Mid-West Family Broadcasting To Launch Visit Southwest Michigan Radio

[rawmustard]

There's a rather intriguing development at WQYQ and its translator, as Mid-West Family Radio will launch Visit Southwest Michigan Radio in partnership with a tourism bureau. WQYQ currently simulcasts 960 WSBT from South Bend; the new format begins on January 26.

[format this]

I just heard a promo on Live 96.1 and 98.3 saying that this will air on 106.1, which currently is a translator for WSBT 960.


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[MWmetalhead]

Why would anyone listen to this new station? Out of towners are unlikely to find it and will do research online to determine which attractions to visit anyway. The content is unlikely to be of much interest to locals.

This seems like a glorified version of the Travelers Information Service stations that used to run on 10 watt AM band transmitters.

[edj]

Biloxi did this a few years ago with two AM signals, I believe one of which had a translator. Didn’t last.

Various markets in Florida do this with TV.

[craigrussell100]

"Why would anyone listen to this new station? Out of towners are unlikely to find it and will do research online to determine which attractions to visit anyway. The content is unlikely to be of much interest to locals."

If I had to make a guess, its a glorified "infomercial/promotional" deal...the Tourism Bureau gets a whole lot of "promotional messages" and shows masquerading at entertainment but really just 30 minute commercials for events and promotional partners. And who benefits? No listeners thats for sure, but Mid West does. Probably was losing money for years with the AM/Translator setup running South Bend sports radio, that you can probably get in Benton Harbor anyway. Plus, is there a great need for ND and Northern Indiana sports in Coloma? Or St Joe? Doubtful. Im sure if there are any ratings in that area, the combined 960/106.1 maybe garnishes a 0.1 share.

Id be willing to bet the 50-150 k the Tourism Bureau is paying is way more than they made off of the Sports talk format.

[MWmetalhead]

If Mid-West is indeed pulling in that much income with this new programming, I tip my cap to them!

It's not money well spent by whoever is paying it, in my opinion.

94.9 WSJM airs a lot of sports/talk programming and play by play. They air Dan Patrick daily, as an example.

[rawmustard]

So today I was within listening range and put it on just to hear how it might work. This was what was on in the approximately 1 hour from just before 2 pm to when I arrived at my next stop:

"Need You Now" - Lady Antebellum
"Walk on By" - Dionne Warwick
"Let My Love Open the Door" - Pete Townshend
"Cold" - Maroon 5
"Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" - Elton John (original version)
a read of different sponsors, both annual and seasonal
"Slide" - Goo Goo Dolls
"Chasing You" - Morgan Wallen
A feature on a hotel located in Benton Harbor IIRC
"For Once in My Life" - Stevie Wonder
"Bein' with You" - Smokey Robinson
"Cold and Empty" - Kid Rock
"Suddenly I See" - KT Tunstall
A Southwest Michigan spot
"Only Wanna Be with You" - Hootie and the Blowfish
"Lady" - Little River band
A meet the makers feature, this particular one featuring Watermark Brewing, which is in Stevensville (incidentally I had stopped, so I didn't listen to the complete spot, but I would presume it was similar in length to the hotel feature earlier)

I think the playlist is fine, the only song here that I figure isn't on radio often is the Kid Rock song. I don't think, at least for this particular listen, it evokes being in the area more than if I heard these songs elsewhere. At least there weren't more traditional ad spots, so there is some relief from that.

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[MWmetalhead]

Interesting. The programming is different than I had assumed. I assumed tourist attraction and local biz promos were going to be run on a continuous loop.

In reality, this is a soft AC station where those features are a minor programming element and evidently are being used in substitution of traditional commercial breaks.