Acceptable registrations in the queue through March 16 at 11:00a ET have now been activated. Enjoy! -M.W.

Terms of Use have been amended effective October 6, 2019. Make sure you are aware of the new rules! Please visit this thread for details: https://www.mibuzzboard.com/phpBB3/view ... 16&t=48619

1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Discussion pertaining to Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Battle Creek, Big Rapids, and Michiana
Qs23
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2018 1:06 pm

1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by Qs23 » Wed Dec 29, 2021 9:02 am

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/2173 ... -1480-850/

I can honestly say that I only really listened to 850 when I was spending the day at the beach.



User avatar
Art Van Damme
Posts: 118
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2004 1:55 pm
Location: Hamtramck

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by Art Van Damme » Wed Dec 29, 2021 9:50 am

Someone at GV has decided that “the great experiment” is over. The justification was well-thought out and well-written. I do not completely agree with some of the statements. However, I wonder if there was anyone to champion keeping the stations on the air? 1480 would have made a reasonable student-run station.

The demise of AM radio, will continue.

If a University decides to get out of AM completely, how many AM stations are not far behind? WKAR?



User avatar
MWmetalhead
Site Admin
Posts: 11877
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:23 am

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by MWmetalhead » Wed Dec 29, 2021 11:02 am

AM870 will probably persist so long as its translator is not permitted to translate an HD-only stream from WKAR-FM.

I could certainly picture 870 decreasing its ERP at some point to save money.



bugzapper
Posts: 68
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2005 1:55 pm
Location: Hopkins, MI

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by bugzapper » Wed Dec 29, 2021 11:05 am

As a long time listener, this came as a gut punch to me. "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?" So much for GVSU providing a public service to the local community. Not only local, but the signal also skips to Europe and listeners stream the music world wide. One would have thought the college would continue to stream at the very least. It wouldn't be "broadcasting" but could still let the listeners feel connected to the school. Sure, you can still listen to CDs or other oldies radio stations but they all sound sterile compared to 1480/850. The air staff at 1480/850 breath life into the music that few others can do since they played the music and lived life when this music was born.

I used to take pride in the fact I earned my Basic Level EMT certificate from GVSC along with other classes in late 70s; not so much anymore.

The many hours spent listening to 1480/850 has caused me many numerous interruptions at home as I tried to get serious work done. While listening, I could not go for any length of time without having my concentration broken by a song I had either forgotten about or had not heard in years.

I send a h u g e "Thank You" to all the staff at WGVU AM for the many years of listening pleasure. The memory of your shows will be forever etched in my mind. Thanks a million!!!



User avatar
TC Talks
Posts: 10107
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:41 am

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by TC Talks » Wed Dec 29, 2021 12:14 pm

I remember launching 1480 for Matt and Michael. Some of didnt understand why we grabbed it then.


“The more you can increase fear of drugs, crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all of the people.”
― Noam Chomsky

Posting Content © 2024 TC Talks Holdings LP.

ftballfan
Posts: 875
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:38 pm

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by ftballfan » Wed Dec 29, 2021 5:06 pm

Does this mean WGVU will drop HD Radio? Then again, WVGR has operated with only an HD1 for years



jesusjenny
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 8:12 pm

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by jesusjenny » Thu Dec 30, 2021 3:01 am

They "Could" have kept this on the FM where it had been the last 6 months, but chose not to. The fact the station lasted as long as it did was a real blessing, but with anything - it comes down to money and politics.

In the article it mentions there are already two other "Oldies" stations in town. If they are referring to 101.3 and 98.7 - they are oldies of sorts, but not anywhere near what Real Oldies was doing. Plus, those stations are just corporate plug-in playlists an offer almost nothing.

Either way - Nice run, GV can now save a few bucks... I guess.



User avatar
MWmetalhead
Site Admin
Posts: 11877
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:23 am

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by MWmetalhead » Thu Dec 30, 2021 2:02 pm

101.3 was definitely one of the stations to which they were referring.

I suspect the second one is 94.9 in Grand Haven.



ChrisWL1980
Posts: 813
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2019 2:36 am

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by ChrisWL1980 » Thu Dec 30, 2021 5:21 pm

There's also the Whitehall LPFM on 98.9. Its signal doesn't carry far out of the immediate Whitehall/Montague area but it fills in the gap in part of 850's coverage area.



User avatar
Ben Zonia
Posts: 2143
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:35 pm
Location: Honor

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by Ben Zonia » Fri Dec 31, 2021 12:03 am

It's a shame if someone doesn't pick up the format, even an LPFM with a website and listen live option. They might need to pare the playlist down a bit, but not the Great Lakes regional oldies that were hits around here but not nationally. It looks like they took the Outstate Top 40s, CKLW, WKNR, WLS, and WCFL surveys and made a playlist out of it. No full power FM would play anywhere near that variety.


