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WJTP (890) Off The Air

K

kf4rca

Guest
If you remember WJTP is the Chinese station. In the last few years, they have been all Chinese. But prior to that they carried the English feed of China Radio International.
Some days they would forget to sign off and 890 would be a cacophony of WLS, Radio Progresso (Cuba) and WJTP, all night long. Their facility is out there at the 1380 site. Never heard any spots on it.
Did the owner just get tired of writing checks to the electric company without any revenue coming in?
Another one bites the dust.
 
kf4rca said:
If you remember WJTP is the Chinese station. In the last few years, they have been all Chinese. But prior to that they carried the English feed of China Radio International.
Some days they would forget to sign off and 890 would be a cacophony of WLS, Radio Progresso (Cuba) and WJTP, all night long. Their facility is out there at the 1380 site. Never heard any spots on it.
Did the owner just get tired of writing checks to the electric company without any revenue coming in?
Another one bites the dust.
Click to expand...


The goal of the various stations running China Radio International isnt advertising .. its to spread the ne ws views and message of china. the stations are owned by a guy in california who has some ties to CRI, which is owned by the government. He's been slowly selling off some of the stations.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
The goal of the various stations running China Radio International isnt advertising .. its to spread the ne ws views and message of china. the stations are owned by a guy in california who has some ties to CRI, which is owned by the government. He's been slowly selling off some of the stations.
Click to expand...

How does a guy with ties to the Govt of China even get a license to broadcast in the USA??
Seems like the State Dept would have nixed it..
 
HippieGuy said:
How does a guy with ties to the Govt of China even get a license to broadcast in the USA??
Seems like the State Dept would have nixed it..
Click to expand...

The FCC has specific requirements about licensees, and only citizenship is part of those; ideology is not. A naturalized citizen can own a station, and increasing percentages of non-citizen ownership can be approved. In fact, there have been approvals for foreign ownership very recently and it looks like many of the requirements will be loosened in that area.

I don't believe the Department of State can specifically exclude citizens who happen to favor specific nations if they meet the existing citizenship requirements.

Most free nations of the world allow much higher ownership by non-citizens than the US does.

Of course, the biggest impediment to the type of station being discussed is that next to nobody wants to listen to them. That is actually a very fine example of how the "free market economy" generally sustains products that consumers actually like.
 
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The amazing part of this story is the station was purchased in July of 2013 for $2,100,000.00 for a day-timer that doesn't cover half of the market.

BTW there is isn't a STA filed on the FCC site this morning. I have been told the FCC sometimes is a day or two late posting on their site. If I was the owner I wouldn't wait around to get the paper work correct, isn't there a FCC monitoring site close to Lithia Springs
 
For the last few years or so their programming was in Chinese. But before that it was the English feed of China Radio Int'l (can still be heard on SW).
The English feed had a business program that sounded very "capitalistic."
They frequently mentioned G&E Studios as their location.
 
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The license for WJTP 890 AM expired on 4/1/2020 earlier this year, but I see it was renewed for another 8 years with the FCC until 2028. This is very strange since the station has gone silent and not on the air since earlier this year as mentioned in this thread. No mention of an STA to go silent with the FCC and yet they get a license renewal? Is that even possible with the FCC? Or is the FCC at a point of they don't care about AMs as long as the renewal fees are paid?
 
1030khz said:
The license for WJTP 890 AM expired on 4/1/2020 earlier this year, but I see it was renewed for another 8 years with the FCC until 2028. This is very strange since the station has gone silent and not on the air since earlier this year as mentioned in this thread. No mention of an STA to go silent with the FCC and yet they get a license renewal? Is that even possible with the FCC? Or is the FCC at a point of they don't care about AMs as long as the renewal fees are paid?
Click to expand...
How long do they get to go silent without a STA? A year? Although I don't think there are a lot of people sitting on silent AM licenses that are ripe for reallocation.

If I ran the FCC I would not make this a priority, at least not for AM, unless someone contested it because they wanted to do something with the frequency or they were violating other rules. Especially since the silent stations are mostly daytimers or class Cs with little to no interest. Heck, the cochannel stations probably like that someone is sitting on the allocation silent.
 
