WHBO-AM goes all Xmas for the rest of 2008

Genesis Communications, which shook up the market a bit by buying a Spanish-language AM station and perching its right-wing talk station on the more powerful signal, has turned WHBO-AM into an all-Xmas format for the rest of the year (WHBO's old logo to the left).

It's a typical radio industry move to adopt an odd format for a few weeks before changing the format on a station to shake off the old listeners and garner a little media attention.

So, as Bay News9 prepares to fire up the televised yule log once again, WHBO is offering the audio equivalent after moving its ESPN Radio station to the old frequency of WWBA.

Since I'm off work for most of this week, I won't be able to offer much reporting on this, but here's the press release:

"WHBO 1470 LAUNCHES FIRST ALL CHRISTMAS FORMAT IN TAMPA"

"GENESIS COMMUNICATIONS TODAY LAUNCHED CHRISTMAS 1470, THE FIRST ALL CHRISTMAS MUSIC RADIO STATION IN TAMPA BAY. A NEW FORMAT WILL BE ANNOUNCED FOR THE STATION AFTER THE FIRST OF THE YEAR.

"GENESIS COMMUNICATIONS OWNS AND OPERATES WHBO 1470 AND WWBA 1040 AND WMGG 820 (PENDING FCC APPROVAL) IN THE TAMPA BAY MARKET, WHOO 1080, WAMT 1190 IN THE ORLANDO MARKET AND WIXC IN THE MELBOURNE MARKET."

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Comments

[radiohead]

Until the FCC approves the shifts, the call letter changes technically are pending, but the program changes moved ahead.

[radiohead]

This headline is misleading and likely the result of not understanding. Let's make it clear: WHBO-AM is now located at 1040-AM, an all sports station affiliated with ESPN and featuring several local personalities, including The Sports Babe and Scot Brantley. The 1470-AM frequency was orphaned when the spanish language station was dropped at 820 and WWBA was shifted from 1040-AM to 820-AM. 1470-AM was kept on to simulcast the sports station until this latest move to Christmas music.

[RagsTTIger]

It is difficult for Tampa area AM stations to make inroads. FCC regulations require that many of the stations operate at night at reduced power or use different signal patterns.

Little wonder many of these stations stream their programming on the Internet and via wi-fi radio, so loyal listeners can hear them at night. This also adds revenue under the theory of blending radio-tv-newspapers-internet all into one presence to the consumer.