It occurs to me that perhaps iHeart should reevaluate how it secures its transmitter facilities. Yes, he shouldn't have been there but he really didn't seem to understand what he was dealing with and a hunk of old plywood over a hole in the wall of a seemingly abandoned building is hardly an effective deterrent either. Just saying.
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WIOD Off the Isle
- Thread starter Mike Sheridan
- Start date
Right now the video link responds by saying the video has been removed. I recall looking at bits and pieces of the video earlier, and my impression was the building itself appeared to have good bones, as real estate people say. I wouldn't worry about the plywood. Although it was many years ago, I lived in North Bay Village; crime and vandals were not an issue at that time. Re: iHeart, I think they have some of the best engineers in the business, and the CEO is a fine person to lead the company in today's environment. I think companies act in their best interest, and it is best to respect that. WIOD signal has almost certainly been impacted by high rise buildings nearby, and they had to do something. I recall hearing impact of buildings on WQAM at the Miami Herald site.
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The fact is the building has just been sold, and the transmitter will be moving. Probably very soon, since the OP says they already have a CP for a new location.
I watched the video. I was horrified to see that the transmitter and associated equipment was not in a secure location.
There was a time when the station owner would be cited by the FCC for such lax security.
There was a time when the station owner would be cited by the FCC for such lax security.
When I lived in the area, I don't think the radio station had a separate vehicle entrance. The TV station and the radio station were behind gated security. Recent Google Earth street view shows the gate is not present but the guard building is there. The adjacent parking lot is fenced (from a quick look with street view). I surmise gated security became less of a priority if the late owner Ed Ansin spent increasingly more time in Boston, and as public became accustomed to engaging and stimulating programming of Channel 7 and WIOD.
Agreed fully, but if I recall correctly, he attempted to gain entry into the transmitter room through 2 different dead bolted metal doors, then later made his way around another side where he saw an extension cable running through the opening that was covered with plywood and forced it open to make his way inside, moving a wet/dry vac and other items out of his way in the process. Legally, if WIOD and/or law enforcement wanted to go after this guy, they could. It was not a wide open passage that he freely walked through without effort. He had to physically force it open, determined to breach and make entry. As has been stated before, the fact that he kept stating he had no idea what any of that stuff does, but was happy to start pressing buttons and trying to log onto their PCs tells one how much intelligence and/or common sense he might posses. Sadly if he'd have been electrocuted or injured when poking around, he and his lawyer would probably try and turn it around and make it WIOD's fault, though again, he forced his way in.
Exactly, which is likely why the video has been removed. He was trespassing. What we don't know is how he gained entry. The video begins with him already in the building. So we don't know if he broke in or if there was an open door somewhere.
When I lived there weekday crime appeared to be beach on beach or mainland on mainland. On the weekend beach crime was petty crime associated with people going to the actual beach and where they parked. At that time there were six roads leading to Miami Beach, North Bay Village and Bal Harbor, and just two without drawbridges. A fairly small universe of criminals and vandals residing on the beach, as I remember.
btw- The Google Earth community is pretty amusing from time to time. They noticed a unused concrete guy wire anchor in the bay and mystic conspiracy theories ensued. Actually WIOD replaced a guyed tower with a self supporting tower. Another Internet site confidently stated a lake in Florida is a good place use a metal detector to locate gold from sunken Spanish Galleons. Actually the lake is man-made, built in 1950.
btw- The Google Earth community is pretty amusing from time to time. They noticed a unused concrete guy wire anchor in the bay and mystic conspiracy theories ensued. Actually WIOD replaced a guyed tower with a self supporting tower. Another Internet site confidently stated a lake in Florida is a good place use a metal detector to locate gold from sunken Spanish Galleons. Actually the lake is man-made, built in 1950.
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They've had that CP for awhile and they're currently working their way through getting approval from a number of agencies because the proposed site in on protected land. If I were iHeart I'd find out if Sunbeam would allow the existing site to remain in place and move the transmitter plant to a small prefab building somewhere on the property. That's way cheaper than building a new site from the ground up but then again for all I know iHeart wants out of North Bay Village anyway.
