3 JAN 08: TWO-WAY -- NO WAY

Here we are in high-tech 2008 - yet an old-fashioned kind of communication is dominating our attention. Wednesday's mention of Columbus radio stations brought this e-mail:

Richard, I thought I had a problem with my radio as I haven't been able to get WRCG for days now. But then I read that you can't get it either. I like to listen to Boortz and Clark Howard. In the past I've never had trouble tuning into WRCG from the north Phenix City/SmithsStation area....

There's more to this e-mail, and we'll get to it below. But when you can't hear WRCG in the neighborhood where their tower has been located for years - I mean, Neal Boortz ought to holler loudly enough to make that happen.

Your blog was first to report Wednesday afternoon that WRCG Radio is off the air due to vandalism. A spokesperson for Archway Broadcasting says someone damaged the transmitter "during the Christmas holiday" and destroyed some vital equipment for keeping the station on the air. Hopefully it wasn't someone upset because the signal has been weak for a couple of years....

The Archway Broadcasting spokesperson admits the office has received a lot of calls wondering what happened. She says once key parts arrive either Wednesday or Thursday, engineers will begin round-the-clock work getting WRCG back on the air. In the meantime, Clark Howard listeners will have to settle for clipping coupons to save money.

(No wonder WRCG has received a lot of phone calls - the station's web site hasn't even mentioned the problem. But then, how many listeners would find the web site these days? It's not good when your own station is about #50 in a Google search.)

The spokesperson told me if all goes well with the repairs, WRCG will be back on the air sometime next week. Until then, the only broadcasting "Two-Way Radio 1420" can do is to hand out real two-way radios to loyal listeners.

This is the latest in a series of signal problems for WRCG, going back about three years. It started when the late Chuck McClure sold the station's Phenix City tower site for development around the Wal-Mart SuperCenter. A planned one-mile move of the tower turned into as big a nightmare as the thought of Antonio Carter co-hosting "Talkline."

The one-mile tower move has left WRCG hard to hear at times, especially after dark. Sports contracts with Atlanta baseball and University of Georgia football were moved to WRLD-FM "Boomer 95.3." But the poor Atlanta Thrashers stayed on WRCG - and now their hockey games are ice-olated.

I didn't realize until I researched this story Wednesday night that WRCG is planning a bit of a downgrade. The government approved a permit in October, for the station to broadcast at night with only 79 watts of power. Do you realize that's one watt for every year this station has been on the air? [True!]

One radio buff told me Wednesday Archway's big FM station WCGQ has had occasional signal problems recently as well. Now THAT would be scary - for Columbus to lose its only reliable outlet for Britney Spears music....

E-MAIL UPDATE: Let's stay on the FM side, since we heard from a couple of you about the end of The River. They corrected something we admittedly misunderstood....

Richard,

The tower for 95.7 is actually located at the northeast corner of Harris County. With the power they're running, they don't cover most of Columbus. However, they have a construction permit to move south to the southeast corner of Harris County. That signal would cover almost all of Columbus, including downtown. 95.7 can't move to the west because of required spacing from 95.3/Valley.

The move was originally proposed in order to allow 95.5/Athens to move west into Atlanta. 95.7 won't cover nearly as much area as before, but the Columbus signal will be improved.

The "Mix 95-7" name was ill advised. In addition to the confusion with "Mix 96.7" in Opelika, there's a "Mix 94.7" in Americus, which comes into Columbus depending on conditions.

107.3 had the same music format as Sunny 100 a few years ago, before the Q transitioned back to CHR/Top 40.

-Thomas

I had forgotten about that other "Mix FM" in Sumter County. Maybe WIOL-FM should have a different nickname - like "Blend" or "Frappe."

Another "radiohead" also set us straight on this station:

Hi Richard,

Mix 95.7 is not broadcasting from Lee County. It's actually supposed to move to a transmitter site in Waverly Hall. I belive it's still broadcasting from the tower near Manchester. According to the FCC site for WIOL.... they have a construction permit south of Waverly Hall on the Muscogee, Talbot, Harris County borders. When it moves to that site it will be actually decreasing power, but the coverage over the city of Columbus should improve. From what I read on some other website it's part fo an agreement reached between WIOL, WBTS in Atlanta and a 3rd station I think in Rome GA. WBTS at 95.5 wants to move closer to Atlanta but in order to do so had to get the other stations to relocate their transmitters and/or reduce power. (WBTS was originally an Athens station). WIOL already switched to Mix 95.7 a few weeks ago as I heard it on my way into Columbus from Atlanta. They are picking up the Kidd Kraddick morning show out of Dallas, TX, which might give Bob & Sherri a run for the money (if the stations signal does improve in the city).

