Frederick's AM-820 now "The Gamut"

[DXingRadio]

Sounds like Frederick's AM-820 WWFD has dropped its relay of DC's WFED "Federal News Radio" to simulcast the eclectic rock format "The Gamut" from WTOP's HD subchannel. The playlist is ... very interesting to say the least. Not sure if this is a placeholder or will Hubbard actually try to sell it?

I still miss the days of the station being local country as 82Q with Keys games. I guess this means the Nats are gone in Frederick now? No Orioles, no Nationals. Sucks to be a baseball fan in the area haha.

 

[DXingRadio]

DCRTV says sports and paid programming will remain. Good news for Nats fans in Frederick

 

[theradiokid]

Any webstream for this thing?

 

[trefdawg]

I still remember when 820 was on 1370.....14 ZYQ!

 

[klutch00]

Any webstream for this thing?

Not yet. There've been a few interesting articles on the switch, though.

http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/81256/wwfd-runs-the-gamut/
http://www.rwonline.com/article/hd-channel-spawns-am-format-for-wtop/218461
http://www.insideradio.com/Article.asp?id=2631933&spid=32060#.UU0kVDdOwvs

 

[klutch00]

I still remember when 820 was on 1370.....14 ZYQ!

I think the switch to 820 was consummated in early 1987.

 

[amfmxm]

Have they thought about calling it "820--The Dumping Ground"? "The Dump," for short. Whatever extra stuff comes along...

A waste of a good frequency.

 

[Tom Wells]

I still remember when 820 was on 1370.....14 ZYQ!

I think the switch to 820 was consummated in early 1987.

I remember a drive to Bal'mer in '89 where I was annoyed that WBAP was no longer protected as a clear channel.
WBAP was doing a fine job over the entire night-time portion of the journey, until the PA/MD line.
I was following US 40 as much as possible, which is sometimes I 70, but once into Maryland, and all the rest of the way to
B'more, neither 820 was intelligible, even at my closest point to Frederick.
This was one of my most annoying and painful experiences ever as a person who appreciates the value of MW behavior.
Instead of being able to listen to one station on a clear frequency, neither of the two were useful.
I could tell it was country, but that's about all.

 

[DXingRadio]

Have they thought about calling it "820--The Dumping Ground"? "The Dump," for short. Whatever extra stuff comes along...

A waste of a good frequency.

What else could be done with it at this point?

 

[benale]

When I first heard 820 was running something different, I was looking forward to hearing it. After a couple of hours listening, I couldn't imagine anybody would stay with the station. The music is all over the place and there is a lot of unfamiliar music. This is the HD channel of WTOP, and really belongs on an HD channel,not on a regular frequency. That 820 signal during the day really gets out there.

Standards or 50's 60's oldies would be a much better choice for that frequency. What is airing now sounds like a college station experimenting.

At least 820 isn't running yet another sports format.

 

[DXingRadio]

I like what the station's doing now but I also like stations such as WTMD in Baltimore, Radio Paradise online and The Loft on satellite radio so I'm not the "typical audience". So I'm enjoying the niche programming on a niche medium that's promoting another niche medium ;D

 

[amfmxm]

Have they thought about calling it "820--The Dumping Ground"? "The Dump," for short. Whatever extra stuff comes along...

A waste of a good frequency.

What else could be done with it at this point?

820 is a perfectly good signal for residents of Frederick, Maryland. And the cash flow/profit from WTOP is in the tens of millions of dollars--they have the money. Hubbard could easily afford to do an outstanding job of community radio--you know... news, information, traffic, weather, sports, local events, local issues--sorta what they do in DC on one of their stations... oh, yeah, it's WTOP.

But for Frederick, not for DC.

 

[Tom Wells]

Have they thought about calling it "820--The Dumping Ground"? "The Dump," for short. Whatever extra stuff comes along...

A waste of a good frequency.

What else could be done with it at this point?

820 is a perfectly good signal for residents of Frederick, Maryland. And the cash flow/profit from WTOP is in the tens of millions of dollars--they have the money. Hubbard could easily afford to do an outstanding job of community radio--you know... news, information, traffic, weather, sports, local events, local issues--sorta what they do in DC on one of their stations... oh, yeah, it's WTOP.

But for Frederick, not for DC.

It may be nice for the residents of Frederick, but screws up the usefulness of the clear channel skywave for about 5 states.
This is why daytime operation was invented. Local daytimes, and 30-odd state coverage at night.
I want to be able to use WNWI 1080 locally here in Chicago daytime, but at night I want to be able to listen to WTIC Hartford.
This would also leave 1070 and 1090 uncluttered for additional wide area coverage at night.
Every daytimer gone full-time on what used to be a "regional" or "clear" frequency similarly confounds useful reception.
I'd much rather hear a good skywave usable signal instead of the mush of 3-4 stations at once.

Given population increase and spread, what is really needed worldwide is an ITU blessing on a new service in the 3 to 5 mhz range that
is decidedly more regional/wide area than local with stipulation that content need be substantially different from existing formats.
I was really impressed when I was riding in cars in Saudi Arabia, where everyone with a car semed to have radios with
mediumwave and shortwave. I bought a shortwave converter for my car while I was there.

 

[amfmxm]

Tom, you were born 50 years too late!

Both of our ideas are just pipe dreams.

