Status of WFME 1560?

[Mikey Radio]

This is the point of anyone who is involved with AM or who has recently been involved.
The real point is that they have hired an excellent consulting engineer and they are at work. Before any filing can be made at the FCC, they have to either make a deal with an existing station with towers that can actually be tuned to the specific pattern of the station on a different frequency.
If no existing antenna system can be diplexed, then they have to go through finding land, getting zoning and permits and building. In highly regulated areas, getting new zoning for a multiple tower array can take years. For example, when WQBA in Miami wanted to move from a residential area to a new site on the edge of the Everglades, it took 6 or 7 years to get all the permits, ranging from EPA to zoning to those from the Native American Reservation and so on.
He is asking for a change in procedures. The fact is that if the station shows the Commission that it is making progress and taking action, they can have all the time in the world.
They are not breaking rules. There are reasons beyond the financial gain for getting a 50,000 watt station out of an area being built up with warehouses and "last mile" facilities full of steel and wire and metal that re-radiates and destroys the pattern.
It has no merit because a) the station is taking steps to find a new location that are verifiable and b) there is no reason to believe that there exists any other station on 1560 that might want to build a new or improved night facility. Like Scott, I looked at the 1560 stations and a) those with translators only use the AM to allow the translator and b) none are in markets or areas where a high band, highly directional AM at night would be of any possible need.
As long as the station is taking steps to find a new site, they are fully in compliance with the FCC rules. There are no other points to be made, valid or theoretical.
It affects all of us in the industry because the guy who filed is out-of-place and asking for what amounts to new rule making for a band that is in its twilight years and where nobody is going to spend $500,000 to $1,000,000 to build a decent night AM facility on a clear channel.
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So if I'm the ownership of WFME and I made $51M on that land sale, why would I bother putting any $$ into engineering and attorneys fees for the existing signal - a high on the dial AM frequency, in 2024, especially if it becomes at all complicated or costly? Why would I not just sell the license for whatever I could get for it or turn it in, and go find another reasonably priced signal in that market to buy? With $51M in their pockets they certainly have enough funds to do so!

 

[fybush]

But is there really any hope of WFME being anywhere close to 50 kW again? I highly doubt it. Until the interference issue arose, the best they ever planned to get out of their existing temporary site was 10 kW. Had that become permanent, that would've been an automatic declassification to Class B and loss of of their protected skywave coverage.

10 kW is the minimum for class A status. That's why WOWO dropped to 9800 watts when it downgraded.

And the temporary site was only ever temporary (and in fact the whole thing may go away sooner or later). WFME's plan has always involved a permanent site elsewhere.

Keep in mind that there are also minimum antenna efficiency (and thus tower height) requirements for class A, which can't be met from the longwire in West Orange. They can't even license a longwire as anything other than an STA.

 

[JJSPC]

Albert David files objections for all kinds of signal changes and new CP's that are nowhere near His home, nor affect Him in any way. Maybe He needs to get on a dating app or something since He apparently has way too much time on His hands.

 

[davideduardo]

compliant.. that made me chuckle

Not a term frequently associated with Gow, fer' sure.

 

[davideduardo]

Albert David files objections for all kinds of signal changes and new CP's that are nowhere near His home, nor affect Him in any way. Maybe He needs to get on a dating app or something since He apparently has way too much time on His hands.

And zero understanding of the economic reality of radio in general and the specific issues with AM.

 

[davideduardo]

Find me one US AM signal, just one, that has made a cap-ex investment in upgrading its night signal at any point in the last decade.

🙌

If the thinning of the AM herd is in fact creating opportunities for other stations to grow as a result, which is what Albert David asserts WFME is somehow hindering by working to hold on to its class A status, surely there's some example out there, right?

Has anyone got a count on how many AMs have translators? I would assume that 90% or better only maintain the AM to justify the FM, and the AM would be turned off the moment the FCC grants permanence and protection to existing translators.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Not a term frequently associated with Gow, fer' sure.

Not if i can hear 1560 up in alaska

 

[CTListener]

Has anyone got a count on how many AMs have translators? I would assume that 90% or better only maintain the AM to justify the FM, and the AM would be turned off the moment the FCC grants permanence and protection to existing translators.

All five of them here in Market 221 (Hanover/Lebanon/White River Jct), three music, one news/talk, one sports.

 

[davideduardo]

He's the radio equivalent of the HOA vice president who spends her days walking around the neighborhood measuring fence heights and holding up paint chips to see whose garage door is one shade too dark.

What a perfect analogy. Useless and annoying. .

 

[Weiserguy]

Family Radio, for many years, owned WFME/94.7, just like they owned KEAR/106.9 in San Francisco. Neither of which transmitted from the major antenna farms of the areas (ESB in NYC, Sutro or San Bruno in the SFBA), but close enough to throw a very serviceable signal over the core areas. In both cases, their idea of programming in the public interest was brainwashing the rubes to sell all their possessions because Harold Camping had determined, through his close reading of hidden codes in the bible, that the world was going to end on a date certain. (More than a few of those rubes did in fact liquidate, to their extreme financial detriment.) Just a little historical context here.

Family Radio got a lot of money from selling 94.7 to (IIRC) Cumulus, and even more from trading 106.9 to CBS Radio in exchange for the former "Big 610" KFRC-AM and a buttload of cash. (Since 2008, 106.9 has been KFRC-FM, aka the simulcast of KCBS All News 740.) Family Radio later purchased WQEW (the former WQXR-AM) from Disney at what, for New York, was a fire sale price, and replaced Radio Disney with Radio The World's Ending.

