What happened to Talk Radio WEMJ?

[waukewanderer]

The other day when I arrived at my cabin, I tuned in to 1490 WEMJ to listen to Rush as I always do, and was surprised to find a whole different format. It claimed to be "visitor information radio" but was ALL COMMERCIALS!!! What a disappointment. I find it hard to believe that the area can't (or won't) support what was the only talk radio station in the region. My first thought was that maybe the station changed it's format for the Winter months, and will change back in the Spring? It doesn't make any sense to me. Does anyone know what the station is up to, and is it is a permanent change? The lakes region has so much to offer in many ways, but the radio selections are pretty bad.

[Aquadeziac]

I believe they were another aquisition of Nassau Broadcasting, as were several other Lakes Region/ Capital Area radio stations, most of which have had format changes. I would tend to believe the change is permenant as the other stations were. I know I was not happy with some of their other station's format changes. But it seems with the exception of WFTN and their AM station, about all of the Capital Area/ Lakes Ragion stations are now owned by Nassau Broadcasting. They also seem to be buying up a bunch of other stations around the state.

[Paugus Bay Resident]

Here's the scoop. Personally, I liked the "old "format". Especially Alan Harrison's early morning local political guests. He moved over to WEZS (along with Neil Young). WEZS is a great locally owned station.

Don't know what will happen to Rush and Howie.

[Pepper]

We're absolutely disgusted at this latest format change in the Lakes Region.

I cannot for the life of me imagine what in the world they are thinking. Honestly, do they really think the tourists are going to want to listen to a format that consists, essentially, of commerical messages?????

This absolutely beats all.

I want my Dr. Joy!!!!! I want my Howie Carr!!!!!
I want my Talk Radio back!!!!!!!!!

I know, I know - they don't care, and they're not reading this anyway, but I just had to vent when I saw this thread.

[secondcurve]

Have you tried it yet? It is not too expensive and you can take it in and out of the car. Take a look.

[SAMIAM]

I'm on the road a lot and always keep it on 1490........now changed to 680 WRKO in Boston....too bad, now I can't hear local commericials.What a shame....they ruined the best local station around.

[Paugus Bay Resident]

WTPL (Concord) 107.7 is all talk and carrys Howie Carr. Unfortunately it doen't always come in well. I was thinking of trying a CC radio which is supposed to have excellent AM reception. All these mountains make things tough

When I'm working at home, I'll usually listen on WRKOs web broadcast.

[Island-Ho]

Venting on the Forum won't do much good, except making you feel a little better. Let the station and the owners know how you feel. If they see lots of listeners and advertising dollars going bye-bye they may think again about their format.

[Paugus Bay Resident]

Done that. For others who feel so inclined, Nassau Broadcasting

[MJM]

If it's convenient for your particular setup in your home, you can get Howie over the Web, and it works just fine.

www.howiecarr.org

[donnamatrix]

Allan Harrison is now on 1390 (or 1350, I can't remember!!) every weekday morning. And once again, Bill McLean joins Allan on Friday mornings for "Straight Talk". I don't know if this station also carries Howie or anyone else. There was a big stink in the Citizen, with letters to the editor, concerning how Nassau fired Allan one day. Basically, "don't let the door hit you on the way out." I sent emails, regular mail and voice messages to Nassau voicing my displeasure. Never heard a peep from them

I love Allan Harrison. I want to hear about what's going on where I AM, not what's going on in Iowa.

[SAMIAM]

I tried to e-mail my thoughts to them but they removed the contact page..nobody is listening

[Paugus Bay Resident]

Samiam, Try this

[Lake Lady 6]

I see that I am not the only radio listener that was shocked to turn on 1490 earlier this week to hear a new format. This change is of little interest to most residents, it is geared to tourists who will probably tire of hearing the same description of the Lakes Region day in and day out if they are here for a vacation (who on vacation listens to the radio - plenty of information in the local papers, brochures, etc.). True, it is the most beautiful place to live and visit but they would be better served by putting the information on a station that reaches other states to lure the tourists. My experience with 1490 is that it can only be heard in a very limited area around the lake. I lose it about half way to Concord.
Took the advice of one forum member and e-mailed my feelings - not sure if it will do any good but it can't hurt either.

[PJinNH]

For the first couple of days, I thought I was just getting bad luck hitting the times when commercials were on.

This is an insult to the local residents of the Lakes Region area. This caters primarily to vacationers, and not the people who live in the area year-round. I'm missing my talk radio, particularly Howie Carr in the afternoons. While I didn't always agreed with him, he was always interesting to listen too. A lot better than the umpteenth repeat of where to go skiing or antiquing in New Hampshire.

I'll have to try 107.7FM out of Concord and see if I can pick it up at the office -- fingers crossed. I've sent an email to Nassau Broadcasting, but unless more people do the same, I doubt it will do much good.

