basic necessities, let alone to send money to a rich out-of-state corporation. It's sickening to listen to them manipulate people in this way. Add to this their propensity to buy up stations and translators from one end of the band to another and you have a virus that kills off local radio in a lot of small markets.

You want a prayer request? Mine is that EMF keeps their meathooks off of these stations.

Local radio is a rare thing these days and the folks at Y103.9 and Star do a great job serving their local areas in McHenry/Kane Counties and the far NW suburbs. Let's hope it stays that way.
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You worded it very well. I feel the same way on this. EMF doesn't need any additional stations. Nextmedia was lucky to acquire what is now WWYW from Entravision and make the station local again. Now they had to make the tough decision to sell off the station, along with WZSR. Now I don't see EMF being able to acquire WWYW due to WWYW & WJKL having nearly the same Grade A coverage (unless WJKL moved their signal to Elmhurst to put Grade A coverage over most of Chicago), but they might be able to acquire WZSR. I don't know who might show interest in the station, but the next actual owner might not run it locally. Entravision didn't run this station locally (as in for the Dundee area)
 
I'm a little surprised by the reaction against EMF. They broadcast a format that isn't available on other local stations. What's wrong with that? They ask for money. So do WFMT, WBEZ, and just about every NPR station. You complain about $30 a month? What do you think WFMT and WBEZ want? A dollar a day is their standard "ask". How much is that? You do the math.

If EMF broadcast classical, would you still think they were so evil? Of course not. Hey, if you don't like their programming, nobody is forcing you to listen.

What I would like to know is why you would think that it's OK for Kovas to blow up three local signals so that they could increase their time-brokered signal. Does Kovas broadcast local news and information? Not that I have noticed. Like all time brokered stations (of which, in my opinion, we have far too many), they are only on the air to collect the money. Same for Polnet.

The audio quality of these foreign language stations is far from "broadcast quality". They often allow grossly distorted, noisy programming to go on the air. Why? Because they broadcast whatever anyone pays them to broadcast. There is no quality control. Sometimes, they just broadcast noise or a dead carrier-- for hours on end. Call letters? Are you kidding? Plenty of times I have heard no legal ID for hours. And if the transmitter tubes go "soft"; no need to replace them until the output dies completely. Meanwhile, the signals show up on 3 or places on the dial. But that's OK, it's the high end of the AM dial so nobody cares, right?

I have read sentimental comments about how these foreign language stations bring "a touch of home" to their listeners. I travel internationally, and I have never heard anything of such low quality on the air.

That said, I would love for someone to buy these stations and use them to actually serve their local communities (as they probably are doing now). But what are the chances of that, in this economy? My guess is that they'll probably end up on the time brokered scrap heap.
 
audioguy said:
I'm a little surprised by the reaction against EMF. They broadcast a format that isn't available on other local stations. What's wrong with that? They ask for money. So do WFMT, WBEZ, and just about every NPR station. You complain about $30 a month? What do you think WFMT and WBEZ want? A dollar a day is their standard "ask". How much is that? You do the math.

If EMF broadcast classical, would you still think they were so evil? Of course not. Hey, if you don't like their programming, nobody is forcing you to listen.

What I would like to know is why you would think that it's OK for Kovas to blow up three local signals so that they could increase their time-brokered signal.
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I don't think it's okay for Kovas to blow up WMCW and two other local signals. I think it's very lamentable.

That said, I also do understand the need to serve ethnic communities. And as one who frequently travels internationally myself, I agree that the type of garbage audio heard on Kovas' and other brokered signals is seldom found in most other countries.

EMF? I have no dog in the fight with regard to those guys. Let me just say that I'm a churchgoing guy myself, who feels there are more than enough choices out there for those seeking religious programing. Far more religion choices than local content choices.
 
encarta95 said:
...I wonder if they'd be interested in using WZSR to fill the coverage gap between WJKL's new transmitter site and 105.3 WKMZ/Milwaukee (not that I'd advocate for it).
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EMF has a construction permit for 91.7 (WZKL, 6.5kW ERP-DA, 108m AHAAT) in Woodstock, IL... primary coverage area is supposed to be western McHenry, most of Boone, and the northern part of DeKalb counties: map http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=FM1275514.html data http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=94208 Marengo, Woodstock and Belvedere would be the largest population centers that signal would reach.
 
stormy01 said:
EMF has a construction permit for 91.7 (WZKL, 6.5kW ERP-DA, 108m AHAAT) in Woodstock, IL... primary coverage area is supposed to be western McHenry, most of Boone, and the northern part of DeKalb counties: map http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=FM1275514.html data http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=94208 Marengo, Woodstock and Belvedere would be the largest population centers that signal would reach.
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Good. As much as I find the way they do what they do to be very distasteful - I do hope that this would keep them from considering the NextMedia stations.

audioguy said:
I'm a little surprised by the reaction against EMF. They broadcast a format that isn't available on other local stations. What's wrong with that? They ask for money. So do WFMT, WBEZ, and just about every NPR station. You complain about $30 a month? What do you think WFMT and WBEZ want? A dollar a day is their standard "ask". How much is that? You do the math.

