WWYW And WZSR Sold

[audioguy]

It takes money to keep those tubes lit... we all know that! But I have to say, the commercials today are becoming increasingly distasteful. I had to remove all of the colon cleansing and male enhancement ads from my recordings of the Dick Biondi 50th, or I'd be listening to them for the next umpteen years.

BTW, I just discovered that EMF has a translator in Park Ridge (Morton Grove, actually) on 96.7. There is no need for that! They already have a quite usable signal on 94.3. My guess is that the reason they're buying up all of these translators is that they hope to either sell them for big bucks or use them as bargaining chips to get a signal somewhere they don't have one currently.

 

[BOBBY.B]

I agree with stormy01! !about moody radio in chicago. they have HD1 regular program's HD2 which is all music and HD3 which is all for the children music and special prog. have a great day! !BOBBY. :

 

[skywatchbob]

Say what you must about EMF and KLove, but they do fill a niche around here. If you look around there aren't too many stations that play contemporary Christian music.
Would we even have such a format if not for KLove? The format may not be commercially viable, but those who like contemporary Christian music are willing to pay to have such a station. Otherwise, it would have failed a long time ago. Yeah, local would be better, but it's better than no CCM station at all.

 

[BRNout]

It takes money to keep those tubes lit... we all know that! But I have to say, the commercials today are becoming increasingly distasteful. I had to remove all of the colon cleansing and male enhancement ads from my recordings of the Dick Biondi 50th, or I'd be listening to them for the next umpteen years.

You must have taped it off the AM signal. I heard those horrid ads there too. A quick switch to FM confirmed that a better class of ads (for the most part) was airing on 94.7.

 

[BRNout]

Say what you must about EMF and KLove, but they do fill a niche around here. If you look around there aren't too many stations that play contemporary Christian music.
Would we even have such a format if not for KLove? The format may not be commercially viable, but those who like contemporary Christian music are willing to pay to have such a station. Otherwise, it would have failed a long time ago. Yeah, local would be better, but it's better than no CCM station at all.

That would be fine if they left it to 94.3. But this company's MO is to buy up every single conceivable signal for their sat delivered formats. Including tons of redundant translators everywhere. It is in this way that EMF is out of control from coast to coast. Not to mention that - yes - I question their integrity when it comes to how they solicit their listeners. They (EMF) didn't get rich by doing nothing.

 

[audioguy]

I did record the Dick Biondi special from the AM! For two reasons: it was the most authentic. He started on AM, after all. And also because I have a C-QUAM AM stereo receiver, and I wanted to capture all of that lovely AM stereo goodness! Man, it was great! The signal was loud and punchy, and the separation was awesome! But the commercials were bad... they ran the normal spots.

 

[stormy01]

BTW, I just discovered that EMF has a translator in Park Ridge (Morton Grove, actually) on 96.7. There is no need for that! They already have a quite usable signal on 94.3. My guess is that the reason they're buying up all of these translators is that they hope to either sell them for big bucks or use them as bargaining chips to get a signal somewhere they don't have one currently.

That 96.7 signal is great in Morton Grove, barely makes it into Park Ridge (or Skokie, Niles or Glenview for that matter) It's like Morton Grove has a radio station all to itself! (;>

 

[audioguy]

The Morton Grove translator is only 10 watts. I'm not sure how high it is but I'm going to drive over there and have a look. I can hear it in the car as far as the north end of Glenview (Willow Road).

 

[stormy01]

The structure is a telephone relay tower about 700' west of Lehigh Avenue roughly between River Dr. and Main St., so about 8300 North, with microwave radomes on the north and south faces of the tower, FM broadcast antenna mounted at about 130' up on an overall tower height of 193'. Just using factory-installed radios in a Honda and Ford, for me the signal generally starts cutting in and out around Lake Ave. in Wilmette, and totally gone by Lake-Cook Road in Northbrook (on the Edens) Oddly enough, going westward, the signal is terrible by the time I get to Dempster and Milwaukee in Niles - much less distance than going north - the FM antenna is obviously side-mounted on the tower, so that might help explain why the signal becomes weaker faster going west than north or south. I think going south I could get it until Peterson/Caldwell and I've not been far enough east in Skokie to know where the signal fades out there.

 

[skywatchbob]

You do have a point. The translator in Morton Grove is rather redundant. They have sent me mail appealing for me to send money to buy translators. I may be more forgiving of them since they are my only radio outlet for contemporary Christian music. I would hate to lose them.

For what it's worth, I would like to see them set up an Air 1 station in my area. One that is full time. We have a part time low power station in Arlington Heights that covers Palatine and Arlington Heights well but does not go much beyond that.

I am not holding my breath for a CCM station that is live and local.

Say what you must about EMF and KLove, but they do fill a niche around here. If you look around there aren't too many stations that play contemporary Christian music.
Would we even have such a format if not for KLove? The format may not be commercially viable, but those who like contemporary Christian music are willing to pay to have such a station. Otherwise, it would have failed a long time ago. Yeah, local would be better, but it's better than no CCM station at all.

That would be fine if they left it to 94.3. But this company's MO is to buy up every single conceivable signal for their sat delivered formats. Including tons of redundant translators everywhere. It is in this way that EMF is out of control from coast to coast. Not to mention that - yes - I question their integrity when it comes to how they solicit their listeners. They (EMF) didn't get rich by doing nothing.

