98SURF late 80s

Anyone have or know anyplace to get some air checks of production from this great station I used to listen to in FWB and Destin area????

You would probably have a hard time finding any airchecks of 98SURF unless you have contacts with previous air talent who worked there then. Tim Kincaid lived in Pensacola and got out of the business after the station's original owners(from Pittsburgh) sold to Steve Riggs (whose partners bought
K92 in Destin prior to that)and it had sold a few more times before it finally became WHWY Highway 98 country. Dale Reddick (Rick Daily)worked locally, then Pensacola (Christian FM 91.7)but since partnered a deal on a south Alabama FM Christian station..Dale was a production genius and might have an aircheck but do not know. 98SURF's PD at the time (88-91)was JJ Duling who went to work for Clear Channel in Orlando, then moved to Nashville, and now somewhere in west Texas.

I used to have some old 98 Surf air checks, let me see what I can find. I know I have a few tapes from the 98one Classic Rock days, on cassette I think, that was mid 90's though. A lot of those old tapes and things disappeared after Hurricane Opal, IIRC. Steve, did you have any old air checks from your days at Surf?

No I do not, wish I did, if I did, it would have been on an old cassette tape.
I wish I had some old tapes of my "beach" days at WNUE, i have cassette airchecks from 93FMQ Honolulu, KEEL 710/KITT Shreveport, K92 Destin, WFSH
Niceville, and LUV100 Niceville, and I am still looking for a cassette aircheck
from WFTW when Jay Jackson used to do the "Ebb Tide" sunset signoff for 1260 WFTW in the late 80's..by the way Tibbs, I saw your thread on the Pensacola Predictions and your question about what Cumulus paid Holladay
for the FWB Cluster on Hollywood Blvd..I was there when the deal was announced..the Dickeys offered 30Million in 2003 for 4FMs and 1 AM.

$30 M. Is that all? Haha. Think that investment is worth 1/3 of that now??? I wonder if all those stations have had total revenues of $30M since they bought them.

Holliday owned 1260 and 1400, along with 96.5, 99.5, 100.3 & 105.5. Right? Or did Cumulus pick up 1400 in a separate deal at the same time they bought the Holliday group? Cumulus traded Hale 100.3 and 1400 for the 93.3 C2 CP.

What facts do I have wrong?

I think the only AM at the time was WFTW at 1400?.but I can't recall. I know the FMs were 99.5, 96.5, 100.whatever and 105.5. 98.5 was billing about $600k in it's XCR, as a stand alone, but #2 in the market, during its Classic Rock heyday and I can't believe the cluster for Holliday was much over $3.5M (more likely) to $4M in revenues a year when they sold. That does not make the 10x multiple work, so maybe it was mid $4's to near $5M? I never really thought about it.

WFTW, 1260 was the only AM in the deal between Holladay and Cumulus.
1400 (WNUE) then WBYU Bayou 1400, whatever has been under Hale.
Really doesn't matter, because I believe as many other small and medium
markets around the country are bracing for Cumulus which has launced their
brand "NASH" from NYC and will eventually be fed to all 83 country outlets in
some form, daypart. drivetime or all day and , thus, clone from coast to coast,
putting their local airstaffs out of a job!..cut the overhead, increase the bottomline even if it is boring. They will retain a sales manager, a few sales
people who produce, an engineer (maybe on call)BUT no live DJ's..oh yes
maybe one or two who can do production unless you can train the salepeople
to cut their own spots!

I really believe the 93.3 CP deal Hale made with Cumulus involved 100.3 and 1400. I read the long filing on the FCC website back when the deal was struck. I'm just certain that 1400 was part of that transaction in some way. I just don't have the will to go re-read those documents and go through the Qantum/Cumulus/Hale legal **** up all over again.
I know 1400 had been off the air for quite a while before Hale got his hands on it... Not that 1400 is in any better shape now under Hale's ownership. Maybe Cumulus just brokered a purchase of 1400 for Hale from it's previous owner and never officially had it in their portfolio. I don't know. I guess this isn't even important enough to post but since I've already typed it I'm posting anyway.

Well, I can't even remember what frequency WFTW was on, Poledo. Shows you how much I ever listed to AM, although I do remember WDLP from PC back in the 80s or maybe a bit before. There was another AM, WBZR?, that was supposed to be a tourist station that I don't recall ever actually happened. Seems like that was all about the same time Birch Con1 came into town and took over Wave from Mark Carters family. No comment.

I have always wondered how in the hell you can have a couple of decent FM signals and trash them and then end up with a translator that sux and an AM. If you can't make money on a 25k FM signal, how can you make it in AM on the coast?

WFTW was on 99.3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPTJETZg-2Y

-Rob

Oh god, my mind remembers the most useless things.

One of the two AMs in DeFuniak Springs had a CP to change frequencies down to the 800 range, raise power, move the tower down by Choctawhatchee Bay and change the COL to Freeport. This was supposed to become the tourist information station for South Walton. I have no idea who was responsible for this brilliant idea. Could it have been related to WAWD "Beach TV"? We'll never know because it never happened.

