Blarney Stone Broadcasting

[ADD in TC]

Just heard from a very reliable source that 106.3 and the 101.1 translator in the Traverse City area are off the air indefinitely.

[Colonel Flagg]

Sounds like the LMA with Mr. Yob has come to an end.

[TC Talks]

Sounds like the LMA with Mr. Yob has come to an end.

Trying to "Crack" into Traverse City might be harder than for "Little Station that Could" from Grayling may have thought. In reality, Finster was their engine in this market, and it seems like he might have taken some of his advertising fans with him to Midwestern.

[ADD in TC]

In reality, Finster was their engine in this market,

Can't say for sure,but from all the little tibits I've heard,it strongly sounds like Finster was fired by Blarney Stone.

Just a random thought from a guy who is not in the radio biz, Would it be feasible or make sense for Smile FM to purchase the 106.3 signal and divest their two local translator's?Could those two translator's be upgraded.

[TC Talks]

I am betting Yobb won't sell it.

I suspect that this was an experiment that ended up costing B. S. some money. If Finster was fired, I am suspecting that is was because they decided to cut bail.

[FakeAndyStuart]

According to the LMA, Blarney Stone was paying (or supposed to pay) $6000 a month plus expenses to Yob.. wonder how long THAT'S gone unpaid.

[Ben Zonia]

Is B.S. still using 94.5 near the Straits?

Off the air. Was simulcasting WQON 100.3.

They had WLDR 101.9. Somehow Blarney Stone acquired the tower, and refuses to let WLDR 101.9 use it reasonably. WLDR is on STA, but serves the immediate Traverse City area quite well. That's how WQON ended up simulcasting on WWMN 106.3, a 3 kW equivalent Class A rimshot moved from Ludington to Thompsonville. That's a summation of what I have been told, and what I have read.

WCEN 94.5 Hemlock is now coming in in much of Northern Michigan, fading in and out. That's what some of you may be hearing on 94.5.

WWMN is about as close to Traverse City as it reasonably can be, given the proximity of WWMK 106.3. It's on the original WIAA 88.3 tower, and now the AUX for WIAA 88.7.

[TC Talks]

That seems like a good chunk of money for a puny Class A stick (with less than optimal location) plus a translator. Then again, a couple hundred grand in revenue from those signals should be able to cover those payments, plus Finster's salary, plus a salesperson (since all other overhead was already in place going in). So, I'm guessing $100k or less in per annum ad revenue was generated.

You can't hire someone to competently sell anything in TC for less than about 70k. I would estimate, $160,000 was break even.

[ftballfan]

In reality, Finster was their engine in this market,

Can't say for sure,but from all the little tibits I've heard,it strongly sounds like Finster was fired by Blarney Stone.

Just a random thought from a guy who is not in the radio biz, Would it be feasible or make sense for Smile FM to purchase the 106.3 signal and divest their two local translator's?Could those two translator's be upgraded.

If Smile FM were to buy the Mitten News group, they could turn around and sell their existing 97.1 and 102.5 translators to Midwestern to give 580 and 1310 an FM presence

[ADD in TC]

In reality, Finster was their engine in this market,

Can't say for sure,but from all the little tibits I've heard,it strongly sounds like Finster was fired by Blarney Stone.

Just a random thought from a guy who is not in the radio biz, Would it be feasible or make sense for Smile FM to purchase the 106.3 signal and divest their two local translator's?Could those two translator's be upgraded.

If Smile FM were to buy the Mitten News group, they could turn around and sell their existing 97.1 and 102.5 translators to Midwestern to give 580 and 1310 an FM presence

My thought is that that he only way WWMN MAY BE profitable is if either Macdonald-Garbor or Black Diamond rebroadcasted one of their existing stations there.But both those groups are at FM ownership caps in this market.None of the previous 3 operators(4 different formats) seemed to make a go of this signal.

Smile FM has a weak signal in gaps within the West side of Northern Michigan that the WWMN signal would greatly help out with.

The two Smile FM translator's would probably have to be able to be upgraded to have any value though.

[FakeAndyStuart]

The geography in this market makes translators almost worthless, unless you can cover most of Grand Traverse County.

[Ben Zonia]

The geography in this market makes translators almost worthless, unless you can cover most of Grand Traverse County.

The translators on top of the ridge West of Traverse City do cover much of Grand Traverse County, due to being line of sight in all directions. It's the stations from areas beyond that are shadowed. And WWMN has to be that far out due to FCC rules. Water goes down hill of course, so it is almost always the areas right next to a lake, river, or ocean that are shadowed. Before the FM band was completely jammed up, people would listen to weaker signals, because there were few to no strong ones. Around 1962, there were only three FM stations in Michigan North of the 44th parallel.

[TC Talks]

Now there are all those people losing money in Northern Michigan

[Ben Zonia]

David Gleason, who is coadministrator of another radio message board, used to DX AM BC stations from a small town North of Traverse City on the West side of Grand Traverse Bay. It was 1962 or so, and he said the only FM he could get then was WWTV-FM 92.9, then on the WWTV 9 tower. He did a Spanish Language show for a few years back then on WCCW 1310 in the Summer, very early in the morning, Pre Sunrise, when they were allowed 1000 watts PSA at 4:00 AM, before new rules limited it to 500 watts at 6:00 AM.