Thoughts on Key West radio

[radiodx10]

So, after a two week vacation in Key West June 1st-June 14th, I must admit I was surprised. I'm from Philly, so besides falling in love with the tropical island, the radio down there held so many great secrets. I brought my Tecsun PL-880 to enjoy the Cuban AMs day and night, and the FM had its own strange stations. Firstly, WWUS 104.1 is a fantastically programmed station. Definitely the most professional of all the stations down there. I was surprised how poorly though the signals get out. I suppose the ground conductivity is one factor, and the antenna heights aren't fairly high.

The stand outs:

WIIS-FM 106.9- This Key West station "Island 106.9" had the most eclectic mix of music a commercial station I've ever heard. Reggae all day on sunday was really cool. It's a shame their audio is horrible, unprocessed and quiet. Also, their songs seemed to be playing from youtube videos.

WXKW 104.9- "The X" is a low power 1kW station with the funniest non-sequitor liners I've heard. A poor signal across the island but it was listenable. Again, poor audio and literally played watchmojo videos over the air. Played no hits at all, but made for an interesting listen.

WGAY 105.7- Being in Key West during pride week, this station was heard all across the island with its LGBT-friendly dance music and surprisingly good audio. Well processed- loud and full of bass. It's a shame they were 20 miles north on Sugarloaf Key, their signal was hard to hear sometimes.

WPIK 102.5- From Summerland Key- a very eclectic station, I don't know if they had anyone at a board at all. Sometimes, it was cuban jazz. Other times classic hits. Other times currently latin hits. Poor signal in Key West. Apparently it's meant for cuban refugees?

WKYZ 101.7/ W244CT 96.7- Pirate Radio 101.7 proved to be the second best station on the island. A wide mix of current indie and classic alt rock. Again, their main station had a distant signal, so I mostly used their translator on 96.7.

WAIL-FM 99.5- The most normal station on the island, classic rock on 99.5. Typical classic rock fare with a good signal. Not much to say.

WCNK 98.7- "Conch Radio" typical modern country. Not my thing, but ran well and seems to be a favourite of the islanders.

WAVK 97.7- The first AC/ CHR station down here. "MyFM 97.7" all automated, unprocessed audio. Weak audio, but not bad.

WKEY 93.7- The local classic hits station right in key west, very soft audio but not bad overall. Mostly automated.

WEOW 92.7- The most popular station on the island, Top 40 music. Loud and processed audio with a strong signal.

WJIR 90.9- This station is I think the reason some weaker signals were hard to hear in my resort location. WJIR's stick was a few blocks down the road, and even though it's low power, it was strong enough to make some DX hard to hear. Radio-Locator says it's christian rock, but it's not. At least when I was there, it was extraordinarily quiet (I mean you have to turn your radio up the whole way to hear anything) of local live music. Blues rock stuff, in mono. Horrible station, and not even worth a mention.



Summary- really loved the radio down there. Stuff that in the philly market I'd never hear, I think however, the island could use a smooth jazz or soft AC station. Plenty of room on the band that's for sure.

 

[DavidEduardo]

So, after a two week vacation in Key West June 1st-June 14th, I must admit I was surprised. I'm from Philly, so besides falling in love with the tropical island, the radio down there held so many great secrets. I brought my Tecsun PL-880 to enjoy the Cuban AMs day and night, and the FM had its own strange stations. Firstly, WWUS 104.1 is a fantastically programmed station. Definitely the most professional of all the stations down there. I was surprised how poorly though the signals get out. I suppose the ground conductivity is one factor, and the antenna heights aren't fairly high.

Nice analysis. Thanks.

One detail. FM does not depend on ground conductivity. Signals travel through the air, so all that matters is power, height and terrain.

On the Keys, height is limited by the probability of strong storms, so there are no big, big towers. And most of the population is centered in three areas, the Key Largo space, Marathon and Key West. The distances are so great that station in one area really don't compete in another.

WAVK was in Marathon at 100 kw, but has a CP to move its transmitter and COL to Cudjoe Key, half way between Marathon and Key West, thus managing to serve both. It's about the only exception. The guy that owns it also has 6 other stations in the Keys, so he seems to manage based on the cluster size. He has 5 in Key West and the adjacent islands, and two on Plantation, serving Largo, Plantation and Islamorada.

Monroe County is known as one of the absolute worst radio markets in the US, rivaling St. Thomas, USVI in having too many stations and not enough revenue to survive.

 

[DXingRadio]

Catch any Cuban FMs there? I remember hearing Radio Reloj (101.5) and Radio Rebelde (96.7) if my radio's antenna and weather conditions were right.

