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J
Joylovepulse967
Guest
Around 11 am
I’ll be recording it (if the electricity is still running)
An underwhelming sign off for a facility that had been in use for decades.
Religious broadcaster buys once-great distressed property...runs it into the ground before selling the parts and shutting it down. It's the symptom of a dying radio band.
We already saw plenty of it on SW and now here's the classic example of it on a 50KW AM in market #1.
Now we are seeing these organizations increasingly encroach on the FM band too, a sign that it will ultimately be next.
My view is there's a need to thin the herd. Too many radio stations, with the FCC guilty of over-licensing the spectrum to serve their own bureaucratic needs, without any respect to the marketplace or the need of companies to make money to stay in business. There are too many for-profit radio stations especially in a declining advertising market. The only hope is for more non-profits to take over these radio stations and offer something other than religious programming.
It's possible we may see the same thing happen with the same clueless government seeking to break up the tech industry. It completely ignores that most of the services that industry provides are now free to the public. But if they force a bunch of competing companies offering the same products, they will need to charge for those services. That's what we're seeing in OTT video.
K
Kevin
Guest
Another one bites the dust. Just 4,548 more AM stations to go, I predict by 2030 half of that will be gone. It’s truly time to thin out the Antiquated Modulation band. Hey, I hear my electric razor on AM. 😝
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History is littered with examples of religious broadcasters abusing their non-profit status and exploiting their supporters who are often the most vulnerable in society, in order to enrich the owners and feed their self-indulgent lifestyles. In fact, you don't have to look far to find examples of this, all you have to do is look at Family Radio's history. Good riddance to WMFE, I hope they take their 50 million, go crawl under a rock with it and never come back.
Sounds like politicians to me. 🤣 My point is there's no reason why anyone who loves music can't form a non-profit (not unlike the Rhythm & Blues Foundation or the Academy of Country Music) and use that organization to start and operate a radio station in order to perpetuate a less commercial side of the music. I really think there's a market for it, and it would be far more useful that just allowing a bunch of religious owners take over a national resource.
Someone pointed out a small AM station in Michigan that's playing great music. I saw that it's owned by the estate of a rich dead guy who left his money to a revocable trust that runs this radio station. Great idea. There's a lot of wealth in this country and what's needed is some creative thinking about what to do with it. That's what the Carnegies and the Rockefellers did.
Or, maybe it's like their contract engineer Tom Ray said on the NYRMB...that they're taking the signal dark for now and that 1560 will return in some form in the future once plans for a new (probably diplexed) facility are negotiated and designed. Just because we don't currently know what the plans are does not mean that they're not happening. Obviously it would have been better for them to have the new facility built before the current site signed off, but for whatever reason, that was not possible in this case.
I don't think there's any argument that the AM band needs to be thinned. But it's the daytimers and lower powered graveyard/regional signals that are most at risk. Higher power signals in large metros (like WFME) likely have the best survival chances.
I don't think there's any argument that the AM band needs to be thinned. But it's the daytimers and lower powered graveyard/regional signals that are most at risk. Higher power signals in large metros (like WFME) likely have the best survival chances.
Continuity doesn't matter for such a station. They know how much money they're losing while it's off, and they've determined it's less than what it cost to keep it on the air.
Ray's statement was vague enough to cover using a different AM station or even some additonal smaller suburban stations. It would not necessarily surprise me to find that the 1560 station never returns.
It would seem to make sense for Family Radio to sell the license for 1560 AM, and buy a station such as WLIB AM, or WNYE FM, for a fraction of the amount they're receiving for the the facility they just took off the air.
But the post in question by Tom Ray did indicate that they expect to relocate the 1560 AM signal. It states they don't intend to sell the license, and want to operate for a while on low power on the frequency, in order to maintain the license. It also states they will apply for a construction permit, build it out, and then return to full power.
But the post in question by Tom Ray did indicate that they expect to relocate the 1560 AM signal. It states they don't intend to sell the license, and want to operate for a while on low power on the frequency, in order to maintain the license. It also states they will apply for a construction permit, build it out, and then return to full power.
K
Kevin
Guest
50 million dollars for a station that Family Radio purchased in 2015 for 12.9 million, not bad. I would have sold it for 26 million. That was a smart move for Family Radio. God Bless them, they nearly quadrupled their money anybody would have done this. That‘s what business is about, to make a profit.
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People who buy what Family Radio is selling will bet their very souls on the ability of WFME to rise again after being left for dead beneath (or behind) a mere rock.
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