From: Will Martin <wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL>
Subject: WRNO, New Orleans
Originator: wdp@gagme
Organization: Army
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 03:18:44 GMT

The following is an exchange of messages, edited down slightly, about 
WRNO in New Orleans, with an original emphasis on the shortwave portion,
but which tends to change over to the local-broadcast aspects. I thought
it was worth forwarding to the r.r.b. group/list. Does anyone on the
group have any details about the sale of WRNO? The first is a general
query I had sent to the shortwave list, followed by a response from a
New Orleans local, and my notes back to him.

Will

----- Forwarded message # 1:

>Date:     Mon, 31 Aug 92 9:24:42 CDT
>From:     Will Martin  <wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil>
>To:       rec-radio-shortwave@ucbvax.berkeley.edu
>Subject:  WRNO Situation?

Is anyone out there up-to-date on just what WRNO's current situation is?
Did Hurricane Andrew damage or destroy some of their antennas? I ask this
because I have not been able to pick up WRNO on 15420 kHz since the storm.
However, I seldom listened to them on that frequency before, so I have
little to compare with. I am speculating that their 15 MHz antenna is
down or unusable at the moment, and I have a vague recollection of
hearing some report of that, but cannot recall just where, or any detail.

[NOTE: See below -- there was no serious damage.]

Anyway, this weekend, I tried to listen to World of Radio on WRNO at
2200 Saturday on 15420 kHz. There was no sign of any signal there at
all. (I'm in St. Louis, MO, by the way.) Later on, I happened to tune in
WRNO at about 2328 UTC on 7355 and came in on the middle of an
unscheduled-time broadcast of World of Radio, which appeared to have
begun about 2315 UTC. This was a fine strong signal. Later on, WRNO
seemed to have their regular Saturday-night programming on 7355,
including World of Radio at 0200 UTC Sunday. In this program, Hauser
discussed hurricane damage and DXing stations in the affected areas 
during the storm, but thre was no mention of damage to WRNO that I recall.

I also tried tuning WRNO on 15420 during the day Sunday but detected no
signal. So I wonder if they are off the air during the times they had
been on 15420. Any facts on the matter will be appreciated!

Regards, Will
wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil

----- Forwarded message # 2:
>Date:         Wed, 23 Sep 92 19:42:12 CST
>From:         Jim Hobbs <HOBBS%LOYNOVM.bitnet@VM.TCS.Tulane.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: WRNO Situation?
>To:           Will Martin <wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL>

I've had your message in the "reply to" box for a few weeks now, meaning
to call WRNO and see what's up.  Would you like for me to do so or has
your listening told the tale?  I don't usually listen to WRNO, either
on SW or FM, so I don't keep up.

A note:  just read in the paper that WRNO is changing hands.  The FM
outlet played Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" for 48 hours straight last
weekend.  (Is that   what they call "niche marketing?")  Some fellow
From Lafayette, LA has bought the station.  The article I read didn't
mention the SW outlet.

Jim

----- Forwarded message # 3:

>Date:     Thu, 24 Sep 92 8:19:26 CDT
>From:     Will Martin  <wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil>
>To:       Jim Hobbs <HOBBS%LOYNOVM.bitnet@vm.tcs.tulane.edu>
>Subject:  Re:  WRNO Situation?

I have tuned WRNO on 15420 kHz during times they have been scheduled to 
be on, on and off in recent weeks, but not in the past few days that I
can recall. I never did hear any signal from them those times.

There just might have been a signal there on Saturday afternoon; I recall
tuning VOA on 15410 briefly, noting that tere was some interference, and
going back to VOA's 15580 frequency to listen to Communications World, 
but I then had things to do and did not think about checking for WRNO.

I will try to check when I get home and get back to you tomorrow, so
hold off on calling, unless you wanted to yourself anyway, to see what
the sale might mean. I know WRNO had been up for sale for a long time,
so it isn't surprising if they did finally sell. If you can find out
what the sale might mean to the SW side, I'm sure everyone on the SWL
list/group would like to read what you discover...

Regards, Will
wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil

----- Forwarded message # 4:

>Date:     Mon, 28 Sep 92 7:40:56 CDT
>From:     Will Martin  <wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil>
>To:       Jim Hobbs <HOBBS%LOYNOVM.bitnet@vm.tcs.tulane.edu>
>Subject:  Re:  WRNO Situation?

Hi, again!
I've been checking on WRNO on 15420 kHz from time to time, and finally this
weekend caught a clear strong signal from them.  It varied greatly during
the 45 minutes or so I was tuned in, though -- when I first tuned in about
2015 UTC Sunday 27 Sept, it was a 555 local-quality strong signal, booming
in.  Just before World of Radio was aired (scheduled at 2030, actually
began about 2033 or so), the signal strength dropped precipitously.  It
then gradually improved during WoR, and the last part of that program was
at the same strong level that I had had earlier. 

I have no idea if this was a propagation artifact, or a result of
transmitter power varying, or what...

I also finally saw something (in the latest Review of International
Broadcasting) that said that Hurricane Andrew did not have much of an
effect on WRNO -- only a few hours' outage. So what I had thought about
antenna damage was false.

As to their sale, I didn't hear anything different over-the-air in terms
of ownership references. There was a period during the time referred to
above when they were simulcasting their FM, and it sounded the same to
me as before, and there were references to "Gulf South Broadcasting",
the parent company, in the ID. Of course, if that company was sold,
there was no reason for the name to change. I did hear a listener's
call played over the air during the FM simulcast part in which he said
someting to the effect of "welcome back", so he might have been
referring to a change in format and on-air personalities back to what
they were before they had the "Z-rock" syndicated-program service or
other different formats.

Regards, Will
wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil

----- End of forwarded messages

Newsgroups: rec.radio.broadcasting