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Status of WFME 1560?

SomeRadioGuy said:
Putting the tower further away from the station wouldve resulted in the problem that befell KIYU-AM.. not on city power/ They ended up turning in the AM license. Fuel was costing $60,000 plus a year for just the AM ... same reason why KSKO turned in the 870 license
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Deciding to pull the plug on obsolete technology is very hard when you are in the middle of the transition.

In 1966, I bought an AM and Short Wave station in a town way outside of Quito, Ecuador. I suddenly had a great AM frequency, 590 and a SW station somewhere in the lower Tropical Band that I can't remember. My intent was to move the AM to Quito where it fit perfectly on the local dial.

But as I looked at the station in the town of Amaguaña, there in front of me was a 500 watt short wave transmitter that was totally "home made". Open cabinet, with exposed wiring and final tubes and antenna matching coils. Dead flies inside, victims of their own St. Elm's Fire from a couple of 833's.

The station was in an adobe structure with asbestos sheeting on the roof. The floor was compacted clay (known as "mud" when it rained").

I knew I could not use the gear. I realized I could not make money with the shortwave frequency either. On the spot, I arranged for the transmitters to be taken to the city dump, a ravine outside of town. I said that the desks and other stuff could be given away by the seller.

I walked to my car with a contract and two licenses. The next day, back in Quito, my lawyer went to the equivalent of the FCC and arranged for the short wave frequency to be cancelled and the AM transferred to my company.

I would have loved to have had a short wave station just to get those international reception reports. But there was no way to make money with one, and I never regretted making the SW facility go silent.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
Lemme tell ya... AM interference is a real pain in the ass.
I was involved in trying to help revive KIYU-AM 910. We did a test from the studio and at 250 Watts with an inefficient antenna, we covered the community of 400 or so, but thats it... yet RF got into everything in the studio no matter what we did.
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RF interference can be managed with solid engineering and at times, some creativity. One of my first gigs was at a 50,000 watt FM and 1,000 watt AM non-directional daytimer, both of which transmitted from a tower located just a few feet from the building that housed the transmitters, studios for both those stations, production and also offices for sales, management and admins. On rare occasion they'd pick up RF in a piece of equipment, but it was often cheaper consumer-grade stuff. Mind you, behind the acoustic treatments on the walls, above the drop ceilings and beneath the carpets in the studios was mesh screen, which basically formed a faraday cage. They also had some creative installations of capacitors, transformers and filters, but RF interference was rarely an issue.
 
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DavidEduardo said:
I walked to my car with a contract and two licenses. The next day, back in Quito, my lawyer went to the equivalent of the FCC and arranged for the short wave frequency to be cancelled and the AM transferred to my company.
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Curious why you didn't keep the AM as described and sell the SW off to someone else, if for no other reason than to make some of your investment back? Not worth your time/effort?
 
Mikey Radio said:
RF interference can be managed with solid engineering and at times, some creativity. One of my first gigs was at a 50,000 watt FM and 1,000 watt AM non-directional daytimer, both of which transmitted from a tower located just a few feet from the building that housed the transmitters, studios for both those stations, production and also offices for sales, management and admins. On rare occasion they'd pick up RF in a piece of equipment, but it was often cheaper consumer-grade stuff. Mind you, behind the acoustic treatments on the walls, above the drop ceilings and beneath the carpets in the studios was mesh screen, which basically formed a faraday cage. They also had some creative installations of capacitors, transformers and filters, but RF interference was rarely an issue.
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It wasnt worth the time, effort or money it would cost. .which is why KIYU-AM no longer exists.
 
Mikey Radio said:
Curious why you didn't keep the AM as described and sell the SW off to someone else, if for no other reason than to make some of your investment back? Not worth your time/effort?
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Your assumption was my conclusion.

The two signals were licensed to a town of maybe 10,000 where average annual income was about $300 dollars a year. There was nearly no commercial advertising (ads in 30" or whatever) as the local businesses were basic needs stores.

Station revenue came from a variety of "messages" sold to listeners who came to the station and bought one or two of them. The station made up for the lack of rural phones, telegram delivery and communication of any kind.

Messages could be greetings to someone on their "Saint's Day" or, less often, on their birthday. Or an announcement welcoming a child to the family. Or a death notice with funeral details. But most common were notices to surrounding rural residents, mostly on haciendas and farms.

