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Another New AM Station

R

RoddyFreeman

The new owners of WYXC-AM/1270 in Cartersville, Mr. and Mrs. Glinter, have filed an application to move into the Atlanta market. The new city of license would be East Point, GA, and the frequency would be 1260, vacated when WTJH lost its license. WYXC would be 5,100 watts daytime and 52 watts after sundown, making it a daytime station except for the immediate few miles. They would transmit from the former WTJH tower on Dodson Drive in East Point.

WYXC's current format is, according to its website, "Conservative Talk," and the station does feature someone who is known to older Atlantans, David Paul.

I know nothing about the Glinters, and they are probably lovely people who have their heart set on the radio money flowing in the Atlanta market. But, I guess no one has told them that they would lose their shirts. Aside from all of the direct competition, including the mighty WSB, an AM daytime station does not have a prayer in this market. And with the poor quality of AM radios in cars, 5,100 watts on 1260 does not carry that far with a city grade signal.
 
I do realize that the Glinters could change the format. But with the exception of brokered shows, what else could work? And Atlanta has stations that are loaded up with brokered shows.
 
Doing a brief search on the owners, they seem to have a lot of experience in buying and selling small am stations around the country, so I'd guess they know exactly what they're getting. They're not first timers.
 
I don't understand the attraction of buying an AM Class D daytimer any more these days. The Class Bs and Cs with decent night signals are having a hard enough time as it is.

Even WGUN 1010, which IIRC was 50k days and 45k critical hours on a great-sounding signal, couldn't make a go of it.

Who does 1260 have to protect? It's a regional channel. I see a 1260 in Asheville (WKXR) and a monster one in Miami (WSUA). WKXR goes south at night, and WSUA shoots it over the water 24/7.

Could they go directional (of course, that means finding an array to borrow)? Of course, I'm not sure how they thread that needle, unless they nulled northeast and southeast.
 
There is no way this station could make it. If the Glinters are putting it on the air to sell it, I doubt they will find a buyer...unless PT Barnum was right.
 
Don't know if you noticed but WPBC (1310) has gone dark. Also in the graveyard band.
 
kf4rca said:
Don't know if you noticed but WPBC (1310) has gone dark. Also in the graveyard band.
Click to expand...

Their tower is (was?) in the parking lot for the Avondale MARTA station. Didn't MARTA make them take it down or move? Weren't they looking for another tower? Maybe they could piggyback on one of WATB's (the old WAVO) towers, like WMLB (fka WWAA) did until they moved to one of the Cheshire Bridge towers.
 
kf4rca said:
Don't know if you noticed but WPBC (1310) has gone dark. Also in the graveyard band.
Click to expand...

If you remember, 1310 was selling for $500K and no one is crazy enough to pay a half million $$$ for that signal. The current owner paid around $2.5 MILLION for the signal 10 years ago. Today...is it even worth $25 thousand?
 
jabba17 said:
Their tower is (was?) in the parking lot for the Avondale MARTA station. Didn't MARTA make them take it down or move? Weren't they looking for another tower? Maybe they could piggyback on one of WATB's (the old WAVO) towers, like WMLB (fka WWAA) did until they moved to one of the Cheshire Bridge towers.
Click to expand...

Yes, I don't know why but they were kicked off that MARTA lot tower. They were supposed to move to one of the 1420 towers, but I'm told that fell through.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
Yes, I don't know why but they were kicked off that MARTA lot tower. They were supposed to move to one of the 1420 towers, but I'm told that fell through.
Click to expand...

If they couldn't pull that off, then I guess the FCC can expect another piece of jingle mail.
 
wavo said:
If you remember, 1310 was selling for $500K and no one is crazy enough to pay a half million $$$ for that signal. The current owner paid around $2.5 MILLION for the signal 10 years ago. Today...is it even worth $25 thousand?
Click to expand...

Probably just for property (if they own any), plant, and equipment. I wouldn't call the license valuable unless someone can find a replacement tower, and that's a huge stretch even then.
 
I know who the Glinter people are, for those wondering. They once owned several AM and one FM station down in Pensacola Florida. They recently sold off those stations, to other people. They also had a station in Thomasville Alabama. It went dark and then sold it to a Catholic group, who now has their programming on it.

Dan <><
 
When I contacted the Hispanic principal, he wanted $850K but that included relocation costs of the tower. I thought he was crazy. My guess is he loaded the tower and transmitter on a flatbed and took it back to Mexico.
 
jabba17 said:
Probably just for property (if they own any), plant, and equipment. I wouldn't call the license valuable unless someone can find a replacement tower, and that's a huge stretch even then.
Click to expand...

Unless things have changed in the last few years the station has nothing except for a Gates transmitter and Optimod processor. There was no studio or equipment, no real estate, no nothing.
1310 is owned by a nice Korean gentleman who spent his life savings on a radio station only to watch it's value wither away to nothing. This is a textbook example of why most people have no business buying a radio station!

I can't see the angle to moving 1270 to Atlanta. The 1260 license was turned in and cancelled so I'm wondering if the FCC will re-license a 1260 in East Point. Even if they do, it will be from a poor efficiency tower and not cover the entire Atlanta city limits much less the Atlanta 15 county metro area.
50,000 watt WGUN, at 1010, only sold for $1M. After all the expense of building new facilities how much could they reasonably expect to sell a 5KW station at 1260 for in market #9?
 
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