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Sunny 92.5 / 97.5 Nash Icon

Discussion pertaining to Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Battle Creek, Big Rapids, and Michiana
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MWmetalhead
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Re: Sunny 92.5 / 97.5 Nash Icon

Post by MWmetalhead » Thu Apr 04, 2019 7:05 pm

Amen! Nicely stated, Andy.

Muskegon is hardly the only city being screwed over by mega corporate radio, sadly.

Look what Cumulus recently did to its CK105.5 in Flint. Tons of voice tracking in Grand Rapids these days, too. Star 105.7 has turned into a near replica of Detroit's WNIC outside of mornings.

IFart just fucked over the #1 rated morning team in Milwaukee, citing budget cuts. I suspect flipping a sister station (97.3) to an FM Sports format that garnered a 0.3 share in the most recent ratings survey isn't helping the budget situation there.

A bunch of hedge fund managers with zero appreciation of content and community have largely ruined the medium. Very sad. Too bad Muskegon area radio cannot sound more like what's available in Marquette, Port Huron or St. Joseph. We can only hope either iFart or Cume-u-Less sell to someone decent down the road.



cckadlec
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Re: Sunny 92.5 / 97.5 Nash Icon

Post by cckadlec » Thu Apr 04, 2019 7:17 pm

andymuskegon wrote:
Thu Apr 04, 2019 5:59 pm
the giant media companies can GTFO of here anytime. they are doing nothing for muskegon and they have ruined a once fairly healthy media market.
All the other nonsense aside (all of which I agree with), Muskegon does still have a fairly healthy radio market anyway in comparison to some other markets of its size, despite the corporate crap. 98.9, 100.9, 103.7, and 106.1 are all locally-produced (and 94.9 and 103.5 if you want to expand down the road a tad).

Of course, I don't really think classic hits LP stations are all that great because it doesn't add much to the stuff corporate stations already play, but they do have local content anyway. 103.7 and 106.1 I think are extremely valuable to the community. I mean, playing urban AC on weekdays and electronic/dubstep (well, more like brostep technically) on weekends?? You don't get that shit on corporate radio. Damn good on them.

I absolutely DO hate LP and translator stations, but in the case that an LP is *actually* local and aims to benefit the community by airing content appreciated by the community - minority populations especially - AND is actually listened to by those living in the community, it's hard to say too much negative about them. The problem is when shady characters buy up LPs and then run non-local religious content on them, against what they were implemented to accomplish. There are some good examples out there. In the case of these stations though, those owners in Muskegon have done well with them (as much as I wish they weren't there :?).

I won't speak about the newspaper situation or anything else though, as I have not read a local paper or paid attention to local news events for some years, but I don't doubt anything you said about it. You'd almost expect all that shit with companies like that.


[ Radio and weather geeks, beware! Coastal tropo studies, the 3-hr. Seoul AM Radio Listening Guide, 6-hr. 500 Top-of-Hour IDs, and Chinese FM at www.chriskadlec.comTuner: Grundig G8 • Location: Fremont, Mich. ]

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Re: Sunny 92.5 / 97.5 Nash Icon

Post by andymuskegon » Fri Apr 05, 2019 11:09 am

I'll concur on 103.7 and 106.1. Paul Billings and crew are great assets to the area. 98.9 I have lost track of since John died. I helped him there while I could, but his board picked someone else to run it when John passed, and I couldn't survive making $250 a month on it without being able to make it what I had a vision for. John and I had some pretty cool things cooking...it was a sad loss. 100.9....love Matt and Bill, but I don't trust the ownership after my experience helping build that and the way things changed once the project was complete.

We're doing what we can with our streaming station. muskegonchannelradio.com and we're also working very hard on muskegonchannel.com and adding more and more live programming to that. We've also acquired management rights to the Muskegon PEG channel on Comcast. We're planning on program development there too. It's been dark for over a year, so it's a rebuild from the ground up.

Anyone know an honest sales person who can help? We have 24/7 or radio to sell. All the programming on muskegonchannel.com and the cable channel and we also do b2b production. :)


http://www.facebook.com/#!/andyoriley

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Re: Sunny 92.5 / 97.5 Nash Icon

Post by cckadlec » Sat Apr 06, 2019 1:02 am

MWmetalhead wrote:
Wed Apr 03, 2019 8:37 pm
The RDS on 92.5 when I checked early this afternoon still said "92.5 NASH ICON." What a cluster----!!!
Driving by the 92.5 tower on Friday morning, I figured I'd check their RDS to see if anything changed. As usual, I think station management (just of any/all stations people discuss on these boards) is lurking here. All RDS on 92.5 and 97.5 is correct now aside from 97.5's PTY still showing as None instead of Country. Which I guess technically isn't "wrong"... just not as accurate as it could/should be. Someone changed things to make it better, so it's hard to complain!


