1600 WULM (Springfield/Dayton) staff walkout

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Hoosier Daddy
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1600 WULM (Springfield/Dayton) staff walkout

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

from the radio-info.com message board
This morning at 10am the 1600 WULM staff walked out. The station was set up so it could run on its own through Monday. Months of not getting pay on time, the expectation to bring our own paper towels and toilet paper to work, bathrooms not being cleaned for months, the owners not helping sell when we needed the help, staff being expected to carry 3 job titles, another carrying 7, pay of only $6.00 an hour (until minimum wage went up), the weight of a $700,000 loan on our backs and the truth that the owners with no involvment in the day to day operation of their own station was too much. The hope is that others don't look down upon us for walking away. We love radio but the burden of dealing with years of mistakes under the light handed management of the owners has brought this station to its knees. We did not want to go down with the ship! The station is currently in the process of hoping it can be sold.
Thoughts ...

I always enjoyed this station when I trekked through southwestern Ohio. Up til about a year ago, they had a very listenable web stream. You heard local advertisers on the station, and the Oldies format was well executed and programmed by someone who obviously knew what they were doing.

In the summer of 2006, I noticed WULM ditched their 60s retro imaging and the PAMS jingles and updated the music library to lite rock and pop 70s stuff ... and they were using some absolutely *corny* home-brewed sweepers and station imaging. No commercials anywhere. The web stream was muddy and overmodulated. And it seemed like the same person was on the air 24 hours a day. It was obvious the end was near.

What a shame.

:(
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Post by sportsvoice »

From the look of the rest of the thread, it looks like it'll be a tough sell with the station not having much in the way of actual property (leasing the studio and transmitter site). With AM rules regarding City of License changes being loosened along with the FM rules to a Minor Change, it's possible someone might buy it speculating on moving it into Dayton, Columbus, or somewhere else it could be squeezed in.
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Post by Hoosier Daddy »

They'll never get anywhere close to $700K for that station, even in Springfield/Dayton.

I figure it'll go dark. Probably soon.

8)
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Post by sportsvoice »

I'm in range, I'll listen for the impending implosion. 8)
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Post by sportsvoice »

Still cranking out the 70's and such. The audio doesn't sound very good on my car radio but sounds pretty good on a GE Superadio in AM Wideband mode.

I wonder what their automation does if it's not reprogrammed. Some systems just stop, others shuffle play, and others repeat the same weekly log.
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Post by Tom Taggart »

Am's are slightly more valuable since city-of license change and frequency change are minor modifications. If you wanted to move an FM that is the only station in a city to a bigger market, you could buy this AM and move it into that town to be the first service.

But that's still not worth that much for the license.
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Post by sportsvoice »

Tom Taggart wrote:Am's are slightly more valuable since city-of license change and frequency change are minor modifications. If you wanted to move an FM that is the only station in a city to a bigger market, you could buy this AM and move it into that town to be the first service.

But that's still not worth that much for the license.
You're right...there's no way anyone would pay 700k for it, unless they were really, really desperate to backfill an FM move-in.

Right now no one is minding the store and 1600 is apparently looping a single day's log.
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Post by Dr. Whiplash »

It would give WDAO some nighttime service if it could be moved to Dayton...for way under $700K.

From Wikipedia: WDAO has not only earned the distinction of being the first minority-owned commercial radio station in Dayton, it is also one of the last locally owned commercial stations in Dayton. WDAO continues its commitment to the Dayton African-American community by airing classic soul, jazz, blues, gospel, news and the local community talk show "Expressions..."
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