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96.3 wkla format tweak

Covers all of Northern Lower Michigan (from Ludington to Tawas northward), as well as the Straits Area and Soo Region.
hunterw
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96.3 wkla format tweak

Post by hunterw » Sun Mar 10, 2019 8:53 pm

In ludington area for the weekend and was listening to the locals. Sounds like Wkla tweaked their format to compete with 102.7 wmom. They even mention them in a around about way.
Seems like a pop friendly CHR format with some hip hop. Pretty much an opposite of wmom alternative rock /chr hybrid format they have. They positions themselves as today’s hits and the day before yesterday’s hits.
6:10pm on March 9th.
Better - Khalid
Tell me you love me- Demi lavato
All the stars- Kendrick Lamar
I’ve been waiting- lil peeps ft fall out boy
Filthy- Justin Timberlake
Cold water.- Major Lazor ft Justin Bieber.
Kissing strangers.- DNCE
High hopes - panic at the disco
Consequences- camila cabello



Chris1980
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Re: 96.3 wkla format tweak

Post by Chris1980 » Sun Mar 10, 2019 9:39 pm

Interesting. Quite a few recent stiffs on that playlist (i.e. "Filthy"). I take it this means they dropped the Westwood One format?



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MWmetalhead
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Re: 96.3 wkla format tweak

Post by MWmetalhead » Mon Mar 11, 2019 8:02 pm

Does 96.3's audio processing still sound like a low bitrate .mp3 file?



bmw
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Re: 96.3 wkla format tweak

Post by bmw » Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:33 pm

Chris1980 wrote:
Sun Mar 10, 2019 9:39 pm
Interesting. Quite a few recent stiffs on that playlist (i.e. "Filthy"). I take it this means they dropped the Westwood One format?
Westwood One's take on CHR or Adult CHR or Hot AC or whatever they call it is seriously the driest, most boring format I've ever heard in my life. 104.9 WQBX Alma and 106.1 Tawas City (and until recently 107.7 WHSB) all air it. No personality. No excitement. Bland imaging. Everything about it is just bland and boring. I much preferred the Cumulus version of this (Best Hits, Best Variety) that aired in the 1990s and early 2000s.



hunterw
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Re: 96.3 wkla format tweak

Post by hunterw » Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:36 pm

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AMixam ... p=drivesdk here’s a video recording while I was driving with a 15 second clip of wkla audio.



ftballfan
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Re: 96.3 wkla format tweak

Post by ftballfan » Tue Mar 12, 2019 1:59 pm

The major downgrade they took when moving from 106.3 to 96.3 doesn't help. It all but eliminated their signal in Manistee County (96.3 is short-spaced to the 96.3s in Marinette and Petoskey). I still think 98.7 and 96.3 need to swap formats (98.7 is 6kW A while 96.3 is 3kW A from the same tower).

If Mason/Manistee/Oceana/Lake were a rated market, 96.3 would probably be behind WMOM, WKZC, WTCM, and WWKR



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MWmetalhead
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Re: 96.3 wkla format tweak

Post by MWmetalhead » Tue Mar 12, 2019 8:14 pm

Their audio sounds horrific.

My guess is they'd be dead last among local FM stations. I bet even 101.5 - despite all its format changes in recent years - would outperform them.

The area should have a Mainstream AC. Back in the day, WKLA-FM programmed such a format and did a fine job of it. Of course, there was also Lite Mix 105.3 from Hart.



cckadlec
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Re: 96.3 wkla format tweak

Post by cckadlec » Wed Mar 13, 2019 2:38 pm

Yeah, it's easy to tell them apart from others on 96.3 because they are the horrid sounding station that is quieter than the rest. You'd almost think the same person who does 98.7 and 97.7 does 96.3 because they all have that crappy audio in common. At least 96.3 stays on the air as opposed to 97.7/98.7 that are always running dead air when I tune in on the weekends.

It's impossible to hear 96.3 here in Fremont aside from on the portable with some height. I hear them in the null of Lite 96.3 when I aim at them but there is also 96.1 IBOC on the frequency to deal with and often B96 too. Which is pathetic... considering KLA is 50 miles from me. Any other station with their height and power is *easy* to hear on such an otherwise open frequency, though they do have high hills in Oceana Co. to deal with and a low base elevation being along the water. In comparison to 106.3, I was halfway between Lakeview and Ludington and could often hear them both in at once (Ludington in the null, but still very audible). Certainly a serious downgrade with 96.3. They're almost like... irrelevant?


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ftballfan
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Re: 96.3 wkla format tweak

Post by ftballfan » Wed Mar 13, 2019 5:42 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue Mar 12, 2019 8:14 pm
Their audio sounds horrific.