[ Radio and weather geeks, beware! Coastal tropo studies, the 3-hr. Seoul AM Radio Listening Guide, 6-hr. 500 Top-of-Hour IDs, and Chinese FM at www.chriskadlec.comTuner: Grundig G8 • Location: Fremont, Mich. ]

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Re: Sunny 92.5 / 97.5 Nash Icon

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Apr 06, 2019 9:01 pm

The most recent post on Sunny's Facebook page is from - get this - July 2011 !!!

What's the point of even having a Facebook page as a radio station if you aren't going to use it?!?!



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Re: Sunny 92.5 / 97.5 Nash Icon

Post by cckadlec » Sat Aug 24, 2019 12:20 am

I don't think WLAW has completed their move to their new 6kw site yet, though I wonder when it may happen. I know that others figured it would be sooner than later, though these things tend to take plenty of time.

At my Montague site (Meinert Park), ZOK was still heard quite easily as normal in their null. The original tower is 8 miles away from that site, while the newly-licensed one is just over 1 mile away. I reckon ZOK would be far more difficult to hear with WLAW 1 mile away compared to 8, so it's appearing they haven't yet gone anywhere, unless anyone has information to the contrary.


[ Radio and weather geeks, beware! Coastal tropo studies, the 3-hr. Seoul AM Radio Listening Guide, 6-hr. 500 Top-of-Hour IDs, and Chinese FM at www.chriskadlec.comTuner: Grundig G8 • Location: Fremont, Mich. ]

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Re: Sunny 92.5 / 97.5 Nash Icon

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Aug 24, 2019 8:14 am

Wouldn't shock me if Cumulus tries to find a way to keep 97.5 operating from its current site even as LAV broadcasts from the Allendale site.

The CP site for 97.5 is not great.

Cumulus should just sell 97.5. That frequency is better suited for a non-commercial operator. I mean - how many friggin' FM signals do you need to penetrate the maximum possible ad spend in an economically troubled area like Muskegon County? 92.5 - 98.3 - 100.1 should be plenty.

Hanging onto substandard assets like 97.5 instead of monetizing them is one of the reasons Cumulus was financially troubled prior to bankruptcy. I bet there are probably a few dozen other non-accretive stations like 97.5 in Cumulus' clutches across the country. Post-bankruptcy, the Company has gotten smart (mainly due to Board of Director changes) and has disposed of multiple underperforming major market FM stations for cash. These transactions have enabled the company to improve its debt to cash flow ratio.



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Re: Sunny 92.5 / 97.5 Nash Icon

Post by ftballfan » Sat Aug 24, 2019 9:43 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Sat Aug 24, 2019 8:14 am
Wouldn't shock me if Cumulus tries to find a way to keep 97.5 operating from its current site even as LAV broadcasts from the Allendale site.

The CP site for 97.5 is not great.

Cumulus should just sell 97.5. That frequency is better suited for a non-commercial operator. I mean - how many friggin' FM signals do you need to penetrate the maximum possible ad spend in an economically troubled area like Muskegon County? 92.5 - 98.3 - 100.1 should be plenty.

Hanging onto substandard assets like 97.5 instead of monetizing them is one of the reasons Cumulus was financially troubled prior to bankruptcy. I bet there are probably a few dozen other non-accretive stations like 97.5 in Cumulus' clutches across the country. Post-bankruptcy, the Company has gotten smart (mainly due to Board of Director changes) and has disposed of multiple underperforming major market FM stations for cash. These transactions have enabled the company to improve its debt to cash flow ratio.
92.5's signal would be better for trying to sell Newaygo County, which has exactly zero other radio stations targeting it (Newaygo County's population is about as much as the population of Mason and Manistee counties combined).

Selected noncommercial operators in the area and whether they could use 97.5:
Blue Lake - no chance (90.3 has a massive signal)
EMF - not likely (if they get 102.7 Pentwater, then 97.5 becomes a ,little more likely)
GVSU - not likely (too much overlap with 95.3)
Michigan Radio - not likely
Smile FM - not likely (88.3 covers that area adequately)
Strong Tower - possible
WCSG - possible

The only commercial operator that I could see getting 97.5 if Cumulus were to unload it would be Synergy (possibly as a simulcast of 97.7/98.7 or 94.9)



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Re: Sunny 92.5 / 97.5 Nash Icon

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:58 am

A Muskegon area simulcaster of WCSG would be an interesting possibility! They've already added Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Benton Harbor / St. Joe. Why not Muskegon, too?



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