| Updated
6/11/18
Jamie Dupree returns to the radio, kind of.
For those who
have not followed this story it's one of horror for any one
of us who works in radio. Our voices are our money maker and
when someone loses theirs it's as devastating as it could
ever get.
That's just what
happened to Cox Media's Jamie Dupree, Washington reporter
for WSB-AM Atlanta as well as WOKV Jacksonville, WDBO
Orlando and others. Jamie through some freak unknown
situation lost his voice one day back in 2016.
Since then he has just
been recording audio from various congressmen and writing
blogs for Cox' various news radio sites. After hospital
hopping to no avail all was pretty much lost when it came to
his voice.
However a company
overseas that makes text to speech programs was able to use
the years of audio Jamie had recorded to create a 'brand new
voice' for him.
He calls it 'Jamie
2.0' think NOAA Weather radio but instead of a generic
Imperfect Paul voice it's Jamie's. He admits it's not perfect
shall we say Imperfect Jamie? However it gets him back on
the radio once again.
[Read More]
Cumulus/Gradick, $7,500 bribe and the Gun!
 The
Drama between Atlanta based Cumulus Media and west Georgia
based Gradick Communications seems to be hitting a boiling
point and the complaints reads like an old Sopranos script.
Cumulus is now asking
the FCC to reverse its April 11th decision to cease
operations of its translator for 99x due to the fact that
one of the complainants sold their house in December of
2017.
Cumulus also charges
that one of the complainants intimidated their representatives
with a visible gun in the front seat of his pickup truck.
"[complainant]
chose to remain in his truck with the engine running, put on
his sunglasses and pull his sun visor down, and make it as
difficult as he could for Cumulus’ representatives to
communicate with him regarding his alleged interference
problems.
At the same time,
unbeknownst to [Cumulus representatives], [complainant] had
his gun on the front seat next to him in his truck in case
the discussion with the Cumulus representatives did not go
to his liking"
Moreover Gradick
charged Cumulus with bribing one of its complainants with
whopping $7,500 to drop their complaint, $2,500 to drop the
complaint and $5,000 when the translator resumed
broadcasting.
Both companies are
accusing each other of unfairly soliciting listeners to
reach out to the FCC to add to their case Gradick added
screen shots of the 99x website telling listeners to email
the FCC and their support staff as a way to intimidate the
FCC board.
Click Here to read all of the complaints via FCC.
The arts to lose it's voice on 1690AM.
The eclectic
variety station known as "the voice of the arts" is shutting
down after 21 years on the air.
Millionaire Joe Webber
who owns the station along with the now sold 1160 WCFO cited
lack of energy to keep working after the recent passing of
his wife as well as being unable to get the financial
support to keep his weird station on the air.
Webber started "the
voice of the airs" back in 1997 when he purchased AM 1190 to
launch his strange format. It would later move to 1690 in
2006 after buying that signal which had been Atlanta's
Progressive talker airing programming from the now defunct
Air America network.
For those not familiar
with the station the music selections where pretty much all
over the place one minute you would hear an R.E.M. tune into
Ella Fitzgerald song then chirping birds accompanied with a
legal ID at the top of each hour before dipping into the CBS
Radio Network News feed.
It's truly amazing how
this station stayed on the air for over two decades, it goes
to show if you have the money and a strange personality
anything is possible. Although the station never made
headway into the ratings the station did have a small but
loyal fan base of listeners.
Mr. Webber moved to
California shortly after his wife died and all but checked
out from the Atlanta scene and the radio stations he owned.
No word yet as to who
will buy the station and what format will be placed on it,
one thing's for sure that is some prime radio real estate
there with a city grade signal day and night, anyone with
the money to buy it certainly can turn a nice profit if
programmed right.
Update: 5-17 WMLB is
now silent pending sale.
AM 1570 WIGO tower collapse.
The Urban
variety station AM 1570 WIGO "Atlanta's incredible radio"
has suffered a tower collapse knocking the stations AM
carrier off the air for the time being.
The WIGO tower located
behind the station studios on Old Rex Morrow Rd. collapsed
back on Thursday April 26th, 2018 unknown at the time of STA
filling why the tower collapsed.
The station has filled
with the FCC to remain silent as required until repairs can
be made to the tower to get WIGO-AM back on the air.
Click to enlarge!
Another translator program origin change.
 Next
on the list of changes for Atlanta's translators is Steve
Hegwood's Streetz 94.5 and their new program of origin
change.
