Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

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Mr. Jones
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Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

Post by Mr. Jones »

R&R:
RadiOhio is yanking the format on hot AC WBNS-FM (Mix 97.1)/Columbus, Ohio, today at 4 p.m. and simulcasting sports clusterbuddy WBNS-AM, transforming it into "97.1 the Fan." No word yet on the fate of PD Jay Taylor or the airstaff.

"97.1 the Fan is built on premium sports programming from ESPN, play-by-play for Ohio State football and basketball, Columbus Blue Jackets and the Cleveland Indians," says a letter sent out to local advertisers. "Our local programming features nationally known celebrities Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Spielman, as well as local favorites Bruce Hooley, Scott Torgerson and Mike Ricordati. Now, all of the Central Ohio region will receive this nation's best sports programming with a clear and clean signal 24 hours a day at 97.1 on the FM dial."
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

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Ten minutes away from the flip -- the stream is online here.
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

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Interesting transition with Ohio school fight songs sung over "Hollaback Girl " by Gwen Stefani and then "Hollaback Girl" sung over the instrumentals of fight songs right before the flip.
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

Post by djMatty »

They let the staff go so quick too that earler in the day there was songs into spot blocks and weather teesers with sponcers but no weather updates..

In other news, HOT AC has returned to Columbus as SAGA Classic Hits 107.9 has changed to Mix 107.9 "80s 90s Now"

Word is 107.9 flipped formats at 12noon. Guess that means the folks at SAGA downloaded a drive of HOT AC from one of their sister stations overnight.. (Folks in Central Ohio will remember that 107.9 took on the oldies format after WBNS-FM switched from Oldies to HOT AC back in 2001)

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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

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djMatty wrote:In other news, HOT AC has returned to Columbus as SAGA Classic Hits 107.9 has changed to Mix 107.9 "80s 90s Now". Word is 107.9 flipped formats at 12noon. Guess that means the folks at SAGA downloaded a drive of HOT AC from one of their sister stations overnight.. (Folks in Central Ohio will remember that 107.9 took on the oldies format after WBNS-FM switched from Oldies to HOT AC back in 2001)
Yawn. Another day in the life of Columbus' most infamous rimshot also-ran ...

:lol:
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

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djMatty wrote:Yawn. Another day in the life of Columbus' most infamous rimshot also-ran
More infamous than the 107.1 Circleville, OH signal (once owned by Infinity, now the property of Wilks) that rimshots Columbus from the south? :lol:
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

You got me! We'll call it a tie.
No, wait a minute ...
There's 103.1 in Johnstown -- quite a story there.
And 103.5 in ... whereever the hell they are now.
Can't forget 98.9 in Upper Arlington.
Just the opposite of a rimshot.
Smack dab in the middle of Franklin County,
but not enough ass to their signal to cover the wealthy and well-populated outer suburbs.
CD 101 sort of falls into that same category, or at least they used to ...
I think there's a 104.3 up there somewhere, too.
95.5 in Lancaster is a high-powered rimshot. Ditto 105.7 from Marysville.
106.9 got dropped in from Marion.
Delaware has an LPFM on 101.9, Columbus has several LPFMs time sharing 102.1.
Add the half dozen full power signals.
And NPR from five different directions.
Don't forget the Columbus Board of Education's FM outlet.
And all the cancerous, piss-powered, spectrum-jamming translators ...

EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE A COLUMBUS STATION.

This isn't a tie, it's a clusterfuck.

:lol:
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

Post by Ace Purple »

Hoosier Daddy wrote:EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE A COLUMBUS STATION.
Columbus is a tricky market for stations with mostly either Class B or Class A signals. For the rimshots and move-ins, it makes things even more difficult.
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

The FM allocations were made when Columbus was only slightly bigger than Charleston West Virginia.
Now, there over a million people in the metro area.
Columbus being "under-radioed" is a constant complaint on the radio-info boards.