If EMF broadcast classical, would you still think they were so evil? Of course not. Hey, if you don't like their programming, nobody is forcing you to listen.
Click to expand...

That's a fair question and I'll happily address what I think is different. Stations like WFMT and WBEZ tend to serve an upscale audience with formats that those audiences know would be gone if they didn't contribute. Formats that represent musical genres, "culture" and divergent points of view which otherwise would never make it on commercial radio. The stations do ask for donations, but at least they're straight about it. Their audiences are under no illusions about what their donation buys. They also solicit local corporations and other entities who see value in the services that they provide. One of my former employers happily donated every year to the local public radio station in our area. They were not particularly highbrow or liberal, they just felt that the programming brought value that could not be replaced without people's donations.

In all cases, this money goes to LOCAL stations that need to obtain LOCAL dollars to survive.

Now, on to EMF....

They ask for money in the name of God and/or Jesus. This is a well-designed ploy to make the audience member feel compelled to send in hard-earned dollars in order to enrich an already incredibly well-funded organization. Particularly hard hit in such tactics are lower income, older and less educated people. There have been documented cases of people who've given their last dimes to hucksters like these, thinking that the $30/month will mean that their prayers are answered. It's all very slimy and based on guilt and superstition. And, worst of all, almost NONE of the money serves a local interest. It goes to Sacramento, California - to an incredibly rich group of people!

And, let's not contort my comment into the bashing of religion - because it's not. And, this is not equivalent to giving money to your local house of worship who uses that money on their shoestring budgets to keep the lights on, and to minister the needy, sick and dying in their respective parish/ward/congregation. Again, you know where your money is going and you see your neighbors benefit from it.

I just find EMF's methods incredibly distasteful and the fact that they're using this ill-gotten riches to buy up the non-comm and commercial FM radio dial wherever they can is a horrible, horrible thing. For example, the Utica, NY market literally lost 1/2 of their local stations to EMF repeaters. These guys are appalling dial-hogs and use every loophole in the book to repeat their same canned formats everywhere they can. They are not alone in that (Family Radio in IN-MI comes to mind), but they are the worst offenders and I honestly wish that the FCC could/would break them up. They have been a horrible thing as far as local format diversity is concerned.
 
I'd love to see an Air 1 station, be it on WZKL or 103.9 or 105.5. Air 1 is their younger targeted network. The closest they have is WSRI in Sugar Grove which covers most of Kane County on 88.7. WCLR Arlington Heights (the weekend watt) covers nothing. There's also a translator for it in DeKalb.
 
While we're on the subject of EMF...My gut feeling is that at some point they will have bitten off more than they can chew and the whole company will be in trouble. They're gobbling up every little station they can find and some day their stomach is going to explode.

As far as their programming goes...I think it's valuable and provides an alternative for people who don't want to hear the junk that's on other stations.
 
I don't object to EMF's programs, but I do agree that it has stolen from local communities, even local churches that could have their own stations.

You also don't need an EMF station every 20 miles.

Last year, they acquired Rockford's WGSL 91.1 (K-Love) & WQFL 100.9 (Air 1).

If 91.7 hits the air, here in Lake Geneva, I'll be over-served by 5 K-Loves: 91.1, 91.7, 94.3 & 100.9.
 
I could see it when K-Love was more in the areas of serving small towns and cities that have no local Christian radio stations, but now that I see EMF move into large markets and buy out the bigger stations, I agree with dd that they are asking for trouble... However, I would welcome an Air1 station in this area (No. IL), as that's a really good format! K-Love is okay, but I would rather support Moody Radio, at least it's live and local for a large part of the day... I do miss The Fish - that was a great station, and, speaking of 103.9, so was WCRM!
 
I guess I'm one of those who views the increase in radio religious radio stations as a threat.

My background includes a stint providing broadcast support to an evangelist in the southwestern US and this guy wasn't what people thought he was (bucks, booze and broads-but he did say he was a sinner!) and so I approach these radio gigs with a great deal of cynicism. I know everyone needs to make a buck. (Grandma, send me your SS check today. God will save you.)

I think religious stations are crowding out the potential public radio stations and these stations will serve the entire market.
 
b344077 said:
I guess I'm one of those who views the increase in radio religious radio stations as a threat.

My background includes a stint providing broadcast support to an evangelist in the southwestern US and this guy wasn't what people thought he was (bucks, booze and broads-but he did say he was a sinner!) and so I approach these radio gigs with a great deal of cynicism. I know everyone needs to make a buck. (Grandma, send me your SS check today. God will save you.)

I think religious stations are crowding out the potential public radio stations and these stations will serve the entire market.
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Many "religious" stations are, for the most part, brokering their time to the various ministry programs out there. It's the programs, not the station, that are begging for donations. The radio station is getting their cash up front for the air time. Some of the secular stations do the same thing with the "Colon Cleanse" and "Invest in Gold" etc, etc programs they air.

Not all "religious stations" owners are as righteous as their programs would lead you to believe. The owners are running a business and sometimes religious programming is a profitable business. ::)
 
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