You don't need an FM receiver if you are at the South Jersey Shore

[saintrichard]

I don't know if this subject is applicable for this Philly board, but today, I was in the South Jersey Shore area and came across WMID....All I can say is WOW, now this is what I call Classic Oldies, Kathy Young, Skeeter Davis, Faron Young, Staple Singers, Jim Reeves, Ferrante & Teicher a great female voice doing the liners and no chatter, when they say they play classics, they make no bones about it. They play a HUGE amount of "oh wows", I cannot believe this station actually exists. They take shots at WOGL and WTKU all the time, they are taking e-mail entries and keep building their library. If that is not enough, you have WCMC, great nostalgia satellite format and great to hear, I think WMID is in-house. How long has Cool 98.3 been simulcasting on 1490? So there are 3 music oldies stations on AM, IMHO WMID is by far the best, Cool sounds too much like WOGL, its funny that WMID is playing music from the time that the area they are covering was sparcely populated when that music was big and many people may not recognize those tunes. On the other hand WPEN is playing repititious junk, in Philadelphia, which was bred on all sorts of music. WMID should be in Philly. I did notice they do not have the strength they did when I listened to them in the 60's, they just about make it to 559 and the BHP, where-as in the 60's they were listenable all the way to Williamstown and beyond on the BHP.

 

[coops48]

> I don't know if this subject is applicable for this Philly
> board, but today, I was in the South Jersey Shore area and
> came across WMID....All I can say is WOW, now this is what I
> call Classic Oldies, Kathy Young, Skeeter Davis, Faron
> Young, Staple Singers, Jim Reeves, Ferrante & Teicher a
> great female voice doing the liners and no chatter, when
> they say they play classics, they make no bones about it.
> They play a HUGE amount of "oh wows", I cannot believe this
> station actually exists. They take shots at WOGL and WTKU
> all the time, they are taking e-mail entries and keep
> building their library. If that is not enough, you have
> WCMC, great nostalgia satellite format and great to hear, I
> think WMID is in-house. How long has Cool 98.3 been
> simulcasting on 1490? So there are 3 music oldies stations
> on AM, IMHO WMID is by far the best, Cool sounds too much
> like WOGL, its funny that WMID is playing music from the
> time that the area they are covering was sparcely populated
> when that music was big and many people may not recognize
> those tunes. On the other hand WPEN is playing repititious
> junk, in Philadelphia, which was bred on all sorts of music.
> WMID should be in Philly. I did notice they do not have
> the strength they did when I listened to them in the 60's,
> they just about make it to 559 and the BHP, where-as in the
> 60's they were listenable all the way to Williamstown and
> beyond on the BHP.
>
This is good to know that WMID has returned to its roots. Don't know how old you are, but WMID, the Jersey Giant, was the station to listen to when WFIL and Wibbage were accessable at the shore. Hopefully through the years, the WMID music library remained intact, allowing them to provide the variety they are playing now.

 

[BobAltimari]

> > I don't know if this subject is applicable for this Philly
>
> > board, but today, I was in the South Jersey Shore area and
>
> > came across WMID....All I can say is WOW, now this is what
> I
> > call Classic Oldies, Kathy Young, Skeeter Davis, Faron
> > Young, Staple Singers, Jim Reeves, Ferrante & Teicher a
> > great female voice doing the liners and no chatter, when
> > they say they play classics, they make no bones about it.
>
> > They play a HUGE amount of "oh wows", I cannot believe
> this
> > station actually exists. They take shots at WOGL and WTKU
>
> > all the time, they are taking e-mail entries and keep
> > building their library. If that is not enough, you have
> > WCMC, great nostalgia satellite format and great to hear,
> I
> > think WMID is in-house. How long has Cool 98.3 been
> > simulcasting on 1490? So there are 3 music oldies
> stations
> > on AM, IMHO WMID is by far the best, Cool sounds too much
> > like WOGL, its funny that WMID is playing music from the
> > time that the area they are covering was sparcely
> populated
> > when that music was big and many people may not recognize
> > those tunes. On the other hand WPEN is playing
> repititious
> > junk, in Philadelphia, which was bred on all sorts of
> music.
> > WMID should be in Philly. I did notice they do not have
> > the strength they did when I listened to them in the 60's,
>
> > they just about make it to 559 and the BHP, where-as in
> the
> > 60's they were listenable all the way to Williamstown and
> > beyond on the BHP.
> >
> This is good to know that WMID has returned to its roots.
> Don't know how old you are, but WMID, the Jersey Giant, was
> the station to listen to when WFIL and Wibbage were
> accessable at the shore. Hopefully through the years, the
> WMID music library remained intact, allowing them to provide
> the variety they are playing now.
>