We may never know, but either way it's a tough lesson to learn.
strangelove- much of this is iHeart's business and I will try to respect that. Publicly known information is a previous owner obtained an STA for more power citing Cuban interference, and there are at least five significant buildings within 1.5 wavelengths of the nearest WIOD tower now. This is an interesting thread, but I feel we are snooping around in iHeart's business virtually, just as the You Tube person did physically. WIOD is a great historic signal and I wish iHeart the best with it from the new site.
Not sure I follow, everything related to WIOD's proposed move to a new site is open to the public at the FCC website, including their request to the commission for more time in order to satisfy environmental concerns from the government. I don't think it's out of line to discuss that information or speculate on what iHeart's intentions are. If they want to move, cool, if not, that's fine too. Still interesting.
Incidentally, the FCC issued a WIOD a construction permit on 4/23 and the environmental concerns have been satisfied.
I would not say "very soon" as this is a construction in protected marshlands at the edge of the Everglades which requires very precise construction. There may even be some compliance steps that have to be fulfilled and authorized before further work can be done. Once the construction is done, they have to do extensive setup and field strength readings of the new pattern to get a license.
I know that, many years ago, the WQBA site move to the same area (The Trail at Krome Avenue) took about two years to construct once a total of ten or eleven permits had been granted.
I'd say something in the 12 month range, give or take a few months.
Found and article that says Clear Channel sold the property in 2004 to a developer named Isle Of Dreams which planed to develop a commercial project along with a strip club on the property. They will also demolish the current structure.
I don’t know if they’re going to want to wait around for a year for WIOD to get their act together and move. The might have to build some kind of temporary structure and pray it doesn’t get washed away in the next hurricane or maybe set up a temporary diplex out at co owned WINZ maybe?
The idea of having a few large owners was the economy of one owner operating many stations. Clear Channel kept buying but never seemed to have any money. You think maybe they should have stopped at some point?
I don’t know if they’re going to want to wait around for a year for WIOD to get their act together and move. The might have to build some kind of temporary structure and pray it doesn’t get washed away in the next hurricane or maybe set up a temporary diplex out at co owned WINZ maybe?
The idea of having a few large owners was the economy of one owner operating many stations. Clear Channel kept buying but never seemed to have any money. You think maybe they should have stopped at some point?
Nope. In your OP, you correctly said that Sunbeam just bought the property from that company.
Sunbeam Television buys North Bay Village waterfront site next to Channel 7 for $13.5M | fleekus
News by Clock | Friday, April/16, Sunbeam Television Corp., owner of WSVN-Channel 7, bought property “Trio on The Bay” - 1601 79th Street Causeway, Miami Beach, FL 33141 next to the TV station in North Bay Village for $13.5 million - 1 acre lot from BrickGroupUSA.
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Perhaps you should take a look at the problems Sunbeam had to deal with from the lack of tower maintenance (rust) that caused things to fall off the tower and hit some of the cars owned by WSVN staffers in the parking lot. It took WIOD and WSVN awhile to resolve that mess and I’m sure Sunbeam/WSVN would like to be rid of them. I know you guys like to defend CC but read this and then decide: Battle Brewing Between A Radio Giant And WSVNNope. In your OP, you correctly said that Sunbeam just bought the property from that company.
Sunbeam Television buys North Bay Village waterfront site next to Channel 7 for $13.5M | fleekus
News by Clock | Friday, April/16, Sunbeam Television Corp., owner of WSVN-Channel 7, bought property “Trio on The Bay” - 1601 79th Street Causeway, Miami Beach, FL 33141 next to the TV station in North Bay Village for $13.5 million - 1 acre lot from BrickGroupUSA.fleekus.com
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Sunbeam now owns the building and the land the tower is on. They have the power to evict iHeart if they choose.
The whole issue dates back to a local Clear Channel manager who let the land fall into the hands of a third party in a tax seizure which went unnoticed. That is why the strange owner appeared on the title before Sunbeam managed to take it over to prevent the strip club from locating nearby.
It's unfortunate that the former CheapChannel allowed things to get to that point, and the condition of the transmitter site is a testament to dollars not being spent on engineering. I'm sure the engineering staff in Miami knows what a toilet that place is and would have gladly kept it up to standards had they been given the resources.
I can only imagine what the old WINZ ranch building in Carol City looks like but they seem to at least be mowing the lawn.
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