Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffhs
Talk radio is beginning to appear on the FM band in some cities, in addition to or instead of on AM. In my area just outside greater Cleveland, I now hear talk programming part of the time on WMMS-FM which used to be 100-percent active rock--the first talk FM station so far in Cleveland. (I wonder which station here, if any, will be next to go all-talk.)
Oldies, on the other hand, seem to have left AM in this area (and probably in many other cities as well) for FM. I can hear at least two FM oldies stations here, one from Cleveland (WMJI-Majic 105.7) and another from a lakefront city 50 miles from Cleveland (WZOO, Magic Oldies 102-5). This is not to say that all oldies stations have fled AM for FM; some small towns/suburbs still have AM oldies radio, such as WKFB-AM 770 in Jeannette, Pennsylvania (as I found out after doing a search using RadioLocator.com). There was a small oldies AM station in the Cleveland metropolitan area until about four years ago (WELW-AM 1330 in Willoughby, east-suburban Cleveland) that switched to syndicated talk, dropping its solid-gold oldies on a Friday. I can only imagine how upset some listeners may have been when they tuned their radios to 1330 the following Monday morning, only to hear national talk hosts rather than the oldies this station had been playing for some four or five years; the format (WELW's oldies format) was modeled after that of CKLW-AM 800 when that station was "The Big Eight" in the '60s-'70s. The station (WELW 1330) also had two of the best local oldies DJs in the business during its oldies days, both of whom were let go when the format changed.  |
Yeah, it seems like FM talk is growing, we have one here in Pittsburgh, 104.7, WPGB that is ripping KDKA-AM a new one. They first took Rush Limbaugh away and then the Pittsburgh Pirates. Come to think of it, I notice that many sports teams are going FM too, heck, all three teams here, the Penguins, Pirates, and Steelers have their flagship stations on FM. My maternal grandmother passed away in 1997 but if she was still around, she'd be going ape on her Pirates not being on KDKA anymore. The downside is that the Pirates always pre-emps Michael Savage and he pre-emps George Noory. Wish the Pirates were somewhere else, oh well....
Yeah, sometimes I listen to 770 out of Jeanette and they have a sister station on 620 kc, when there isn't any doctor shows on, they play oldies too.