Sunday morning programing

[RJC]

I hope I don't offend anyone, since most of you are/were involved in radio, so if I offend, I apologize in advance. But twisting the dial , there is just horrid programs all around the dial this morning. I just cannot believe that there is an audience for 98% of this stuff. Is there an FCC order that says this stuff must be aired? Are stations getting paid to air this dreck?

WHAS's entire weekend slate is a bore(Coast to Coast AM, and Joe Elliots Sunday morning Talk show, being exceptions). They are just unlistenable the entire weekend.

Even during WAKY and WKLO's days, sunday morning radio has blown. Am I offbase here?

[Max]

Your only off base if you're referring to religious programming. There are alot of elderly people who otherwise cannot get to church, or else people who have to work on Sundays. Back 30 years ago or so (and further back) you'd be hard pressed to find ANYONE open on Sundays. These days it's the other way around. And being fair to all listeners, stations have to broadcast programming from churches from different denominations.

But if you're not referring to religious programming, you may not be out of line at all. I used to have to work Sunday mornings occasionally when I was a kid and some of the non religious programming (okay, even some of the religious, as well) was pretty dry. Now on Sunday mornings where I work now, they always run the Renfroe Valley Sunday Gathering...talk about HOKEY! But then again, there is a diversity in listening tastes out there and I guess there's enough room on the radio dial for all of them...even rap.

[RJC]

You have to cut me some slack Max, as I'm the only guy on this board, who has never been in radio(unless you count C.B radio, as being in radio ), but I'm not really talking about religious shows. I'm talking about programming that sounds like it belongs on NPR or something.

[bruiser]

What's wrong with Coast to Coast? It's WAKY, it's bizarre, it's off the charts. Although some of the stuff is so far off the charts, only those with mental problems would actually believe it. I find most of it to be somewhat entertaining. As far as Joe Elliott, it depends on the subject matter, but Joe doesn't go off the charts like Coast to Coast.

[Max]

No problem RJC! Sorry if I came across as anything harsh. I just didn't know which aspect of Sunday programming you were referring to. I can't say I listen much to Sunday programming, unless it's in the shower getting ready for church myself. If I listen to anything, it would be either music stations or Southeast services, if I can hear EITHER through the shower water! I try not to work Sunday mornings. I guess the only programming I ever hear of that nature is the occasional days I do fill in that shift if they can't get anyone else. And it's mostly church services, Renfroe Valley, or Heart of the Matter, a local half hour show started by our late news director, Ron Boone, and we have chosen to continue it.

One doesn't have to have been in radio to have enjoyed the magic of WAKY or WKLO! During the glory days of the two, several of us were only listeners at the time, anyway!

[David Stockhoff]

RJC said:

I hope I don't offend anyone, since most of you are/were involved in radio, so if I offend, I apologize in advance. But twisting the dial , there is just horrid programs all around the dial this morning. I just cannot believe that there is an audience for 98% of this stuff. Is there an FCC order that says this stuff must be aired? Are stations getting paid to air this dreck?

WHAS's entire weekend slate is a bore(Coast to Coast AM, and Joe Elliots Sunday morning Talk show, being exceptions). They are just unlistenable the entire weekend.

Even during WAKY and WKLO's days, sunday morning radio has blown. Am I offbase here?

I think I know what you mean, RJC.

Frankly, I find Coast to Coast AM a bit "too" wacky! But, Joe Elliot's shows are always great! I guess that Sunday mornings will always remain this way. The Church programs are "paid advertisments" and the stations can make more off playing this "dreck" than anything else, Sunday morning especially!

Here is a question that probably should be in the regular WHAS thread. . .

Other than Joe Elliot and Terry Meiners, is there any other "6th & Chestnut" jocks left on WHAS?

I, too, am not a "professional" broadcaster. I have a humble little internet broadcast every Monday night and work a crappy day job LOL. But, I love radio and reading up on the industry. I know that the type of radio that I love listening to is long gone!

This is,
David Stockhoff :0)
(Seven-Ninty, and out!)

[Max]

Roger that!

[John Quincy]

Here are the reasons why Sunday morning programming could be considered "horrid."

1. Next to overnights, Sunday morning (before 10) is perceived as the least-listened-to daypart on any radio station. Any regular commercials you hear during that time are probably some of the most inexpensive spots on the station...probably bonuses or "run of schedule" spots.

