107.3 Hit Music "NOW" losing STEAM?

[Zach]

Why don't you think this is possible/probable Zach?

I dunno, it sounds like a good plan but I don't see the owners of any of the FWB (or panhandle) stations giving up and selling out anytime soon.  The money seems to be in Mobile and the eastern shore, or in Pensacola, so a station entering a multicast would probably try to target Pensacola and not FWB.  And none of the FWB signals I'm aware of do a realy thorough job of covering all of Pensacola.  Maybe if someone could wrestle K-Love off 95.7…

But then isn't there an issue of ownership caps?  The FCC goes by overlapping signals, not Arbitron markets, so any overlap between a Mobile signal and a Pensacola signal would be prohibited, I think.  Without overlap they would probably lose a good part of Baldwin County including the tourist-heavy beaches.

I don't actually know how the overlap rule works, if it's 70 or 60 or 54 dBu or whatever, so maybe it would be possible.  It just doesn't seem probable.

[poledo]

I'm not smart enough to do the math, but since most every Pensacola radio station is really a Mobile radio station I've always thought it would be very smart for a couple of the FWB stations to move to the WUWF-FM/WPAN-TV tower area and become Pensacola targeted stations.  FWB seems way over-radioed for it's size and with half the signals wasted over the Gulf.

That whole Military audience down in Fort Walton and the 30A crowd in South Walton really confuses me.  They have plenty of disposible income but almost none of them are full time residents.  I would think a simulcast of Mobile (or even Panama City) stations would serve them just fine.  Apparently that's not the case. 
I've heard the DJ's on 99 rock comment many times that they (and the guys on air at Country 105.5) are the only live voices in FWB.  The 99 Rock DJs even bash the Cumulus sister stations Z96 and Coast 93 for not having anyone in the studio.
Then there's the obvious hole in Clear Channels' coastal coverage.  They practically own every single Gulf Coast market yet they have no interest at all in FWB. 
It just doesn't add up.  I thought I was good at math, but I can't put this equation together.

[Zach]

They practically own every single Gulf Coast market yet they have no interest at all in FWB.

That's because FWB is too small for them to even notice.  I know they have some small markets like Minot and Tupelo but those seem to be afterthoughts.

[Board Editor]

Some posts in this topic have been moved to Off The Air.

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=205734.0

[amfmxm]

Okay, gang--no more chit-chat about casinos. This here is about RADIO. LOL

Poledo, if you remember back to the Clear Channel-Capstar (AMFM) buying frenzy of 1996-1999, they were scooping up stations by the truckload, and some smaller-market stuff just got gobbled up as part of the madness. As an example, if Group X included stations in Nashville, Birmingham, Knoxville and, say, Cookeville--the latter was included rather than take the time and bother to split it out. TK & WOWW were just part of the massive Paxson transaction, f'rinstance.

At the same time, there seems to have been (only the Mays boys & Tom Hicks know for sure) a notion floating that CC's small-market acquisitions were made in order to present national agencies with the opportunity to buy top-rated stations in EVERY RATED MARKET (or nearly so) with one, easy purchase--essentially to buy "the radio industry" with one phone call. Trouble is, those national agencies resisted the pitch, insisting on splitting-out each market... justifying each station... and/or cutting the buy at "top 50 markets" or "top 100 markets." In other words, the buyers wouldn't let CC lump WKSI (Winchester, VA) in with KIIS (LA)--unless Winchester was basically free. The concept ran into the radio networks--where the Winchesters of the world are freebies...

Anyway, they eventually determined that small-market radio wasn't cost-effective. Welcome to the Aloha Trust!

[poledo]

Yeah, we got a little slap on this thread.  I wonder if it was the sysop or if one of the readers complained about us?

All these years I never knew that 98.1 was part of a cluster (Paxon's I assume) when CC acquired it.  I thought it had been a stand alone up until the day CC bought it.
Now I'm wondering did CC launch "The Ticket" sports format or was it already in place when they bought 98.1?  Tibbs will know the answer, I just know he will.

[Tibbs2]

Poledo - I must admit I am officially getting old. I can't remember all the facts and dates exactly. What I do know is that by not dealing with it since the mid-90's, I apologize if I am incorrect below.

Pre-Mid 90's
MetroCities Communications owned WWSF it until it was bought by Steve Riggs and company and it was changed to WXCR and quickly became the #2 12+ (and 25-54) station in the market with a tin can signal and tinny sound playing a great blend of, uh, brilliantly inspired (hehe) fairly normal Classic Rock and a rather large dose of 70's non-traditional Classic Rock that made it really unique (and damn goooood?!?!) Years of
disasters in the making.

Mid-90's
Not overly profitable before, a little hurricane named 0pal affirmed it's fate and kinda missing a city 7.5 hrs north where Music is king became a change catalyst, so the decision to sell/lease the station to Affable Comm. (a couple of old timers that should have never been allowed to get their $$$butts in a sling) and re-flipped 98.1 Classic Rock back to WWSF and offered a weird version of Top 40 for those ages 75-100 (* excluding CCENG, of course.) Disasters continue.

Post Mid-90's (2000?)
The station finally is sold thanks to divine de-regulation and suits with briefcases full of payola that think that anything on a coast is liquid gold (and never see the real world beyond 1,000 ft. from the beaches on 30-A.) They pour $$$$ in from the sans-Paxon/CC(??) via Capstar Corp (??-I can't remember who all it really was. Maybe CCENG knows.) They,I think, did flip it to Sports. I don't think it was the next "owner." Then they gracefully gave the gift that kept never giving to Ron Hale. The rest of the story is pretty much covered in sordid detail on here in numerous (and lovingly) great and colorful descriptions. Disasters that
made hurricanes seem like 70 degree sunny days.

And the beat goes on...

This might help. And I am 122.75% sober. Just kinda sick thinking about all this again....

Moral of the story: Just have Charlie Wooten sell you some strobeys and hook them up on a flag pole and PLAY radio...it's cheaper.

[Zach]

Wikipedia says it was Capstar who owned 98.1 when it flipped to sports.  Whether that was before or after Clear Channel gobbled them up, I have no idea.  The station's ownership history seems kind of wonky.  Like that article and RECnet show it going from Capstar to Chancellor in 1999, then from AMFM to Clear Channel in 2000 after those two merged.  Then it's transferred from Capstar TX to Star in 2003.  Star to Qantam happened in 2004, with a failed transfer to Cumulus in 2005-6.  Finally to Apex in December 2011.  REC doesn't show anything prior to 1999 as far as company names go, just that the license was transferred seven times in 10 years.

[Rob-42]

Wow, and I know the owner of RECnet as well, I'm now seeing we lost 106.3 the seabreeze to Coyote Country. If this is true, no more smooth jazz stations anymore.

(sorry for being off topic)

[Zach]

What do you mean, Rob?  Seabreeze is alive and well according to their website.  I don't list it on my Alabama-centric site because it's too far away to put a signal into Pensacola.