[BC] KOMA

[SHAFFER, RANDY L]

Mark wrote -

 >I wonder if a programming consultant came in and said "I don't care
 >about the station's heritage or how long you've had the KOMA callsign,
 >you must get rid of it -- it scares listeners away because it sounds
 >like 'coma'."

 >I'll bet that's the same reason WORK in York, PA changed their
 >original callsign. "Who wants to listen to a station if it means
 >work?"

 >Too often in this business, changes are made only for the sake of
 >change, and to prolong the existence of the "changer".  I once worked
 >in a station where the GSM would move sales people around to different
 >desks whenever the department didn't make budget.  This was a
 >highly-visible "response" to the problem, something he could present
 >to his superiors as a "solution", except I doubt it had any meaningful
 >effect.

Stand by for more than you probably wanted to know about the call letters.

This was one of those "it sounded good at the time" call letter 
changes. WORK was the old line station that was skewwing toward the 
older age demo (think Monitor net) and was hopeless against the 
"Mighty 910, WSBA" which was Top 40. WORK was a Steinman(sp) Station 
which was co-owned with the Lancaster Intel, Lanacaster New Era, 
Lancaster Sunday News, York Sunday News WGAL-AM-FM-TV, and WKBO in 
Harrisburg. The York morning paper was shut down in a strike 
situation. The Steinmans wanted to operate a morning papaer in York 
too. The way it was told to me, they had too much media concentrated 
in the area and had to get rid of the York Sunday News or WORK. They 
chose the radio station. By the time the sale was completed, the York 
Dispatch was putting out a morning edition and a new group had 
started a new paper called the York Daily Record. Steiman decided not 
to produce the morning paper.

WORK was to be the start of a new broadcast chain which was operated 
by Shelly Gross and part of Music Fair Enterprises. Music Fair also 
owned several music venues in the Mid-Atlantic area. They wanted call 
letters that matched their name. After much research (I'm told), they 
decided on WZIX.

The station dumped much of the old line programming, cut back news 
and installed a Scheaffer Automation system that was one of the 
tightest systems I've ever heard. Drake-Chanault Solid Gold 
programming was phased in during the evening hours. Eventually most 
of the day was automated.
It sounded really good. W135, was WORK, until the call letter change 
was approved. It then became W135, WZIX.
This created a stir in the market and caused a couple of FM's to push 
format changes  that they had been considering. This one AM station 
change, started the transistion in this market to the FM dial for pop music.

For a number of reasons, Music Fair sold the station to Greenco 
Communications, who
later sold it to Baltimore Radio Show and was a sister to WFBR. The 
manager who was brought in had worked at WORK years earlier and tried 
to get the call letters back. They were unable to obtain them and 
settled for WOYK.

Randy Shaffer
Harrisburg, PA