Highway Radio

[Radio-Bored-Op]

http://highwayradio.com/

I was doing research for a Southern California and Nevada road trip and found info. on the Highway radio network
.... pretty cool vibe. ... hope to find out more info and hear it while I'm cruising cross state lines !!!

 

[michael hagerty]

http://highwayradio.com/

I was doing research for a Southern California and Nevada road trip and found info. on the Highway radio network
.... pretty cool vibe. ... hope to find out more info and hear it while I'm cruising cross state lines !!!

Radio-Board-Op: "Highway Radio" has been around for 40 years now. The VP of Marketing for the long-gone Desert Inn (it's where Wynn is now) realized that, in the 70s, there were few, if any, listenable signals for most of the last two hours of the drive into Las Vegas from L.A. The stations (it took two FMs, at 98.3 and 99.5, with sticks on Calico Peaks near Yermo and Clark Mountain near Mountain Pass to cover that area) went on the air in February of 1980, with a morning show targeting Barstow listeners and advertisers and programming the rest of the day featuring artists that played Las Vegas at the time and advertising from the Vegas casinos. Eventually the music morphed to a straighforward Adult Contemporary format.

In the time since, a third FM signal has been added, one of them has now been re-oriented purely to serve a Barstow audience, and the stations have been sold dirt-cheap ($620,000) to Heftel after the original owner went into bankruptcy.

I lived in Vegas from '84 to '86 and drove to L.A. a few times. The stations were actually pretty mediocre at the time. It'll be interesting to hear from you what they sound like now.

 

[semoochie]

Radio-Board-Op: "Highway Radio" has been around for 40 years now. The VP of Marketing for the long-gone Desert Inn (it's where Wynn is now) realized that, in the 70s, there were few, if any, listenable signals for most of the last two hours of the drive into Las Vegas from L.A. The stations (it took two FMs, at 98.3 and 99.5, with sticks on Calico Peaks near Yermo and Clark Mountain near Mountain Pass to cover that area) went on the air in February of 1980, with a morning show targeting Barstow listeners and advertisers and programming the rest of the day featuring artists that played Las Vegas at the time and advertising from the Vegas casinos. Eventually the music morphed to a straighforward Adult Contemporary format.

In the time since, a third FM signal has been added, one of them has now been re-oriented purely to serve a Barstow audience, and the stations have been sold dirt-cheap ($620,000) to Heftel after the original owner went into bankruptcy.

I lived in Vegas from '84 to '86 and drove to L.A. a few times. The stations were actually pretty mediocre at the time. It'll be interesting to hear from you what they sound like now.

From what I read, the stations were originally intended to primarily program to the traffic between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and in order for this to happen, had to convince the FCC that doing so filled the requirements of "serving a community".

 

[b-turner]

serving the community is easy to explain. Each station has a 'city of license'. Likely a spot along that highway. As any community along the highway, it is dependent of travelers for survival. By utilizing a radio station to update and entertain travelers, it is serving a community reliant on said travelers, ultimately promoting and encouraging commerce. The addition of local information in small doses for the local population rounds things out.

The promotion of and encouragement of commerce in the community of license provides a bolstered tax base to provide better quality services including some previously not available, improve school and community budgets, sustain and create jobs and in general, increase the local quality of life. Such a radio station can be a significant contributing factor to the aforementioned.

...and assorted other language that entities such as the FCC like to see.

 

[TheBigA]

From what I read, the stations were originally intended to primarily program to the traffic between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and in order for this to happen, had to convince the FCC that doing so filled the requirements of "serving a community".

By 1984, the FCC had eliminated the "community ascertainment" requirement, so it became less of an issue.

 

[semoochie]

serving the community is easy to explain. Each station has a 'city of license'. Likely a spot along that highway. As any community along the highway, it is dependent of travelers for survival. By utilizing a radio station to update and entertain travelers, it is serving a community reliant on said travelers, ultimately promoting and encouraging commerce. The addition of local information in small doses for the local population rounds things out.

The promotion of and encouragement of commerce in the community of license provides a bolstered tax base to provide better quality services including some previously not available, improve school and community budgets, sustain and create jobs and in general, increase the local quality of life. Such a radio station can be a significant contributing factor to the aforementioned.

...and assorted other language that entities such as the FCC like to see.

The point is that these stations were never intended to serve a local community per se. The original plan was to reach passing motorists, traveling between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and that was all. Since this had never been done before, they had to convince the FCC that these traveling motorists constituted a community and therefore met the need to operate in the public interest, convenience and necessity!

 

[DavidEduardo]

In the time since, a third FM signal has been added, one of them has now been re-oriented purely to serve a Barstow audience, and the stations have been sold dirt-cheap ($620,000) to Heftel after the original owner went into bankruptcy.

Interesting that the "Heftel" is Richard, who was manager of KGMB and then of KTNQ/KLVE. Marvelous person.

 

[kwthom]

<...>Since this had never been done before, they had to convince the FCC that these traveling motorists constituted a community and therefore met the need to operate in the public interest, convenience and necessity!

Let's face it - the only other 'listeners' of those stations besides those ripping along I-15 would be the "flora and fauna" of vast stretches of Mojave Desert.

Yeah...okay.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Let's face it - the only other 'listeners' of those stations besides those ripping along I-15 would be the "flora and fauna" of vast stretches of Mojave Desert.

Yeah...okay.

There are a few little towns along the way... Barstow, Baker, Primm. More than anything, ads on the Highway Radio can get people to stop at one of those towns for gas or food or souvenirs.

And, of course, everyone needs to see the world's tallest thermometer at least once.

World's tallest thermometer - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[kwthom]

There are a few little towns along the way... Barstow, Baker, Primm.<...>

C'mon, you left out a couple of the good ones...

Yermo and Zzyzyx come to mind.

I mean, who could forget:

The Lowest-Grossing Movie in American History Finally Makes It to DVD. Is It That Terrible?

In 2006, the top-grossing film at the box office was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which played at 4,133 theaters across the United States during its five-month run and earned $423 mi…

grantland.com

How ''Zyzzyx Road'' only grossed $30.00

The story behind the lowest-earning movie in history

ew.com