After Harold's end-of-the-world message potted out, it seems Family Radio ran short on cash and put their DC and Philly FMs on the market. Family Radio sold their 107.9 FM blowtorch in Annapolis, Maryland, to CBS last year. Around Christmas time, CBS moved their hispanic music station WLZL from 99.1 to 107.9, ending Family Radio's 30 year pollution of the airwaves on FM here. CBS stunted 99.1 with the old "History of Rock and Roll" reels until around the first of February, when they started WNEW 99.1 all-news, using calls from the legendary New York City station of old.
The really positive thing about this for music lovers was that Family Radio operated a 22 watt translator on 93.5 in Frederick, Maryland, that CBS could not use after the sale of 107.9, so it ended up in the hands of WAMU who is now using it for "Bluegrass Country" on 93.5 in addition to their other northern Virginia repeater on 105.5. Bluegrass Country is an excellent station that is run on one of the digital sub channels of WAMU 88.5 in Washington. As for Bill's earlier comments about news/talk taking over the FM band, I fear it is an industry trend. WMAL booted classic rock off their DC outlet on 105.9 last summer and is now simulcasting their 630 AM station, full of right wing extremist blowhards like Chris Plante, Limbaugh, etc. CBS is trying with WNEW to challenge the news monopoly of WTOP, which moved from AM 1500 to 103.5 FM some time ago and has been close to the top of the ratings in the DC area for several years now. 103.5's transition to all news killed a long standing classical music station. Lw On Sun, May 6, 2012 at 7:17 PM, Richard Cuff <[email protected]> wrote: > The Philly board on radio-info.com has been buzzing about this as well. > > There has been much speculation about the expected final transmitter > location, because the general regional take has been that the 1 > Liberty Place / 9 kW signal isn't heard nearly as well as the 38 kW / > Camden based signal WKDN had. For example, I could get WKDN spottily > (?) in the Reading / Allentown areas but no sign of WWIQ in Reading or > Allentown from the new transmitter location. > > The Wikipedia entry needs correcting - WKDN had a translator at 88.7 > here in Allentown that disappeared with the station sale. > > The WKDN sale begs, in my mind, a more interesting question regarding > the future of Family Radio overall. With Dr. Camping no longer > visible, and with the ministry selling off its capital (i.e. its > station licenses) and (presumably) using those proceeds to cover > operating deficits, will the ministry gradually disappear as the other > FM licenses are sold? > > Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA > > > On Sat, May 5, 2012 at 8:50 PM, Bill F. <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> Listening today, I heard it have have some audio problems. Today, I also >> heard some ads for $32 suits. It was a huge signal while in the Fox Chase >> section of Philly. >> >> Google turned up this... >> http://www.hannity1069.com/ >> > > _______________________________________________ > Swlfest mailing list > [email protected] > http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swlfest > > To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to > [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown > above. > > For more information on the Fest, visit: > > http://www.swlfest.com > http://swlfest.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ Swlfest mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swlfest To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above. For more information on the Fest, visit: http://www.swlfest.com http://swlfest.blogspot.com
