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WYKC 1400 Grenada

tomservo

tomservo

Hi everyone... I just moved to Grenada a few months ago from Alabama and have noticed that there's only one licensed AM station in the city, WYKC.

I see in Radio-Locator it had a country format, but it seems to have been dark for a while. The tower's still up in the older residential part of town, but the shed at the base doesn't look in good shape.

I was just curious what info is out there regarding this station. It seems there are actually quite a few dark AM stations in MS!
 
Station owned by Bob Evans, owner of WQXB FM...located on Hwy
8 near the Jim Walter place. Nice guy...call him if you have questions and get answers straight from the source.
I sure you have noticed there are THREE FM stations there.
 
Last time I checked, which was admittedly 3 or 4 years ago, WYKC was off-air without silent authority. I wonder if Bob ever told the Commission he was off-air?

LF
 
I've never seen anything indicating the station is silent in the FCC databases. Radio-locator shows it on-air with a country format. I can see where the station would go dark with the big FM country station here.

Now that I think about it (I'm slow) 3 FM's are a lot for this place...

It's just so strange to me that the only decent signal on the AM dial here is 100 miles away from Memphis (640 WCRV). The three Greenwood AM's are really weak up here. The last place I visited where there was one (or less) strong AM's on the dial? Wyoming. :)

Oh well. Considering the terrain, FM is a good choice here anyway.
 
There are still so many possibilities with an AM station, especially a full-time one on 1400...

Sports, talk, all kinds of stuff. LOCAL stuff...
 
I remember 1400 with an urban a/c format off the bird

I'm not sure the last time I caught it on the air though i have heard it in the last 2 yrs simulcasting B100.. surely on to keep the license

Grenada isn't the biggest town.. there are the 3 FMs selling...
99.1 used to sell in Grenada.. do they still??
I used to hear a Grenada ad or 2 on 98.5 from Tupelo a year or 2 ago
There is also cable advertising and newspaper

Thats allot of mouths to feed

I like Grenada.. I have some good friends down there and visit every time I can...
 
Zach said:
So I'm not alone in thinking this area could support an AM station?
Click to expand...
I just never see anyone listening to AM. Is it still a viable alternative as a stand alone operation?
 
Is it still viable? Sure. Here in MS? Who knows. ???

AM still seems to be the choice for talk radio of all kinds and gospel and some religious music. In larger markets AM still has a lot of music on it, like classic country (in the south) or polkas (yes, I heard an all polka show on an AM in Minnesota once.)

Heck, there are a lot of syndicated talk shows that don't have a home anywhere around here that might make some money on that station. Then again, I dunno how much it costs to run those types of shows to begin with.
 
You can make money with any format on AM if you have an aggressive sales staff who will get out and pitch it. Therein lies the problem. WDSK in Cleveland used to be one of the best sounding small-market News-Talk stations anywhere, yet we never made any money with it because we couldn't get anyone to sell it. Sales people go for the easy sell (the big country FM, for example) and neglect the AM, despite the fact that lots of people listened to it. That is, if you could find any sales people in the first place. Nobody wants to sell anymore - which is why small-market radio is dying.

LF
 
Guess I'm just a old sales dinosaur, Larry. Actually,thought it funny that I heard the same comment about people not wanting to sell before. From Joe Phillips back in the 70's. And they say the business has changed!
 
Tim, it's much different in small-markets now. Most of the mom & pop places that made up the bulk of our advertisers are gone. They have been replaced by Wal-Mart, Walgreens, CVS Pharmacy, chain restaurants, chain clothing stores, regional banks, etc. Very few of them will do radio in unrated markets, despite the fact they have stores there and sell merchandise there. The few mom & pop places left are typically crotchety old farts who have survied simply because they ARE crotchety old farts. They have no desire to advertise because everybody knows where they are, and besides, your rates are too high - plus, "I tried radio before (in 1973) and it didn't work."

I went through dozens of salespeople in Cleveland. Even though we had a dominant country station, it was still a difficult sell. On the few occasions I managed to get a good salesperson, they didn't last long. They got tired of dealing with crotchety old farts and with mentally challenged people at agencies who thought the world ended if you stepped outside a rated market.

People like JB and John, who do it all themselves, are a dying breed. And there's nobody coming along to replace them. People can make more money selling cell phones in the mall than they can selling for the local radio station. And who wants the aggravation of selling something (radio advertising) that nobody wants?

I need to finish writing my book.

LF (in sunny Pago Pago)
 
I know I'm a little late for posting on this topic, but I chuckled at Zach's comment "yes, I heard an all polka show on an AM in Minnesota once". Well, nationwide there are over 300 "all Polka shows" on radio. I happen to host the Saturday Polka Review here in Utica, NY, a three hour show. Many are on college stations, many others as myself brokered on commercial stations. Polka has a long history of well over 100 years in existance. If one wants to know what Polka radio sounds like (no such music exists in the Southeast US, apart from Florida with it's influx of folks from the north) www.Polkajammer.com has live shows (it's purely an internet station) most evenings.

Gary
Utica, NY
 
Polka your eyes out!

Thanks for the link - I'll check it out when I can. I actually have a few polka CDs and albums... Now I wanna dig them out again. Polka music is so underrated, it makes me happy to listen to it.

...But I'm not dressing up and dancing like those old people do on the Big Joe Polka Show on RFD!


"All Polka 1400, WYKC!" anyone? :D

~Zach (ke4oyn)
 
now thats entertainment zach.... maybe we could invent a hybrid.. Mississippi Polka.. It will be bigger than the Cha Cha Slide
 
Only seen the "Polka Joe" show once, that was enlightening enough. The "Polka" world is quite varied, and those unfamiliar with it understandably lump it all together. Any attempt to sway your attitude would be difficult now that you have that stereotype in mind.

Best to you, btw, was stationed (as perhaps millions were) in Biloxi a few years back. Was going to make a return there when one of the casinos held a Polka (Jimmy Sturr variety) weekend there before the Katrina era.

Gary
 
I figured WEVL here in Memphis would have a Polka show but it doesn't seem to so they have about every thing else you could imagine
 
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