There is absolutely no justifiable reason for me to know that. How embarrassing!

I think I might have had 1400 backwards. I now believe the deal between Hale and Cumulus gave Cumulus an option to purchase 1400. After the Qantum **** up with 98.1 Cumulus didn't deal with Hale anymore. I would guess that Hale's FWB empire collapsed to 1400 and the 94.3 translator because he should have been held liable for Qantum's and Cumulus' legal bills along with his own.
Keep in mind that his purchase of WABB AM recently collapsed and he doesn't even own 100.3 The Ticket, he's just running it on a LMA... so somewhere in the mess he lost the Class A that he traded for a C1. Nah nah nah nah hey hey hey goodbye $.

Rob-42 said:

WFTW was on 99.3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPTJETZg-2Y

-Rob

Click to expand...

No one cares about that WFTW. Some people cared about WKSM 99.3 Kiss FM. Tibbs just forgot that **** The World's frequency is 1260.

On, the boards are censored now. The four dashes in my posts represent a dirty word that starts with the letter F.

I'll try to behave and watch my language in the future... Just couldn't pass up the chance to spell out FTW.

LOL... sh*t, now I'm going to have to watch my language, too.

Poledo, I think this stuff sticks in our brains because so much of radio is downright arcane--it doesn't happen elsewhere in American Life... or everyday business life. Like Hale's convoluted deals. Or the weird-ass threeway between/among Dittman-EMF-Cumulus that blew up chunks of the Mobile-Pensacola radio market and took WABB up the dial and down the dial, back to where it started (did I follow this correctly?)--but with different call letters, for no logical reason beyond (maybe) skirting some federal rules.

It's not like daily life, where a month later we can't tell you the difference between Tuesday and Wednesday...

poledo said:

One of the two AMs in DeFuniak Springs had a CP to change frequencies down to the 800 range, raise power, move the tower down by Choctawhatchee Bay and change the COL to Freeport. This was supposed to become the tourist information station for South Walton.

Click to expand...

The AM station you are referring was WGTX-AM 1280 DeFuniak Springs, co-owned, at the time, with WQUH-FM 103.1 also licensed to DeFuniak Springs. Arthur Dees owned both stations at the time. WGTX had applied for and received a CP to change frequency to 890 kHz with, I believe, the same 5kw-daytime power that was licensed on 1280 kHz, and a COL change to Freeport. That station is now WDSP-AM 1280 and still licensed to DeFuniak Springs.

It's kinda interesting to read all this, but I have to admit, AM radio was so far off the beaten listening path, that very few radio people cared...or worried about them. What I do know is I remember seeing a handful of AM radio stations for sale in the FWB/Destin "suburbs" for some rather crazy expensive prices and for years, people kept jumping on them. And trying. And failing. How many of the AMs are even on the air down that way now? I know how many are profitable. I seem to recall an AM tourist type station plan by a guy named Willie, maybe, and the call letters something like WBZR? I remember talking to this guy and I think I told him to talk to Mark Carter and i think both of us laughed that this was going to be the most insane new station ever. I don't think he ever got close to getting it off the ground but I could be wrong. Then there's great advisors like CCENG who ask "why in the he!!" would anyone want a 100kw FM station...so true. And as AMFM would agree...so painful.


WFTW FM was a real station, before 99 Kiss cranked up. I think it was low power, like 3kw. I also remember Art and I remember 103.1 was Jazz with call letters with a U in them, maybe? I also remember the flip to MIx 103.1. It was a great sounding station for a long time. I remembered loving hearing "Crazy" by Seal and knowing it was appropriate for radio along Hwy 98. Poledo, also remember 105.5 being oldies before country and 100.1 signing on. That was a tough signal from day one. Last thought: Birch. Bringing back memories I would rather forget. Wait, sadly i have. And not by choice. Correct me if I am faltering on some exact facts...

There was also a hairbrained plan to establish a network of AM tourist info stations along I-10 with continuous coverage from Mobile to Jax and along I-75 with coverage from Valdosta to the Glades. That "network" actually got off the ground with a couple stations, I think one in Valdosta and a second near Gainesville... but the rest of the network never happened. I can't imagine how much it would have cost to buy and reengineer all those stations to have directional signals matching the interstate routes. Obviously it failed. I can't see how that would have ever worked without Disney on board.

Pensacola's 1230 AM was a tourist info station for maybe 2 years circa 1992 after flipping from Alternative and before briefly going with Sports.

I was the one who applied for the CP to move WGTX from 1280 to 890 and change the COL to Freeport. I sold the station and the new owners let the CP expire.

As far as airchecks of 98 Surf go, you might want to check with JJ Duling. His phone number is listed on his Facebook page at the link below. Good luck!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/JJ-Duling-Radio/245636518337