WTOP is moving...

[acroyear]

...to 103.5 on the FM dial.  It seems its so they can consolidate all of the smaller broadcast points they've acquired over the years to fill in transmission holes into a single, powerful FM spot.  The classical station is moving to 104.1/103.9.  107.7/1500 are currently broadcasting WTOP until they can rig up a new more indepth news/analysis station working with The Washington Post.  They'll still hold onto 820am for Frederick, but being able to pick up the 50,000 watts of 1500 from, say, the McDonalds on the hill at the intersection of 70 and 76 in PA, the Hudson River Bridges (or even the Delaware Memorial Bridge) is about to become a thing of the past.

Z104 appears to be long gone.  So much for the power (and more importantly, the value) of pop music these days.

On the bright side, it means their "bumper" they have to run every half hour won't be quite so long since they won't have to name so many transmitters every time.  :)

On the down side, it shows that having the power of a 50,000 watt am transmitter only gives a station the financial means to get out of am.  It used to be that 50,000 watts was a gold mine, rarely given out by the FCC.  Now its just a stepping stone.

Comments

[mizjawnson.livejournal.com]

I was confused when I saw that today. So will it simply not be available on AM1500 anymore? And geez, first 99.1FM gets dumped and now 104.1FM? Not that it matters much as I only ever listen to WTOP on the radio anymore, but still - where is the music going?!

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

the music has been gone for years.

the stations that play the stuff they *call* music are dying, partly in reaction to that. :)

am1500 will be this new joint analysis station w/ the 'Post, when its ready.

[mizjawnson.livejournal.com]

I refuse to listen to "music" stations in the morning and have for several years simply due to the fact that they never play any music. If I want to listen to talk radio, I'll listen to talk radio. And that's why my radio has been at WTOP for years now.

Thanks for the update!

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

Pop music has "power" and "value?"

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

well, no, but the record labels hadn't learned that yet.

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

Wah!! Z104 was a decent station. I like WGMS, the classical station, as well. Blah. Radio just isn't the same any more. San Diego and Salt Lake both had great radio stations. Salt Lake esp. Why can't we hold onto a few stations? Yes, I'm still bitter about 99.1.

[rsteachout.livejournal.com]

I found out about this yesterday when WGMS sent out an e-mail. The nice part for me is that I could finally program WTOP on my cars FM buttons, ditch the semi-sucky music station that had been taking up #6, and still have my WGMS (which, with the new 103.9 frequency will allow me to hear it farther away when we go on long trips North). So now I finally have a 6-button FM set-up that I'm happy with, including a news/traffic station.