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Post by dave910 on Apr 29, 2008 22:55:37 GMT -5
I was on the home from Maine, when I happened to stumble upon a good oldies station. It's 106.5 WMEX-FM, a station from Rochester, NH which may not have a large signal, but I enjoyed what I heard. I lost the signal after the NH tolls, but here is a small sample of what I caught.  "C'mon Marianne" Four Seasons "Long Train Running" Doobie Brothers "Mountain of Love" Johnny Rivers |
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Post by H2IZCOOL on Apr 30, 2008 7:42:36 GMT -5
I was on the home from Maine, when I happened to stumble upon a good oldies station. It's 106.5 WMEX-FM, a station from Rochester, NH which may not have a large signal, but I enjoyed what I heard. I lost the signal after the NH tolls, but here is a small sample of what I caught. "C'mon Marianne" Four Seasons "Long Train Running" Doobie Brothers "Mountain of Love" Johnny Rivers Dave, as I read your post, my eyes were drawn to the radio station call-letters, WMEX. During my youth, WMEX AM in Boston was THE rock station of choice in the area. I remember it fondly. |
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Post by Dawn on Apr 30, 2008 11:29:24 GMT -5
That's cool that they're still playing Johnny Rivers and the Four Seasons; I haven't heard either of those songs on commercial radio in quite a while. The oldies stations here seem to be getting further and further away from '60s music, with the exception of a few major groups like the Beatles, Supremes, Beach Boys, etc.
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Post by jpkansas on Apr 30, 2008 20:07:11 GMT -5
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Post by daniel on May 29, 2008 20:18:42 GMT -5
I had a few recordings of WMEX in it's top-40 heyday (1510, wasn't it?) but I'm not sure what happened to them in the move.
I discovered Johnny Rivers when I was working at the oldies station, well I discovered 60's music period working there. They had a 2-fer CD of "Changes"/"Rewind" in the music library there, I stole it when they changed format to Spanish. (I didn't feel badly because the rest of the stuff got thrown away after I stopped working there)
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Post by H2IZCOOL on May 29, 2008 21:53:02 GMT -5
I had a few recordings of WMEX in it's top-40 heyday (1510, wasn't it?) but I'm not sure what happened to them in the move. I discovered Johnny Rivers when I was working at the oldies station, well I discovered 60's music period working there. They had a 2-fer CD of "Changes"/"Rewind" in the music library there, I stole it when they changed format to Spanish. (I didn't feel badly because the rest of the stuff got thrown away after I stopped working there) 1510 is correct, Daniel. WMEX (they pronounced it Wim-Ex) Was basically all I listened to during my high school and undergrad years 1957-1965. I even can name from memory some of the DJs: There's Fenway in the morning, then Mel Miller (I think he just passed away recently) followed by Melvin X. Melvin, then Dan Donovan and finally Arnie "Woo-Woo" Ginsburg. I think they signed off at midnight. Now when you say that WMEX "moved" do you mean that literally, that the ownership of the station at the time (whenever that was) move them to NH? Or did some totally different station just get (or were assigned) the defunct call letters? |
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Post by daniel on May 29, 2008 22:04:54 GMT -5
Sorry, I meant my personal move from CA to Ohio. I've got a small collection of radio airchecks but not all of them made it out here, a lot are still in storage in CA.
As far as the radio station, once the original station changes their callsign they're up for grabs and any licensed station can apply for them. The only exceptions would be if the same callsign is in use on another service (ie: WXXX-AM changes to WXXY-AM, while the co-owned FM remains WXXX-FM, another unrelated station can't apply for WXXX-AM.) or if the callsign is a 3-letter callsign. Once you change from a 3-letter callsign to 4 you can't get the original 3-letter callsign back as the FCC stopped issuing them in the early 60's.
There's even an exception to that, however, and that's if a broadcast facility that originally had a 3-letter callsign and lost it can get it back under certain conditions. The best example of this I can think of involves the station I happen to work for. WJW AM/FM/TV were all co-owned until 1975. When the radio properties were sold, FCC rules at the time did not allow for stations under seperate owners to have the same callsign. So AM 850 kept WJW and Channel 8 had to change to WJKW. In 1986 radio 850 changed to WRMR, so Channel 8 was able to reclaim the original WJW callsign because they originally had the callsign. Sorry to digress into a technical FCC discussion, but I hope it somewhat answered your question...
