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Full service radio stations

R

radiotower40

I know they are mostly a thing of the past, yet there are still some good ones out there. One that I enjoy is daytime only AM 1180, WLDS Jacksonville, Il.

A 1kW station that has all the national and local news, weather, sports, ag shows, "swap shop" community information along with other elements plus a nice music mix. Real hometown radio.

Do you know other stations that are still run this way?

They can be AM, FM, or Part 15.

When I am traveling I love to happen upon one of these stations, they are such a welcome break for the now standard plug and play syndicated talk stations which have no hometown feel.

I also would like to know of AM's still doing music, even if not very "local feeling" they are still better to me than hearing Rush or Hannity on 47 different stations.
 
If your ever back in the east Tenn area there are several;

WBNT-FM, Oneida,Tn. is still "live" all day and at night, even on the weekends.
WCRK-AM 1150 Morristown, Live mornings and mid-day, local news
WLIK-AM 1270 Newport, Live mornings, computer the rest of the day
WUAT-AM 1110 Pikeville, Live mornings with news, computer the rest of the time.
WJFC-AM 1480 Jefferson City, Live most day-parts
WRGS-AM 1370 Rogersville, mostly Live..
WECO AM/FM Wartburg, Mostly live and local.

This are just off the top of my head, I'm sure there are more.
 
Theres one I can think of around here in the DFW area

KGVL 1400 Greenville, TX Live and Local Oldies station, super serves Greenville despite DFW being right there.
 
We all have our own definition of terminology. When I read the title of this thread, and the original post, I was looking forward to maybe seeing some broadcasters identified for their service, their full service.

Then I read a number of nominations... stations that don't ride the satellite. They have live persons in the building. That is a good thing to some people. But I worked in the industry back when every station had live people in the building. We did ride networks like NBC, CBS, Mutual, ABC some hours of the day. But I look back at many of those stations as having no service. Many stations had young, inexperienced people looking for develop their style. They introduced records. Gave station breaks. Read news off the wire. But I guess I am a perfectionist. Most of the time it was NOT service.

What does full service mean in radio? We know what a full service hotel is. We can visualize a full service hospital. Back in the days of "service stations" in the gasoline business, we knew a "pumper" from a "full service".

Just what is a full service radio station in this second decade of the 21st century?
 
Oh, there was also an article on F.S. stations in Pop Comm in, I think February. WIRY/1340 Stereo in Plattsburgh, N.Y. & KHTS were featured. I've also heard WEEU/830 is one as is WATD-FM/95.9: Marshfield, Ma..
 
All of the stations that I listed are community involved stations. Most of those stations have a news director or person in the community. They also cover local sports and are involved with their communities, local talk shows about what's happening in their towns. The formats vary with one playing everything, a couple are classic hits/oldies and the other are country/bluegrass/gospel. Full Service to me is a station that has it's roots in a community and tries to keep their listeners updated with happenings from news and sports to community fund raising events.
 
Thanks for all the stations, that is what I was looking for.

GRC, I'm trying to understand you. Are you just bored? You said you read the title of the post, read the post, which gave an example
of the type of station I was asking about. I used the term full service. It was clear enough that other people understood it and answered
accordingly.

I wasn't talking about an oil chance or gas station, if I was, I'd probably post on some type of Route 66 site ;)

If you just felt like striking up a conversation that's fine, we all like to just chat sometimes. I don't see how you could not understand
what I was asking? Reading that felt like my radio just changed from heavy metal to NPR discussing the habitat of the wild gogo bird in sub saharin Ineverheardoftheplaceastan, without me touching the dial. ???
 
Fair questions. Fair observations.

In reading the various answers you were getting, I had this feeling that each of us participating in the conversation may have our own unique definition of "full service" as applied to radio. I thought it would be useful to stir-the-pot and get some conversation going on how we admit stations to the "full service" club and how we black-ball them from membership. What "raised my eyebrow" was the listing of some stations that are "live in the morning, satellite the rest of the day". O.K. I am curious to know... what does this live person in the morning do? If I am driving through and I pick up one of those East Tennessee stations during the live segment, will I feel like "I have met the town" by the time I am out of their range? What if I drive through at 3:30 in the afternoon while they are on satellite. Are there local commercials, PSAs, local news bits dropped in by the automation machine during the stop sets that will cause me to pull off the main road and detour 20 miles just to see this little community that sounds so warm, sound so alive based on what I am hearing on the radio.

I read the other day about an LPFM in my part of the world that operates from the home of the owner. (We know the writer of that puff-piece doesn't fully understand the subject. LPFMs are owned by not-for-profit corporations. But we get the drift of the article.) There is no microphone in a studio where the person in charge of the station could go live with anything. There was no fleshing out of that detail but I interpreted it as: The "owner" would have to go to the in-home studio, record something that needed to be said (Example: "There is a water outage between road A and road B which is not likely to be repaired before 10:30 tonight according to the water authority. If you live in that area, make alternate arrangements as necessary.") Then turn the announcement into an mp3 file, insert the data into the cart chunk areas of the file and ftp the file to the transmitter or where ever the automation machine lives.

