Oldies 1550 (WAZX) Back On The Air...

[kf4rca]

afternoons this past weekend. Maybe they're demo-ing it for a sale.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

A few white elephants are looking for love . . . 1040, 1080, 1550.

 

[kf4rca]

You forgot 1310.

 

[jabba17]

I wonder how much these Class D daytimers are really worth, considering Atlanta Radio Korea picked up Class B Quixie for only six figures. WGUN 1010 did bring just over a million IIRC.

Isn't 1310 now missing a tower? At least the other three are 50kW daytime (although 1080 and 1550 have nasty patterns).

1310 is a dead license walking.

I would ask if someone could wedge in a night pattern for one of these, but if Quixie is worth that little it's probably not worth the expense, unless you could use one of the Cobb County arrays on the cheap, and even then. IIRC many of these stations have to protect cochannel Class B's in Florida.

 

[HGR1290]

Sad, but in many cases these things are realistically worth only a few hundred thousand, even at 50kW.

Let me qualify that by saying in my opinion.....)

 

[CTListener]

Do station owners actually fire up silent transmitters just to "demo the station for a sale"?

 

[wavo]

Sad, but in many cases these things are realistically worth only a few hundred thousand, even at 50kW.

Let me qualify that by saying in my opinion.....)

I'll bet the owner of 1310 would do backflips if someone were to pay him $250K for his albatross. Without a tower site lease that station is worth maybe $10K....? (BTW...I was in the area over the holidays and the tower is still standing in the MARTA parking lot.) He paid over $2M. He will take a very serious haircut on that one...he may not have any hair left at all!

The 1550 pattern is very, very ugly and useful for what? 1040 is a decent east side signal and 1080 decent on the northwest quadrant but what would you do with them? They would make great "hobby stations" for wealthy folks but you would be hard pressed to get a lender to fork over any money because there is no reasonable path to profitability.

Just for grins lets say you pay $1M and are now the proud owner of 1550. You're paying $5K monthly just to service the debt. Closer to $7K if you do 20 years. (That's at 4% money - doubtful you could get that for AM radio station)
The power bill alone would be $3K monthly in winter months, north of $6K in summer. If you "mom and pop" it you *might* be able to hold expenses down to another $7-9K. To break even you would have to COLLECT (not BILL) $17-19K monthly. Anything after that is your "salary." Remember....this excludes high priced salespersons and talent which will further increase the nut.
The question is...how could you consistently bill $25-30K and collect $17-19K to BREAK EVEN?
You make your real money when you sell the station. Who would wager any of these stations will INCREASE in value?
If you buy one of these stations all you have bought is a job...

 

[wavo]

Sad, but in many cases these things are realistically worth only a few hundred thousand, even at 50kW.

Let me qualify that by saying in my opinion.....)

I'll bet the owner of 1310 would do backflips if someone were to pay him $250K for his albatross. Without a tower site lease that station is worth maybe $10K....? (BTW...I was in the area over the holidays and the tower is still standing in the MARTA parking lot.) He paid over $2M. He will take a very serious haircut on that one...he may not have any hair left at all!

The 1550 pattern is very, very ugly and useful for what? 1040 is a decent east side signal and 1080 decent on the northwest quadrant but what would you do with them? They would make great "hobby stations" for wealthy folks but you would be hard pressed to get a lender to fork over any money because there is no reasonable path to profitability.

Just for grins lets say you pay $1M and are now the proud owner of 1550. You're paying $5K monthly just to service the debt. Closer to $7K if you do 20 years. (That's at 4% money - doubtful you could get that for AM radio station)
The power bill alone would be $3K monthly in winter months, north of $6K in summer. If you "mom and pop" it you *might* be able to hold expenses down to another $7-9K. To break even you would have to COLLECT (not BILL) $17-19K monthly. Anything after that is your "salary." Remember....this excludes high priced salespersons and talent which will further increase the nut.
The question is...how could you consistently bill $25-30K and collect $17-19K to BREAK EVEN?
You make your real money when you sell the station. Who would wager any of these stations will INCREASE in value?

 

[davideduardo]

Do station owners actually fire up silent transmitters just to "demo the station for a sale"?

I know there have been cases of stations with STAs to remain silent that have gone on the air to show everything worked, particularly in the area of directional antenna compliance. I don't remember any specifically except one.

In the mid-70's I did due diligence regarding a potential sale of the silent 1270 AM facility in the Orlando market. Because the station was directional, we hired an engineer with a field strength meter to check the directional system for compliance, so the station receiver in bankruptcy authorized it to be turned on for that purpose. This also, secondarily, verified the operation of the remote control and STL systems.

 

[wavo]

Sad, but in many cases these things are realistically worth only a few hundred thousand, even at 50kW.

Let me qualify that by saying in my opinion.....)

I'll bet the owner of 1310 would do backflips if someone were to pay him $250K for his albatross. Without a tower site lease that station is worth maybe $10K....? (BTW...I was in the area over the holidays and the tower is still standing in the MARTA parking lot.) He paid over $2M. He will take a very serious haircut on that one...he may not have any hair left at all!