 

[seattlesarchiebunker]

The Keys are one of the most unusual TV/Radio markets in the country. As David E. said, it’s a vastly overradioed market that’s really 3 small town markets (that really have no business being rated to begin with). It makes for a lot of hands trying to get a piece of a small pie. Combined with its laid back attitude, compact space, and one way in/out, the Keys are also one of the most expensive places to live in Florida.

I have met a few radio folks who have worked in Keys radio. In both cases, they started full of energy coming from small-town radio, ready to make their big break in a rated market. Eager to get started, they’d do whatever it takes (production? remotes? bathroom cleaning? You got it!) to make just above minimum wage per hour.

...then the first month’s rent comes due. You realize no matter how well you do in the market, you’ll be (to paraphrase Jimmy Buffet) “working in a dive for $26, spending it all on gas.” Most people in radio down there have a second job slinging drinks or selling property because they have to. The radio check doesn’t get close to paying the bills. Most the station owners purchase in the market to have an excuse to take business trips to a tropical location on a whim. As long as they’re not losing their pants in losses, they’ll be quite happy flying in for a few weeks in Jan-Feb to “check on things”...even if it’s not making any real money.

In terms of Cuban FMs, when I was down there in 2004, both 96.7 and (I thought) 100.5 came in from Cuba in KW on a good radio with a dipole. Fast forward 13 years to 2017, I find there’s a translator on 96.7 and the RF on the FM from new stations in KW makes it darned near impossible to DX anything from that neck of the woods. Not even stuff from Ft. Myers or South Florida

 

[seattlesarchiebunker]

Nice analysis. Thanks.

One detail. FM does not depend on ground conductivity. Signals travel through the air, so all that matters is power, height and terrain.

On the Keys, height is limited by the probability of strong storms, so there are no big, big towers. And most of the population is centered in three areas, the Key Largo space, Marathon and Key West. The distances are so great that station in one area really don't compete in another.

WAVK was in Marathon at 100 kw, but has a CP to move its transmitter and COL to Cudjoe Key, half way between Marathon and Key West, thus managing to serve both. It's about the only exception. The guy that owns it also has 6 other stations in the Keys, so he seems to manage based on the cluster size. He has 5 in Key West and the adjacent islands, and two on Plantation, serving Largo, Plantation and Islamorada.

Monroe County is known as one of the absolute worst radio markets in the US, rivaling St. Thomas, USVI in having too many stations and not enough revenue to survive.

Forgot to mention the largest tower in lower Monroe County is on Cudjoe Key. Do believe it’s only 600’. The only reason they could put such a “tall” tower there is because it’s only neighbors are tons of Key West’s trash from the 70’s-early 90’s. The old landfill takes up half of Cudjoe...I do believe the tower was put up in the late 80’s when KW was planning to ship it’s trash up to Miami at that point.

The remainder of stations seem to broadcast from much shorter towers...for safety’s sake, as David mentioned, and because there really isn’t much of a need to have a massive coverage area as the towns served are highly compact.

 

[DavidEduardo]

(that really have no business being rated to begin with).

And it has not been rated for years... not enough station support.

 

[radiodx10]

It's gotta be old money keeping the keys stations afloat.

 

[Groove1670]

Growning up in Key West we had two AM stations and one FM station. Marathon had 1 AM and 1 FM. The upper Keys had one FM. Radio geeks had a outside antenna or listen to the FMs out of Miami with a cable TV hookup on our receivers (Y100, 96X, SHE, etc) By the 80's more signed on, and by the 90's it was out of control. Like every other market with the 80-90 docket and auctions, it is saturated.


I built WPIK FM in 1991 (80-90 station). At that time, it was a brand new plant and the signal was good. Revenuewise we did okay. We were the first country FM. We were #2 in the County ratings book. I went to visit the studio a few years back and was heartbroken. It was rundown, and junk piled up in the front yard.

The 600 foot tower is in the Cudjoe Landfill. Those visits out there do to a power failure or lightning strike were not pleasent The other tall tower is in Ramrod Key and was built for US1 when they went 100KW.
There was an application for another tower to be built by a local attorney. I don't know what happend with it.


US1 was and has always been #1. Their new team has been there since the 80's and the midday swap shop is a local favorite. The do a morning magazine morning show and every politician and community leader is a guest. They do good local radio, and their Hurricane coverage has won serveral National awards.

The major stations are all under one owner now. Just about everthing else is for sale with the lowest asking price at about 125K. Someone with a drive or insanity could pick up the scraps and build another cluster and probably generate decent revenue if run lean.

Key West and Marathon are two different worlds apart. Selling dual advertising in those markets has always been difficult. It might be easier now selling as a cluster.

Agencies have never look at the Key's for major buys. We got a few.