WNNK 104's Traffic Reports

[RockofHBG]

Not that I expect that from the company that decided it would be a good thing to kill the best real rock station in the area like they did with WTPA when they moved them to the crappy frequency of 92.1.

In case you were not aware, Cumulus was forced by the FCC to sell two of their radio stations in Harrisburg after the Citadel merger. Naturally, they chose the weakest of the two frequencies, 92.1 and 102.3. The were also required by the FTC to divest themselves of the intellectual property of WTPA, regardless of which frequencies they kept. That is why they moved TPA to 92.1. I'm sure there was no joy in doing so.

[SmithBobSmith]

While they were required to divest, the FCC did not require the divestiture of WTPA, the FTC did.  Clear Channel forced that one, Cumulus was going to move Hot up the dial, moving that station (I forget which) to the 92.1 spot and keep TPA where it was.  Clear Channel raised a stink with the feds, who told Cumulus to divest WTPA.  I have heard from a fairly reliable source that the instructions from Cumulus were to gut WTPA.  That was NOT a federal requirement, nor was relocating it to a channel that changed the coverage area considerably, causing many listeners - particularly in the western part of the listening area, to no longer be able to receive anything for WTPA.

While I have not followed up on it, I am curious as to exactly where, in Palmyra, WTPA has it's presence.  Under FCC rules, a station must have a copy of it's public file in their city of license.  For WTPA, that is Palmyra.

[florida91]

John did not work for Cumulus. He worked for Metro Traffic which was bought by Clear Channel.  So they put him on in Harrisburg on CC stations. He had no choice if he wanted to keep doing traffic without waiting the 6 month period out to re join doing traffic for Cumulus as a Cumulus employee.

[phlargenkloop]

To clarify this situation a little bit for anyone who might be confused, John & Cumulus had no choice in this matter.  Last year Total Traffic (aka Clear Channel) bought Metro who John worked for.  This made John a Clear Channel employee even though he was working at Cumulus.  He was able to stay because of the contracts the Metro had in place prior to being purchased.  When the contracts expired at the end of June, John had to leave since Cumulus is obviously not going to pay their competitor for traffic information.  Clear Channel is saying John has a non-compete with them even though word from both places is that he never signed a non-compete.  How Clear Channel can enforce something that doesn't exist is beyond me?  Cumulus won't get into the fray since he wasn't their employee and John is on his own.  Maybe someone should kick in to pay for his lawyers?  As far as his current replacement, Dave Andrews, it's a bizarre situation.  Dave used to be in charge of the Harrisburg office of Total Traffic up until last Summer when Clear Channel closed the office in the name of the almighty dollar, everything was moved to Philadelphia & Dave and his staff were hurled into the street after about 10 years.  You may or may not know, Dave has been reporting traffic for this area for more than 20 years (6 or 7 yrs more than John).  He was Commander Kool for the Oldies station, Kool 94.9, in the early 90's, then was at Channel 27 before moving to Clear Channel.  So he's not some newbie.  I believe Dave & John are friends and having met Dave on a few occasions, he seems like the kind of person who feels like he's just holding down the fort until his friend gets back to where he belongs.  That is, if John can get out from under that non-existant non-compete.  So if you want to listen to Dave, keep listening to Cumulus.  If you want to hear John, flip to WHP 580, The River, Bob or Kiss.  John's just stuck between a couple of giant swinging dicks in a pissing contest.  If you're mad about all this, don't aim it at the guys.

[Seltzer]

This whole thing is a mess and another reason why..legal or not..two companies should own the bulk of the radio stations in Central PA. What a mess. And the losers here? The advertisers, listeners, and all the former employees who have been kicked to the curb with nowhere to go.