Chance to restore WOWO's 50KW night service

So, Inner City Broadcasting is in bankruptcy. The company which destroyed WOWO-AM's night time signal 15 years ago. It sounds like asset sales are coming - possibly in NYC - including 1190 WLIB.

Will Federated step up to the plate, buy WLIB-AM and shut it down to restore WOWO? One can dream.....

Don't hold your breath

considering the cost for WOWO to put the transmission system BACK to original pattern, plus buying WLIB...Nah. Would I like to see it happen?? SURE.

Federated is focused on trying to swallow a few more Indiana FM signals next, however they did own an AM/FM combo in Cincinnati previously, so going outside of Indiana is not an issue for that company.

Would they really need to do anything to the transmission system? Just don't drop power and change pattern at night, right?

Granted, buying WLIB might be a bit pricey with a goal of just turning in the license. The FCC would probably not let them downgrade it back to a daytimer so it would likely need to be a total shutdown.

But, it is a rare opportunity to right a previous wrong.

I don't live in Indiana, but I used to get WOWO all the time nightly here in FL. Not anymore, due to the WLIB thing.

However, due to the change to WOWO & WLIB, haven't other stations on AM 1190 in the USA that used to be daytime-only added night power? I'd think that the changes would have allowed that----which means that going back to 50k for WOWO would be outta the question.

cd

Will never happen. In this day and age, it just wouldn't be worth it.

Besides, I notice that WOWO's nighttime schedule consistes of Hannity, Levin and "Coast to Coast". Aren't there enough 50kw stations airing that same lineup?

cd637299 said:

However, due to the change to WOWO & WLIB, haven't other stations on AM 1190 in the USA that used to be daytime-only added night power? I'd think that the changes would have allowed that----which means that going back to 50k for WOWO would be outta the question.

Click to expand...

Yes and no. When WOWO gave up its class A status to allow WLIB to add night power, it indeed opened the floodgates for other stations to add night service in areas where they'd previously have been required to protect WOWO's night signal. The Kansas City 1190 has upgraded, for instance, as has the St. Louis-area 1190. Even if WLIB were for some reason to give up its night signal, WOWO still can't go back to class A because of those other stations.

But even class B stations can now run up to 50 kW, albeit without nighttime skywave protection. Even without making any changes to WLIB (which throws almost no signal toward Fort Wayne at night), it would be possible for WOWO to power up...but it would require additional towers and a new phasor. Is it worth it at this point? Evidently not, especially since there's every reason to believe that at some point, probably sooner rather than later, there will be a WOWO-FM covering the areas within the market where the AM signal is most problematic at night. (And it's not as though the AM signal is even all that problematic at 9800 watts.)

1190 makes it to Tennessee fairly well at 9800 watts. Unless WOWO could raise the rates substantially on Komet hockey, it wouldn't be worth the cost, especially if they could grab another FM.

I don't think any other stations on 1190 made any changes after the WOWO/WLIB fiasco. I think some stations looked at it but either the FCC didn't go along with it or the stations didn't move forward with it.

I agree on the programming part - the station is mostly a satellite repeater now and has been gutted from what it was - but restoring a usable signal on 1190 across the east at least opens the door to something better in the future.

Who knows - if WLIB goes for cheap (it might - a bankrupty sale, and station values are way down from the peak now) maybe it could be feasible.

I also don't live within the day time pattern - I'm one of the distance listeners who used to listen almost every night and now can only get noise on 1190. I was also a member of the WOWO listeners guild - a loose knit group that came together on USENET and filed letters with the FCC opposed to the Inner City purchase and signal changes in the mid-1990's.

Ok, I stand corrected. Didn't realize those signals had upgraded.

With internet streaming I supposed the whole skywave service is less useful than it once was but I thought it was an interesting idea for Federated to look at.

There's no additional revenue available from skywave coverage so it wouldn't be an economical move. Even the overnight truckers' shows are available on XM.Sirius.

Everyone says that - no additional revenue from the skywave - but I think the sales dept. isn't trying hard enough then.

WBZ in Boston running local talk programming evenings and overnight constantly has callers from their skywave area and back in the day, so did WOWO on their request line.

Re Scott's reply to me----I suppose WOWO *can* go back to 50k, provided they shoot the signal toward Nunavut

cd

spt87 said:

Everyone says that - no additional revenue from the skywave - but I think the sales dept. isn't trying hard enough then.

Click to expand...

The WOWO sales department only cares about selling ads for businesses in northeastern Indiana and adjacent parts of Ohio. They don't need to have listeners in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Chicago, or anywhere else outside of a 70-mile-or-so radius of Ft. Wayne.

WBZ in Boston running local talk programming evenings and overnight constantly has callers from their skywave area and back in the day, so did WOWO on their request line.

Click to expand...

The blowtorches' marketing and engineering departments love being able to crow about coverage of "38 states and Canada" (OK, it's not really that anymore, if it ever was). But revenue is only generated within a station's metro area and maybe adjacent outlying areas.

For example, I'm in Phoenix. I can listen to KNX on my radio or WSCR online, but neither station's advertisers can get one thin dime from me unless I travel to LA or Chicago, respectively. If their advertisers wanted sales from people in my area, they'd advertise on Phoenix-area stations.

Skywave listeners would be such a microscopic number it wouldn't even register. Especially now with all the electrical noise and interference. Preacher shows buy skywave but even that's a dwindling number. Even stations like WLW with a one share or so in Indianapolis, Columbus and Ft. Wayne don't attract advertising from outside Cincinnati (and only a few Dayton accounts.)

IF they had more unique programming at night, they could sell that on a national basis. Unique?? Like what WSM used to do. MOR during the day for local $$$, country at night for national $$$.

Hoosierky said:

IF they had more unique programming at night, they could sell that on a national basis. Unique?? Like what WSM used to do. MOR during the day for local $$$, country at night for national $$$.

Click to expand...

Who would want to produce or sponsor a "national" radio program on a scratchy, fading (outside of the Ft. Wayne area) AM signal - a band with few listeners younger than 60? Besides, even in its best days, WOWO never had national coverage with its signal.

This is 2011, not 1941. It doesn't matter what a station used to do. Fibber McGee and Molly are dead. So is the AM band. AM entertainment programming was replaced by TV in the 1950s. AM music programming was replaced by FM music programming in the 1970s. AM talk programming is being replaced by FM talk programming in the 2010s. Nobody wants to listen to noisy Ancient Modulation signals that fade in and out when they can get clear reception on FM, or national or even world-wide coverage online (bad streaming apps willing, of course).

There was a rumor a few years back, that even WSM was gonna flip to sports talk.....dunno how true that was.....but such is the state of music on AM, that this would be bandied about.

cd

That was true. Now WSM sits as a museum piece