Hubbard isn't going to invest any money to do real radio in a town where the top-billing station only does around $4 million-a-year in sales and only spins off around $2.5 million in operating profit--Frederick, Maryland--that's pocket change. Why bother? They do more than that in a month at WTOP.

And the FCC isn't going to revert to 1950s-era "clear channel" rules for you. They all think it's progress.

FWIW, back before they broke down the clears, WBAP was rarely heard out hear. 810/WGY ordinarily obliterated any usable skywave from 820... and Fort Worth is just too far...

 

[DXingRadio]

I wonder what AM-820 will do next since "The Gamut" will doubtfully last in its current non-commercial format. I'm thinking Hubbard will sell it, the 103.9/820 cluster were mainly bought for simulcasting purposes and it must be determined 820 wasn't boosting WFED like 103.9 boosts WTOP. But who is buying AM stations these days? Radio Maria (catholic radio) has been on a buying craze, I could see them buying 820 as their "DC affiliate". Maybe Thurmont's WTHU "The Source" can finally get a Frederick signal at night. That is good for the sports they carry, not so much the 2nd/3rd rate syndicated "Christian" talkers like Alex Jones. Clear Channel isn't touching 820, I doubt Manning wants it either based on their minimal effort running WARK in Hagerstown. Speculation is fun

Speaking of AMers nobody listens to, what's going on with Brunswick's 1520 WTRI? Is their plant beyond repair or is nobody buying time to even try?

 

[klutch00]

When I first heard 820 was running something different, I was looking forward to hearing it. After a couple of hours listening, I couldn't imagine anybody would stay with the station. The music is all over the place and there is a lot of unfamiliar music. This is the HD channel of WTOP, and really belongs on an HD channel,not on a regular frequency. That 820 signal during the day really gets out there.

Standards or 50's 60's oldies would be a much better choice for that frequency. What is airing now sounds like a college station experimenting.

At least 820 isn't running yet another sports format.

For Frederick, I'm not so sure that what's on that station now is good for the market. With that said, 'Graffiti-Gold' is probably not a viable option, pop-standards maybe. I think the best option would have been a classic country format. Since the demise of WPPT 92.1 in southern Pennsylvania, there hasn't been a classic country station up that way and I think the area could use such a station.

All in all, I like the idea of an eclectic station on the dial. A major metro area would be better for it, though.

 

[klutch00]

I wonder what AM-820 will do next since "The Gamut" will doubtfully last in its current non-commercial format. I'm thinking Hubbard will sell it, the 103.9/820 cluster were mainly bought for simulcasting purposes and it must be determined 820 wasn't boosting WFED like 103.9 boosts WTOP. But who is buying AM stations these days? Radio Maria (catholic radio) has been on a buying craze, I could see them buying 820 as their "DC affiliate".

I hope not! Besides doesn't WMET cover that market from Gaithersburg?

Maybe Thurmont's WTHU "The Source" can finally get a Frederick signal at night. That is good for the sports they carry, not so much the 2nd/3rd rate syndicated "Christian" talkers like Alex Jones. Clear Channel isn't touching 820, I doubt Manning wants it either based on their minimal effort running WARK in Hagerstown. Speculation is fun

IF Hubbard sells 820, why not have a local broadcaster buy the station and do something unique with it?

Speaking of AMers nobody listens to, what's going on with Brunswick's 1520 WTRI? Is their plant beyond repair or is nobody buying time to even try?

That could have been a good station had the right machinery been in place. Like other marginal AM stations such as 1520, I think it would've been better for them to be operated by a non-commercial operation and survive on donations or utilize a hybrid revenue model where they survive on BOTH donations and advertisement. I think that kind of facility would be better off utilizing such a model and could still offer a service not found elsewhere.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Hubbard isn't going to invest any money to do real radio in a town where the top-billing station only does around $4 million-a-year in sales and only spins off around $2.5 million in operating profit--Frederick, Maryland--that's pocket change. Why bother? They do more than that in a month at WTOP.

The top billing FM does $2.875 million, and there are only $8 million radio dollars in the market. The top AM does around $800 thousand, and all the AMs together don't break a million.

 

[amfmxm]

My apologies--I was putting the AM/FM combo billing together, since they've been co-owned & co-operated for 60 or 70 years. But, hey--$4 million is a damn close guess to $3.675 million. Hell, the fact that the only AM being operated (at least, partly) as a real radio station is still hauling down around $800K in this day and age tells you something. That's like 70 grand a month, in a town of 60,000 people. Chances are that there are plenty of folks on this board operating perfectly good radio stations that do a great job in their communities for a lot less than $70,000 a month.

Of course the combined AM billing is less than a million. The only other AM in the county still on-air is operated by a non-profit Christian outfit... and 820 has been a repeater for, what--20 years?

But not because it, or the market, wasn't viable. Instead, because the (successive) owners wanted its FM stick to cover a county in the DC metro. And an AM happened to be attached.

Frederick has been booming for the past 40 years... and still is.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Frederick has been booming for the past 40 years... and still is.

Frederick is rather unique in being 90th in population and 83rd in billings. Usually, smaller markets that are either embedded in larger ones or at the edge of a large one underperform.

Riverside / San Bernardino is 26th in population but 53rd in billings, for example. San Jose is 36th in population and 71st in revenue. Morristown is 121 in population, but 220th in billings.

Obviously, the rather stable operation of the stations that Gibbons owned for 32 years has helped; apparently being in the limbo known as the Aloha Trust has not hurt billings.