Typical: "Attention at the 'Los Milagros' farm in the Arancagua Prefecture! Send a donkey to town this afternoon at 3 because the boss arrives on the bus from Amaguaña". Or, "Notice for the Chasi family on the 'El Porvenir" hacienda. Ramón and María announce the birth of a girl, Ramona, in the Social Security clinic in this town at 8.30 this morning. The mother and child are doing well".

On the combined Saint Pedro and Saint Pablo day, there might be a line down the block of people buying a greeting to a family member with one of those names. For extra, you could pick a song to dedicate.

On busy days, the station would put a desk on the sidewalk and sell those personal messages.

The station owner had no car; my car cost me more than buying the station did. He had lived well for decades off the station, but he was old and could not manage it any more. He owned the building, though and lived in the back room, and the station office, studio and transmitter were in the front room. There was a latrine behind the structure.

The AM and SW antennas were wires strung between two eucalyptus trees. No tower, no ATU. No modulation monitor, no frequency monitor, no limiter, no AGC. A public address amplifier with two turntables and a mike. That was it.

The SW station with no AM had little value as one could apply for a license and get one for less than U$S 100. But the AM channel on 590 was totally movable to Quito and I rebuilt it with real equipment. Just my transmitter cost more than I paid for the station itself... just under $3,600 dollars!
 
ajaynejr said:
Does "notice of consummation" mean the station is in the process of being sold?
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It means the sale process has been completed, much like closing on the purchase of a house.

However many “transfer of control” agreements have to do with some sort of restructuring or reorganization of the parent entity, and for all practical purposes the ownership has not changed. This is common amongst non-comms.
 
If Family Radio permanently shuts down their 1560 AM facility, perhaps that increases the possibility that they will buy 98.7 FM? After all, they did receive about 51 million dollars for their former location in Queens, NY. That would be comparable to the asking price for 98.7.
 
Barry said:
If Family Radio permanently shuts down their 1560 AM facility, perhaps that increases the possibility that they will buy 98.7 FM? After all, they did receive about 51 million dollars for their former location in Queens, NY. That would be comparable to the asking price for 98.7.
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If that's the case, Family Radio would become the favorite to buy 98.7. 98.7 WEPN and 88.9 WFRS are only 40-45 miles apart, so they wouldn't need 92.7 WFME-FM. Therefore, they can sell 92.7 for some extra cash.
 
Huff said:
radioinsight.com

1560 WFME New York Ceases Operations

Family Stations' "Family Radio" 1560 WFME New York ceased broadcasting this morning. The station has been operating via STA since
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
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Doesn't say anything about having turned the license in for deletion. Just signed off. My guess is they relocate and continue the STA? I'm sure they can find someone to diplex with. Whatever equipment that Goddard school has must be pretty sub par if it couldn't handle a measly 500 watts of RF.
 
According to what FCCdata.org shows, they haven't turned in the license or requested a new STA yet. Their last STA from December 2023 requesting 500 watts is still listed as "pending".
 
Sammi Brie said:
Judgment Day finally came, I suppose. At the hands of...a preschool.
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Judgment day the second time around, you mean.

Let's not forget the legacy of this organization having scammed so many innocent people into financial ruin after they gave up their jobs, sold their homes, and stopped investing in their children's college funds to give it all away for Camping's fake end times.

Now they have apparently destroyed one of the nation's earliest radio stations with no regard for its storied history, just a ruthless cash grab. And, if they buy 98.7, that will remove yet another commercial entertainment format in Market #1 for more awful religious dogma as the radio industry falls apart before all of our eyes, and ears.

Great company.
 
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Theater of My Mind said:
Judgment day the second time around, you mean.

Let's not forget the legacy of this organization having scammed so many innocent people into financial ruin after they gave up their jobs, sold their homes, and stopped investing in their children's college funds to give it all away for Camping's fake end times.

Now they have apparently destroyed one of the nation's earliest radio stations with no regard for its storied history, just a ruthless cash grab. And, if they buy 98.7, that will remove yet another commercial entertainment format in Market #1 for more awful religious dogma as the radio industry falls apart before all of our eyes, and ears.

Great company.
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I am sure that Family Radio stands ready to take your cash so that you can purchase the station and program it in a way that you believe honors its "storied history". Can't wait to see what you do with it!! Good luck.
 
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