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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

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Hoosier Daddy wrote:Yawn. Another day in the life of Columbus' most infamous rimshot also-ran ...

:lol:
Gotta admit it was excellent guerrilla play! Had it happened even faster and had imaging ready to go, I'd have called it "textbook."

....especially considering that one just might have a to-be-moved-in move-in that's going to be needing a real format...man, what a gift!

But it's the 97.1 move that's more interesting -- it's quite forward-thinking but is an early example of how radio, to save itself, will take actions that will accelerate its death.
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

Post by AmpedNow »

Ace Purple wrote:
djMatty wrote:Yawn. Another day in the life of Columbus' most infamous rimshot also-ran
More infamous than the 107.1 Circleville, OH signal (once owned by Infinity, now the property of Wilks) that rimshots Columbus from the south? :lol:
Ah, "The Big Wazoo"... Robert Sweet from Stryper was riding in my passenger seat back in March 1999. We were riding to a recording studio in Chillicothe so he could lay some drum tracks for an album... I don't know which one, I was just the ride for the weekend. All I know is I was the one who corrupted Robert with South Park, by introducing him to the "Anal probe" episode...

Anyway, we drove all night from NoVA, and got to Columbus by daybreak. Stern was on The Blitz, Which we listened to for a bit, and then we found "Dracula" from Rob Zombie playing on "The Big Wazoo", with some killer liners. Drove almost to Chillicothe listening until we lost the signal.

What a great station... Even Robert Sweet was amused.

Anyway, I haven't been through Columbus since March 1999. But even back then, I found it strange the amount of "A"s that was in a market its size...

I don't guess it's any better now...
Arp2 wrote:But it's the 97.1 move that's more interesting -- it's quite forward-thinking but is an early example of how radio, to save itself, will take actions that will accelerate its death.
Hmm... It seems like "Sports talk" on FM is the only thing non-music that's working for FM these days.

And I was a fan of the "Free FM" format... Go figure.

:lol:
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

Post by Ace Purple »

Arp2 wrote:Gotta admit it was excellent guerrilla play! Had it happened even faster and had imaging ready to go, I'd have called it "textbook."

....especially considering that one just might have a to-be-moved-in move-in that's going to be needing a real format...man, what a gift!
Hot AC is a format that generally works best on strong signals (versus a more niche format whose P1s and even casual listeners would be more likely to take the effort to track down and/or suffer through signal issues to hear). I could see Saga sitting on the Hot AC format (complete with the Mix name) until 104.3 WJZK moves to its new COL of West Jefferson, OH and has a signal that covers the Columbus metro, at least according to the map on 100000watts.com. At that point, Mix could move there. In the meantime, Saga has effectively blocked the format from the competition.
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

Post by sportsvoice »

K-Rock wrote:
Ace Purple wrote:
djMatty wrote:Yawn. Another day in the life of Columbus' most infamous rimshot also-ran
More infamous than the 107.1 Circleville, OH signal (once owned by Infinity, now the property of Wilks) that rimshots Columbus from the south? :lol:
Ah, "The Big Wazoo"... Robert Sweet from Stryper was riding in my passenger seat back in March 1999. We were riding to a recording studio in Chillicothe so he could lay some drum tracks for an album... I don't know which one, I was just the ride for the weekend. All I know is I was the one who corrupted Robert with South Park, by introducing him to the "Anal probe" episode...

Anyway, we drove all night from NoVA, and got to Columbus by daybreak. Stern was on The Blitz, Which we listened to for a bit, and then we found "Dracula" from Rob Zombie playing on "The Big Wazoo", with some killer liners. Drove almost to Chillicothe listening until we lost the signal.

What a great station... Even Robert Sweet was amused.
I remember enjoying "The Big Wazoo" during that time period because they would play the heavier stuff. I could hold the signal on Route 23 from the hill country just north of Waverly on into Columbus or on 35 up to around Jamestown east of Xenia.