 

[cyberdad]

I'm all for Christian radio. I listen myself from time to time...and have for years. I can only speak for myself. But when an already well-heeled religious broadcaster wants to take away my county's only live and local outlets when I've already got at least a half dozen religious options on my local airwaves there's something definitely wrong with this picture.

I also agree that Moody is the gold standard of Christian broadcasting. "Back in the day", WMBI was frequently described as "The WGN of Christian radio", with all the stature, respect, and class which that implied. The bar is still as high as it ever was for WMBI....not quite so sure about the other place.

 

[skywatchbob]

Just curious, what are the six options available?
I live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and I get the following Christian stations:
90.1 WMBI
94.3 K-Love
AM1110 WMBI
AM1160 WYLL

88.3 Air One part time(low power FM in Arlington Heights) - Weekends only. Counts as half a station.
OK, I do have 4 1/2 Christian stations to listen to. (Or maybe 4, since WMBI AM is not on at night)
Are there any others?

I'm all for Christian radio. I listen myself from time to time...and have for years. I can only speak for myself. But when an already well-heeled religious broadcaster wants to take away my county's only live and local outlets when I've already got at least a half dozen religious options on my local airwaves there's something definitely wrong with this picture.

I also agree that Moody is the gold standard of Christian broadcasting. "Back in the day", WMBI was frequently described as "The WGN of Christian radio", with all the stature, respect, and class which that implied. The bar is still as high as it ever was for WMBI....not quite so sure about the other place.

 

[cyberdad]

Just curious, what are the six options available?

Are there any others?

As a matter of fact yes.  In addition to the four or four and a half you mentioned, I have reliable signals from the following...

88.3 WFEN
100.9 WQFL
107.7 WVCY
930/950 Relevant Radio

That's not counting gospel on WGRB 1390.

Now before someone comes along and says this doesn't reflect the Chicago metro, blah, blah, blah....

What I said in my earlier post was that I have access to a half dozen Christian stations.  And then some. That's speaking just for me.

But....

More importantly in the context of the original post, is the fact that where I live happens to be within ten miles of both the WWYW and WZSR sticks.  So, back to my original point, which is that IMHO a variety of Christian programming is already available here.  Listeners of Christian radio (including me) are more than adequately served. Arguably better so than listeners of country, 50's-60s oldies, big bands, and other formats. 

That being the case, therefore, I think giving up live local programming is a high price for my local community to pay for having EMF or anyone else of their ilk coming in here.  I stand by that.

 

[Nsubuga]

I live in Oswego, and in addition to WMBI-AM (1100) and FM (90.1), K-Love (94.3), WYLL (1160), and the two Relevant Radio stations (930 and 950), I clearly receive:

WSRI, Sugar Grove (88.7) -- Air1
WONU, Kankakee (89.7) -- Shine FM (Olivet Christian University)
WJCH, Joliet (91.9) -- Family Radio
WCFL, Morris (104.7) -- Christian Music Radio

And on AM there's also:

WAIT, Crystal Lake (850) -- Christian contemporary and Spanish-language Christian
WWHN, Joliet (1510) -- Gospel

That makes 12 stations. In addition, I can usually get a clear signal from WWGN, Ottawa (88.9), which is owned by Jimmy Swaggart's church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

So there are a ton of Christian stations out there.

 

[Prais]

In the early 70's I was in my early 20's and looked at purchasing The Dundee station WVFV and/or the Woodstock station, WSTK. BOTH were in pitiful shape. Asking price for each was around 100k.

One of them had their transmitter near wjjd fm in a small mobile home that was falling off its foundation. Every FLY in Illinois was visiting when I was there. The freq and modulation monitors were reading WJJD-fm and not the right station.

WVFV, Dundee, had a Sparta board on a kitchen table on the second floor with a long walk up. The board seemed to be in horrible shape.

The broker was from Chapman Asoc - and a nice guy, but awful properties.

 

[PoisonIvy]

I'm near downtown Chicago and get these stations clearly, at least in my car:

WMBI-AM and -FM
WYLL
WGRB
K-Love (94.3)
Two translators at 97.5 and 100.7 - not sure if they're K-Love or something else
Relevant Radio 950

I also go to the far south burbs at least once a month and easily get 102.3 (gospel) on my radio when I do.

Bottom line: As others here have said, there are plenty of Christian stations available to Chicagoland listeners.

 

[stormy01]

I'm near downtown Chicago and get these stations clearly, at least in my car:
Two translators at 97.5 and 100.7 - not sure if they're K-Love or something else

97.5 is K-Love - I'm sure that is good to have near downtown where WJKL 94.3 gets swamped on less selective tuners by WLIT 93.9 and WLS-FM 94.7 100.7 is a relay of WHLP 89.9 Hanna, IN 15 miles ESE of Valparaiso (Calvary Radio Network)

 

[Word!]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Newsweb our wonderful folks from 9FM to WAIT 850 etc... or is that 820? Umm ?!?!? Anyways, not sure how much $$$ he still has since taking over the 92's but I'm sure he's got plenty..... CNN radio and talk coming to 105.5/103.9 and to think, 99.9 and 103.9 were once simulcast after the Bus and WABT were sold. Crazy how things turn around full circle. Funny I drove through Kankakee around christmas and WKIF (if that's still the calls) were airing what seemed to be a jack/9 classic rock type format, not sure what to call it, but I remember when they were 24-7 CNN radio.

So far I see no good buyers for these stations, I'm sure they're priced high so a local can't get them. It would have to be a group owner. Unless Good Karma came in from Rockford and tried to snatch them up? I don't see too many options.