Champaign/Danville Radio Review, Summer '13

[amfmxm]

Another whirlwind tour of lovely, picturesque & historic East Central Illinois for the purpose of visiting family... and here's what I heard...

99.1 WYXY Classic: Aw, what a disappointment! On my last visit (back in 2011) Saga was doing their own version of Classic Country. But apparently that became too much like work, so they signed up the SOB with Joel Raab's syndicated/consulted "Legends" plug-n-play version of the format, so now they sound like they could be anywhere. Safe. Conservative. No surprises. Snooze...

1400/WDWS: Great mornings and late afternoons. For a small-market station, they truly sound exceptional... when they're not plugged into network/syndicated stuff.

94.5/WLRW: Very good Hot AC. To be fair, I didn't catch the "Mix" morning act--and maybe it's very Chambana-focused. Otherwise... it could be anywhere. And it would sound good anywhere, I'm sure. Saga does good programming.

105.9/WGKC: What? Not enough Country in this market? What in the hell are these folks thinking? No imagination? Come on!

104.5/WRFU: Radio Free Urbana! LOL... very progressive, I guess? LPFM? What is this? Lefty Talk + Folk Music? I punched it up a couple times and just heard the folk tunes (though they were pretty catchy folk tunes)!

98.3/WWHP ("The Whip"). In Farmer City? An "Americana" station? "Bluegrass, Country & Blues?" And a shitload of local (Farmer City) commercials! Hey, this one was pretty cool. Really!

101.1--a translator for WILL-FM carrying separate programming credited to one of their HD-2 channels? I'm proud to claim U of I as one of my Alma Maters, but are these guys at WILL idiots? They should be using this SOB as a repeater for 580's news-talk-info programming, not more niche music that won't fit on 90.9. Same with their translator in Danville. The 100-kw on 90.9 reaches both of the Classical fans in Danville just fine... but 580 post-sundown could use a boost!

More later...

 

[amfmxm]

Part Deux...

102.1 & 94.9: Neuhoff's Danville FMs sound fine. Ho Hum. Sort of like Saga's Champaign FMs. Ho Hum. I wonder if these guys know how formulaic they sound. Just going through the motions.

1490/WDAN: I wish I could have caught more of their local programming, but every time I thought to punch them up it was some kind of network/syndicated stuff.

980/WITY: On the other hand, every time I punched up The Great 98, they were playing paid religion or Big Band shit. Bizarre. I guess it's a living, though... and the audio sounded better than it has in recent years...

Kiss 103: So they're still over in Indiana--that is, they haven't moved to Thomasboro/Champaign per their CP--and they're still running some sort of syndicated Country format. Sounds fine, if a bit sterile. Does WGKC's move into Country mess up their plans? Are they acting on the CP, or just tacking it onto the license for a future sale? What's going on here?

 

[rbrown]

The News-Gazette has brought back the ever-famous WKIO call letters for 107.9. The goal is to bring back WKIO as it was during the K104 days. 107's signal is based south of Champaign, so it can be hard to listen north of C-U.

Saga Communications split off its translator at 99.7 (formerly a simulcast of Extra 92.1). It carries CBS Radio's Now FM as a non-com CHR format, competing with Q96.

Kevin & Sara is the morning show at 94.5, one of the best morning shows in Champaign.

Stevie Jay did some channel flipping earlier this year. The ESPN Radio simulcast at 93.5 and 95.3 was split off into Sunny 95.3, a yesterday & today format similar to that of 97.5 (with ESPN still at 93.5). WGKC has flipped to country; but, as with 93.5 and 95.3, they will never be able to outlast competition (WDWS, WHMS, and WIXY).

Glad that you noticed The Whip. One of the most unique stations around. Small town stations always have interesting formats. WGCY 106.3 in Gibson City, where I'm from, plays easy-listening music.

 

[amfmxm]

Yeah, I did listen a bit to both 99.7 and 107.9... and both sounded fine. We've reached a point in radio programming history where you can basically order a radio station in a box--well, a hard drive--no muss, no fuss. No work, no thought. Both of these "stations" sound like mail-order radio stations. Uh... iPods with imaging. Using revered call-letters is just piggy-backing on someone else's hard work.

Saga pioneered the use of translators (up in Ithaca?) to create new radio stations on the cheap--good for them, I guess. Why bother going through all the years of hassle that 103.3 has endured to move a Class A 50 miles when you can slap a translator on the air that does the same thing for a fraction of the expense?

Funny you brought up 93.5/ESPN--since I listened to the SOB half the time I was out there. Good signal--I took it all the way to Danville. Well, all the way to Oakwood. Flat land lets them babies fly...

Not sure about the AC and the ESPN station sharing the same drive-time shows, though. Sports talk kills the AC audience (sports radio is 85% guys... AC is 70% women). Is ego getting in the way? Just sayin'...