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WNWR 1540 and its many issues- a small rant

radiodx10

radiodx10

Once again the station is broadcasting dead air. It's been this way for the last couple of days. Also, it has been transmitting as (what I can deduce) is maybe 5 or 10kW, but not even close to what they should be at- which is a full 50kW. I can tell this by just looking at them on my SDR, and the carrier is MUCH weaker than it used to be. It used to blast in to Haddonfield, NJ; now it's a moderate signal.

I have no idea why it's still on the air to begin with. I feel as though it's just waiting till its license expires and then they'll turn off the transmitter for good. However, there are many different things that station can do. It can go under new ownership; fix up the TX, have an engineer ACTUALLY LISTENING to what is going on with the TX. Format wise; it can go spanish, religious, ethnic, or local programming. There are many people who could better program that station instead of broadcasting Chinese bullcrap that I can probably count on my fingers how many listeners it has. No one, and I mean no one, is interested in CRI radio. For the love of God, is it that difficult to allow local guys to go on air, play some music they like, talk about local Philly news, go out and show up at some local fests and get their name out there?

My colleges' radio station- Rowan Radio 89.7- does a better job at being a professional station than this waste of electricity that is WNWR. They have had at least a half a dozen other issues since 2016 began. It's honestly funny and sad at how little effort the people who run that station put in. It's like it's a hobby to them- but here I am thinking if only I had the money how I know for a fact I can put together an amazing team of people to run, program and broadcast on 1540.

I understand this is more of a complaint than a good post, and I apologize if I overstepped myself. Needless to say, though, that this is very indicative of the sorry state AM radios is in, where millions of dollars a year go towards weeks off air, weeks of dead air, weeks of two or more audio streams playing at the same time, months of over-modulated audio, which are all things that WNWR has had happen. Yet, a college station with a much smaller budget I bet, has better audio, better programming, and is a better example for others than a "professional" station.
 
Did they ever get authority to obtain night authorization, at I think it was 500watts, same directional pattern. Btw, I was dining at Hollahans in Cherry Hill, last week and my server, said she was a host on your station late at night, she was a young blond female around 20 or so.
 
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WNWR is not a hobby. College radio is a hobby. Considering that idiot who does TV commentary on "Fresh Air," is on the faculty at Rowan University (give us enough money and we'll rename the school), it's not surprising you don't know about the basic economics of radio broadcasting.
WNWR broadcasts China Radio International under a Local Marketing Agreement. China's state broadcaster leases the station. The owners don't care how many listeners the Chinese have. They pay the rent. Same goes for stations running brokered programming.
You imagine if you and your friends took over, you and they could program a great station. How are you going to sell time? This is not an issue for most college stations but it is for real radio stations. What do you plan to program? Music - on AM? Good luck. How many other stations (on FM) currently program the same music - and already have audiences? How are you going to get people to find out about your station and sample it? Except for people who hang out on radio message boards, real people don't spend their time checking out what everybody on the AM band is doing. This is a station that has never had an audience, even when AM radio was still viable. Don't expect it to create one now.
 
That idiot who does TV commentary on Fresh Air is one of my professors and I love the guy, so yeah. We're just gonna except it's just there to pay rent and take up space? Sure, and let radio slip more and more into obscurity.
 
radiodx10 said:
That idiot who does TV commentary on Fresh Air is one of my professors and I love the guy, so yeah. We're just gonna except it's just there to pay rent and take up space? Sure, and let radio slip more and more into obscurity.
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All depends on how you define "radio." If you limit your definition to terrestrial broadcast AM and FM, then obscurity is the word. Don't confuse the product with the method of distribution. There is still a demand for good audio content. Now there are better ways to deliver it. Wawa started out as a dairy farm. They used to have a fleet of trucks and they'd deliver milk and other staples to people's homes. Times changed and Wawa found a way to deliver their product more in keeping with consumers' changing preferences and lifestyles. Some people missed the milkman who came to their door. They get nostalgic talking about the horse that pulled the early milk trucks and knew the route better than the driver; stopping at each customer's house on its own. Times change and people still buy milk but they don't get it the same way.
 
radiodx10 said:
That idiot who does TV commentary on Fresh Air is one of my professors and I love the guy, so yeah. We're just gonna except it's just there to pay rent and take up space? Sure, and let radio slip more and more into obscurity.
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The assumption with all the CRI LMA stations is that the owner makes a very decent profit renting the facility.

Otherwise, in today's radio world, what good is a highly directional station on the "wrong" end of the AM dial going to do that is profitable?

Hopefully, your professor told you that a 50 kw AM at 1500 covers about the same as a 1 kw AM at 550 on the dial. In other words, WNWR is a dog of a facility that has found a way to be useful, creating a couple of jobs in the process.
 
Oscar Madison said:
All depends on how you define "radio." If you limit your definition to terrestrial broadcast AM and FM, then obscurity is the word. Don't confuse the product with the method of distribution. There is still a demand for good audio content. Now there are better ways to deliver it. Wawa started out as a dairy farm. They used to have a fleet of trucks and they'd deliver milk and other staples to people's homes. Times changed and Wawa found a way to deliver their product more in keeping with consumers' changing preferences and lifestyles. Some people missed the milkman who came to their door. They get nostalgic talking about the horse that pulled the early milk trucks and knew the route better than the driver; stopping at each customer's house on its own. Times change and people still buy milk but they don't get it the same way.
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Poor analogy.