I mention this history because, in both cases, they could have kept the FM's and continued pumping out the End-of-the-World theology, with no "AM is dying" worries. (As if "AM is dying" is any consequence if you truly are convinced that the end of the world is nigh.) But in both cases, they took the money and ran to AM facilities. And then sold the land under the NYC transmitter and towers for another buttload of cash. So I, for one, can't summon up even a diaperload of sympathy for their current plight.

 

[davideduardo]

So I, for one, can't summon up even a diaperload of sympathy for their current plight.

Nobody is asking for sympathy.

Family Radio got 1560 because nobody else with funding wanted it. And now they have hired a very good lead engineer and are trying to find the best relocation alternative.

Any attempt to change FCC procedures just because we may not like the philosophy of the parent corporation violates all kinds of principles of a free democracy.

 

[gr8oldies]

Family Radio, for many years, owned WFME/94.7, just like they owned KEAR/106.9 in San Francisco. Neither of which transmitted from the major antenna farms of the areas (ESB in NYC, Sutro or San Bruno in the SFBA), but close enough to throw a very serviceable signal over the core areas. In both cases, their idea of programming in the public interest was brainwashing the rubes to sell all their possessions because Harold Camping had determined, through his close reading of hidden codes in the bible, that the world was going to end on a date certain. (More than a few of those rubes did in fact liquidate, to their extreme financial detriment.) Just a little historical context here.

Family Radio got a lot of money from selling 94.7 to (IIRC) Cumulus, and even more from trading 106.9 to CBS Radio in exchange for the former "Big 610" KFRC-AM and a buttload of cash. (Since 2008, 106.9 has been KFRC-FM, aka the simulcast of KCBS All News 740.) Family Radio later purchased WQEW (the former WQXR-AM) from Disney at what, for New York, was a fire sale price, and replaced Radio Disney with Radio The World's Ending.

I mention this history because, in both cases, they could have kept the FM's and continued pumping out the End-of-the-World theology, with no "AM is dying" worries. (As if "AM is dying" is any consequence if you truly are convinced that the end of the world is nigh.) But in both cases, they took the money and ran to AM facilities. And then sold the land under the NYC transmitter and towers for another buttload of cash. So I, for one, can't summon up even a diaperload of sympathy for their current plight.

To be fair, the sale of 94.7, the Philly station and a couple of others occurred after Camping's Rapture did not occur, donations dropped and Family Radio was facing end times of its own. After Camping's death, the organization repudiated Camping's teachings. Missed in this discussion is that WFME's programming is duplicated online.

The most recent attempt to rebuild a directional that I'm aware of was a Northern Indiana station owner wanting to buy the former WFNI (WIBC) Indianapolis and rebuild its directional pattern on some land his family had; it was knocked down quickly by the zoning board.

 

[Barry]

Another station in this area looking for a place to broadcast from is WVOX 1460 AM, under its new owner. As this would be a much lower power non-directional signal, this should be less difficult than the situation facing WFME. Anyone have any idea what WVOX's options may include?

 

[luperm]

While not my cup of tea, Family Radio's programming has changed quite a bit over the years. Hopefully they come up with a solution.

As for WVOX, I sort of assumed they'd end up diplexing into the WFAS tower in Hartsdale, if that's practical and Cumulus is open to it. Building a new tower in lower Westchester seems like it would be a non-starter.

 

[fybush]

While not my cup of tea, Family Radio's programming has changed quite a bit over the years. Hopefully they come up with a solution.

As for WVOX, I sort of assumed they'd end up diplexing into the WFAS tower in Hartsdale, if that's practical and Cumulus is open to it. Building a new tower in lower Westchester seems like it would be a non-starter.

Given land values in Westchester, I remain surprised that the Hartsdale tower is still standing. It hasn't had FM on it in years, and that's a lot of valuable property to keep in use for an AM with maybe a dozen people listening at any given time.

Which is to say, it's probably not a good long-term solution for WVOX, either.

 

[Barry]

Perhaps the new owner of WVOX could apply for a change in COL further north, and try to diplex off the the tower of WRVP 1310 AM, in Mount Kisco, NY?
If the land used by the WFAS AM tower in Hartsdale is sold, WVOX would probably also need a new site for its FM translator, on 98.3 FM.

 

[fybush]

Perhaps the new owner of WVOX could apply for a change in COL further north, and try to diplex off the the tower of WRVP 1310 AM, in Mount Kisco, NY?
If the land used by the WFAS AM tower in Hartsdale is sold, WVOX would probably also need a new site for its FM translator, on 98.3 FM.

Only so far north you can go with WVOX before you run into WKIP on 1450, though.

Not every AM signal is worth saving.

 

[Mark Roberts]

So if I'm the ownership of WFME and I made $51M on that land sale, why would I bother putting any $$ into engineering and attorneys fees for the existing signal - a high on the dial AM frequency, in 2024, especially if it becomes at all complicated or costly? Why would I not just sell the license for whatever I could get for it or turn it in, and go find another reasonably priced signal in that market to buy? With $51M in their pockets they certainly have enough funds to do so!

Because Family Radio is an evangelical organization, and just sitting on a license goes against its basic mission of spreading the gospel.

 

[davideduardo]

Because Family Radio is an evangelical organization, and just sitting on a license goes against its basic mission of spreading the gospel.

I think the point made here is that they are working on a new location.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I think the point made here is that they are working on a new location.

Certainly they have options. I find their strategy a little puzzling, but it's their money, time, and trouble to expend.