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Daly XXL buys WMEX for $175k

$175 large for WMEX plus a move back to Quincy and a 50kw/DA2 diplex off of 1260's sticks would be an incredibly wise deal! They have slugged it out with WBZ and WRKO and held their own against both from Quincy.

Sounds like a super opportunity for a hot-shot radio person to make quite a bit of noise in Boston!

Now that is an idea.
 
Spend a little bit more and correct the signal.

The signal is what it is. It's very, very, very unlikely that anything can be done today to change the power, coverage, directional pattern, etc.
 
I assume he means this.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/oct/25/20061025-092624-1737r/

They really were an in kind donation if you consider the airtime they gave their candidates. Then there is the whole Boys and Girls club loan, which WAS an illegal deal.

What the Air America management was is best described as "bad administration".

The network was, by definition, a progressive/liberal voice. They marketed as the "Anti-Rush" and thought there was a sizable audience looking for progressive hosts in a progressive environment.

As such, having a long segment interviewing Democrats is good programming. The problem is, their hosts sucked at interviewing and they were intensely boring. No surprise there; rabid dogs are seldom fun and attractive.

The sold advertising. Just like Rush and Hannity's networks did at that time. The money went to pay expenses and possibly make a profit. The conservative hosts and their networks made money... the liberal ones did not. The programming was not entertaining, they did not promote well. They just thought that if they put a bunch of liberal voices on the air that listeners would come by the millions. It was more like "by the dozens" instead.

Rush and the other conservatives interview Republicans and Tea Party voices. Nobody says Premiere or Westwood One are laundering campaign money.

The article is highly biased to the point of outright distortion. The writer makes a case that advertising on Air America was a way of donating to the Democrats outside of campaign limits. Except that there were no donations that were any more suspect than ads on Limbaugh's show. The difference is that Limbaugh at the time reached nearly 20 million people a week and Air America reached a few hundred thousand... but the business model was the same.

I guess Craig Kitchen at Premiere was just a better business person. He provided programs to an ad hoc network and sold ads on it. Air America provided programs on an identically structured network and tried to sell ads on it.

Yet Air America is accused of laundering money. Bizarre.
 
They sold the NJ station this year for 17.5 million. Not bad for a 3KW AM so they took a bath on WMEX.

The "3000 watt AM" in Jersey is actually 3 kw day / 7.6 kw nights in Jersey City with its transmitter located in the same area as all the other New York City radio stations.

Those 3000 watts cover over 8 million people with the 5 mV/m signal.

3 kw on 620, the frequency of the "Jersey" station, covers about the same as 125 kw on 1510.


If I owned WMEX I would fix the signal and flip it. $175K for the station and another 100-150K to fix the signal still a deal.

There is nothing beneficial they can do via engineering. Any significant geographical move would likely reduce day coverage and increase night protection requirements. If lucky, they might be able to stay at 50 kw days, as the coverage of any station on 1510 is limited, but at night they'd likely have to cut back considerably. And since "night" at that latitude includes half of the drive times in winter, that idea sucks big time.
 
Renegade radio is indeed on, 6 am--MEX page hasn't changed yet
MEX facebook announced change but banner still says Ligotti..no word on noon
 
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Do you really think that the various owners of 1510 over the years haven't already looked into improving the signal? Or do you know something the rest of us don't?

YES IS DO!! The past owner's attitude's were, "Yeah but it's 50,000 watts can't change that". Would you rather have a 50KW signal going nowhere or a 20 to 30KW station that can be heard on land?
 


The "3000 watt AM" in Jersey is actually 3 kw day / 7.6 kw nights in Jersey City with its transmitter located in the same area as all the other New York City radio stations.

Those 3000 watts cover over 8 million people with the 5 mV/m signal.

3 kw on 620, the frequency of the "Jersey" station, covers about the same as 125 kw on 1510.




There is nothing beneficial they can do via engineering. Any significant geographical move would likely reduce day coverage and increase night protection requirements. If lucky, they might be able to stay at 50 kw days, as the coverage of any station on 1510 is limited, but at night they'd likely have to cut back considerably. And since "night" at that latitude includes half of the drive times in winter, that idea sucks big time.

I see so a 3KW for 17.5 million dollars vs a 50KW in the 6th market for 175K. Doesn't add up. Cut the power! 50KW is a waste of power. WRKO and WBZ would dump them in a minute if they could get a buyer. Try selling time on an AM.
 