I heard Kidd Kraddick during a road trip in Augusta a couple of years ago. His show was unlike any I've heard on FM radio - where the female sidekick utters most of the filthy jokes.

Oh yes - we promised to go back to that original e-mail. It went beyond WRCG's problems....

Also, have you noticed several long-time restaurants closed recently on the Phenix City Bypass? The Wendy's in the K-Mart Shopping Center closed before ' 07 ended and also the Bonanza which had been on the Bypass for around 30 years closed. The Bonanza was sold and changed it's name to the Wildflower Buffet which stayed open only a couple of months before it closed and the "For Sale" sign went up

Those vacant properties join the old Winn-Dixie Building which has been closed for a couple of years now and the large FoodMax building which has been vacant for years.

Do you think this shows a trend?

Just wondering

Yes, I noticed that closed Wendy's on U.S. 280. In fact, it let me down on a Saturday night a couple of weeks ago. I expected it to be open for dinner - and wound up scrambling around a poorly-lit bypass in the rain worse than a Hawaiian quarterback.

I knew the Bonanza restaurant had changed names, but I didn't realize the Wildflower Buffet already was closed. Apparently Phenix City residents prefer that buffet down the street - and are singing, "You've gotta have Hartz."

Other people have noted how the Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Phenix City has suffocated all the other supermarkets around it. FoodMax fell in 2001, followed by Save-A-Lot (which turned into Club Roc) and Winn-Dixie - showing that Circle K store in front of Wal-Mart is tougher than anyone imagined.

Let's take one more e-mail, about all sorts of things we've discussed here recently....

Thanks for an always entertaining and some times informative year..I hope 2008 brings peace to Columbus and our troops home and the "mare" of Hurtsboro out of hiding..We knew Dr Phillips wanted a castle in 2008. He is getting it by having his own throne room right off his office... Try some boric acid on some bread in a mayo jar lid..gets those roaches every time..You can buy the powder or Harris Roach pills ,same thing...

Thank you for the nice.... hey, wait a minute! SOMETIMES informative?! At least I have a bulk mail counter you can follow every day....

As for that insect suggestion - if boric acid kills cockroaches, can antacid kill ants?

Thank you all for taking time to write! Now we write a little more about Wednesday's news....

+ The high temperature in Columbus was the lowest in five years, at a chilling 36 degrees F. It was SO COLD that Columbus State University scientists who believe in global warming took heat lamps outside.

+ Freeway Ford announced (in radio ads, of course) that it's going out of business. This is what happens what Interstate 185 is declared a "scenic byway," and not a freeway....

(This is another big economic loss for Midtown Columbus. Rob Doll Nissan and Kia Autosport will remain in the Macon Road area - but it probably won't be long before the Kia dealership moves very close to West Point.)

+ WLTZ set a date for the opening of two new Wal-Mart SuperCenters. The Midland and Airport Thruway stores will open 5 March - giving a whole new meaning in Midland to "March madness."

+ Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Dale Cardwell spent his second day on a 300-foot-tall scaffold above Atlanta. Cardwell admits he's staying up there for several days to call attention to his campaign - which tells me he's having trouble raising money for TV commercials.

(Did you hear WLTZ news anchor John Beard react to the video of Dale Cardwell? Beard said on the air he's not likely to vote someone into office who sleeps outside in the cold. If Beard keeps making political comments like that, he might be out in the cold - or hoping Senator Saxby Chambliss will hire him.)

+ Georgia's Secretary of State issued a reminder that Monday is the deadline to register to vote in the February Presidential primary. Of course, by that time the choices will be simple -- because much of the news media will have crowned the nominees, based on Iowa and New Hampshire.

(WRBL noted something I didn't realize before - that you can show "tribal identification" to register to vote in Georgia. Isn't that part of the problem in Kenya right now?)

+ Auburn won its fifth men's basketball game in a row, 76-58 over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Tigers won despite having only six healthy scholarship players. The "walk-ons" played so much that they might be called "run-ons" for the rest of the season.

(Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's teams are called the Islanders. I went to Corpus Christi on vacation a few years ago, and the campus is NOT located on an island. But then again, when was the last time you saw a "tide" cover Tuscaloosa, Alabama?)

+ Instant Message to Columbus State University sportscaster Scott Miller: I've got it! A great idea for a new sponsor! Have Wild Animal Safari present the referees -- and you call them "tonight's zebras."

BIG PREDICTION: Weeks of intense pressure and close scrutiny come to a head tonight -- and I dare to predict an upset will happen. Yes, my alma mater Kansas will WIN the Orange Bowl over Virginia Tech! Now if I can only find a sports bar which isn't focused on those other contests....

SCHEDULED FRIDAY: Our own "Bowl Bash," and e-mail about one of our "25 things we didn't know"....

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UPDATE 1....