No STA needed for up to ten days. After that a letter to the FCC is in order. If silent for 30 days, they needed to file for a silent STA. I don't see any of this in the fccinfo.com website. It's possible that they did all of this, and ***maybe*** it is not showing up with the station's paperwork.
 
kf4rca said:
If you remember WJTP is the Chinese station. In the last few years, they have been all Chinese. But prior to that they carried the English feed of China Radio International.
Some days they would forget to sign off and 890 would be a cacophony of WLS, Radio Progresso (Cuba) and WJTP, all night long. Their facility is out there at the 1380 site. Never heard any spots on it.
Did the owner just get tired of writing checks to the electric company without any revenue coming in?
Another one bites the dust.
Click to expand...
Hey if you are in the area can you tell me if 1250 AM in Madison GA is on air ? They just filed an STA saying they resumed on air a year ago.
 
I can shed some light on China Radio International English programming heard on several stations in the USA. The station I managed was leased for CRI English. G & E Studios was part of an American company that was responsible for programming. Except when they might be missing a person for a shift, the programming originated from Americans in the USA (mainly the LA area). The programming was designed to be for Americans by Americans covering programming of interest to Americans. You need to wrap your head around this to understand the goal of CRI English in North America: better trade deals. The thinking was if programming of interest to Americans carried the China name, it would imply China is just like the USA. When China needs whatever product, the thinking was the more the Chinese can seem like the people they are trading with, the more favorable the deal will be for China. The consultant on China Radio International was the BBC.

This concept was being worked at spots all over the world. CRI leased stations in South America, Africa and other spots where good trade relations was needed.

It seems one of the Americans opted to purchase a few stations that carried CRI programming. When CRI English (the American version) ceased, those stations went to Chinese language programming. I know the station in Houston is off as well. I can only surmise the owner is opting to sell some stations, if not all, due to something related to operation costs exceeding revenue.

As for filing a STA. You'd be amazed how many stations don't or wait a long time before they do.
 
Don't know if you've noticed but WQXI (790) Radio Korea has "suspended" nighttime operations. They were 1KW at night. Perhaps the owner couldn't monetize the night operations and just decided to sign off as a result of the pandemic economy.
This should open up 790 a bit for DXers.
 
kf4rca said:
Don't know if you've noticed but WQXI (790) Radio Korea has "suspended" nighttime operations. They were 1KW at night. Perhaps the owner couldn't monetize the night operations and just decided to sign off as a result of the pandemic economy.
This should open up 790 a bit for DXers.
Click to expand...
They also have a night pattern that nulls towards Gwinnett, where a lot of Koreans live. WQXI-AM Radio Station Coverage Map
 
jabba17 said:
They also have a night pattern that nulls towards Gwinnett, where a lot of Koreans live. WQXI-AM Radio Station Coverage Map
Click to expand...
Does WQXI-AM's FM translator, W244EI at 96.7 MHz, located on the tall stacked-up antenna tower near the sight of the former "Gwinnett is Great" water towers in Oakbrook Summit area of Gwinnett, stay on after hours? If it stays on when WQXI-AM powers down it is technically violating FCC rules on FM translators of AMs?

I will have to listen to 96.7 MHz FM tonight to verify. FM translator 96.7 MHz does cover most of Gwinnett County.

Harry Smith
Buford, GA
 
1030khz said:
Does WQXI-AM's FM translator, W244EI at 96.7 MHz, located on the tall stacked-up antenna tower near the sight of the former "Gwinnett is Great" water towers in Oakbrook Summit area of Gwinnett, stay on after hours? If it stays on when WQXI-AM powers down it is technically violating FCC rules on FM translators of AMs?

I will have to listen to 96.7 MHz FM tonight to verify. FM translator 96.7 MHz does cover most of Gwinnett County.

Harry Smith
Buford, GA
Click to expand...
FM translators are allowed to operate when the AM station is off. The FCC gave many AM stations translators as part of the AM revitalization to provide service even when the AM is off or reduced power at night. However, they are not allowed to use the translator if the AM is off the air for an extended time, like more than a day or two.
 
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