My guess is they'd be dead last among local FM stations. I bet even 101.5 - despite all its format changes in recent years - would outperform them.
Here is how I feel the order would go (Lake/Manistee/Mason/Oceana):
1. WMOM
2. WTCM (FM) [#1 pretty much by default in Lake and Manistee counties as it's one of very few stations to put a 60dBu over most of both counties]
3. WWKR
4. WKZC
5. WMLQ/WLDN
6. WMTE
7. WKLA (FM)
8. WJZQ [would be #7 if not for first adjacent W224CA killing its signal in Ludington]
9. WKLA (AM)/W224CA
10. Likely WGFE or WGFN
cckadlec wrote:
Wed Mar 13, 2019 2:38 pm
Yeah, it's easy to tell them apart from others on 96.3 because they are the horrid sounding station that is quieter than the rest. You'd almost think the same person who does 98.7 and 97.7 does 96.3 because they all have that crappy audio in common. At least 96.3 stays on the air as opposed to 97.7/98.7 that are always running dead air when I tune in on the weekends.

It's impossible to hear 96.3 here in Fremont aside from on the portable with some height. I hear them in the null of Lite 96.3 when I aim at them but there is also 96.1 IBOC on the frequency to deal with and often B96 too. Which is pathetic... considering KLA is 50 miles from me. Any other station with their height and power is *easy* to hear on such an otherwise open frequency, though they do have high hills in Oceana Co. to deal with and a low base elevation being along the water. In comparison to 106.3, I was halfway between Lakeview and Ludington and could often hear them both in at once (Ludington in the null, but still very audible). Certainly a serious downgrade with 96.3. They're almost like... irrelevant?
That cluster is a mess. They sometimes fail to carry their scheduled college sports programming (94.9 has UofM and 97.7/98.7 has MSU). None of the stations have an active website or social media account AFAIK. The one saving grace is that they're on the air most of the time (except for the 97.7/98.7 dead air on weekends, which seems to mostly happen after sporting events)



Chris1980
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Re: 96.3 wkla format tweak

Post by Chris1980 » Sat Apr 06, 2019 7:53 pm

bmw wrote:
Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:33 pm
Chris1980 wrote:
Sun Mar 10, 2019 9:39 pm
Interesting. Quite a few recent stiffs on that playlist (i.e. "Filthy"). I take it this means they dropped the Westwood One format?
Westwood One's take on CHR or Adult CHR or Hot AC or whatever they call it is seriously the driest, most boring format I've ever heard in my life. 104.9 WQBX Alma and 106.1 Tawas City (and until recently 107.7 WHSB) all air it. No personality. No excitement. Bland imaging. Everything about it is just bland and boring. I much preferred the Cumulus version of this (Best Hits, Best Variety) that aired in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Definitely agree on ABC/SMN's Best Hits, Best Variety. I listened to that on Big Rapids' Y102 in 1998-99 when I was attending Aquinas College in Grand Rapids (until they dropped the satellite, went local and adopted the "Today's Hit Music" slogan while still playing Berlin and Madonna ballads from the '80s). Around that same time, WHSB dropped ABC for Jones' Adult Hit Radio in its non-local dayparts and transitioned from being "Bay 108" to "107-7 The Bay." I liked Jones' format too (it was also aired for a short time on West Branch's 105.5 WBMI using about 10 different positioners, including "Channel 105-5" and "Kool Mix 105.5"). I recall WQBX airing the ABC/SMN format in the late '90s and later switching to "AC Active" from Waitt Radio Networks, which was also swallowed up by Westwood One.

As far as WW1's Hot AC (I think they used to call it Bright AC), I listened a bit to both 104.9 WQBX and 106.1 WTZM while in Bay City today. The music was nothing to write home about (I'm not crazy about today's contemporary music anyway), but the presentation was really awful. The jock, whoever his name was, sounded like he belonged on a beautiful music station.

I haven't gotten to listen to WHSB lately, but as recently as last July they were still airing the Westwood One Hot AC format, though the songs played about an hour behind WTZM. I'm guessing WTZM programs the "local" version of the format where the jocks can record liners to make the station sound local, while WHSB has (or had) the "total" version.



hunterw
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Re: 96.3 wkla format tweak

Post by hunterw » Sat Apr 20, 2019 10:05 pm

Now synergy’s website is suspended? Ludington radio stations surely have gone down hill in the recent years. Now with the loss of 102.7 to the list, 105.3(wcxt now whts), 106.3(now on 96.3 but signal sucks) are all gone and 94.1 moved south a bit.



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