IMO, 94.3 WILW does good as an oldies station...so long as they're not doing the Sunday talk shows or off the bird, altho' ABC's oldies sat isn't too shabby. When they're local, sure...they're all over the board, but it's a wide enough variety to keep me from punching up TKU (which is REALLY starting to sound like OGL as of late...HEY! Why not put the Saturday Night Dance Party on there, instead of WILW?).
<P ID="signature">______________
FOX News Alert: YOU SUCK!!! Ya like apples?</P>

 

[deepstblu]

> How long has Cool 98.3 been simulcasting on 1490?

Since February or March.

 

[BlueHen]

> building their library. If that is not enough, you have
> WCMC, great nostalgia satellite format and great to hear, I
> think WMID is in-house.

Is WMID in-house? I thought they carried the ABC Oldies Radio syndicated format. Last I heard, WCMC was ABC's Stardust Timeless Classics.

> I did notice they do not have
> the strength they did when I listened to them in the 60's,
> they just about make it to 559 and the BHP, where-as in the
> 60's they were listenable all the way to Williamstown and
> beyond on the BHP.

This might depend on the car radio. I can usually begin picking up WMID around the Rt 54 overpass on the Black Horse Pike in Folsom. (We used to always call that the halfway point to the shore).

 

[John1]

In many places in my commute thru Bucks & Montgomery counties WMID comes in clear enough under Randi Rhodes on WHAT that I can identify the songs, and they do seem to play a good variety, somewhat similar to what WMTR/WWTR plays. In some spots WMID overpowers WHAT in Bucks County (on a car radio). I do remember going to the shore & hearing the battle between WMID and WOND, lots of suntan lotion commercials, just like WABC in the summer, which was also popular at the shore, especially LBI.

 

[saintrichard]

Thanks for all the helpful info, I was around in the days of Gary Lane, Walt Cooper(showtime), in fact around 1964/65 when the British Invasion/Beach/Motown music were hot, it was always a battle between WMID and WOND, at night 1340 took over when 1400 lowered power. I can remember when WOND had some WABC jingles, I guess it was the ABC affilate package. On the coverage, I do remember on the old transistor radios and the old car tube sets, WMID seemed stronger and would really start to come in around the Geets Diner area, WHAT would be gone, this is 1965 circa, going back to Philly today, they started to fade at 559 and the BHP, I dont think it had to do with the old 1955 chevy radio in my uncles car vs my 2005 Malibu, who knows. I can also remember in Philly if you turned your radio a certain way, WHAT would be nulled and WMID came in. About being in-house, WMID sounds in house, they repeated some songs today that they played Monday but in different order.

 

[apco25]

> Thanks for all the helpful info, I was around in the days of
> Gary Lane, Walt Cooper(showtime), in fact around 1964/65
> when the British Invasion/Beach/Motown music were hot, it
> was always a battle between WMID and WOND, at night 1340
> took over when 1400 lowered power. I can remember when WOND
> had some WABC jingles, I guess it was the ABC affilate
> package. On the coverage, I do remember on the old
> transistor radios and the old car tube sets, WMID seemed
> stronger and would really start to come in around the Geets
> Diner area, WHAT would be gone, this is 1965 circa, going
> back to Philly today, they started to fade at 559 and the
> BHP, I dont think it had to do with the old 1955 chevy radio
> in my uncles car vs my 2005 Malibu, who knows. I can also
> remember in Philly if you turned your radio a certain way,
> WHAT would be nulled and WMID came in. About being
> in-house, WMID sounds in house, they repeated some songs
> today that they played Monday but in different order.
>

How long was WMID and WOND a top 40 station. You brought back a memory of the name Gary Lane. How long was he a jock there. I remember hearing him in the 70's. and didn't the late Jessica Savitch work at WOND as one of the first female radio jocks.

