- Ask me again why Mass Transit doesn’t work.
- Apparently when you’re only half black, your skin gets a might thinner. The list of things that cannot be spoken grows ever longer with this guy. What do you suppsoe would happen if he ever had governmental power to back up his obviously desperate need for approval? The American Thinker has more.
- Here’s some more on Google silencing anti-Obama Bloggers that I mentioned this morning.
- Want to know what Phone Sex Operators really look like? Leave it to Boortz to come up with that one.
- Gateway Pundit notes there’s a lot of airbrushing going on at Obama’s website.
- James pokes fun at the mistake made by some of the MSM wonks about Captain Ed’s place. But look, don’t laugh too loudly. I didn’t say anything when he first posted this, but perhaps it’d be an education to speak to Dodd about how many hits he was getting a year and longer after he took down his excellent Ipse Dixit.
- Here we go again… Obama says Iraq is a distraction’. The man needs watching, I think, for his own safety. He needs 24 hour supervision.
- I note with interest the rumored impending demise of yet another Air America outlet, 950/WROC, here in Rochester. Apparently, the format just isn’t producing numbers. Gee, big shock; given they haven’t elsewhere, either. Insiders there tell me the only reason Err America stayed on in this market as long as they did was that they couldn’t figure what else to do with the signal… which strikes me as singularly short sighted. It’s interesting, the excuses given, today fror this failure. Back in the station’s glory days, it was doing top-40 radio, and was turning in listenership numbers that made the crosstown 50KW blowtorch 1180/WHAM look like they weren’t even trying; WBBF, as they were then known, killed every other station in town as a matter of routine. While WHAM covered 38 states and Canada. little WBBF couldn’t even reach the county line. Yet WBBF had more listners. The programming, you see is the deal. But for Air America, we hear all about how the signal is too weak at 1000watts. Thing is, that was the case back in the day, too; No changes there. Nor, given it’s hemmed in to the south by 25KW WPEN in Philly and to the west by 50WK WWJ in Detroit, is the station’s owner, Entercom, likely to be able to improve the signal much, if any. (And yes, a lot of other signals, too… Maryland, and Utica, NY to name but two…) I’ll give Entercom this much; they did put in a new transmitter just recently, a top of the line job, that really carries for a 1kw signal. Sounds good, too. Still didn’t matter much. So finally and belatedly, they come to the conclusion that the programming is the reason their numbers are in Sir John Carpper’s elegant device. Sheesh. Well, at least they got it. What next for them, then? One trusted source says Sports… ESPN, particularly. And that makes some sense. There’s only one sports outlet in town… Clear Channel’s 5000watt WHTK/1280, which is being clobbered, listener -wise, a lot of the the time, by Entercom owned 550/WGR, in Buffalo, another 5000 watter, some 65 miles west… particularly during football season. This is, after all, Bills country. Given the co-ownership, I wouldn’t be much shocked to find the two stations doing a lot of simulcasting, myself. But, bye bye, Air America. Nice to see I called it.
- Supposedly, we’re having lunch at “Sticky Lips” BBQ tommrow, in Rochester. It’s one of the many really first rate BBQ places around these parts, ranking right up there with the Dinosaur, and “Famous Dave’s” though that one is less of a local affair, being a Chicago based chain. I’ve long been of the opinion the best way to end a lot of what’s going on with the radical Islamists is to bom the places they’re hdiing in, with good BBQ. Nobody I’ve ever seen can resist the stuff. The resulting angst will keep them off the war path for quite a spell.
- Oil’s off by around $7 today, as of noon or so. I’m telling you, gang, the market is trying to get sane. Wouldn’t shock me, though to see Iran doing some sabre rattling to raise the price again, though.
- How to lose 140lbs all at once. And no, I’d not advise it.
Tags: Air America, airbrushing, american thinker, BBQ, Boortz, Captain Ed, desperate need, dinosaur, dodd, gateway pundit, governmental power, Islamists, phone sex operators, radical islamists, war path
July 15th, 2008 at 20:34
Just happened across your item on WROC. 1,000 watts back in the 60s and 70s reached a lot more terrain than it does nowadays, with so many more stations cluttering the dial. Plus, AM was the only game in town back then. Wonder why there aren’t any more top 40 AM stations? It’s all on FM. That’s another reason AM is struggling.
Quite frankly, I’m hard pressed to find any 1,000 watt stations out there that are doing decently. WROC with the Air America stuff actually has had better ratings than most of WROC’s more recent formats.
Sports is the rumored new format, and its one that makes money, with or without ratings, since its demographics (men) are so narrowly focused. Entercom never really did much with progressive talk, aside from clear room from a broom closet to install an automation computer. Those kinds of radio stations hardly ever succeed.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:17
Well, 950 around here, the params… particularly daytime params haven’t changed all that much. Philly adding some power is about all… and most of that is pointed south.
I’m by no means suggesting they try to go back tot e BBF days. But they could handle a news/talk format rather well… one that doesn’t spend 24/7 trying to spread Bush derangement syndrome. Look, Alex Jones, nutcase that he is, is turning higher numbers from a rimshotter 35 miles southeast of town, than Err America turned on it’s best day.
As for 1000 watters doing well, there’s actually 3 within earshot of Casa de Bit; WBTA comes to mind. THey’re on 1490 which is a gravewayrd channel if there ever was one… and automated most of the time… and they do very well of late. Another is WECK over in Buffalo… and it’s a station whose history pretty much matches WBBF of back in the day. Then of course there’s a daytimer down in Warsaw… WJCW. Which went to 2250 watts just recently, but before that were 1000 daytimes only. Each of these do well by sticking to old-style radio, doing the community service thing, and getting their personalities out on the street.
No… The root of ROC’s troubles is that Err America is a failed concept. They’ve proven this in every market they’ve ever gone into.