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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Yet another locally-run station bites the dust |
Current rating: 0 |
by Maiko Covington
Email: mcovingt (nospam) staff.uiuc.edu (unverified!) |
21 Mar 2002
Modified: 23 Mar 2002 |
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WCZQ-FM 105.5 out of Monticello falls to the radio conglomerates |
Here we go again. As reported in the News Gazette, WCZQ-FM 105.5 out of Monticello has been bought by NextMedia Group of Englewood, Colorado, and will become "Hot 105.5," a hip-hop station targeting that precious young'n'rich 12-24 year old demographic in Champaign and Decatur.
It's not abouwhether you like hip-hop. It's about taking a station that featured local people programming for a local audience and turning it into yet another vehicle to squeeze money out of people in regional centers.
We certainly don't need that kind of hip-hop. Watch the control just hip-hopping away.
You can check out information on NextMedia Group from the Denver Business Journal (warning: contains ads) or
check out the top 25 radio groups in the in the U.S. and get information about their owners.
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An Ironic Note |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
21 Mar 2002
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I believe it was the manager of WCZQ that wrote a opinion piece in the News-Gazette about how destructive the Low Power FM radio licensing proposal would be to radio as we knew it, back a couple of years ago. It is sad to see his station spin completely out of local control. And it is interesting to think that, if the original LPFM proposal had been allowed to stand, instead of being sharply restricted by Congress after it was paid off by the National Association of Broadcasters, there could have been new LPFM stations in Urbana, Champaign, and Decatur, which could have served the hip-hop market and other varied interests, plus Monticello could have had its own LPFM station.
But the dude (and all the rest of his fat cat media buddies) didn't want any of that, so the public's airwaves are hostage to big money, without the public being well-served, and everyone's sad about the fate of WCZQ.
Careful what you wish for next time, guy...
There could have been an alternative.
There still could be, if Congress takes the hex off LPFM that big money put there. |
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Not just ironic, also stupid |
by Paul R.
paul (nospam) mediageek.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
22 Mar 2002
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Trying to run 105.5 out of Monticello as a so-called "rim-shot" signal into Decatur and Champaign-Urbana is just plain stupid, since the signal into both these areas is pretty poor except on the south and south-west sides, respectively. 105.5 is intended to serve Monticello, not these bigger cities, which is why the singal is licensed to Monticello.
It's also important to note that Parkland's radio station, WPCD 88.7 FM, airs an all hip-hop format from 6 PM to 6 AM every day, all without commercials. Many of 'PDC's DJs are very knowledgeable about the format and play a much greater variety of music in the format than any commercial station would.
WEFT 90.1 FM also airs hip-hop on Friday and Saturday nights at 10 PM and has had the longest running commitment to the genre out of any station in the area.
The idea of a station that serves young urban youth, especially black youth, is a great idea. I'm glad to see our community college's station do it for half their hours. But trying to cash in by serving it from the relatively lily-white bedroom community of Monticello with a station that has a rotten signal into the more urban areas is plain stupid.
I wonder if this is just a strategy to run the station into the ground as a tax write-off. It's hard to believe that NextMedia is serious. |
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If I was a betting man... |
by Wankstor X. Muzzlebutt
systemp (nospam) dog.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
22 Mar 2002
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...I'd bet that NextMedia will be filing applications with the FCC shortly with the hopes of moving the facilities of WCZQ to a location where it will be able to better penetrate one of the two markets. Maybe even go for a wattage upgrade so as to better rimshot both cities.
Many times, these companies come in and buy stations in "inopportune" areas and then re-transplant them as rimshots in a more advantageous location. The is only the opening round....
-wxm |
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We don't need another "Hip-Hop" or "Junk-music" FM station! |
by George R. Carlisle
carlisle (nospam) soltec.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
23 Mar 2002
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I have been appalled at the programming on most FM stations, other than WILL-FM. I am thankful we have that, or else I would have no need for an FM tuner on my stereo. I am still using a used Harman/Kardon Citation 14 tuner that I purchased in 1978 at the now-defunct Apple tree Stereo. I plan to use it until it dies to see how long it keeps running!
It is indeed a loss for Monticello not to have a radio station that carries local news and had a format which appealed to the majority of listeners in the community. We have so many "junk-rock" stations. We don't even have an "easy listening" station any more, since the former WDWS-FM, now WHMS, changed its format from "Music Just for the Two of Us" to "Light Rock 97.5." Yecch! I only listen to Fighting Illini games on that station.
Monticello residents are fortunate that they are close to the transmitter of WILL-FM 90.9 and should get a strong signal there. Reception is poorer here in Champaign-Urbana except to use the translator at 101.0. I am thankful that that finally came on the air.
The possible "Rim Shotting" format smacks of what happened to the former WKIO "K-104." The station originally was licensed to a frequency, 103.9 mHz, which was limited to 300 feet antenna height and 3000 watts effective radiated power. Then they obtained permission from the FCC to change to their present frequency and increase their power. That cauised interference with reception of WILL-FM and WEFT. They were subject of a lawsuit.
Finally the antenna was moved in order to make way for the Boneyard Detention Basin, and the reception problems were imporved. A swap of assignments of frequencies enabled the translator W266AF, operating at 101.1 mHz at 250 watts, to improve reception of WILL-FM in Champaign-Urbana. Buiuldings erected since the WILL transmitter was installed in Allerton park in the 1940's, and then at 850 feet high on the television antenna tower located on the former Allerton Farms property in 1967, caused blockage of the signal, despite its being the most powerful FM signal in Illinois, even operating under a grandfather clause. No new station may operate with over 100,000 watts effective radiated power.
In order for WCZQ, or whatever new call letters the station may be assigned, to better penetrate the Chamapign-Urbana and decatur markets, they would likely have to apply for a frequency enabling them to operate at greater than 300 feet antenna height and 3000 watts power. If even such a frequncy assignment is available, who knows but what it too could interfere with other stations in the area?
Rantoul is fortunate to have gotten abck its AM station, after the religious operator WJCI went bankrupt. That station used to operate out of the old Byers Vacuum Cleaner Sales building on University Avenue in Urbana, using a digital telephone line as link to the transmitter west of Rantoul. .
WRTL, commonly known as "Magic1460" does carry local programming for the Rantoul area and some older adult type music, such as Big Band. It has struggled financially due to its low power and directional signal. That station is limited to 500 watts, if I am not mistaken, and must drop to very low power at night. It used to have to sign off at sunset. It has a directional singal which reduces coverage to the northwest, in order not to interfere to WMBD, 1470 kHz, in Peoria, a 5000-watt station.
We need to find ways for Monticello to have its "own" radio station again, even it if is restricted to a low-power FM station. That might still serve the immediate community area. Small towns like that need a radio station to broadcast local news that is of special interest to the members of that community, local births and deaths, special events in the schools and churches, garage sales and the like, the games at the high school. Many citizens of Monticello have a need to hear that information, of interest to them especially, but not so much to those elsewhere.
We have enough "junk music" on the radio as it is. There are programs of Urban Hip Hop elsewhere, and on noncommercial WPCD and WEFT at that. We do not need such programming on the frequency reserved to serve Monticello.
If there are any frequencies available, or even with a network of two lower power stations, one in Champaign and one in Decatur; that would be more appropriate if the objective is to penetrate the market with a full time Urban Hip Hop format station. We should not have allowed them to buy WCZQ. Monticello residents have lost an important media channel not served adequately by stations from elsewhere. |
