• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Wjjz will be gone as of midnight.

Fakeem said:
With so much rap in the Top 40, i'm surprised they would market towards kids.
Click to expand...

"Rap" (or what Top 40 stations would play) is definitely palatable by many family generations. My 67 year old mother is a frequent Q102 listener.

That being said, glancing at the playlist of 1480, they're not playing any "Rap." They have rhythmic Top 40 fare, but nothing that you would hear say, on Power 99. The format of 1480 is a blend of Hot AC/Classic Hits/Oldies. All of it family friendly
 
An earlier poster places this 'trainwreck' on iHeart. You don't get what is happening here. It has nothing to do with iHeart and they are not associated with it. Let's try this: if you own a home and lease that home to someone who pays you rent, are you associated with whatever activities your renter is involved with. The answer is no you are not. Your name is not associated with the renter or anything they do. The medical center is leasing the station in essence. As they lease it is illegal for them to pretend to be iHeart. Nobody outside radio has a clue who owns a station. In fact, I work for a station that leases. I could care less if the programming is not perfected by my client. I care about the check coming in and being good. We offer access to groups who rent our airtime and they have no association with the station even in the way they represent themselves to the public. I know I don't have a paycheck unless I bring in the money. These folks that rent the stations are equivalent to the business that buys a commercial on a formatted station. Obviously you are not held responsible for the dealings of a company that buys ads on your station. This is what is happening here.

for Fakeem, consider this: there are companies that provide services to the facility and they might really like the idea of being able to donate to the station for a write-off. If you think about it, if I was to contract with the hospital to provide a service, you bet they'd be beating me down for the best price at the best quality. It's not the same image they portray to the patient. It's all business. They select employees and services on their ability to provide the best service at the best price for their patients. I'm talking the stuff that does not meet the public eye and the outward image but the internal stuff.

From what I'm seeing about the music mix and glitches, I can only guess they are not having a very smooth start. I would venture to say what you are hearing today might be quite different in the next few weeks. They're probably pretty overwhelmed at this point.
 
b-turner said:
An earlier poster places this 'trainwreck' on iHeart. You don't get what is happening here. It has nothing to do with iHeart and they are not associated with it. Let's try this: if you own a home and lease that home to someone who pays you rent, are you associated with whatever activities your renter is involved with. The answer is no you are not. Your name is not associated with the renter or anything they do. The medical center is leasing the station in essence. As they lease it is illegal for them to pretend to be iHeart. Nobody outside radio has a clue who owns a station. In fact, I work for a station that leases. I could care less if the programming is not perfected by my client. I care about the check coming in and being good. We offer access to groups who rent our airtime and they have no association with the station even in the way they represent themselves to the public. I know I don't have a paycheck unless I bring in the money. These folks that rent the stations are equivalent to the business that buys a commercial on a formatted station. Obviously you are not held responsible for the dealings of a company that buys ads on your station. This is what is happening here.
Click to expand...

You're assuming that the station is no longer broadcasting from iHeart's Bala Cynwyd studios location? And that it's being run by a CHOP employee; not a computer sitting in Bala Cynwyd? I'd like to see if anyone can confirm that because it sounds rather implausible to me.

Everything I've read indicates that this is some sort of partnership between iHeart and CHOP. CHOP may well be be straight-up leasing the whole ball o' wax but I've yet to see anything that supports that idea. Plus, the sloppiness of the launch and the busted song files is very reminiscent of the launch of Philly's 106-1 (11 years ago).

Toward the end of WJJZ 106.1, someone in the building asked me if I wanted to see the 106.1 studio. They opened what looked like a closet door and showed me what was basically a computer on a desk. It made my heart hurt. I wouldn't be surprised if what's airing on 1480 AM is coming from that exact closet. :rolleyes:

At any rate, it's 1480 AM and not something that anyone would take very seriously. It's really more of an oddity than anything else.
 
You might be right on this. It does make the heart hurt to see a small room with a computer on a desk being a station, especially when it is syndicated and voicetracked programming from faraway places. I know one Houston operator keeps one of there stations with a live human in the studio of one of the stations but most hours of the day all of those stations are simply a computer in a closet and to drive it home, the jocks frequently record their breaks moments before they play on the air.

I wonder if iHeart is in the process of donating the station and in the meantime is doing a LMA with CHOP.

It is amazing broken files and such sloppiness makes it on the air in such a major market. I could excuse that much easier in a small town where the station might not have the expertise available to them. In fact, the sloppiness and such is what makes me think CHOP is running the thing.
 
Yes, it was very sad. There was room for a person to sit at that computer but just barely. IIRC, three people would have been uncomfortably close if they tried to get in that closet/studio at the same time.

I wouldn't be surprised if they are indeed doing an LMA while they work on donating it. There's really no reason to keep it so they may as well get a write-off.

Regarding the sloppy launch and broken files: The first song on Philly's 106-1 was a broken file of "Let's Get It Started" by Black Eyed Peas. The song remained in rotation on and off for literally years. And they never replaced it with a corrected file. It's as if no one in the company ever actually listened to the station! #sad
 
Miguelito said:
Toward the end of WJJZ 106.1, someone in the building asked me if I wanted to see the 106.1 studio. They opened what looked like a closet door and showed me what was basically a computer on a desk. It made my heart hurt.
Click to expand...

It takes millions of dollars to run a radio station with big studios and live staff. By the end of its run, this station wasn't attracting the right demos, which is why the format was changed. Someone has to pay for studios and staff. If advertisers won't support the format, the format changes. WDAS-AM 1480 was getting a .1 share when the format ended. That means 1/10th of 1 percent. That's not a good number. If it could attract more listeners, it would still be on the air today.
 
It might be worth more in tax savings by writing off the revenue they would have gotten by LMAing the station, than the profit they actually got as JJZ.
 
TheBigA said:
It takes millions of dollars to run a radio station with big studios and live staff. By the end of its run, this station wasn't attracting the right demos, which is why the format was changed. Someone has to pay for studios and staff. If advertisers won't support the format, the format changes. WDAS-AM 1480 was getting a .1 share when the format ended. That means 1/10th of 1 percent. That's not a good number. If it could attract more listeners, it would still be on the air today.
Click to expand...

The ratings performance of an AM station playing music in 2017 means nothing to me. There's enough competition for music on FM so it's incredible that anyone at all listens to it on AM. I would be interested in seeing how WJJZ on 106.1 was performing in the books leading up to the flip away from Smooth Jazz. I mean, there were commercials on the station. LOL. I don't remember what demo the commercials were targeting but (as a frequent listener), I don't remember hearing ads akin to today's cash-for-gold commercials. The numbers weren't fantastic but I remember being under the impression that Philly was one of the markets where the format was outperforming. I remember thinking time was running out but I was honestly surprised that they took it off the air when they did. And looking back, it was a bit of a cluster-F!
 
Miguelito said:
The ratings performance of an AM station playing music in 2017 means nothing to me. There's enough competition for music on FM so it's incredible that anyone at all listens to it on AM. I would be interested in seeing how WJJZ on 106.1 was performing in the books leading up to the flip away from Smooth Jazz. I mean, there were commercials on the station. LOL. I don't remember what demo the commercials were targeting but (as a frequent listener), I don't remember hearing ads akin to today's cash-for-gold commercials. The numbers weren't fantastic but I remember being under the impression that Philly was one of the markets where the format was outperforming. I remember thinking time was running out but I was honestly surprised that they took it off the air when they did. And looking back, it was a bit of a cluster-F!
Click to expand...

The station switched formats in August of 2006, right at the start of the Fall book. In the Winter, Spring and Summer books it was down to the low 3 shares in 12+ and was below 15th in 25-54. Compare to 5's in 2002 and mid to high 4's in 2003. It was on a fairly dramatic slide, with the under-55 demos pretty much disappearing.

The station had commercials. They were likely part of a cluster package or sold cheap. Having lots of spots is not a sign of prosperity; it may just mean that the station has to sell lots of cheap spots to survive.
 
Based on what I've heard, it doesn't sound like CHOP is operating the station. If it is, it's putting more money than I would've expected into it. It's still on the iHeartRadio platform and streaming.

I suspected something might have been up on Friday as I heard back-to-back vocals, one being "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer, on my way home from work. However, it continued announcing itself as "JJZ" and played an instrumental afterward. I will admit I was still surprised to see "Breakthrough Radio" on my iHeartRadio presets this morning. My initial guess was that my wife had found it on our Roku and accidentally saved it not realizing I was the one logged in.
 
There is 540, 690, 1310/105.7, 1340/99.9, 1680 and who knows how many more Hispanic rimshots can be heard in the metro area, why add another and we all know what a flop Rumba was on 104.5. What makes more sense is 1480 going Standards and grabbing some out of state FM signal and make it local like what WURD pulled. I know myself and many other old goats would love to be riding in our caddy's listening to Dino in full dimensional stereo.
 
I think there are more people commenting on this thread than ever listened to the station as JJZ. :)

I heard the 6ABC weather plus standard spots, so this remains run by iHeartRadio.

As for standards, the best bet is to buy the time yourself, or a whole station. It's not going to get a sellable audience.
 
I loved driving to Rowan in the morning listening to 1480 as smooth jazz. But I am weird like that. I guess it's because I am a DX'er that I do not mind static. Anyway, we should be more surprised WNJC 1360 remains on air. They're ran even cheaper than WDAS-AM i bet
 
DavidEduardo said:


The station had commercials. They were likely part of a cluster package or sold cheap. Having lots of spots is not a sign of prosperity; it may just mean that the station has to sell lots of cheap spots to survive.
Click to expand...

What would be considered "lots"? I hear 5 minute commercial segments on major FM stations
 
Fakeem said:
What would be considered "lots"? I hear 5 minute commercial segments on major FM stations
Click to expand...

In this case, when comparing with other stations in the market, "lots" would be a similar "full stopset" commercial load... 5 to 7 minutes per stopset, twice an hour.

This difference is not in the amount of commercials, but how much is charged for each. Radio pricing follows an audience size model, with the highest rated stations charging more for the same spot length as lower rated ones.
 
Looks like they already applied for a signal on 102.5 from an antenna on Rittenhouse Square to re broadcast 1480. Why couldn't they do it with the SJ format?

001.jpg
 
Last edited:
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom