• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WTZA

T

trusty

From Inside Radio:
"Atlanta – Radio Spice has closed a $300,000 deal to buy the currently-silent WTZA (1010) from K&Z Broadcasting. The sale also includes the Norcross, GA-licensed translator W227DN at 93.3 FM. The filing shows a $270,000 promissory note was included in the sale. Radio Spice is a partnership that includes Gursharan Singh Thind, Sharanjit Kaur, and Sukhdev Singh Dhillon. Dhillon is among the owners of New Media Broadcasting which owns stations in California, Washington, and Texas. RC Media Partners’ earlier $352,000 deal[FONT=&quot] to buy the station never closed. Broker: Griffin Media Partners"

This was dated Oct. 22. Has this been covered already?

[/FONT]
 
trusty said:
Has this been covered already?
Click to expand...

Only thing unresolved was the reported "damage to the signal tower that would cost well into the six figures to repair." Will Regan suggested it was a deal-breaker in his purchase.
 
LegalTender said:
Only thing unresolved was the reported "damage to the signal tower that would cost well into the six figures to repair." Will Regan suggested it was a deal-breaker in his purchase.
Click to expand...

I wonder why some has not tried to get an engineering STA for 25% (12,000 watts) with a “clothesline” antenna. High power AM’s have used shunt fed systems in the past so a grounded tower should not be an issue if you have to use the existing tower. From what I can tell this AM is only needed to “feed” the translator. Also I understand you can run a translator for a couple of months with out the AM if you can convince the FCC that the AM has “catastrophic” issues. An inoperable tower might work.

This should serve as warning for any potential station buyer. There should always be due diligence by a competent independent engineer for any station you buy. Especially one that is silent. If you cannot afford the engineer then maybe you should rethink the deal. I have a friend who wanted to buy a silent station in a sub 170 market ten years ago. I drove out to look at the tower and a section of the fence was missing a section so I walked up to the base of the tower and someone had pulled several of the grounding radials out of the ground. We never went any farther with the deal.
 
secondchoice said:
I wonder why some has not tried to get an engineering STA for 25% (12,000 watts) with a “clothesline” antenna. High power AM’s have used shunt fed systems in the past so a grounded tower should not be an issue if you have to use the existing tower. From what I can tell this AM is only needed to “feed” the translator. Also I understand you can run a translator for a couple of months with out the AM if you can convince the FCC that the AM has “catastrophic” issues. An inoperable tower might work.
Click to expand...

Shunt fed towers have certainly gone out of favor. I know for a while that 50 kw and above AMs were very fond of them; the "best" I saw was a 250 kw one!

Easier, and more friendly to shared tower use by other services, is a folded unipole system where the tower is grounded. Those work well with shorter towers, too.

This should serve as warning for any potential station buyer. There should always be due diligence by a competent independent engineer for any station you buy. Especially one that is silent. If you cannot afford the engineer then maybe you should rethink the deal. I have a friend who wanted to buy a silent station in a sub 170 market ten years ago. I drove out to look at the tower and a section of the fence was missing a section so I walked up to the base of the tower and someone had pulled several of the grounding radials out of the ground. We never went any farther with the deal.
Click to expand...

Due diligence is essential in any business. But you are right that AM acquisitions are very critical in this respect since the stations themselves are on a declining band and a site rebuild might insure that the station is never again profitable. That was, it is reported, why one broadcaster closed the two best AM facilities in Savannah, GA: fixing the transmitter sites would cost more than future profits would cover.
 
They've been running Radio Punjab for the past couple of days.
 
It appears that WTZA is running a skirt (folded unipole) on that tower to allow the cellular stuff to be on that tower, the cell stuff is roughly 1/4 to 1/3 up the tower.
 
secondchoice said:
What is the minimum "wavelength" a folded unipole on a tower will work?
Click to expand...

Generally, a folded Unipole will work fine at 1/4 wavelength and above. While you can have a working folded unipole of under 1/4 wave, its ability to radiate degrades as it gets shorter, as does its bandwidth. ***Within reason***, it will "work" at any reasonable wavelength....it may not "work" very well, however.
 
I was down to Woodstock yesterday and I checked and there was programming on 1010 so apparently it is working. It might not be "full Power" but at least they have a signal. Now the question is can they program it and the FM translator with something that can be sold.
 
Here is what Wikipedia says about WTZA 1010...

>>>>In the daytime, WTZA has the maximum power for commercial AM stations in the U.S., 50,000 watts. But because AM 1010 is a Canadian clear channel frequency, WTZA must reduce power at night when radio waves travel farther. During critical hours the power is 45,000 watts and at night it broadcasts at 78 watts. It uses a non-directional antenna at all times, located off Battle Forrest Drive in Decatur, near Interstate 285. WTZA is classified as a class D AM broadcast station according to the Federal Communications Commission.


It is also heard on 80 watt FM translator W271CV, at 102.1 MHz in Atlanta.<<<<

=====

So is the translator at 102.1? Or at 93.3 in Norcross? Or both?

Will a South Asian station succeed in Atlanta? The city already has several ethnic stations.

Korean: 790 WQXI

Mandarin: 890 WJTP

Vietnamese: 1040 WPBS and 1550 WAZX

Of course, programming to the South Asian community is difficult because they speak so many languages. Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu... the list is long. In NYC, there are two Chinese stations because China has numerous languages: 1380 WKDM is Mandarin while 1480 WZRC is Cantonese.
 
secondchoice said:
I was down to Woodstock yesterday and I checked and there was programming on 1010 so apparently it is working. It might not be "full Power" but at least they have a signal. Now the question is can they program it and the FM translator with something that can be sold.
Click to expand...

For all we know, WTZA is at full power with repairs completed before sale. If so, Radio Spice paid $300,000 for a deal brokered months before for $352,000.
 
The 102.1 translator is translating somebody's HD 2 or HD3....or HD4 Signal, running a kinda sorta 80's format, as 102.1 "the King". So, in all of that "stuff" that took place in March, it looks like 102.1 got sold / leased / horse-traded to some other entity. Leaving the 93.3 signal in Norcross. I am not sure how 93.3 will fly with co-channel WVFJ.
 
WJTP (890) has been off the air for awhile now.
Many stations do not have 1/4 wavelength in the air due to real estate available for guy wires.
The more steel you have in the air, the better the E-field will be.
The important thing is if the ATU can match to it.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom