102.9 WCLX .... Gone

[Mark Decker]

...the issues that caused me to take WCLX dark (with several weeks' notice) go beyond financial...

[Thinking aloud]

Hmm.  What's beyond financial?  Only thing that comes to my mind is engineering issues, personal taste, or another suitor.  If it were engineering issues, I doubt it would have caused the programmers to relinquish their post for a short-term issue.  We can strike out personal taste, because 10 years would be a long run for someone who doesn't care for a format.  Could it be that Mr. Jackson wished to give someone else a shot at a larger coverage area (or any type of coverage)? 

After all, it's been demonstrated that the previous programmers have had some success in transferring their loyal listener base to the internet.  Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise?  Internet operational costs are likely to be lower (unless there's a dramatic increase in music royalties) and operators have no limitations on listener base coverage (outside of bandwidth).  (In fact, my wife ran across the website on her own awhile ago.  She's not an avid internet listener of any format, but the example is people do come across the site.)

The only drawback is proving to clients that their ads are effective, but then again, they have site counters and I.P. address identifiers for that.  (How else could those wretched internet ads know I'm in the Baltimore area now?)

All in all, I say to the programmers of musicheads.us, don't be dissuaded by what appears to be a setback.  It might not even be one at all... with the right marketing. 

[PeterTripp]

Perhaps I can shed some light on this as owner/founder/licensee of WCLX.    After many difficult months, there was little choice but to do a cold reboot, so I ended Kinsley and Desmond's programming of WCLX for reasons anyone who knows them or is close to the situation appreciates and understands.   

Chip and Kathy Morgan, two successful radio consultants/engineering/broadcast entrepreneurs who also started a high end cattle farm and marketing business are now programming WCLX with their groundbreaking custom format called "Farm Fresh Radio."     WCLX is rapidly evolving away from WMUD, the Morgans' highly popular 100 Watt LPFM public station with a related format.  (http://wmud.org)   

The story picks up in the 11/9/09 edition of NERW at http://fybush.com.   See also these stories for more background on Chip and Kathy's ventures and adventures: http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=8680910 and http://www.7dvt.com/2007/rib-eye-radio.

OTOH, musicheads.us is Kinsley and Desmond's own website and Live 365 stream.    It is unrelated to WCLX in spite of our call letters being all over it to give us some extra publicity.    In fact, it contains selected and even manufactured comments and diatribes from the couple that appear to be intended to make website visitors think WCLX is gone, the new format is bad, etc etc.    Nothing could be farther from the truth.   The reality is that they are now just "musicheads" who are irrelevant to radio station WCLX, and vice versa.

WCLX itself does not have a website yet, but when we have it up, it will be at http://wclxfm.com.   If we put up a stream, you may find, as have so many devotees who quickly found us and whose comments are now heard on the air, that "Farm Fresh Radio grows on you."

[Mark Decker]

Hope you buy that WCLX domain name quick... 

I noticed that folks on the musicheads.us website say they are sending in donations... was it solicited?  Might be a problem from a legal point of view (with a broadcast signal)?  (Hmmm, I didn't cover that in my last writing.  Perhaps I've stumbled onto something here. )

[Eli Polonsky]

Hope you buy that WCLX domain name quick... 

A case of imminent domain? 

I noticed that folks on the musicheads.us website say they are sending in donations... was it solicited?  Might be a problem from a legal point of view (with a broadcast signal)?  (Hmmm, I didn't cover that in my last writing.  Perhaps I've stumbled onto something here. )

Commercial stations are allowed to solicit for, and accept, donations. They just can not be tax deductible for the donor since the station is not a non-profit.

[Mark Decker]

Well by clicking the link, it forwards me to farmfreshradio.com and it looks pretty snazzy for a startup website.  Now let's hope they make good on their promise to work on getting a playlist online or some such thing within a reasonable time frame.  (I'd say a month is fair.)  The site (and station) has the potential to be something special.  Let's hope for the best!

[MatrixMan]

Having moved away from the area, I only now found out about this station being gone. Hopefully they'll come back soon, as this was and is a truly unique station, one that assumes their listener has a brain and great taste in music.

[musichead1029]

The Album Station is soon to be or already back on the air at 97.9.