Renegade radio is indeed on, 6 am--MEX page hasn't changed yet
MEX facebook announced change but banner still says Ligotti..no word on noon
Aw, quit playing around with AMD and just put on Don IMUS! :cool:
 
I think they should have stuck with Herald Radio. A local show with free publicity every day in the print edition and during the on-line shows.
 


The signal is what it is. It's very, very, very unlikely that anything can be done today to change the power, coverage, directional pattern, etc.

Drop the power. A 50 KW station today is nothing more than a big electric bill. How well do you think WBZ and WRKO would be doing if they were stand alone 50KW AM stations? Looking for a job? Get a good signal over your COL why should it matter to sponsors if you reach Europe, Nova Scotia, Maine, NJ, etc. ?
 
for noon on WMEX, @bostonradio tweets
Political Reality with Vincent Errichetti 12-3, M-F on 1510. Lobbyist who works for the Andelman boys"
 
Drop the power. A 50 KW station today is nothing more than a big electric bill. How well do you think WBZ and WRKO would be doing if they were stand alone 50KW AM stations? Looking for a job? Get a good signal over your COL why should it matter to sponsors if you reach Europe, Nova Scotia, Maine, NJ, etc. ?


50 kw on 1510 is covers about the same a 1 kw on 540. You need every watt you can get on the high frequencies in order to overcome man made RF noise and to penetrate buildings and homes right there in the local market. In a metro like Boston, any AM (other than unique ethnic offerings) get's very little listening outside its 10 mV/m contour.

WMEX's daytime 10 mV/m barely reaches Milton and Dedham to the south and Wilmington and Lynnfield to the North and just a tad beyond Wellesley to the West. That same contour covers just 1.8 million out of 4.7 million in the total radio MSA.

And, yes, high-dial stations generate good night skywave. That is irrelevant; you need lots of power today to be listenable in noisy metro areas. WMEX covers well only about 1/3 of the MSA, and at night it is much worse.
 
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I see so a 3KW for 17.5 million dollars vs a 50KW in the 6th market for 175K. Doesn't add up. Cut the power! 50KW is a waste of power. WRKO and WBZ would dump them in a minute if they could get a buyer. Try selling time on an AM.

The 3 kw AM on 620 covers much more populated land area than the useless 50 kw on 1510. In fact, in the "listenable signal area" the 620 station in New York City covers about 5 times more people than WMEX does.

Having 50 kw high up on the dial is meaningless in comparison to stations on lower frequencies. WEZE on 590 with 5 kw covers more people and a greater area than WMEX with 50 kw.

As to "selling time" note that the #1 billing station in Boston is WBZ, and both WEEI and WRKO are in the top 15 billers with well above $5 million each in revenues.
 
YES IS DO!! The past owner's attitude's were, "Yeah but it's 50,000 watts can't change that". Would you rather have a 50KW signal going nowhere or a 20 to 30KW station that can be heard on land?

It's on 1510. There is not much you can do with that.

And as to moving, the station is pretty much hemmed in by cochannel and adjacent channel protection requirements as to coverage to "the west".
 
YES IS DO!! The past owner's attitude's were, "Yeah but it's 50,000 watts can't change that". Would you rather have a 50KW signal going nowhere or a 20 to 30KW station that can be heard on land?

20 or 30kW still won't get you where you need to be to protect the other stations on 1510. You can't, for example, send more than about 81mV/m during nighttime hours toward the 1510 in Nashville. That would send you down into the 5kW-or-less range...exactly what they had back in the 1960's from the Quincy site, which would today cover much less area than it did back then...if it's still available, which I would almost bet it isn't.

Nothing is going to fix this signal.
 
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Really? I sat in on a couple of Air America (Network) sales pitches, and they had ZERO to do with demos, quarter-hours, or any other metric that was used to sell radio at the time. They were selling it as a tax-deductible political contribution disguised as advertising.

The story of them taking money from a like-minded charity (I think it was some club for kids in one of the outer boroughs) was a big story (for those who follow such things) when they bellied-up.

As one of the least-susceptible-to-conspiracy-theory posters on this board (you can check...all my posts are available, I think) I'm probably the last person to try to run that 'birther' jive past.

Regards,,
TSB
 
WMEX updates their facebook group banner to
read "live and local"; one listener immediately asked,"What
happened to Joe L? It's not nice to keep your
listeners in the dark."
Webpage still showing Joe L etc,maybe that's
next.Joe Ligotti?Nevah hoid of th' guy... :)
 
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