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Post by Railyn on May 29, 2008 22:05:41 GMT -5
1510 is correct, Daniel. WMEX (they pronounced it Wim-Ex) Was basically all I listened to during my high school and undergrad years 1957-1965. I even can name from memory some of the DJs: There's Fenway in the morning, then Mel Miller (I think he just passed away recently) followed by Melvin X. Melvin, then Dan Donovan and finally Arnie "Woo-Woo" Ginsburg. I think they signed off at midnight. Now when you say that WMEX "moved" do you mean that literally, that the ownership of the station at the time (whenever that was) move them to NH? Or did some totally different station just get (or were assigned) the defunct call letters? I think Daniel means he can't find the recordings since HE moved from California. You can correct me if I'm wrong, Daniel. Guess I shouldn't have answered for you.....  |
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Post by H2IZCOOL on May 29, 2008 22:24:36 GMT -5
Sorry, I meant my personal move from CA to Ohio. I've got a small collection of radio airchecks but not all of them made it out here, a lot are still in storage in CA. As far as the radio station, once the original station changes their callsign they're up for grabs and any licensed station can apply for them. The only exceptions would be if the same callsign is in use on another service (ie: WXXX-AM changes to WXXY-AM, while the co-owned FM remains WXXX-FM, another unrelated station can't apply for WXXX-AM.) or if the callsign is a 3-letter callsign. Once you change from a 3-letter callsign to 4 you can't get the original 3-letter callsign back as the FCC stopped issuing them in the early 60's. There's even an exception to that, however, and that's if a broadcast facility that originally had a 3-letter callsign and lost it can get it back under certain conditions. The best example of this I can think of involves the station I happen to work for. WJW AM/FM/TV were all co-owned until 1975. When the radio properties were sold, FCC rules at the time did not allow for stations under seperate owners to have the same callsign. So AM 850 kept WJW and Channel 8 had to change to WJKW. In 1986 radio 850 changed to WRMR, so Channel 8 was able to reclaim the original WJW callsign because they originally had the callsign. Sorry to digress into a technical FCC discussion, but I hope it somewhat answered your question... No need to be sorry, Daniel. I find that information interesting. -- especially those three letter stations. I always wondered about them. |
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Post by daniel on May 30, 2008 0:41:55 GMT -5
I'm just glad I was able to explain it.  The three letter stations are usually the first to go on the air in that city, because once the supply of three letter callsigns began to run short, the FCC officially switched to issuing four letter combinations, moving the three letter callsigns to ship to shore communications. The only case of a three letter callsign returning once it was given up that I know of is KHJ in L.A. KHJ AM/FM/TV were all co-owned until sometime in the 80's. In the 70's, KHJ-FM changed call letters to KRTH (K-Earth, a well-known Oldies station). At this time, the AM and the TV still had the KHJ callsign. In 1986, KHJ-AM's callsign was changed to KRTH-AM. The TV station still had the KHJ callsign, so at that time either of the radio stations could've reclaimed the callsign. However, in the mid to late 80's, Channel 9 was sold to Disney, who changed the callsign to KCAL-TV. Once that was done and the radio stations didn't apply to get KHJ back within a certain window, it was no longer available to a land broadcaster. However, in 2000, 930 AM had been sold to a Spanish broadcaster who tried and failed to get the original KHJ callsign back. They had to settle for KKHJ, which they used for several years until someone at the station argued to the FCC that the "K-K" sound when said in Spanish was an obscenity. The FCC bought the argument and in a highly unusual move restored the KHJ callsign to the AM station. Many, many other broadcasters have tried to get back three letter callsigns that previous ownerships got rid of and were flat out refused by the FCC, so this case was a big exception to the rules. |
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Post by Laura--I wuv u all :) on Jun 11, 2008 11:18:05 GMT -5
We've got a new (or fairly new) oldies station here that I just discovered today, KZQZ-AM 1430. I tried to find their website but it only has a title page, nothing you can click on. They call it "Hot Talk and Cool Oldies"--I'll probably change the station when the hot talk comes on, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying the cool oldies! They just started Joe Hinton's "Funny How Time Slips Away"--I remember that coming up in one of our games on the Click, but this is the first time I think I've actually heard it. Before that they played "So Fine" by the Fiestas--I think I'd heard that one before but didn't know their name. They are usually pretty good about announcing the songs, although they did get one wrong--if I'm remembering right, they said "Crying" was by Jay and the Americans. I've heard, though, that sometimes dj's will deliberately do things like that to see if anyone is paying attention and calls them on it (I didn't--I was busy working).
Well, I enjoyed that song they were just playing! Next is..."I Can't Stop Loving You" by Ray Charles.
BTW, they call this "your First Amendment station"--I guess that has something to do with their self-described "hot talk"? One ad said their talk programs are "sometimes politically incorrect". Don't ask--I haven't heard any of the talk programs.
They have also played a few old commercials ("I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", "Things go better with Coke", etc.). So it's a really cool station. What I like is that they've been doing a lot of songs I'd never heard before (such as "Little Diane" by Dion), although they do a lot of the "standard" oldies also. They also do a lot of songs I'd heard, but not very often. For instance, they did one by Lou Christie--I can't remember the name, but it goes something like "I've tried every trick in the book"--as I said, I've only heard the song a few times so what the heck do I know? LOL! But anyway, it was nice to hear it.
OK, here comes the next song..."409" by the Beach Boys. Cool lineup of songs, huh? Y'know, earlier today I was listening and I was thinking, "They oughta play 'Town Without Pity'; that would fit really well with the stuff they're playing"--and darned if they didn't play "Town Without Pity" about 15 minutes after that! I didn't even call in and make a request or anything!...OK, now it's the Foundations? "I Got Rhythm". I LOVE this one!!!! No wait, not the Foundations--the...um...well hopefully they'll say their name after the song is over. Vogues? Nah, that's not it either...Happenings! That's it--I think...
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The three letter stations are usually the first to go on the air in that city, because once the supply of three letter callsigns began to run short, the FCC officially switched to issuing four letter combinations, moving the three letter callsigns to ship to shore communications. The only case of a three letter callsign returning once it was given up that I know of is KHJ in L.A.