NONCOM STATION IN LOUISVILLE HIJACKED FOR ANTI-TRUMP SONG • SIGN OF THE TIMES OR “WOBBLE” IN COLORADO

The Louisville Courier-Journal is reporting [link] that Louisville noncom station WCHQ [link] was hijacked last Friday (1/20) and broadcast an anti-Donald Trump song with profane lyrics. 

The hack occurred around 2:30pm.

 

WCHQ Program director Gary Sampson posted on WCHQ Facebook page:

"OK, not funny. Someone has hacked into out transmitter tower, and the FM was playing…repeatedly the song  “FDH – F*** Donald Trump."

The song is by rap artists YG & Nipsey Hussle.  Check out the YouTube video: 

According to Sampson, the protest tune played on a loop for over 15 minutes until station manager Kathy Weisbach managed to shut down the feed. Sampson said the unknown hacker likely gained access to the airwaves via WCHQ’s Emergency Alert System (EAS) software.  The EAS software is intended to interrupt station programming at the transmitter for urgent public safety announcements.

The hack did not interrupt WCHQ’s streaming audio. Because of the profanity in the song, Sampson said WCHQ is filing a report about the incident with the FCC.

KEN SAYS: Yikes! Every broadcast station in America is required to use the EAS software. Is there a flaw in the software?

FALL 2016 NIELSEN AUDIO RATINGS: FORT COLLINS, TUCSON & FORT WAYNE

All five Nielsen Audio rated stations in the Fort Collins-Greeley metro had fewer estimated weekly listeners in Fall 2016 compared to Fall 2015. 

Without seeing more detailed information, it is hard to say if the decline in listeners was caused by people feeling radio, diary placement or simply a coincidence.

Both KUNC and KJAC, Triple A 105.5 The Colorado Sound, have considerably more weekly listeners in the adjacent Denver-Boulder metro, a PPM market.

In the Fall 2016 PPM ratings, KUNC had 89,300 estimated weekly listeners and KJAC had 70,200.

Things are going better In Tucson. Though NPR News stations KUAZ AM & FM were down a little bit compared to Fall 2015, they still have over 100,000 weekly listeners. Nice to see KXCI adding weekly listeners.

Peter Dominowski’s NPR News station WBOI had an unusually down “book.” But Classical music was rising at co-owned WBNI.