Odd Radio Station owner of the day

Posted on December 15, 2013 by Fred Stiening

http://wkaj1120.com/
How about a company that makes concrete?

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17 Responses to Odd Radio Station owner of the day

  1. Nidster says:
    December 15, 2013 at 4:36 pm

    Targeted with a core focus on women between 35-49 with music by The Eagles, Bob Seger, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones, and Eric Clapton. Well I guess they won’t be listening to Pinball Wizard by one of the greatest British bands, The Who?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AKbUm8GrbM

    What’s wrong with listening to Carly Simon? Linda Rhonstat? I guess women these days do not want to listen to, “You’re no good”

  2. Art Stone says:
    December 16, 2013 at 7:19 am

    It turns out there is a story here – this was a new license with the construction permit issued in 2008. It required building 4 towers for a directional signal. If you look at the service area map, there are no major cities nearby. It’s reason for potentially having value was it is along the New York Thruway (I-90). It could have been useful 1) people still drove long distances and 2) while driving on long trips, people listen to AM radio.

    So you have 3 years to build a radio station from the date you get permission. They were close to the three year limit and the FCC started asking questions because the paperwork didn’t seem to be flowing with an engeering report, asking permission to test the transmitter. The FCC didn’t believe that any construction was happening, and went so far as to send a field agent to the designated site to confirm they would have construction done before the permit expired. He found no evidence of any work.

    At the time, there was a “dodge” people used to avoid losing the permit – if you told the FCC at the last minute that you were going to transfer the license to another party who would need more time to build it, the FCC would go along – IF the new owner increased “diversity”. A federal judge ruled that was improper (in general) – three years is three years. The FCC then canceled all uncompleted construction permits that had gone beyond three years, including this one.

    Last year, a flurry of lawyer letters flew back and forth seeking reinstatement, which eventually happened. What the station is actually doing is hard to tell – probably just a computer randomly playing the same 20 songs over and over with ads suggesting you pull over at Stuckey’s and buy a pecan log.

    • CC1s121LrBGT says:
      December 16, 2013 at 9:29 pm

      I’d listen to them if they had an ad for Waffle House, but somehow, I just don’t think so. 🙁

      • Art Stone says:
        December 16, 2013 at 10:15 pm

        People don’t generally listen to radio for the ads

        Just a random observation – I’ve been to two different Waffle Houses in Charlotte – neither one is very close to an Interstate exit. I didn’t get a good feeling about either one. They had few customers and the employees were a bit odd, even by my low standards.

        • CC1s121LrBGT says:
          December 16, 2013 at 11:10 pm

          I don’t think there are any Waffle Houses very far of the Mason Dixon.

          • Art Stone says:
            December 17, 2013 at 2:10 am

            On my drive from Connecticut to Chicago a year and a half ago, I stopped at one in Erie PA the moment I spotted the ign. They were aware they were the Northern most Waffle House

            A number of the chains don’t have a presence in the northeast. My working assumption is it is due to local government shakedowns or not wanting to pay a mob tax

        • Parrott says:
          December 17, 2013 at 9:09 am

          KNZZ is playing those dam PSA ads on breaks streaming. Hate that. I would much rather hear a real advertisement for auto glass replacement than those F’ ed up phony ads the gov creates !
          So I change stations. Freaks.
          New Waffle House in Blacksburg Virginia( in last year).
          parrott

  3. briand75 says:
    December 16, 2013 at 7:53 am

    Right in my neck of the woods growing up. Brothers still live nearby. Art and I are similar age so: 1) I drive the Thruway a couple times a year now – was more frequently years ago 2) Our demographic is strictly FM – we grew up switching to FM to get away from the “bubble gum” music on AM. I have never even listened to or thought about this station. Now when I travel the Thruway, I am on Sirius/XM and don’t even care to listen to the mostly political FM radio. Thank you for the heads up! I might see if I can find it next trip through.

  4. ragtopdance says:
    December 16, 2013 at 10:30 am

    Is WKAJ really odd? Many a great idea and concept were deemed as odd by the so called experts, analysts and trained observers. Times change my ‘alleged’ trained radio listeners. New tastes, new demographics new visions. Just because this demographic has failed before, has never been tried or defies your obscure logic doesn’t mean it won’t become successful. Let us re-write the history books , for if we stopped at every failure or concept never tried or failed, we would have never heard of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.

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