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Star 96.7 Changes

Posted by Shizam <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/chicagomediachat/info/user=Shizam' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on March 22, 2022, 8:57 am

Eddie Volkman announced changes coming to the station many of which he cannot mention yet. He is now doing mornings oh, and that other Morning Show appears to have been blown out. On the website the afternoon spot is gone however he just said Scott Childers is back as Chief Engineer and will be doing afternoons. Today at least?

Hmmmmmmmmmm....

Re: Star 96.7 Changes

Posted by WYTZZ95FM <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/chicagomediachat/info/user=WYTZZ95FM' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on March 22, 2022, 9:25 am, in reply to "Star 96.7 Changes"

Will they will be able to save a few bucks and turn on their HD signals again?

Star's format is perfect for its coverage area. Best billing and they actually do relate tot helical audience. The days of seeing niche formats on rural Class A stations are gone.

Perhaps another DJ on the beach, formerly on one of the Chicago big sticks might be landing on a Star in the burbs?

Z

Re: Star 96.7 Changes

Posted by Jeremy Andrews <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/chicagomediachat/info/user=Jeremy+Andrews' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on March 22, 2022, 9:34 am, in reply to "Re: Star 96.7 Changes"

Probably just airstaff shuffling. Scott has been filling in multiple places occasionally ever since he was rehired as engineer 2 years ago.

Re: Star 96.7 Changes

Posted by PhilJSmith <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/chicagomediachat/info/user=PhilJSmith' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on March 23, 2022, 12:05 am, in reply to "Re: Star 96.7 Changes"

For a while WSSR was carrying 1340 WJOL on 96.7-HD2. Even after dropping that, Star 96.7 continued on the HD1 stream for a little while, then that ended too.

Assuming a station licenses HD Radio tech with Xperi’s down payment + payment plan option, can a station shut off their HD signal and stop making payments? Or are they stuck with continuing to pay off the entire $10K license fee?

Re: Star 96.7 Changes

Posted by Jeremy Andrews <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/chicagomediachat/info/user=Jeremy+Andrews' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on March 23, 2022, 7:36 am, in reply to "Re: Star 96.7 Changes"

I believe if they shut it off, they don’t have to pay the license fee. I believe they also have to pay for each additional sub channel, which is probably why iHeart has been turning them off all over the country. Not making any money to justify the cost. In Hubbard’s case, they turned them back on here because they are being leased out. They did leave Deep Tracks on The Drive’s HD2 although it seems to be missing from 96.9-2 since their HD transmitter went off the air in February. 96.9 tends to have problems with randomly losing it’s HD for a few weeks until they get up here to fix it. When it went back on, they never put the HD2 back.

It’s never been standard practice for the suburban signals to run HD. They never did up here with WIIL or in Waukegan with WXLC. The River did for a few years when the technology was new and somewhat exciting. WZSR also had HD for a minute around that time. Not worth the cost to keep it going long term.

Some HD equipment also supposedly runs really hot. If it gets too hot and there’s not enough cooling in the transmitter room, there can be a problem.

Re: Star 96.7 Changes

Jeremy, iHeart is shutting HD's off because no one is listening. The only ones running are the ones being leased, driving their app streams (save licensing fees) and driving repeaters.

Religious broadcasters are one of the few utilizing HD2+ signals.

IBOC AM is dead. FM HD is on its way. If the US would have avoided the who greases your palm before the circle jerk dance, DAB and AM DRM would have been a much better choice.

Z

Re: Star 96.7 Changes

Posted by Jeremy Andrews <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/chicagomediachat/info/user=Jeremy+Andrews' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on March 23, 2022, 11:20 am, in reply to "Re: Star 96.7 Changes"

Depends on the market for iHeart. In Chicago, they shifted 95.5's Country format to HD2. This is common practice in larger markets with format changes.

WKSC HD2 for whatever reason showed up in the ratings in this book. Nothing special, but I've never seen it show up in the actual ratings before beyond simple cume. They all get at least some cume, usually between 5,000 and 15,000. Not usually enough to break a 0.1. Again, nothing special, nothing they could make money with

In other markets, if they have an AM station that doesn't have a translator, they frequently put them on HD2.

Majority of the rest of them are stream simulcasts as you mentioned. Some (Like WVAZ HD2) clear their BIN (Black Information Network)

WLIT HD2 was acting as a way to keep other stations from using "The Breeze" brand until earlier this year. They had numerous subs across the country running the same feed. They obviously are not worried about that branding anymore like they were 4 years ago, since they began shutting them down. This is why WLIT HD2 is no longer on the air.

Is WGCI HD2 still operational? Haven't heard it in awhile. Was running their corporate Dance log with a Legal ID last time I heard it.

Re: Star 96.7 Changes

Hi Jeremy,

WGCI-HD2 has been gone for a while.

There has been a major drop in HD2+ streams in Chicago recently. 107.9 gone. 101.9HD2 Steppin has been gone for a few months (gets expensive to pay that lease when you have no listeners). 93.9 gone.

Z

Re: Star 96.7 Changes

Posted by Jeremy Andrews <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/chicagomediachat/info/user=Jeremy+Andrews' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on March 23, 2022, 12:39 pm, in reply to "Re: Star 96.7 Changes"

Guessing they shut down 107.5-2 at the same time as 93.9-2. They have a new studio facility that went into operation at the beginning of the year. They originally had a dedicated NexGen system for those subs.

Re: Star 96.7 Changes

Jeremy not positive, but I am almost certain 107.5 HD2 went down a long time before 93.9 107.5 HD2 has been gone for over 6 months maybe more.

Z

Re: Star 96.7 Changes

Posted by Jeremy Andrews <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/chicagomediachat/info/user=Jeremy+Andrews' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on March 23, 2022, 12:53 pm, in reply to "Re: Star 96.7 Changes"

I believe 93.9-2 was running from a web stream in it's final months, so that would make sense that WGCI HD2 was turned off earlier. It's the same one showcased in this article from April of last year. WLIT HD2 cut from it's own local feed to this one at some point last year. The fact that it was from a stream would make sense as to why it ran longer. This feed is the one that has been shutdown nationwide.

https://www.northpine.com/blog/2021/04/10/relaxing-favorites-and-31-legal-ids-per-hour/

Re: Star 96.7 Changes

Yes when I heard that string of IDs on WLIT HD2 last time I tuned in (long time ago), I was like HOLY LEGAL IDs!

Most of the iHeart app streams now have commercials, or at the least run iHeart promos.

Z

Re: Star 96.7 Changes

Posted by Jeremy Andrews <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/chicagomediachat/info/user=Jeremy+Andrews' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on March 23, 2022, 1:16 pm, in reply to "Re: Star 96.7 Changes"

The app streams initially are-were setup for commercials that run at a set time on the stream.

Basically a song plays on the HD2 station that runs it while people listening in the app hear commercials. Sometimes you'll hear a second of the song on the app before the commercials cut in.

Since iHeart is doing a big overhaul of their facilities, I've noticed WMIL HD2 is running the stream that is heard on the app instead of it's own dedicated one (Which was the case before), complete with the commercials.

Since the app doesn't return to the feed until the commercials are done, the RDS on WMIL HD2 is way ahead of what's actually on the air.