Per a contributor to Michigan Buzzboard, WGVS-850 Muskegon and WGVU-1480 Grand Rapids MI will be leaving the AM band. with January 7 being the last day of operations. This reportedly came in a letter to members, which indicated that Grand Valley State University is turning in the licenses. (I've found no additional confirmation).
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Report: Oldies simulcast WGVU-WGVS to turn in licenses
- Thread starter gr8oldies
- Start date
I've heard the WGVU-1480 signal this week and have been listening to the internet stream the last few days. From what they've said this morning (Jan. 7), they're going to go off about 2 p.m. EST. It's a good format to listen to, with a very large playlist and no ads. A lot of old favorites and some that I've never heard before. That's always a good combination.
But not one that attracts great numbers of listeners. Or, apparently, donors -- that is, if the university solicited donations for its stations.
I listened to the last few hours online earlier. The last announcer, Bob Mason, interviewed other announcers and station employees. Some of the other announcers went back many years. He acknowledged that the audience was larger on some of his other gigs. They played a montage of brief snippets of hits going back to the 1950s. The last song he played was Oliver's "Jean," the first song Mason ever played on the radio, on WZZM-FM in Grand Rapids in September 1969.
I heard them play one of the WLS #1 year-end montages but it got cut off way before the end at 2pm.
Despite living nowhere near it, I had WGVU in my Winamp presets. Can anyone recommend any other oldies station streams that are suitable replacements? Another of my '50s-'70s oldies presets (KGAF 1580 in Gainesville) just bit the dust as well (flipped to modern hits).
Had WKCE, added WDJO. Thank you!
I must be losing track of time, then. KGAF was playing pure oldies when I originally added it to Winamp, and when I listened the other night, I was hearing material only from the '80s through the '20s. Sorry for the hasty assumption that it had just happened.
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No problem. I know KGAF was once "Memories" 1580 but for many years has been in it's current format of about 60% songs from the 1960s through 1980s mixed with more recent material including a few currents that fit the format. Coupled with local news, information and local sports, now "Hometown Radio", it is dominant in the area with a huge audience that is very loyal. I haven't seen this sort of universal popularity since the late 1970s and early 1980s radio. When I sell an advertising campaign I don't have to wonder if it will produce results. That's kind of nice when you check back with the client.
There’s also “Kool Kat Oldies” WDLW Lorain. Market legend Denny Sanders programs it and they still have a lot of small-town trappings and formantics.
Thank you too. Listening now!
I always enjoy learning about little islands of radio's former glory like that -- stations that somehow survived the post-Telecom Act consolidations and gruel-ification of their on-air playlists and personalities, remaining special to the townspeople in their local communities as a result. You're lucky to be involved with such an outfit.
On that subject, I've often wished I could find a site that maintains a continuously-updated list of US and Canadian stations (whether licensed or online-only) whose nature defies modern corporate radio by fitting into at least one of two categories: 1) independently owned AND programmed, 2) unusual formats or once-common-but-now-rare/nearly-extinct formats. A couple examples of the latter: kablradio.com (a re-creation of mid-20th century KABL 960 San Francisco), fmkortrijk.be (a re-creation of late '80s/early '90s new age/smooth jazz fusion stations like KTWV 94.7 Los Angeles), and kbhr570.com (a tribute to the ultra-eclectic KBHR AM 570 from the television series "Northern Exposure," complete with a 24/7 live webcam view to accompany the audio stream of the actual building in Roslyn, Washington that John Corbett's character Chris Stevens would stare at during his on-air shifts). And some examples of the former (besides yours): WION in Ionia, Michigan, KPIG in Freedom, California, KEGR "Cable 97.7" in Concord, California, KYNO in Fresno, California, KCEA 89.1 in Atherton, California, and WTWW 5.085 MHz in Lebanon Tennessee (be warned, if you visit their site, that you'll want their "TX2" stream; all their other transmitters run 24/7 brokered religious programming so the owner and his ex-Boss Radio jock friends can afford to run TX2 as their personal toy (I believe most of them do their shows live from various locations around the United States over ISDN or IP equivalents)).
Anyway. If anybody knows of such a list, pretty please do point the way. If one doesn't exist, perhaps there should be a pinned thread here on the forum where we can post our sightings of such stations? Even non-independently (corporate) owned stations would be welcome additions as long as they were running formats that were unusual, or rare/nearly-extinct (like MOR, beautiful music, '60s and earlier oldies/standards, etc.).
WTWW oldies on SW wouldnt exist if the other transmitters werent brokered. that oldies format on SW doesnt make any money
As for your list/question.. i work for a few stations... one is a ma and pa owned.. minus the ma.. 50kw FM. owned by one guy younger then me (im 38, hes 34) and hes had it for 10 years.. hes the sole owner/shareholder, never left laramie, wy after growing up there. station is listed as "adult contemporary" in alot of places.. but i call it "ac variety/jack fm on crack" thats locally programmed 70s to now.... centering on 80s to the 2000s with an overall upbeat mainstream AC sound that spans almost every musical genre you can think of with some real oddities back to back sometimes.. justin beiber into gloria gaynor.
been going on 10 years and just moved from rented to owned officve space. Hits 106
I still do PM Drive there even though I'm program director of an NPR station in alaska.
KGAF in Gainesville is very tightly programmed. The owner's experience had included working under Ron Chapman at KVIL in Dallas. Ron might not be a household name outside the metroplex but he was legendary. The station, KVIL, was a top rated station for a good couple of decades or more. If you evolved the KVIL music format and flow to today, I suspect ir would mirror KGAF.
If I might boast a bit: a few years ago a Secret Santa wanted to give away money to those in need and use the station as the go-between. This past Christmas the number of Secret Santas has grown and KGAF awarded $40,000 this past Christmas. S short TV clip about it:
www.wfaa.com
If I might boast a bit: a few years ago a Secret Santa wanted to give away money to those in need and use the station as the go-between. This past Christmas the number of Secret Santas has grown and KGAF awarded $40,000 this past Christmas. S short TV clip about it:
Gainesville radio station hands out 40,000 reasons for some much-needed Christmas cheer
Anonymous donors ask KGAF to hand out cash to needy listeners each year. This year they had the biggest donations yet.
www.wfaa.com
Denny Sanders is evidently no longer with Kool Kat WDLW. Doug Wilber, the longtime owner of the station who hired Denny, sold the radio station to Gary Tollett some months ago. Unlike Doug Wilber, insiders report that Tollett ignored Denny's programming and marketing direction, going on the air himself playing whatever he wanted even if it is outside the format, seemingly viewing the station as his personal plaything. Not surprising, the station has reportedly been under financial stress ever since the ownership change. A shame, because Denny had the station sounding quite good by picking the right music, updating the imaging, replacing worn recordings with pristine files, bringing the stream bitrate to 192 kbps and doing a really good afternoon show featuring interviews with performers from the era as well as tossing in some great background information about the music that he was playing.
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