Merely some thoughts here, from someone who has been in Scranton (Green Ridge) twice in his whole life, but who also remembers the days of the Mighty 590 and when they'd come into NYC at night, near JFK Airport. That spot was also within range of another fun, smiling Susquehanna station -- WGBB .....
What would the format be?
Desired audience demo?
If it's Oldies -- uh, sorry : 'greatest hits' -- then how would it be musically any more compelling that the Gem phalanx?
Would it be 24/7 ? And if so, why?
A pal once asked me to monitor WARM. That was several years back. On a good radio, early afternoon/lunchtime, I really had to dig them out of their SW null. I'm in NE Schuylkill County.
Well, at least the NULL worked fine, lol.
But the directional question becomes sort of exponential as of this writing:
a) Regional stations (even ones well-placed low on the dial) which have increased their power to 20,000 watts .... 38,000 watts .... 8900 watts, whatever) traditionally show no improvement in ratings. Why raise the electric bill? Why not go the minimum omni in the daytime, as long as the signal gets to Scranton?
b) Is that back lobe to the NW really necessary? The map makes it look as though 2000 watts, night and day, is going to places where not many people live. I have nothing at all agin the people of Walls Corners, Starkville, et al. But if they're not listening in droves now, why propose to send anything at all that way?
c) In short, are five towers really necessary to achieve Scranton coverage, day or night?
Resurrecting a 50-year old approach is a great acknowledgement for Teens 50-plus. The thinking here is that, even with a certified winning lottery backing, a full-service day-parted A/C / Oldies based Chicken Rock station would sound wonderful.
In 1980, maybe.
With that format in 2012, though, I fear you'd wind up with more staffers than listeners. Even if it were on FM.
There'd be retirees and volunteers, such as myself, who'd love to do a *WARM* air shift for maybe three hours -- a week. Give me six WARM jingles and that weather bed, a trade-out pizza or a sack of White Castles and I'm game. You find ten of such people and you have some good sock-hop product. But that would be, most likely, at night. The rest of the broadcast day would have to be done, earnestly, via Ots Juke or whatever other automated sources available. And those hours would have to be with the sound in full, undeniable WARM-Land regalia.
And then, some form of PD-figure would have to emerge, most likely through some sort of Susquehanna Papal smoke.
Lead us, Pope Andrew Travis II !
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NXEA seemed to be the most realistic, with that typewriter-factory analogy. But we have a small studio here, and I can cut some liners in my best ripped-off Bill St. James voice. Our operator is standing by.