Does that keep the station from being a "full service" station? No, but you have to be more industrious than the average bear to make a station with that kind of lash-up fit the description of "full service". I have read through a number of your posts and you are apparently a road-warrior of some kind. The stations being listed in this conversation give you an idea of where to tune in during your travels. My road-warrior days are something in the rear-view mirror. But if someone in this thread were to proclaim a certain station to be "full service" and back it up with details that I found really pulling at my curiosity, I might devote a day or a day and a half to take a road trip to see some scenery I've never seen before and then stop in the town of the "full service" station in hopes of learning what is "full service" in today's culture, today's economy, today's radio industry.

what I was asking? Reading that felt like my radio just changed from heavy metal to NPR discussing the habitat of the wild gogo bird in sub saharin Ineverheardoftheplaceastan, without me touching the dial.
Click to expand...

I suspect from your end of the transaction, that was a bit of a "dig" at me. ;D Looking at it from my end of the telescope, I leave you with this: If you are running what you think is a "full service" radio station and no one ever compares your work to the work of NPR..... you have failed!
 
I've kind-of thought as "full service" stations of ones that have a variety of programming throughout the week. Some things I would imagine a full-service station airing throughout a week might include, but not be limited to (in no particular order, and not everything would have to be included necessarily)...
a political talk show for an hour a few days a week,
a local high school or little league sports play-by-play,
local morning & afternoon drivetime news segments,
on sunday, some preaching in the morning and maybe a little in the evening, with a variety of religious music in between (everything from older traditional music from the 40s or earlier to the latest cutting-edge ccm),
a few weekend topic-oriented talk shows (tech, landscaping, cars, etc),
all types of music - oldies (50s & 60s) through current pop/rock, metal, country, international exotic music, etc...
and in some areas, especially places like L.A. or NYC, I'd even think a "full-service" station might throw in several hours a week of programming in other languages.
 
I think WTAN is brokered along with WDCF & WZHR. Don't they also have a sister in Little Rock on 880?

WTAN and WDCF are not brokered. ZHR is, and since they plug Little Rock, my guess is they are not as well.
 
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
Fair questions. Fair observations.

In reading the various answers you were getting, I had this feeling that each of us participating in the conversation may have our own unique definition of "full service" as applied to radio. I thought it would be useful to stir-the-pot and get some conversation going on how we admit stations to the "full service" club and how we black-ball them from membership. What "raised my eyebrow" was the listing of some stations that are "live in the morning, satellite the rest of the day". O.K. I am curious to know... what does this live person in the morning do? If I am driving through and I pick up one of those East Tennessee stations during the live segment, will I feel like "I have met the town" by the time I am out of their range? What if I drive through at 3:30 in the afternoon while they are on satellite. Are there local commercials, PSAs, local news bits dropped in by the automation machine during the stop sets that will cause me to pull off the main road and detour 20 miles just to see this little community that sounds so warm, sound so alive based on what I am hearing on the radio.

I read the other day about an LPFM in my part of the world that operates from the home of the owner. (We know the writer of that puff-piece doesn't fully understand the subject. LPFMs are owned by not-for-profit corporations. But we get the drift of the article.) There is no microphone in a studio where the person in charge of the station could go live with anything. There was no fleshing out of that detail but I interpreted it as: The "owner" would have to go to the in-home studio, record something that needed to be said (Example: "There is a water outage between road A and road B which is not likely to be repaired before 10:30 tonight according to the water authority. If you live in that area, make alternate arrangements as necessary.") Then turn the announcement into an mp3 file, insert the data into the cart chunk areas of the file and ftp the file to the transmitter or where ever the automation machine lives.

Does that keep the station from being a "full service" station? No, but you have to be more industrious than the average bear to make a station with that kind of lash-up fit the description of "full service". I have read through a number of your posts and you are apparently a road-warrior of some kind. The stations being listed in this conversation give you an idea of where to tune in during your travels. My road-warrior days are something in the rear-view mirror. But if someone in this thread were to proclaim a certain station to be "full service" and back it up with details that I found really pulling at my curiosity, I might devote a day or a day and a half to take a road trip to see some scenery I've never seen before and then stop in the town of the "full service" station in hopes of learning what is "full service" in today's culture, today's economy, today's radio industry.

what I was asking? Reading that felt like my radio just changed from heavy metal to NPR discussing the habitat of the wild gogo bird in sub saharin Ineverheardoftheplaceastan, without me touching the dial.
Click to expand...