"I had a job for a while as an announcer at WWV but I finally quit, because I couldn't stand the hours."

-Author Unknown

User avatar
MWmetalhead
Site Admin
Posts: 11877
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:23 am

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by MWmetalhead » Fri Dec 31, 2021 8:40 am

There's also the Whitehall LPFM on 98.9. Its signal doesn't carry far out of the immediate Whitehall/Montague area but it fills in the gap in part of 850's coverage area.
True, but they've been around for years. 94.9 & 101.3's Oldies formats were both recently launched.

You won't find any 50's oldies on 101.3, but they play a decent range of 60's oldies (alongside 70's classic rock & classic soul fare).

https://1013big.iheart.com/music/

While I suspect 101.3 has had *some* impact on 1480's ratings, I think the fate would've been the same even if 101.3 were still playing poorly programmed rock music from the 80's & 90's (its prior format).

The real estate market is relatively hot - especially residential - and GVSU evidently could not ignore the financial upside. The 850 site is just down the road from Hoffmaster State Park and 1480's site is abutted by an existing subdivision and shopping.



User avatar
48125er
Posts: 304
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2011 5:50 pm

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by 48125er » Sat Jan 01, 2022 3:02 am

MWmetalhead wrote:
Fri Dec 31, 2021 8:40 am
There's also the Whitehall LPFM on 98.9. Its signal doesn't carry far out of the immediate Whitehall/Montague area but it fills in the gap in part of 850's coverage area.
True, but they've been around for years. 94.9 & 101.3's Oldies formats were both recently launched.

You won't find any 50's oldies on 101.3, but they play a decent range of 60's oldies (alongside 70's classic rock & classic soul fare).

https://1013big.iheart.com/music/

While I suspect 101.3 has had *some* impact on 1480's ratings, I think the fate would've been the same even if 101.3 were still playing poorly programmed rock music from the 80's & 90's (its prior format).

The real estate market is relatively hot - especially residential - and GVSU evidently could not ignore the financial upside. The 850 site is just down the road from Hoffmaster State Park and 1480's site is abutted by an existing subdivision and shopping.
101.3 has had the greatest impact on 98.7s ratings, which is also partly why because 98.7 mostly plays already overplayed 80s pop hits and butt Rock and an occasional 70s track or 90s song that everyone hears all the time anyways



radionut
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 6:09 pm

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by radionut » Sat Jan 01, 2022 10:50 am

MWmetalhead wrote:
Fri Dec 31, 2021 8:40 am
The real estate market is relatively hot - especially residential - and GVSU evidently could not ignore the financial upside. The 850 site is just down the road from Hoffmaster State Park and 1480's site is abutted by an existing subdivision and shopping.
Exactly. The shutdown has been in the works for about a year. All Universities took a Financial Hit with COVID and they are look for a way to get cash. As much as I hate to see the stations shutdown how financially viable are they? I wonder what WOOD-AM numbers would be with being on FM?



User avatar
Ben Zonia
Posts: 2143
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:35 pm
Location: Honor

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by Ben Zonia » Sat Jan 01, 2022 12:50 pm

No 1960s and next to no early 1970s? I'll be listening to CDs, personal track memory devices, and other streams that have them.

WOOD-FM wouldn't be that good of a signal in Kent County. The WOOD 1300 4 tower endfire array doesn't take up much land, and it's way out in Allegan County. WKBZ...WGVS 850 is a parallelogram and has a much greater wavelength being on a much lower frequency. Both 850 and 1480 are closer in, even though WMAX...WGVU 1480 doesn't take up much land.

In Canada, you may notice that AMs below 1000 and in large cities are hanging on to their AM stations and just getting translators, and even clamoring for a new AM in Toronto. Many of the upper dial position facilities on AM in Canada carry very diverse foreign languages and community service, and FM is tapped out.

If the FCC changed some rules like the RSS/RMS Standard Pattern rules in favor of just being based on the minimum Standard Pattern nulls just based on power, 10 mV/m @ 1 km X SQRT (POWER in kW), some of the large parallelograms could go to inline and slight dogleg designs, which allow more power with a lot less land.


"I had a job for a while as an announcer at WWV but I finally quit, because I couldn't stand the hours."

-Author Unknown

User avatar
Ben Zonia
Posts: 2143
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:35 pm
Location: Honor

Re: 1480 & 850 Shutting Down

Post by Ben Zonia » Sat Jan 01, 2022 8:20 pm

It looks like the original owners of WKBZ 850 owned the whole SW corner of Section 30 of Norton Township, around 160 acres. Until fairly recently, it looks like they owned 60 of those acres. When they started building the sub around that, the outer edges were developed. Now it looks like GVSU wants to sell or has sold the central part for further sub development.


"I had a job for a while as an announcer at WWV but I finally quit, because I couldn't stand the hours."

-Author Unknown

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic