Audacy did submit applications to triplex 720 KDWN and 1140 KXST from the 840 KXNT transmitter site. But I guess the expense of constructing and maintaining such a scheme wasn't worth it compared to what little revenue two AM stations with worse coverage of Las Vegas than what they had before would be able to generate.
-
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
WFME STA
- Thread starter JJSPC
- Start date
WFME filed a silent STA on March 14th, saying they are "investigating other tower locations which would allow operation at full licensed power". They claim to be evaluating 6 or 7 tower sites in NJ.
Also they say the Goddard School, which kept complaining about interference from WFME using the former 94.7 tower as a temporary transmitter site, is going to buy the tower and building there. What a preschool for toddlers wants to to do with a radio/TV tower, I don't know.
Also they say the Goddard School, which kept complaining about interference from WFME using the former 94.7 tower as a temporary transmitter site, is going to buy the tower and building there. What a preschool for toddlers wants to to do with a radio/TV tower, I don't know.
Wouldn't be surprised if Family Radio offered the building and tower to them at a very favorable price given all the trouble. It also allows the Goddard School to expand if needed.
I'm just not sure how moving WFME to any diplex—which could result in rather onerous leases—makes any economic sense for Family Radio. In theory they could try the 92.7 site but good luck blasting all that RF from an office building and golf course to the ocean in hopes of possibly reaching NYC itself.
Who would accept a "donation" like that? Any recipient would have the same impossible task of finding a replacement site, only without the cash in the bank from the sale of the Maspeth site.
Family is a national operation. It's entirely possible, and indeed more than likely at this point, that they'll take the proceeds from the sale of the West Orange site, surrender the 1560 license and use the money elsewhere in their operation rather than in New York.
Family is a national operation. It's entirely possible, and indeed more than likely at this point, that they'll take the proceeds from the sale of the West Orange site, surrender the 1560 license and use the money elsewhere in their operation rather than in New York.
And what is forgotten in some of the posts here is that the station's 50,000 watts sound impressive. But the station is on 1560 and the "high" power up at the top of the band gets vastly less coverage than one might think.
Plus the directional aspect of the nighttime skywave to protect the 1560 in Bakersfield CA, limiting their options even further. Their best shot at anything practical site-wise may have been the West Orange tower.
At the end of the day, Family Radio is a nonprofit organization. They have to justify any and all expenditures, especially if it's an onerous lease to diplex a high-band AM they don't exactly need now.
As Fybush has mentioned, that is a location that would not allow for the necessary towers for 50 kw directional operation. And at 1560, they can't go too far to the west or the signal would not be useful in the City and the Boroughs.
And not just any site can be adapted to the directional pattern that 1560 requires. Beyond the ongoing cost of a leased shared site, the cost of the engineering work, the directional system tuning and rejection networks and the like are going to be extremely high.
Let's be honest, it would not be surprising if WVOX never made it back to the air again. The license for their FM translator was deleted. They have no tower site and have been silent for months. If 1560 is not worth resurrecting, what does that say about a high on the dial, low powered suburban AM?
1500 WGHT was donated to the borough of Pompton Lakes, NJ, who put it back on the air (after being silent for a year) and added an FM translator. But unlike WVOX, the donation included the property, equipment, and towers.
Hopefully the donation also came with an endowment to fund the station's operations. Otherwise, what a waste of taxpayer dollars!!
The 92.7 site is atop North Shore Towers, just east of the Queens-Nassau County Line, adjacent to the Long Island Expressway. It pumps out 2 KWs from a HAAT of 522 feet. There's a large population of residents in those towers, plus thousands of others within walking distance, many of whom are retired or outright elderly. Shooting more RF power from that location, especially on 1560 Khz (if I'm understanding your comment correctly), would never pass muster there. They'd be in a battle with locals for decades, well beyond the date when what remains of AM service is taken behind the barn, so to speak. As is, those 2000 watts cover a good chunk of the five boroughs, all of Nassau, and parts of Westchester, Suffolk and the close-in New Jersey coast with their 60 dbu, and a bigger subset of the metropolitan area to their 50 dbu contour. If that's not enough coverage for them, maybe their war chest would be better spent by acquiring suburban FMs in northern New Jersey and/or upper Westchester, instead of tilting at high-band AM windmills.
I was low key involved in trying to help revive the now deleted KIYU-AM 910 Galena, AK
We tried some tests with an Isotron antenna at the studio, but even at 250W.. the RF got into everything.. and it wouldve been problematic to clean it up enough to not be a problem anymore.. And at that, the AM only covered 1 town.. not even 500 people.
We couldve put up a Valcom in the lot next to us which we owned, but but at 1kw or more, we wouldnt even cover 1000 people, have RF issues, and it would get very expensive to build.
We tried some tests with an Isotron antenna at the studio, but even at 250W.. the RF got into everything.. and it wouldve been problematic to clean it up enough to not be a problem anymore.. And at that, the AM only covered 1 town.. not even 500 people.
We couldve put up a Valcom in the lot next to us which we owned, but but at 1kw or more, we wouldnt even cover 1000 people, have RF issues, and it would get very expensive to build.
Interesting that they used to have a couple of boosters that seem to have ceased as of late 2022. Between WOBM to the SSW and W224CW to the west I wonder if those boosters were actually useful in any way within their primary contour?
boosters can be a pain in the rumpelstiltskin to maintain
A summary of the current status:
www.insideradio.com
Family Stations Takes New York AM Dark, But WFME Is Not Dead Yet.
Family Radio’s New York AM may be silent, but it’s not yet ready to give up on finding a new home for WFME (1560). Despite reports the station is gone
If they want to remain in NYC or nearby, I think it's going to be damn near impossible that they could go anywhere without causing interference. I was thinking maybe near a school for the deaf [seriously] but forgot that they'd probably end up picking them up on hearing aids. Used to work at a theater that was just under 3 miles from WAKR's tower and anytime we picked up the intercom to use it or the phones, we could hear WAKR fine and dandy. No need for radios in that building. It's like the old WLW 500,000 watt transmitter, anytime they cranked that on you could hear the "singing" in barbed wire wire fences, buildings with metal roofs and other metal objects or so I've been told. Farmers griped all the time.
From West Orange NJ public records, the application is actually to renovate the existing structure to provide for an annex of the Goddard School on the adjacent property.
The renovations shall consist of "removing radio towers" (plural), constructing a small addition to the building and converting the basement, first and second floors to classrooms for pre-school children. The applicant will also be seeking variances for...insufficient parking.
The architectural drawings for the application are dated August 22, 2023. So, it seems all this time Family Radio was supposedly taking "good faith steps to restore normal operation", they were actually in the process of selling the property to Goddard School, a process that has been underway since at least last summer. The planning board hearing took place on Nov. 1 and the plan was approved according to a draft resolution on file dated Nov. 7, 2023.
It usually takes some time for the county to update property records so it's not yet clear from the public record what the sale price was, or if the sale has been completed yet. One could assume it just closed and that's why they moved out, though.
Last edited:
The most likely site for both location and vacant land is in the Meadowlands. The issue there is getting permits to build on wetlands.
When I was involved with WADO, we rebuilt the old site in that area and it took a lot of work to get permits for changing a tower and adding additional ground radials.