 

[saintrichard]

Both stations were top 40 in the mid-60's from what I can remember, but I think WMID was around as long as WIBBAGE, from the 50's through the 70's. I remember the summers of 64 and 65 when both stations battled for the shore audiance, it was great times. I just found out WMID is now 890w, since when, I always thought they were 1kw-omni and WOND was 1kw-d 250n using the now defunct 103.7 FM-tower, which was very small. Why would WMID reduce power, if in fact they were 1k in the 60's, this might explain their smaller coverage area that I have experienced.

 

[JerseyShor]

What if you don't like Oldies?

 

[peppertree]

Too bad the government does not give you that choice. All radios that cost over $15. and ALL car/truck radios MUST be equipped with FM if you want it or not. And you will be paying for it.

I wish I lived in a free or free-er country. <P ID="signature">______________
[email protected]</P>

 

[apco25]

> Both stations were top 40 in the mid-60's from what I can
> remember, but I think WMID was around as long as WIBBAGE,
> from the 50's through the 70's. I remember the summers of
> 64 and 65 when both stations battled for the shore audiance,
> it was great times. I just found out WMID is now 890w,
> since when, I always thought they were 1kw-omni and WOND was
> 1kw-d 250n using the now defunct 103.7 FM-tower, which was
> very small. Why would WMID reduce power, if in fact they
> were 1k in the 60's, this might explain their smaller
> coverage area that I have experienced.
>

WMID is on a class IV station. 1000-250 n which is now 1000 d/n. Some of these class 4 channels might be required to lower power due to an adjacent channel or station or to close to water. Not just an Ocean but even a river or lake has an effect.

 

[tom]

> >
>Hopefully through the years, the
> WMID music library remained intact, allowing them to provide
> the variety they are playing now.
>

Ahhhh ... no - no scratchy 45's ... it's all new
uncompressed WAV files from TM Century.

 

[tom]

WMID has been 890 watts since about 1995 when I added
50 feet to the tower to raise the FM antenna. The
coverage is identical - same field strength.

> Both stations were top 40 in the mid-60's from what I can
> remember, but I think WMID was around as long as WIBBAGE,
> from the 50's through the 70's. I remember the summers of
> 64 and 65 when both stations battled for the shore audiance,
> it was great times. I just found out WMID is now 890w,
> since when, I always thought they were 1kw-omni and WOND was
> 1kw-d 250n using the now defunct 103.7 FM-tower, which was
> very small. Why would WMID reduce power, if in fact they
> were 1k in the 60's, this might explain their smaller
> coverage area that I have experienced.
>

 

[Oldiesgal]

> In many places in my commute thru Bucks & Montgomery
> counties WMID comes in clear enough under Randi Rhodes on
> WHAT that I can identify the songs, and they do seem to play
> a good variety, somewhat similar to what WMTR/WWTR plays.
> In some spots WMID overpowers WHAT in Bucks County (on a car
> radio). I do remember going to the shore & hearing the
> battle between WMID and WOND, lots of suntan lotion
> commercials, just like WABC in the summer, which was also
> popular at the shore, especially LBI.

The suntan commercials are as important a part of the mystique as the music. I was there in 1962 and remember both stations. Clearasil commercials were good too. But lets get real. If you remember those stations first hand, you were just coming into adulthood and everything seemed possible. JFK was still alive and all us kids were "cuzzins".But its gone. I'm around 60 and I'm just hooked on Soft AC. Time marches on.
>