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Langer's 650, 1240, 1410 off air

Investors?

who the F is going to invest in a virtually bankrupt company?

IHrt had to GIVE an AM away, the only other option was just to turn in the license.

The luckiest day of Langers radio life was when MRBI paid way too much money for his 1470 licenses

The second luckiest day was when he was able to pawn the 1060 license off onto someone else after the Brad Bleit scandal

This is not a case of loss of antenna location, so the FCC is going to take a dim view of extending a STA for more than 365 days.

The translators may have some value, but if you are an AM station, you are already treading water, where do you come up with money ( unless Langer holds the paper) to buy the translator, assuming it is not already being used as collateral on another loan.

AM radio is dead, long live AM.
 
The translators may have some value...

The WZBR translator on 98.1 in Medford was broadcasting in completely out of phase stereo anyway since the station recently restarted airing the “Urban Heat” programming again.

Unless you were close enough for full stereo reception, which didn’t extend very far with its extremely directional pattern, practically everything was phase cancelled out in mono. Could barely hear it two miles away here in Somerville.
 
Someone on FB suggested to Bob Bittner he could buy the 1240 on the Cape.Maybe...


and that same person is probably suggesting bob play helen sharp too... hes regularly brought up bittner having a cape station
 
Someone on FB suggested to Bob Bittner he could buy the 1240 on the Cape.Maybe...

I guess Langer's WBAS 1240 had an FM translator on 101.5, but that was apparently moved off when the main channel of John H. Garabedian's WKFY "Koffee FM" was moved to 101.5 earlier this year.

The 1240 WBAS translator was changed to a CP on 106.5, but I don't know whether that actually made it to the air, or not. I haven't been down there to check it out in real life.
 
Could possibly be an opportunity for the "La Mega" Spanish tropical radio (WAMG 890/94.9 Boston & WLLH 1400/95.1 Merrimack Valley) to expand and join the Cape Cod market on 1240 and 106.5.
 
I wouldnt listen to it, and there is a glut of foreign language on the AM band.
Put a format that's actually different, and needed
 
I wouldnt listen to it, and there is a glut of foreign language on the AM band.
Put a format that's actually different, and needed

if it were needed, someone would already be doing it... you buy the station and run a daynz muzak stayshun
 
I wouldnt listen to it, and there is a glut of foreign language on the AM band.
Put a format that's actually different, and needed

There usually is not a "glut" of any format on commercial radio as economic forces determine when there are too many.

Most of the "foreign" language stations have limited coverage, so that is why there are several sets of poor AMs with translators to cover different areas of language usage.

Another issue is that today, Hispanics just won't use an AM station when they have streaming choices with better sound. In fact, much of Latin America is way ahead of the US in either eliminating all or most AM stations or severely thinning the herd. In the US, Hispanics as a group average more than 10 years younger than non-Hispanic whites, and that puts most in the age group that does not US AM irrespective of ethnicity.
 

Not enough Hispanic population out in that region and those limited signals like 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450 and 1490 don't cover enough area to be successful in Spanish.


The "Cape Cod" radio metro is less than 4% Hispanic. Given normal assimilation rates, Spanish dominants are going to be around 1% to 1.5% at the most.
 
Not enough Hispanic population out in that region and those limited signals like 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450 and 1490 don't cover enough area to be successful in Spanish.


The "Cape Cod" radio metro is less than 4% Hispanic. Given normal assimilation rates, Spanish dominants are going to be around 1% to 1.5% at the most.

Ah okay, that makes sense then as to why that wouldn't work. I guess another option could be a local cape broadcasting group or a religious broadcaster like Klove buys it maybe.
 
Not true at all.Hispanics make up a significant % of Boston metro.
My point was to say, that the existing AM stations serve the listeners of that format. I can think of at least 2 formats that would include relays of other stations whose signals don't satisfactorily cover the market.
If you respond respectfully, and not try to win this argument by reductum ad absurdum, then I'll read your response
 
Not true at all.Hispanics make up a significant % of Boston metro.
My point was to say, that the existing AM stations serve the listeners of that format. I can think of at least 2 formats that would include relays of other stations whose signals don't satisfactorily cover the market.
If you respond respectfully, and not try to win this argument by reductum ad absurdum, then I'll read your response

The "Cape Cod" market is separate from the Boston radio market.

Doing Spanish language radio on a local channel AM and a translator "out there" does not serve the Boston metro at all. It would serve a small portion of a very long and thin peninsula that is likely to have less than 2% total Spanish speakers.

The Boston MSA (Nielsen MSA, not Census Bureau MSA) is 11.9% Hispanic. Because much of that Hispanic population is now second or even third generation (product of the Puerto Rican diaspora in the 50's and 60's) the current Hispanic population that is Spanish dominant is less than 40% of the total.

So we have less than 5% of the market that might be Spanish dominant.

And Spanish language radio stations don't target "Hispanics". They target "Spanish speaking Hispanics" which is a much, much smaller number in markets like Boston.

And, just as in Latin America (and much of the world, too) radio listeners like hit music in English. So a good portion of Hispanics that are Spanish speakers listen to rhythmic, AC and CHR stations in English because they like the music.

That leaves, probably, about 3% of the market that would listen to Spanish language radio. There is no mass-appeal format for all Hispanics. There is Spanish language hit radio, oldies, tropical (Mexican, Colombian, Puerto Rican and Dominican versions that are all different), "country" music and more. There is no "one size fits all".

And because the Hispanic population is so much younger than the non-Hispanic white population, there is near total rejection of AM. FM translators don't cover enough to be significant players.

Since no full signal would ever try Spanish, we are left with very marginal ones that won't get buys from agency accounts and major advertisers. Those use TV anyway.

A few very low cost operators can run those AMs with translators but there is no hidden and greater potential there.

Oh, it is "reductio" and not "reductum". And there is no logically fallacious argument here. Just the facts.
 
Driving around Nahant, Lynn, Salem (by day) yesterday I noticed:
--on 1240 what sounded like oldies--maybe a station in Franklin NH

--on 1410 talk and news, probably WPOP Hartford

--on 1680 some kind of maritime weather computerized forecast--I can't find a listing for it

--1090 is off and thus WTIC Hartford on 1080 was audible with no splatter

A few weeks back I flew from Pittsburgh to Manchester by night. As I drove home it was interesting to hear KDKA 1020 Pittsburgh coming in very well with little splatter from WBZ
 
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