WARM

[ka2xuk]

I concur....moving down to the valley and diplexing with another facility or building new towers would be likely scenario.  Best if towers were right wavelength or longer in height.  Night could be flea power.

Actually, they wouldn't have to go to flea power at night. WARM is a Class B (formerly Class III) station. The night pattern is almost identical to the day pattern and, in fact, WARM has been operating on its night pattern at all times for years. One city that they have to protect at night is Boston, which has a co-channel station.

590 is a Cuban Class I-C allocation, but we all know what happened to any agreements between the United States and Cuba (or the NARBA) after Castro came to power. A Cuban station can often be heard here on 590 at night, playing classical music.

[Dave McAndrews]

Yeah,it  is a shame,with the right direction Warm could be a true full-service Am Station.

With the unpopularity of AM radio these days and With money not being an option (say a big lottery win) the smart thing to do would be to see if Cumulus would also sell You one of their FM's to do an AM/FM WARM combo. Hey you can dream right?

[ka2xuk]

With the unpopularity of AM radio these days and With money not being an option (say a big lottery win) the smart thing to do would be to see if Cumulus would also sell You one of their FM's to do an AM/FM WARM combo. Hey you can dream right?

And why is AM so unpopular? Take a listen to the rotten programming on most AM stations these days: right-wing political propaganda from syndicated blowhards; infomercials for cure-all laxatives, quack dietary supplements, male enhancement products, and questionable real estate deals; canned sports talk from distant cities; and, on some stations, left-wing political propaganda from syndicated hosts who are a great cure for insomnia. There are AM stations that are anything but unpopular: WBBM, Chicago, one of the nation's top billers; KYW, Philadelphia, consistently within the top five in the ratings there; WGN, Chicago, another ratings powerhouse; and, closer to home, WHLM, Bloomsburg, which plays oldies with plenty of local news.

Looking at the changes that Cumulus has made in this market, they might have to sell ALL of those stations someday. WARM was off the air for three days due to the lack of a local engineer, while WBSX is driving away listeners in droves with that horrible syndicated morning show. "Stale Beer and Cold Wings", anyone? And, with A.J. gone, what syndicated crap will show up on WBHT?

[cowboy72]

i agree with the last post about am radio. there are am stations that have a polka format, and alot of local news, and other local info that do well. what they need are people who know radio, and care about the people who are on the payroll. alot of these stations are sold out, and are making money..that makes everyone happy..

[oldies4ever]

Cowboy is right.....live and local would get the job done with a good oldies format and jocks that know the music.....hmmm powerball......

oldies4ever
WARMLAND reunion aug 11, 2012 at the Pocono Drag Lodge, bear Creek.....
 

[normhill007]

WGN amd KDKA are still going strong.

[NigelWick]

WGN amd KDKA are still going strong.

Live and local takes money, and no one is spending money these days.

Yes, WGN and KDKA are going strong, but these's a difference.  Those stations never totally lost their audience the way WARM did.  Once they're gone, they're not coming back at a level where you can make money.

[doubleacoach]

Here is a locally produced college radio Public Affairs special that parallels the decline of WARM-AM and "local radio". Jill Bodek, a student at Luzerne County Community College and WSFX-FM produced it as a Special Project.

http://depts.luzerne.edu/wsfx/sp.jsp

You will hear from a combined media experience of over 200 years.  Joe Middleton , Vince Kearney, Billy Kelly, David DeCosmo, Erica Funke and David Yonki - thank you for your assistance.

We hope you find a memory or two in it.

[NXEA]

WARM on 590 will never be a success ever again; I can't believe I've just posted that, but lets face it, everyone on this board claiming 'live and local' would win forgets the whole problem with WARM: it is on AM. (Yes we have a successul AM in town: WILK, but even with three AMs management still felt the need to take over 103.1, yes we have WGMF/WZMF but management covers the market with a bunch of FM translators and now GMF has numbers). I listened to Harry West back in the 70s and early 80s and couldn't wait for Operation Snowflake to see if my school was closed. WARM had local newscasts twice an hour with two anchors, news reporters who actually had a beat, 20/20 sports, etc. Who could forget that awesome legal ID from Charlie Van Dyke over the beginning of the Mutual News theme: W-A-R-M Scranton, serving Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and the Poconos, Where News Comes First. But those days are long gone: the only viable AMs today have either stuck to their guns (WEEU Reading), have 50kw (WBZ/KYW ,and that doesn't even help WWKB Buffalo), acquired an FM translator or more (WGMF), or acquired a full-power FM (WBBM on 105.9, WIP on 94.1, WBEN 930 on 107.7, and a whole string of others). AM-only is basically dead as a door nail (except for the big city stations I have mentioned and small stations who still spend money);where else do employ 100 year old technology and expect people to use/utiltise it; who wants to hear a narrow band mono-signal  (thank the FCC for taking forever to make C-QUAM the stereo standard) that is even worse when there's a thunderstorm. The problem with WARM is that it was left to rot (the format and the physical plant), and now a generation or two has never ever listened to it, and the generation that did turned elsewhere (even my Grandfather complained how bad the signal was). The only chance WARM would have is to put it on FM, spend a huge chunk of change to staff it up (that would mean an actual news team, etc) provide a real full service format, and it might make a dent. Unfortunately radio today is all about automation, voice tracking, big corporations, etc. The internet means people no longer turn to radio as their first source of news, school closings are sent my SMS/text, and high school football games not on traditional radio are now on internet-only broadcasts (and they get listeners) Did I mention smart-phones? Like it or not internet-only radio will start to directly compete with terrestrial radio even in the car. 590 should be put out of its misery once and for all (if it stood a chance of making money someone would have bought it already and fixed the array). I'll probably get a ton of people reacting angrily to this post but those are the same folks who still want to use carts and CDs (time marches on and it is best to remember WARM in its heyday than try to bring it back on AM-only and have it fail miserably).

[NigelWick]

Here is a locally produced college radio Public Affairs special that parallels the decline of WARM-AM and "local radio". Jill Bodek, a student at Luzerne County Community College and WSFX-FM produced it as a Special Project.

http://depts.luzerne.edu/wsfx/sp.jsp

You will hear from a combined media experience of over 200 years.  Joe Middleton , Vince Kearney, Billy Kelly, David DeCosmo, Erica Funke and David Yonki - thank you for your assistance.

We hope you find a memory or two in it.

Oy!  Factual errors.