Dairies decided at some point in time to stop home delivery. One day you had it, the next day you did not.

Radio is in competition with a variety of other services and media. There is no time in the near future where it will be "no delivery today" on AM and FM. There may be declining usage, but we've been dealing with streaming for more than a decade and a half and still over-the-air radio is being seen by advertisers as a terrific reach vehicle for multi-media campaigns.
 
I'm at a high on the AM dial daytimer. People complain the sell to a client that leases our broadcast day. Radio reality: when their feed goes down, we still get paid. When they screw up with two audio feeds or a below par quality feed, we still get paid. Then again we listen and call them when this happens. By the way, we produce a profit, a decent one. When we did our our programming we lost more money per month than we had in billing. Back then our owner took on extra work in his business to make payroll and pay the operating expenses billing did not cover. Luckily he had that ability. Once we brokered our airtime, the money started to flow. The number of listeners we have? I don't know and could care less. I prefer a paycheck and keeping my job by making sure we turn a profit and can cover any emergency that happens. This may not be your idea of radio but it is truly about the only option to run in the black. This is the reality of radio nobody understands unless you're in the business.

People tell me 'go oldies, hire some great local talent and you'll have listeners. That's akin to having a great looking muscle car but no motor to move it down the road. If I could endure the two years or so, say a million to a million and a half to reach breakeven, how long would I go until another fulltime AM or hungry FM said we can wipe out that station by stealing their format? The AM curse is if you do manage to get listeners and revenue, an FM or more powerful FM will take your format and leave you wondering hout you'll recover the 1.5 million you spent getting it them. What do you do? Kick in another 1.5 million for a repeat performance?
 
DavidEduardo said:


Poor analogy.

Dairies decided at some point in time to stop home delivery. One day you had it, the next day you did not.

Radio is in competition with a variety of other services and media. There is no time in the near future where it will be "no delivery today" on AM and FM. There may be declining usage, but we've been dealing with streaming for more than a decade and a half and still over-the-air radio is being seen by advertisers as a terrific reach vehicle for multi-media campaigns.
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Wrong! You don't know what you are talking about - again. Home delivery of dairy products and other staples did not end all at once. It happened over a period of decades, as customers individually changed their purchase practices. And rusty tower broadcast radio erodes to oblivion as individual listeners change their listening behavior.

Your comment is reminiscent of earlier ad campaigns for products, services, technology and delivery systems heading to oblivion: "Cold alone is not enough" (ice companies facing competition from electric refrigerators). "Getting their is half the fun" (railroads facing competition from airlines).

Oblivion will be reached before the transmitters and rusty towers are dismantled. Oblivion is brokered programming and LMAs for preachers and bottom-feeders.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Wrong! You don't know what you are talking about - again. Home delivery of dairy products and other staples did not end all at once. It happened over a period of decades, as customers individually changed their purchase practices. And rusty tower broadcast radio erodes to oblivion as individual listeners change their listening behavior.
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But my point is that at some point, while there were still plenty of delivery customers, the dairies around the nation individually pulled the plug when they saw that the trend was to buy milk and dairy at convenience stores and markets. There were still plenty of customers left, but not enough to support the infrastructure.

Your comment is reminiscent of earlier ad campaigns for products, services, technology and delivery systems heading to oblivion: "Cold alone is not enough" (ice companies facing competition from electric refrigerators). "Getting their is half the fun" (railroads facing competition from airlines).
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Your argument does not work because radio stations are also, figuratively, making refrigerators and buying airlines. Stations are putting their content on new media platforms, so they are becoming multi-platform distributors.

Oblivion will be reached before the transmitters and rusty towers are dismantled. Oblivion is brokered programming and LMAs for preachers and bottom-feeders.
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The Nielsen study released last week showed increased usage of OTA radio in the last quarter.

But there is a Chicken Little in every crowd.
 
DavidEduardo said:
But there is a Chicken Little in every crowd.
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Stan Freberg said:
This is the Woods. Monday, February 2nd, 10:22 am.
Bumped into Chicken Lickin'. Told me the sky was falling. Booked her on a 614, turned her over to a psychiatrist.
...
OK, Grandma... How'd you get that bump on the head.
The sky fell on me this morning. (STINGER)
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Using large type is like using ALL CAPS. Larger type does not make what you post more significant, more accurate or more important.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Using large type is like using ALL CAPS. Larger type does not make what you post more significant, more accurate or more important.
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Is that really all you can come up with to respond to David?
Eduardo doesn't need "large type"....he has forgotten more than most of us know about the business of radio.

BTW...your response to the college kid complaining about the dead air was arrogant and uncalled for. What are YOUR credentials, oscar??!! (Sorry...you're going to flame me for using ALL CAPS)
 
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Oscar Madison said:
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." - Socrates
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Or the more practical “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.” - Albert Einstein.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Using large type is like using ALL CAPS. Larger type does not make what you post more significant, more accurate or more important.
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My "larger type" setting apparently came from what was the original site default back around 2002. As one of the 9% of Americans who have some degree of dyslexia, I found it easier to read and a bit less tedious to proofread.

From the time I began using The Well, CIS and Prodigy starting back in the mid-80's, I have never seen type size (save for exaggerated headline size type) called "shouting".
 
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Back to the subject, which was WNWR:

That station has been under the same ownership since 1995, which would indicate that the station is profitable in whatever niche it has staked out. When we compare with other "defective" high-dial-position AM stations like 1510 in Boston, which have sold and resold, this one is quite stable.
 
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