Do they really think this format will generate more listeners than the previous one?

[SAMIAM]

Thanks,Paugus....I got through at that address

[PJinNH]

If you want to call and speak to the head of programming (or as I did leave a msg.).

The person's name is Mark Edwards, phone #225-1160.

[Skipper of the Sea Que]

Originally Posted by Island-Ho

Venting on the Forum won't do much good, except making you feel a little better. Let the station and the owners know how you feel. If they see lots of listeners and advertising dollars going bye-bye they may think again about their format.

I’m sure that Nassau Broadcasting expected some listener complaints about the format switch (or “flip”) on WEMJ. It is a normal and expected consequence of such a change.

Usually I advocate going to the top and talking to the BOSS. Those people who make decisions. This is radio and in this instance the “boss” to complain to is the advertiser and not the broadcaster. The person(s) who decide(s) where to spend advertising dollars. If you really want your message to make an impact, go through them, the station ADVERTISERS. Those are the people who support the new format of WEMJ. Let them carry your complaint to WEMJ and Nassau.

Voice your displeasure to those who advertise on WEMJ (and the other local Nassau stations). Their decision to sponsor new programming has cost YOU your favorite shows, let them know about it (the managers or owners). If sponsors think that their support of the new WEMJ will impact negatively on their business or on buying decisions by customers or potential customers the message WILL carry more weight at Corporate Nassau Broadcasting. Enough to get Rush, Howie and the others back on WEMJ? I don’t know. The new WEMJ format is aimed at visitors and not local residents.

The point of this post is that complaining to WEMJ and Nassau Broadcasting is expected and probably a waste of time. They will be immune to your comments. However: complaints and comments to WEMJ/Nassau Broadcasting that come via current advertisers WILL get their attention. I'll give my opinion about why I think WEMJ changed format in another post when I have a bit more time.

[ApS]

Originally Posted by Paugus Bay Resident

WTPL (Concord) 107.7 is all talk and carrys Howie Carr. Unfortunately it doen't always come in well. I was thinking of trying a CC radio which is supposed to have excellent AM reception. All these mountains make things tough

"All these mountains" keep me busy trying to get talk shows.

I checked out satellite radio, but the "biggest" of the talk shows can't be found there.

Consider WLOB-FM in Portland. It's at 96.3. It's got a quirky format, (Twilight Zone, Fibber McGee, audio-excerpts on weekends for example) but has several of the talk-show personalities mentioned here during the week. Its signal is consistently strong.

WABC 770-AM has a decent afternoon/evening signal out of New York City, and its morning talk-shows can be found on WLOB, above.

CCrane radio sells "reconditioned" CC radios, so I'm thinking for 160+ bucks, the new CC radios won't be the answer. (A poster at another Winnipesaukee-area website was unhappy with their CC radio purchase).

Even WRKO 680-AM, strong a signal as it is, tends to fade at sunrise and sunset. For a $2 experiment, I bought a second AM radio at a yard sale. They're both tuned to WRKO, and oriented 180° out of phase to one another. (Meaning I'm looking at the front of one, and the back of the other at the same time). The volume averages out as first one radio gets the signal, then the other radio. It works!

I've never heard WEMJ 1490. Are we on the same Lake Winnipesaukee?

[PJinNH]

Don't know when it happened, but I turned in WEMJ today and Rush and Howie are back at WEMJ!

If you know when this happened, can you reply to this msg?

Thanks.

[Paugus Bay Resident]

OMG, just tuned in and there was Howie Maybe they listened to all of us who complained? Wonder if Alan Harrison will be returning in the morning? This must have been a recent change because a few days ago, they still had the tourist format on. Didn't see anything about the change in the papers.

Great news.

[Resident 2B]

There was an ad in the Weirs Times this past week saying that the weekday format would be a lot like it used to be, but the weekend format would be the 'visitor info' format.

I guess they listened and found a middle ground.

[PJinNH]

Well I turned into WEMJ on the ride into work this morning, and didn't hear Alan Harrison.

I would imagine the reason for EMJ changing the format back to talk radio during the workweek was more due to lack of advertisers or their complaints. Money talks.

[SAMIAM]

I had taken WEMJ off my select button but stumbled onto it the other day trying to scan a stronger signal and what did I find??..Howie was back.......yeaaa....They must have discovered that no locals were tuning in.

[PJinNH]

http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll...071/-1/CITIZEN

[Paugus Bay Resident]

Listener demand has prompted the owners of local AM radio station WEMJ to return to a talk radio format

"WEMJ's listeners were very clear with us," said Nassau Broadcasting Lakes Region Market Manager Robert Fulmer

Guess our %$^%ing did make a difference I can live with "tourist radio" on the weekends. Congrats to all who made their feelings known.