I suspect from your end of the transaction, that was a bit of a "dig" at me. ;D Looking at it from my end of the telescope, I leave you with this: If you are running what you think is a "full service" radio station and no one ever compares your work to the work of NPR..... you have failed!
Click to expand...
GRC, I do have to travel a lot for work, I love to find the little, what I think of as "full service" stations.

I can see how that could mean different things to different people.

I'm not around here that much, I have read your posts here and there, you do sometimes do stir the pot a little, which is kind of cool, I admit. I have a strange feeling that if we ever talked face to face we could talk for hours, I like a good conversation where people throw in an aspect I wasn't thinking about. It makes life interesting.

When I responded to you, I meant it in a humorous way, sometimes "my humor" doesn't translate well in print. I did not intend it to be a dig at you, more so just a little good natured ribbing ;-).

I'm just taking wild guess that you have a few years on me, and been around more stations than me, so your perspective is good to hear.

All in all, I'm glad everyone chimed in with stations, I will be tuning to them when I am in their range. If anyone has anymore, please post them.

Have a good day everyone, yes, you too GRC ;-)
 
Going back to Nashville said:
GRC, I do have to travel a lot for work, I love to find the little, what I think of as "full service" stations.

I can see how that could mean different things to different people.
Click to expand...

When I was in college (the first time around) I intended to complete the ROTC program and enter the military for at least a short time. A sage older classmate of mine said: "Join the Army Reserve or the Guard and build some longevity. You will they earn higher pay during your active duty... AND, you will learn more of the military traditions you will need to know to do well."

I ended up dropping out of college for few years, and I DID NOT begin a career as an Army Officer.

I did serve out my Reserve enlistment which meant going to two weeks of Summer camp EVERY YEAR! I was successful year after year in getting authorization to drive my own car to the location of Summer Training. And I would get the Broadcasting yearbook and list every station along or near my route. And as I made my trek (Always involving at least two states) I would stop in and "rubberneck" my way around them and interview whoever was on duty. (Try getting into radio stations unannounced in this day and age!)

It was a learning experience. It seemed like "a window onto the world". Yes, I fully understand your fascination with finding stations that are doing something "outside the box" in programming.

Been there. Done that. Used to have the tee-shirt.. but wore it out long, long ago.

I think we are members of the same tribe. ;D
 
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
Going back to Nashville said:
GRC, I do have to travel a lot for work, I love to find the little, what I think of as "full service" stations.

I can see how that could mean different things to different people.
Click to expand...

When I was in college (the first time around) I intended to complete the ROTC program and enter the military for at least a short time. A sage older classmate of mine said: "Join the Army Reserve or the Guard and build some longevity. You will they earn higher pay during your active duty... AND, you will learn more of the military traditions you will need to know to do well."

I ended up dropping out of college for few years, and I DID NOT begin a career as an Army Officer.

I did serve out my Reserve enlistment which meant going to two weeks of Summer camp EVERY YEAR! I was successful year after year in getting authorization to drive my own car to the location of Summer Training. And I would get the Broadcasting yearbook and list every station along or near my route. And as I made my trek (Always involving at least two states) I would stop in and "rubberneck" my way around them and interview whoever was on duty. (Try getting into radio stations unannounced in this day and age!)

It was a learning experience. It seemed like "a window onto the world". Yes, I fully understand your fascination with finding stations that are doing something "outside the box" in programming.

Been there. Done that. Used to have the tee-shirt.. but wore it out long, long ago.

I think we are members of the same tribe. ;D
Click to expand...
I really wish I could have been around for the days where you could just stop in at radio station and say hi. The closest I get 90% of the time is saying Hello to the tower ;-).

I really do like to check out these smaller stations that try to run something that reflects and gives you a feel for their area.

I guess the truth is they are much harder to find now, than when you did most of your traveling.

As much as technology has evolved(leave the house without my phone, what if my boss needs to get ahold of me????), life was just a lot more simple.

It would be nice to go back, when you did not have all these things, we didn't know what we were missing.

For now however, that genie is out of the bottle, and I could not go back to the pre smartphone days, maybe for one day it would be nice, but how would I find a restaurant or hotel without my phone? LOL

I really enjoyed this thread, maybe if I'm out and about, I'll drop you a line on here, from my smartphone or laptop and you can mapquest directions to the cool diner I read about on Yelp, and we could chat about the good ol' days. If you can't make it, maybe we could just use Skype.;-)
 
KSHN 99.9 in Liberty, TX Dose a great job at this!
They broadcast the Liberty and Dayton HS Football games, have the tradio radio, local news and the owner is a great guy!
 
Add WHLM Bloomsburg to the Pa. list..morning talk show with some music, gold based AC music during the day. full CBS news on the hour,local news, Phillies baseball, local sports, 60's and 70's on the weekend, including a live Saturday morning show. No syndicated shows.
 
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