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Prep sports continue on airwaves despite sagging economyBy BOB JACOB C-T Sport* WriterAnd then there were two.Thet'i right, there are just two radio stations left in Lorain County that broadcast high school sports events. They are WEOL-AM in Elyria and WZLE-FM in Lorain.A third station, WOBL-AM in Oberlin, had done Mgh school sports for more than six years until this season when owner Harry Wilber suddenly decided to drop the prep athletesIT’S NOT a big deal,” heexplained. “It’s an economic decision. We got to become leaner and meaner these days if we’re going to survive. Today, everything has to pay for itself.”And high school sports had not been doing that the last few years. The declining economy has taken its effect on radio advertising end causing owners and general managers to take second looks at their programming.WOBL employs a country mesic format and strikes up a lot of competition from powerful Cleveland stations.I’m competing *ilh the WHK’e, WKSW’s and WWWE’s, he said. If they're playing country music and I'm playing high school sports, people can listen to them.ONE OF the disappointing things is we thought we provided a service. The diehard fans said we were greet, but 99 percent of the people didn’t say a thing.”WEOL and WZLE apparently have an advantage over WOBL because of -their link to thelarger cities. WEOLand WZLE primarily carry Elyria and Lorain school games, although both try to get around in the county.Meanwhile, WOBL has to feature the smaller county schools where aadiences seem to be smeller and advertising dollars harder to come by.When we do a Wellington-Firelands game, who in Elyria or Lorain would really care,” said Wilber. Hie merchants today really don’t have the kind of dollar they did two or three years ago. Iney got to get animmediate return on their dollarWE WERE trying to fill a need not being filled by our competition. We tried to do away games. We tried to feel like we re an area station It just became very expensive It's a loss (to the area), but these are troubled times.”WEOL is the granddaddy of area high school coverage, having broadcast games for about IS yearsOur biggest problem is whatgame to broadcast,” said general manager Paul Nake! Wc here at WEOL try to get a good spread and choose a game that will draw a big interest.”WZLE has been broadcastinggames for seven years and according to general manager Gene Sens, things have been going well, listneTxhip-wtse and profit-wise“We feel it's a vital part of the community,” he said. A lot of times you don’t mbs mm-thing until you don't hnut R. ^ taken for granted.”
Newspaper Details
The Chronicle Telegram
Elyria, Ohio, US
Thu, Sep 30, 1982
Page 43
Full Page
Clipped by
Nathan O.
OH, USA 28 Mar 2022
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Elyria Reporter
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