The 1550 pattern is very, very ugly and useful for what? 1040 is a decent east side signal and 1080 decent on the northwest quadrant but what would you do with them? They would make great "hobby stations" for wealthy folks but you would be hard pressed to get a lender to fork over any money because there is no reasonable path to profitability.

Just for grins lets say you pay $1M and are now the proud owner of 1550. You're paying $5K monthly just to service the debt. Closer to $7K if you do 20 years. (That's at 4% money - doubtful you could get that for AM radio station)
The power bill alone would be $3K monthly in winter months, north of $6K in summer. If you "mom and pop" it you *might* be able to hold expenses down to another $7-9K. To break even you would have to COLLECT (not BILL) $17-19K monthly. Anything after that is your "salary." Remember....this excludes high priced salespersons and talent which will further increase the nut.
The question is...how could you consistently bill $25-30K and collect $17-19K to BREAK EVEN?
You make your real money when you sell the station. Who would wager any of these stations will INCREASE in value?

 

[davideduardo]

Just for grins lets say you pay $1M and are now the proud owner of 1550. You're paying $5K monthly just to service the debt. Closer to $7K if you do 20 years. (That's at 4% money - doubtful you could get that for AM radio station)

Buying a silent AM station is likely not to get any financing unless there is non-radio collateral.

Look at the pricier debt of Cumulus and iHeart... around the 10% rate for a company with loads of assets, most of which are putting off cash flow.

It is very hard to get financing for stand-alone stations. It is even harder to get money for AM deals. I looked at FM acquisitions about 10 years ago, and lenders who would look at radio wanted at least four markets to avoid competitive or local economy problems.

 

[HGR1290]

I just tuned in to 1550. I am in the "bore sight" of that pattern, maybe 10-12 miles away. 5:25 in the afternoon, and its ate up with co-channel. It appears to be at something above 25kW, maybe even the full 50. But its not listenable here---unless I wanted a QSL card.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

The FCC allows stations to remain silent for a limited length of time. Otherwise, they pull the license.

 

[kf4rca]

I just tuned in to 1550. I am in the "bore sight" of that pattern, maybe 10-12 miles away. 5:25 in the afternoon, and its ate up with co-channel. It appears to be at something above 25kW, maybe even the full 50. But its not listenable here---unless I wanted a QSL card.

That's a pretty built up area commercially so that would have some effect. I'm at spaghetti junction and its the strongest signal on the upper end of the band.
It just surprises me that a major market 50KW can't make it. But maybe the economy will pick up now that a businessman is in the White House.

 

[secondchoice]

I just tuned in to 1550. I am in the "bore sight" of that pattern, maybe 10-12 miles away. 5:25 in the afternoon, and its ate up with co-channel. It appears to be at something above 25kW, maybe even the full 50. But its not listenable here---unless I wanted a QSL card.

A likely explanation of 1550’s poor reception is they might still be using the FCC’s December’s sunset time which is 5:30 PM:

https://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/...slat=28.00&dlon=84&mlon=38&slon=39.00&tzone=A

I have worked two stations on 1550, Soddy Daisy TN. (now gone) and the old WPTN Cookeville TN., (now on 780). 1550 is a Canadian channel at night. In 1975 when the FCC field inspector stopped in and “visited” us at the Soddy-Daisy (just north of Chattanooga). He said we were within a minute of signing off at the correct every time they checked, so there were be no issues with Huntsville AL’s 1550 or the Canadians.

With the FCC monitoring station less than 20 miles away, I would make sure my station was powered down at least 2 minutes early to sure there were no “issues”. Since this operation is costing it’s owner and electric bill and not generating any revenue, I would “trim” my daylight hours too.

High end AM signals sometimes “skip” earlier in the winter than the FCC charts say. IIRC it is because the ozone layer being lower to the surface and the angle of reflection on a shorter wavelength.

One evening at WPTN the modulation meter was at 25 to 30% right after sign off in January. The on air monitor had about 4 or 5 signals all fading and out.

 

[wavo]

A likely explanation of 1550’s poor reception is they might still be using the FCC’s December’s sunset time which is 5:30 PM:

https://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/...slat=28.00&dlon=84&mlon=38&slon=39.00&tzone=A

I have worked two stations on 1550, Soddy Daisy TN. (now gone) and the old WPTN Cookeville TN., (now on 780). 1550 is a Canadian channel at night. In 1975 when the FCC field inspector stopped in and “visited” us at the Soddy-Daisy (just north of Chattanooga). He said we were within a minute of signing off at the correct every time they checked, so there were be no issues with Huntsville AL’s 1550 or the Canadians.

With the FCC monitoring station less than 20 miles away, I would make sure my station was powered down at least 2 minutes early to sure there were no “issues”. Since this operation is costing it’s owner and electric bill and not generating any revenue, I would “trim” my daylight hours too.

High end AM signals sometimes “skip” earlier in the winter than the FCC charts say. IIRC it is because the ozone layer being lower to the surface and the angle of reflection on a shorter wavelength.

One evening at WPTN the modulation meter was at 25 to 30% right after sign off in January. The on air monitor had about 4 or 5 signals all fading and out.

If you have ever done field intensity measurements you will notice that above 1000 Khz there is NO time in the winter when skywave has no affect. Some channels have a half a millivolt of skywave at 2 in the afternoon!