2. Because of the low listenership, that's where stations dump their public affairs programming.

3. Some stations (especially AM talk stations) also use the opportunity to sell the time to organizations for religious programs, or for infomercials. Even if a station got a zero share ratings-wise on Sunday mornings, it probably wouldn't affect the overall ratings that much.

4. As a former News/Talk program director, the choices for quality, live-fed syndicated programming on Sunday morning is virtually non-existent.

Even in the "glory days" of WAKY and WKLO, Sunday mornings were used mainly for Public Affairs and Religion. Many stations internally refer to the Sunday morning blocks of religious programming as "The God Squad."

[bruiser]

If you think Sunday radio is bad in the Louisville area, or any metro area, go about 100 miles away from any city and take a listen to the local 500 watt stations. You'll hear all kinds of Sunday school and local gospel groups that think they can sing. No offense to the groups that can sing.

[RJC]

You all missed my point, my point was that Coast to Coast, and Joe Elliot were the only decent programming on WHAS on the weekend. Everything else is Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity reruns, The Satrurday Morning crew, is mostly entertainment talk, I'm sure all 50,000 watt stations are like that. Don't even get me started on the FM junk. ;D

[bruiser]

You're right RJC, and make a note 'cause this may be the only time Bruiser tells you that, I did miss your point about CTC and JE. ;D

[Travis]

Based on what John Quincy stated in a post within this thread:

Radio has long used Sunday mornings as a dumping ground for meeting their required amount of public affairs programming. It was necessary to air such programs in order to renew the station license at the end of, something like, every 3 years.

While the FCC specified just how many hours a station was to devote to public service programming, they did not specify just when these programs were to be aired. This provided a loophole for stations to dump a great deal of it into the wee hours of Sunday morning. Even today it's still the best time to break from the usual format and run these programs because the number of listeners during this time period is low.

During the early '70s, WAKY's time period for Sunday morning public affairs programming was from 3:30 AM to 10 AM. There were syndicated programs such as Powerline, Silhouette, The Lutheran Hour (to name a few) and local programming such as a 30 or 60 minute news magazine produced by WAKY news and Black Community Report with the Reverend Leo Lessor. Why I am able to remember all of this, I have no idea.

Because the Sunday morning programs were broadcast from the main production room, it allowed an engineer to perform work on anything in the control room since it was off the air. Ernest "Doc" Dockery was the engineer that was always there during the time I was in the studios back in 1972. I learned a great deal from him as he worked on the equipment and credit him with peaking my interest in engineering. I believe he later went to WHAS.

There was also a period reserved for transmitter maintenance on Sunday mornings which generally ran from 5:30 to 6 AM. WAKY would sign off and an engineer (Doc) at the transmitter site would either shut the transmitter completely down, to do one thing or another, or broadcast a series of frequencies (or tones) to perform calibrations directly over the air. Either way, this served to keep the transmitter well tuned and corrected all of the unauthorized tweaking that may have taken place over the past week by Johnny Randolph. ;D JUST KIDDING! Uh, well... maybe.

Anyway. That was Sunday mornings on WAKY in 1972.

[Travis]

Speaking of Sunday morning programming:

There was a really nice jingle which was obviously played during WAKY's Sunday morning programs at one time or another, but it has not turned up in any of the jingle packages that are currently available on this site. I can't convey in text just how the jingle sounded, but I can recall the words.

It's Sun-day morning
Time to go to church
And while you're on your wayyyyy
Tune your ra-di-o to W-A-K-Y
Se-ven-Nine-Ohhhhh
Your Sunday morning ra-di-oooooo

Anyone else remember that? It ran approximately 20 seconds and I'm certain that I have the words right. If anyone has a copy, please get it to John Quincy. I'd love to hear it again.

[Tom Prestigiacomo]

Required or not, the WAKY talk show (very early Sunday mornings) was the "wackiest" public affairs program I ever heard on commercial radio. Ethereal under the hand of Mason Lee Dixon and an absolute riot with Bill Purdom at the helm... either way, the antithesis of "Metz. here."

[bruiser]

Was Stan Cook involved in any of the Sunday programming?

[Travis]

Tom Prestigiacomo's post in this thread reminded me that not all public affairs programming ran on Sunday mornings. The Mason Dixon Line, which ran for an hour on weeknights at 3 or 2 AM (depending on the period) certainly counted toward meeting the quota as did the simple reading of PSAs (public service announcements) by the jocks during their shows (usually twice an hour). Even events such as 'Help the Dude help Saint Jude' no doubt counted a great deal toward meeting the commitment.