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Citrus County Talker Viable?

S

smedge2006

According to the papers, one of Carl Marcocci's last projects under consideration before his death was making WINV 1560 Inverness into a viable news talk station. WINV is currently dark.

Do you think it's possible for any Citrus County station to become a viable talker? It's certainly far away enough from the major markets, something which has helped WWJB. The problem as I see it is that there is no AM that can cover the whole county at night. WINV is a daytimer, and 720 misses Crystal River and Lecanto entirely, beaming its signal right down U.S. 41. It has a better signal in Brooksville than in Homosassa Springs. Plus 720's owners seem determined to make it into an Ocala station.

So is the Citrus talk audience big enough for an FM or some attempt at a move-in or move-over? Maybe 640 in Wildwood, once the Villages Chamber of Commerce gets tired of playing radio?
 
I don't have an answer to your question, but I do go up into that area often for work and my company does buisness there. The growth is amazing. Our research shows Pasco county will have a higher population than Polk County within a few years, and Pasco is much smaller in size. Hernando is expected to be the next growth county. I've always thought the radio wasn't much. Maybe because so many stations got moved to either Ocala or Tampa. I just think it would be tough with weak AM signals.
 
Are you sure it's dark? Doesn't WINV currently simulcast 96.3 WXOF? While listening to "96.3 The Fox" today I heard a dual legal ID for WXOF and WINV.
 
not to be a total cynic, but that area is becoming more affluent with "the Villages" as well as some former horse farms now housing one acre plus homesites.....i've seen more than a few those active seniors packing Sirius in their cars, and in their homes.

There arent enough local issues that the public would discuss as in the "old days" of local AM talk..plus the expense of running station including equipment and personnel...all I see is yet another AM piping in oldies..or worse yet, another round of syndicated talk thats available on 540, 580 and 970, all of whom roll through the region.

Turn out the lights, take down the tower and Good Night America.....
 
540 is the only one that really "rolls through" Citrus and that's only in daylight.

580 is fringe, 970 is beyond fringe.

There isn't a single AM signal providing interference free nighttime coverage in Crystal River. Probably ditto for Lecanto.
 
It's a shame that WINV is dark. But let's be frank... almost all AMs in this state could go dark tomorrow and most people wouldn't even know it. Yes, there are a handful of viable AM stations in Florida but most are just taking up space and wasting electric. :eek:
 
WPRU 1560 "The Prune"
1560 AM WLKR "The Walker"
WRAS, WHVR, WLRK, (TAKE YOUR PICK: RASCAL, HOVEROUND, LARK) "ScooteRadio"
WPLS "Pills 1560"
My friend Bill and I came up with this while we were listening to DX on our GE Superradio II. The Superradio III is also good, but the II is the one we have. It is real good.

How many towers does 1560 have? The Villages is where Bill's Mom lives. They have ladybugs there the size of Kraft caramels..

Howard Halland
thank you
 
I don't think WINV is dark. Maybe as another suggested, they are simulcasting WXOF? For the record, the only AM's in Florida, dark for two months or more (and this is per the FCC database) is: WKFL BUSHNELL, WTOT MARIANNA, WCFI OCALA. As others have stated, I think we'd need a local FM to pull off a talk format, as the AM's don't fully serve the county at night.
 
Correction on my part. Looks like WINV did simulcast WXOF, but is now off the air. This is according to the Radio Locator page. Maybe this just happened, as the FCC database of silent AM's includes stations off the air for at least two months.
 
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