89.1 Shelby & 89.9 Greenville On The Air

[cckadlec]

Two new stations have come on the air in West Michigan in the past few weeks with plenty more to come.

89.9 WJCG Strong Tower Radio in Greenville turned on back on Nov. 29th with a whole 15kw to cover the entire region. This adds to overlapping 89.7 in Grand Rapids, 93.1 in Grand Haven, and 91.9 Cadillac (which covers a good chunk of West Michigan due to being high up on the WIAA tower). Plus, 89.7 in South Haven (reduced to 150w on same frequency as the GR full-power) and 89.1 Bridgman (2kw to take out semi-local Lakeshore Public) are/will be new as well. They're also turning on 88.7 at 10kw in Owosso soon (if not already).

WJCG TOH ID 12/19

89.1 WDRZ Shelby turned on in the past 24 hours, not noted at 9am Wednesday, but on at the same time on Thursday. Applied for as "Full Potential Ministry," don't be fooled - that's a business name for Smile FM, which won ELEVEN stations in the non-comm applications (split between its Full Potential and Smile FM names). In all fairness, Strong Tower won ten stations. Between the two of them, they snatched up 21 of 24 of the total stations in Michigan.

WDRZ TOH ID 12/19

WDRZ is simulcasting Smile's throw-away signal Bridge 96.7 in mono-only like most Smile-owned stations. 96.7 runs on a translator signal outside Lapeer playing straight instrumental music with no real known reason. Smile FM's mission is pretty clear: buy as many signals as possible to broadcast their message on. But their Bridge signal(s) don't seem to have any direction. What's the purpose? The music and content isn't even religious. Not to say the content is BAD; it could be worse. But it's not going to be fetching many listeners and isn't promoting anything either. So why snatch up so many signals only to play... instrumental music? It appears more like a place-holder for the future. Weather reports and conditions seem to match that of Lansing - I'm not totally sure (perhaps I'm wrong) that any LOCAL weather is given, and winter conditions between being slammed with lake effect snow here vs. sunny inland are drastically different. In recording Bridge's Shelby signal this morning - which is on the same tower as 88.3 Smile FM - they give a news snippet and event way the the heck up in Elk Rapids and Bear Lake. Wrong region of the state! Nobody here cares what is going on in Northern Michigan and it's not like it was content carried over from the main Lapeer signal where Elk Rapids would be even more irrelevant. But don't forget the Detroit area traffic reports too!

I'd like to think Smile is going to do something else with 89.1, but since they have two main programs - Smile FM and Bridge - and Smile is already on the same tower, I have to assume this is what we're getting out of this new signal. At least with Strong Tower, they just have their one network and lump all their TOH IDs into one long list. Nothing local. You know what you're getting. I'm not sure that's really better, but it's at least less random and more straightforward versus getting content way out of the area that has purposely been chosen to air on a station. It's hard to believe I'm saying it, but I almost have more respect for the stations that are just a simulcasted network.

But like I've said, it could be worse. And none of this is surprising from radio these days, not the hoarding of available frequencies by using two different names, not the non-local content from way up north airing on the simulcasted programming from three hours east. That's just radio nowadays and hard to fault those who hoard the stations to achieve their dreams of a state-wide network while they're working within the rules set by the FCC.

As a DXer, I have to say that 89.9 has rarely gotten me much from my location in Fremont (Traverse City in the summer and weak Holland in the dead conditions of winter) and my second main location in Hart is unlikely to be affected by the new Strong Tower station. And 89.1 has historically been IBOC or nothingness up and down the lakeshore - no H*** loss there. Lakeshore Public is the norm along with the lower-power K-Love in Round Lake Beach or WHAA and WBSD on some days, often smothered by IBOC. And inland, Shelby isn't the strongest (at only 450w). In Fremont, K-Love (WLKB) eats away at it pretty good and I can still hear Fort Wayne in its null. Both new signals have nulls that will keep them as usable frequencies and it's nice they're on the air now to know what's what and that it's not all that bad in the end.

And in the future, for those West Michigan listeners of WIIL Rock, don't forget 95.1 Holland turns on soon enough. But only 100w.

[ftballfan]

89.1 WDRZ, with its instrumental music format, is in better standing with the FCC than any of the Henderson stations as it's on the air with something! Speaking of Henderson, their 750am in Petoskey finally got its license yanked.

[cckadlec]

89.1 WDRZ, with its instrumental music format, is in better standing with the FCC than any of the Henderson stations as it's on the air with something! Speaking of Henderson, their 750am in Petoskey finally got its license yanked.

Oh totally. I think Ed, who runs Smile, does things by the book and has good intentions. All the Smile FM stations are compliant in every way as far as I'm aware. I'm no fan of the state-wide traffic (always ends up being Detroit, of course) or the non-local weather or the practice of the stations running mono instead of stereo, but hey, he does a good job nonetheless and has been nothing but helpful in sharing station info with me in the past in order to update the FM database.

[MWmetalhead]

96.7 in the Flint area plays a mix of mostly smooth jazz and AC gold based on the few times I've heard the station. I like the music mix. It's not strictly instrumentals.

[cckadlec]

96.7 in the Flint area plays a mix of mostly smooth jazz and AC gold based on the few times I've heard the station. I like the music mix. It's not strictly instrumentals.

Agreed that it isn't all bad. Right now, it's all Christmas tunes, so it's a little harder to judge overall as I only hear 96.7 here now and then. I think if it was more like WEMP, it might gain some traction. I'm not sure what traction WEMP actually has, but it's pretty unique on the dial and the moment you hear it, you know what station it is.

[ChrisWL1980]

Is Bridge actually playing vocal music now? The last time I heard it, whenever they played a pop tune they played the instrumental version with the vocals removed, a la the "karaoke versions" you used to find on CD singles. Kinda bizarre, but also really unique.
WEMP doesn't play any smooth jazz except for some soft R&B vocals like Sade that fit the format. I do like their take on Christmas music though. Really reminds me of the old WJOI (Detroit) "Christmas Festival of Music," back when having 24 or 36 hours of Christmas music on Christmas Eve/Day was something unique and something stations promoted.

[ftballfan]

I was able to carry 89.1 with a good signal past Scottville, so there is a chance Bear Lake might get a fringe signal from WDRZ depending on conditions.

It also helps that (a) 89.1 is THE emptiest frequency in northern Michigan and NE Wisconsin thanks to high-power stations on 88.7, 88.9, and 89.3 and (b) its 450 watts comes from an antenna that is a few hundred feet above ground level (on the old WCXT tower AFAIK).