The liners were done by David Lee who also does the NFL on Westwood One intros and liners.
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

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Ace Purple wrote:
Arp2 wrote:Gotta admit it was excellent guerrilla play! Had it happened even faster and had imaging ready to go, I'd have called it "textbook."

....especially considering that one just might have a to-be-moved-in move-in that's going to be needing a real format...man, what a gift!
Hot AC is a format that generally works best on strong signals (versus a more niche format whose P1s and even casual listeners would be more likely to take the effort to track down and/or suffer through signal issues to hear). I could see Saga sitting on the Hot AC format (complete with the Mix name) until 104.3 WJZK moves to its new COL of West Jefferson, OH and has a signal that covers the Columbus metro, at least according to the map on 100000watts.com. At that point, Mix could move there. In the meantime, Saga has effectively blocked the format from the competition.
Exactly....sorta.

I should probably clarify by saying that I don't necessarily think it will do well on the 107.9, but it will hold the name, at least, until there's somewhere else to put it. It doesn't stop someone else from doing the format before that happens, though, but that someone would face an uphill battle in trying to use the name, at least.

By the way, I'm not convinced the WJZK app is that fantastic of an idea -- though in a much, much better location, it takes it too far south. To truly cover the metro, the 103.5/104.3 simulcast would need to become a 103.5/104.3/107.9 trimulacast, and, even then, it still wouldn't exactly be great.


K-Rock wrote:Hmm... It seems like "Sports talk" on FM is the only thing non-music that's working for FM these days.

And I was a fan of the "Free FM" format... Go figure.

:lol:
No, talk works just fine....darn well, as a matter of fact, as long as it's the kinds of talk that gets listeners and listening. Stations that have moved from AM to FM and have done the transition well have wound up, I believe, universally better off.
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

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Ace Purple wrote: I could see Saga sitting on the Hot AC format (complete with the Mix name) until 104.3 WJZK moves to its new COL of West Jefferson, OH and has a signal that covers the Columbus metro, at least according to the map on 100000watts.com. At that point, Mix could move there. In the meantime, Saga has effectively blocked the format from the competition.
FROM http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com/

We've now confirmed that Saga's "Big Hits" classic hits format in Columbus - bumped off of WODB/107.9 when that station grabbed the hot AC format and "Mix" moniker left behind by Dispatch/RadiOhio's WBNS-FM 97.1 in its move to sports - is landing on 104.3 FM.

That'll be "Big Hits B104.3"...OMW hears that, as we suspected, the classic hits "Big Hits" format will only displace one of the two frequencies now used by Saga's smooth jazz outlet. WJZA/103.5 Pickerington will continue with smooth jazz when 104.3 makes its format change.


I'm surprised -- thought the upscale/small business appeal of Smooth Jazz would be worth two rimshots in Columbus given the present business climate, given that the 103.5 signal doesn't clear the prime Clintonville/Dublin/Powell yuppification area. And after all, how well did big hits do on a big stick?
Last edited by Dr. Whiplash on Tue Feb 03, 2009 10:28 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

Dr. Whiplash wrote:We've now confirmed that Saga's "Big Hits" classic hits format in Columbus - bumped off of WODB/107.9 when that station grabbed the hot AC format and "Mix" moniker left behind by Dispatch/RadiOhio's WBNS-FM 97.1 in its move to sports - is landing on 104.3 FM.

That'll be "Big Hits B104.3"...

...OMW hears that, as we suspected, the classic hits "Big Hits" format will only displace one of the two frequencies now used by Saga's smooth jazz outlet. WJZA/103.5 Pickerington will continue with smooth jazz when 104.3 makes its format change.
Smart move.

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Re: Columbus Plugs In 'The Fan' On FM

Post by Ace Purple »

I read that the WODB calls are moving to Saga's 104.3 signal along with the Classic Hits format while Mix 107.9 will become WVMX.
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