WYDE AM and FM gradually phasing back to talk?

[passtheword]

No, not the original WYDE-FM at 101.1 which is still doing christian preaching and talk, but AM 1260 along with 92.5 FM in Cordova. Both 1260 an 92.5 have been airing southern gospel music since 101.1 (then WYDE-FM) changed formats a little more than a year ago. I turned on WYDE-AM this morning and the "Scott Beeson" show is now airing there from 9 am to noon every day. Not even sure why Crawford would want to take 1260/92.5 back to all talk programming but with Crawford Broadcasting, does anything they do ever make sense, anyway? Birmingham already has two other talk outlets established and 101.1 was never able to fully compete with either WAPI or WERC. Not to mention the signals for both 1260 and 92.5 are terrible, with the AM being unlistenable at night due to the fact it's only broadcasting with 41 watts and the signal doesn't even make it into the suburbs during the nighttime hours..and let's face it, who listens to AM radio these days, other than us "radio nerds"? The FM's 60 dBu signal doesn't even make it to the city of Birmingham, only the NW corner of Jefferson county. There's also the FM translator Crawford uses to rebroadcast WYDE-AM (W237EK at 95.3) which covers mostly the over the mountain areas of Birmingham but is difficult to listen to within a mobile environment. I have tried to listen to W237EK while in the car in the Hoover/Vestavia area and it mixes in with WFFN out of Tuscaloosa a good bit of the time. I'm guessing this new possible metamorphosis to talk for WYDE has to do with it being an election year, but really...how many people could be listening to any of those stations (1260/92.5/95.3) with a usable signal?

 

[b-turner]

It sounds like to me the Southern Gospel format was not attracting many ad dollars so they decided on something different. I don't know if the show you mention is a Crawford program, but if it is, having a Birmingham station clear it might mean extra national ad dollars for the show. Unlike music formats where stations play the same songs, talk is always a market exclusive even if the subject matter might be similar. I found being one of dozens of stations on the dial meant talk was a better option since nobody could duplicate exactly what our station was doing. It wasn't as tough to sell as a music format.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

No, not the original WYDE-FM at 101.1 which is still doing christian preaching and talk, but AM 1260 along with 92.5 FM in Cordova. Both 1260 an 92.5 have been airing southern gospel music since 101.1 (then WYDE-FM) changed formats a little more than a year ago. I turned on WYDE-AM this morning and the "Scott Beeson" show is now airing there from 9 am to noon every day. Not even sure why Crawford would want to take 1260/92.5 back to all talk programming but with Crawford Broadcasting, does anything they do ever make sense, anyway? Birmingham already has two other talk outlets established and 101.1 was never able to fully compete with either WAPI or WERC. Not to mention the signals for both 1260 and 92.5 are terrible, with the AM being unlistenable at night due to the fact it's only broadcasting with 41 watts and the signal doesn't even make it into the suburbs during the nighttime hours..and let's face it, who listens to AM radio these days, other than us "radio nerds"? The FM's 60 dBu signal doesn't even make it to the city of Birmingham, only the NW corner of Jefferson county. There's also the FM translator Crawford uses to rebroadcast WYDE-AM (W237EK at 95.3) which covers mostly the over the mountain areas of Birmingham but is difficult to listen to within a mobile environment. I have tried to listen to W237EK while in the car in the Hoover/Vestavia area and it mixes in with WFFN out of Tuscaloosa a good bit of the time. I'm guessing this new possible metamorphosis to talk for WYDE has to do with it being an election year, but really...how many people could be listening to any of those stations (1260/92.5/95.3) with a usable signal?

Crawford's stations are dry boring and unexciting.. I can't believe they have 2 stations in Denver which are largely brokered.. they have a Denver am doing pop classics, oldies.. that doesn't have many commercials.

Crawford has also drank the HD koolaid… their talk stations on am running HD sound like low bitrate garbage.. hissy analog sounds better

 

[Kent]

Southern gospel typically skews older. My best guesses would be either that the AM found being able to air twice the spot load of a music station as more attractive than an older skewing format that wasn't getting high ratings or that the host of the talk show is paying upfront for his airtime.