NorthEast Radio Watch On The Road: Flint to Rochester

[fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush)]

*Sorry for the delay in chronicling the last few days of the Great
NERW Trip of '99 -- but here's what we saw and heard over the weekend:

*We left you in Flint, Michigan, as the thunder and lightning crashed
around us in a storm that was apparently just shy of a tornado.  We
still had a chance to check out the local radio scene, though, and
this is what we were able to hear:

600 WSNL Flint - religion, the former WTAC.

790 WSGW Saginaw - a very weak signal to the south with local news and
talk.

910 WFDF Flint - talk radio, with no local content that we heard
overnight or Saturday morning.

1080 WOAP Owosso - our favorite station of the Flint portion of the
trip, this little daytimer does its own local take on the "Great
American Classics format," with a live remote Saturday morning.
Co-owned with Flint's WWCK AM-FM and Owosso's WAHV-FM, but located by
itself out in Owosso.

1250 WKNX Saginaw - another tough one to hear to the south, with adult
standards off the satellite.

1330 WTRX Flint/1440 WMAX Bay City - sports-talk, with a local show
Friday evening.

1400 WSAM Saginaw - more adult standards, at least some of it local.

1420 WFLT Flint - gospel

1470 WFNT Flint - "Supertalk 1470," co-owned with WWBN and WCRZ (see
below...)

1570 WWCK Flint - CHR // FM.

88.9 WGRI Flint - religion, co-owned with WSNL but more
music-oriented, and signing off overnight.

90.1 WUCX Bay City - public radio from Delta College and the
University of Central Michigan.

91.1 WFUM Flint - public radio from the University of Michigan,
relaying WUOM 91.7 Ann Arbor.

92.7 WDZZ Flint - urban CHR, co-owned with WFDF.

93.3 WKQZ Midland - album rock "Z93".

94.1 WXIK Jackson - country on the old "WIBM."

94.5 WCEN Mount Pleasant - more country.

95.1 WFBE Flint - still more country on a station that used to be
public radio until the city and school system sold it.

96.1 WHNN Bay City - oldies on a huge signal (transmitter just north
of the line separating Zone II, where 100kw class C FMs are allowed,
from Zone I, where 50 kw Bs are the maximum)

96.9 WSTD Standish - a little station we heard simulcasting the 6
o'clock news from WNEM-TV.

97.3 WEEG Essexville - classic rock, the "Eagle."

97.5 WJIM Lansing - oldies.

98.1 WKCQ Saginaw - still more country.

98.9 WOWE Vassar - an interesting urban soft AC format.

99.1 WFMK East Lansing - very soft AC.

99.7 WUGN Midland - religion.

100.5 WTCF Carrollton - CHR for Saginaw and Bay City.

100.7 WITL-FM Lansing - the country legend.

101.5 WWBN Tuscola - classic rock "Banana" -- really!

102.1 WLEW Bad Axe - AC, with a difficult signal to hear in Flint.

102.5 WIOG Bay City - AC, with another one of those big signals.

103.1 WWGZ Lapeer - very hard rock "Z".

103.9 WAHV Owosso - very soft AC "Wave."

104.5 WMJA Saginaw - classic rock.

104.9 WQBX Alma - satellite oldies.

105.5 WWCK-FM Flint - CHR "CK105."

106.3 WGER Saginaw - AC.

107.1 WTLZ Saginaw - urban.

107.9 WCRZ Flint - AC "Cars 108."

...plus, of course, the full Detroit FM dial as well.

Saturday morning gave us a chance to see a few more of these for
ourselves, beginning with WDZZ's antenna atop Genesee Towers in
downtown Flint, also the studio location.  A few blocks to the east,
the WFBE tower sits behind a municipal building where the studios were
once located as well.  

Most of Flint's AMs are located southeast of downtown, and we started
with the two-tower array of WFLT on Averill Ave., followed by the WWCK
AM-FM site on Lapeer Road, which can be seen from I-69 as it passes
through town.  Down the road, the WJRT-TV studios are being expanded
and renovated.  

We drove a bit east to see WCRZ's FM tower, then west again on Bristol
Road, where the intrepid tower hunter finds in quick succession the
three towers of WFDF, the three of WFNT (with the studios of that
station, WWBN, and WWCK), and the two of WTRX.  A turn to the south on
Center Road brought us to the final stop, the four towers and studio
of WSNL.