The W233BF translator
has been feeding off of WSTR-HD-3 since the re-launch of
Streetz but that looks to be changing soon as 'Streetz' is
now airing on AM 1420 WWSZ (formerly brokered WATB-AM
'rainbow radio' in Decatur.)
This move makes sense
as Entercom who owns WSTR also now owns WVEE from the CBS
Radio merge from late last year the move will end the
conflict of interest of both stations. [Audio
of new TOH]
Update: 5-4-18 The
WSTR-HD-3 feed of Streetz is now gone for good as the
translator is now being fed exclusively by WWSZ-AM (1420).
As the translator turns.
If you think the Atlanta translator drama was over, WRONG!
We now know who Immanuel Broadcasting Network's new tenet is
for it's 92.3 W222AF translator, Media One Broadcasting
(whoever they are.)
They have launched a new Urban station
called Power 92.3 Jamz feeding off of WSRV-HD3. Trust
me you don't have to be a psychic to see what's coming next.
C&D anyone? [Audio
Sweep of the new power 92.3]aprox. size 1mb
Blog: The FM band’s translator problem.
The recent events regarding W255CJ (98.9) and their problem
with WWGA (98.9) and even more so with W275DF (99.3) and
their problem with WCON (99.3) has to make one wonder; what
was the thinking at the FCC regarding these translator
assignments?
Way back in 2009 to “revitalize” the HD Radio service the
FCC paved the way for stations to utilize HD radio sub
channels to feed the translators to launch even more brands
on the FM band. Cumulus jumped on the bandwagon and first
launched W250BC (97.9) fed by WWWQ-HD-2 (99.7) and brought
back the 99x brand to FM.
Shortly thereafter the FCC decided to “revitalize” the AM
band by allowing AM stations to attach FM translators to
their stations so as to bring listeners back to AM (or
something like that.) Let’s also not forget the LPFM push
from 2014, so now we have one big conundrum, limited band
space to place any more stations without getting mixed up in
more interference issues with other stations in nearby
cities.
Understand that the FCC did all of this not to truly
“revitalize” the bands or digital services but to insure the
cash flow into the FCC. As long as there are AM and FM and
HD signals that’s money to the FCC (government’s) pockets.
Now I’m not saying that any of this is truly bad, for the
consumer it means more programming choices for audio
entertainment but it’s bad for business because it now leads
to more cost for each station in terms of utilities (bigger
power bills) and again money to the FCC to keep everything
legal.
What’s truly sad is that not every AM station or HD sub
channel will ever get a Translator there just isn’t enough
room on the band for that to happen and some stations will
be sold off to religious or foreign language operators just
as the case with WDWD (590) WQXI (790), WTZA (1010) and now
WCFO (1160) or just shut down all together as was the case
with WTJH (1260) back in 2014.
99x' FM translator is forced off the air.
 The
FCC ordered W255CJ (98.9) off the air at the stroke of
midnight 4/12 after a four year battle with Gradick
Communications due to interference issues with WWGA 98.9fm
in Carrolton. Cumulus posted this statement:
“Pursuant to a decision by the FCC, 99x will cease
transmission at 98.9 FM at midnight tonight. 99x will still
be broadcast on 99.7 HD2, on the 99x app, Alexa and
streaming at 99x.com.” No word yet as to Cumulus'
next move for the signal, it originally broadcast at 99.1fm
with 99watts of power but was constantly being overrun by
sister station 99.1 WDEN out of Macon. [Audio
of the sign off] aprox. size 1.3mb
One less beat in
Atlanta.
Another FM
translator is silent today (4/12) following the demise of
W255CJ (98.9) and their battle with another station, this
time I-Heart and Immanuel Broadcasting Network have parted
ways, Immanuel owns translator W222AF (92.3) and up to today
had been simulcasting Hip Hop station 'the beat" also heard
on the Southside at 96.7.
I-Heart was leasing
the station but that lease is now up and Immanuel has found
a new operator, unknown at this time who the new operator
is. W222AF first signed on in Atlanta back in the fall of
2011 first simulcasting WGST then all Comedy then Spanish
and then Hip Hop.
Now that 92.3 is gone
and with the limited signal that 96.7 has to cover Atlanta
proper one has to wonder if the current Hip Hop format will
stay It seems pretty unlikely, and chances are pretty high
that 96.7 will flip back to a simulcast of 105.7.
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