On Wednesday, Bonneville International made some changes at the radio stations it owns around Washington, D.C. Here is how things stood last week:
WTOP 1500 AM, 104.3 FM, 107.7 FM / WXTR 820 AM: “Washington’s News, Traffic & Weather.” It was purchased by Bonneville in 1997. It claimed to be the area’s most listened to station, probably because “[w]ith commuter times leading the country, WTOP’s ‘traffic every 10 minutes on the 8’s’ is invaluable to listeners.”
WGMS (Washington’s Good Music Station) “At Work. All Day. Classical 103.5.” It too was purchased by Bonneville in 1997, and is “currently the most listened to Classical radio station in the country.”
WFED 1050 AM Federal News Radio: “Your Source for Federal News … Now.” Top story of the day: “The Internal Revenue Service says it has told a contractor to stop sending the agency information about political party affiliation in databases used to track down delinquent taxpayers.”
WWZZ 104.1 FM / WWVZ 103.9 FM: “Z-104 Washington’s Modern Music.”
WTOP is now broadcasting on 103.5, WGMS’s previous frequency. The signal is better and improves a valuable property. WGMS had moved to Z-104′s frequencies, 103.9 and 104.1, neither of which comes in very well. That’s what can happen to programming that includes hour-long blocks of commercial-free music. As for Z-104, the station web site says it best: “Saying good-bye to Z-104 doesn’t mean saying good-bye to the music. Mix 107.3, DC 101 and Hot 99.5 all play modern music.” WTOP is still broadcasting on its old signals, but those will become Washington Post Radio, playing news stories of 10-minutes’ length.
In the October 1985 General Conference, Gordon B. Hinckley explained why the Church owns radio stations:
Essentially, the business assets which the Church has today are an outgrowth of enterprises which were begun in the pioneer era of our history when we were isolated in the valleys of the mountains of western America. For instance, a newspaper was then needed to keep the people advised of what was going on at home and abroad. The result was the Deseret News, which has been published now for 135 years. In the 1920s, government officials encouraged newspapers to set up radio stations.¹ That was in the infancy of the broadcasting industry. One such radio station was established by the Deseret News here in Salt Lake City. From that has grown, by the natural process of development, holdings of a number of broadcasting properties.
As all of you will recognize, the ability and the facilities to communicate are among our great and constant needs. The ownership of these properties, both newspaper and broadcasting facilities, while they are operated as commercial entities, both directly and indirectly helps us in our responsibility to communicate our message and our point of view.
Gordon B. Hinckley, “Questions and Answers,” Ensign, Nov. 1985, p. 49.
The principal message and point of view that WTOP provided this morning was that the accident at the I-270 split wasn’t blocking the lanes, so traffic was good from the truck scales to the beltway. This sort of thing is very useful to know, and making it known is service to the community and also good business. With all this Bonneville broadcasting capability, it is too bad, though, that my favorite Bonneville production, General Conference, can’t be found on the radio in Washington.
Bonneville International appears to not wish to be identified with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As close as it comes on its web site is this page where its core values are ennumerated. Bios of its board of directors show several of them are associated with Brigham Young University, and two of the eleven are active in church and community affairs. Good citizens, they. One of the seven employees receiving 2005 Bonneville’s Best awards will be familiar to all Millennial Star readers. Apparently, the Church has to maintain a low profile in its broadcast activity. Wouldn’t want people to catch on that Mormon-owned stations are telling them about traffic jams and piping orchestral music into their offices. And when one of the First Presidency thanks the owners and operators who make conference proceedings available, the Church isn’t patting itself on the back.
Trivia question: Which apostle worked as a radio engineer and announcer?
¹Since 1975, FCC cross-ownership rules discourage ownership of broadcast stations by newspapers.
Dallin Oaks?
Good sleuthing, JM. Does GC show-up on TV in DC? We sometimes get it on Comcast in Baltimore County.
Richard L. Evans- Music and the Spoken Word
Kent wins. Did you already know, or did you decide who had the voice for it? Richard L. Evans would count as an announcer, but he was never a radio engineer as far as I know. From the June 1984 Ensign:
The message for our younger readers is: Listen to your mother. It’ll lead to good things.
We do get GC in Northern VA just outside of the beltway. They usually put it on the cable access networks. So much better to sit in your jammies than go sit in a chapel!
Ronan, the cable systems in the Maryland and Virginia counties surrounding the District all appear to make Conference available, but no one does in the District. I, however, don’t have cable, and I like radio’s portability. The disconnect of the radio stations from the Church reminds me of your frequent theme that Mormons are an obscure bunch that sometimes go out of our way to remain obscure. WGMS plays Music and the Spoken Word Sunday mornings at 7 AM, as if they’re trying to bury it. Or maybe it’s for the Saints to listen to on the drive to ward council.
General Conference broadcast lookup
Perhaps Bonneville wants to keep a low profile considering the Moonies disastrous ownership of the Washington Times. Religion and media ownership rarely mix well.
Washington Times is one way such things can go. Christian Science Monitor is another. Any others?
There is a Washington Post article for those interested. The Church’s ownership is mentioned very briefly toward the end.
A first-class radiotelephone license does not qualify someone as a radio engineer. In fact, I have this license and am authorized, and know how to make adjustments to a radio transmitter. Of course, turn the wrong knob and you can fry a transmitter.
Brian Duffin, I assumed that in the context Elder Oaks used, an engineer is someone who is qualified to operate the transmitter (as opposed to designing one), similar to a locomotive engineer. Is this correct?
The Church used to broadcast a LDS radio station on a “sub-frequency” (forgive my radio ignorance) on 104.1 here in D.C. It would broadcast LDS music, BYU games and General Conference. You had to buy a special radio with a chip to pick up the frequency but it was somehow tied to the 104.1 frequency (Z104). They stopped broadcasting this station around 2000 I believe, perhaps because internet broadcasting was much more efficient. Anyone know more about this?
David,
Bonneville’s NYC station broadcasted conference on “side-band”, which required a special radio.
John, Oaks very well could have been a novice engineer. I don’t know. I couldn’t really tell from what he wrote. If he worked at an AM station, it is likely that he had to reduce the stations power at sunset.
We used to have one of those special sideband radios too. However broadcasting on sideband frequencies was eliminated by the FCC in the year 2000. The reason it was eliminated was to make way for digital radio broadcasting, which uses all of the frequency spectrum. (You may have noticed on some of the newer car radios that when you tune in to an FM station, that the the stations call letters, and oft’ times the song title and artist will “crawl” across the bottom of the FM receiver display. — That’s one way in which the sidebands are used now.)
The old network was called “Bonneville International LDS Radio Network.” It was available by radio side-band, and as an audio channel on many cable and satellite systems.
The successor to the Bonnevile LDS Network is BYU Radio. which is an Internet radio stream. It offers two channels, one of which is instrumental music only, and the other which plays talks, BYU Devotionals, church news, etc, along with music. BYU Radio also offers podcasting as well.
BYU TV and radio streams are still available now on many cable and satellite systems.
BTW – Brian, what is the reason for many AM stations having to lower power at sunset. It’s annoying as one of the local NPR stations we can only pick up clearly in Provo on AM 1010. Yet come around 5:30 you can’t hear it anymore.
what is the reason for many AM stations having to lower power at sunset.
It is because radio signals in the AM band travel much further at night, causing all sorts of interference with other stations. The reason why the signals transfer further is because at night the signals reflect off the ionosphere.