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New Call Letters for AM 560 Are KZAC. A Question:

You would think that 560 would be cheaper on the transmitter end. 5KW versus 50KW and taking care of 2 tower versus 5. 560 even seems to have better coverage day and night.

It depends on the cost of the transmitter & antenna site lease. With Cumulus cutting back on facilities, I'm sure that's being looked at.
 
Looking at the two sites 560 has industrial growth around it. I could see pressure or maybe incentives to remove the towers. 1050 has the ability to maintain the ground system and no one is encroaching on them. Even if you could move 560 to the 1050 sight, you would not get any return on the investment. Cut your losses and move on.
 
Even if you could move 560 to the 1050 sight, you would not get any return on the investment. Cut your losses and move on.

As someone else said earlier in this thread, they don't own the tower land. It's a lease. So the issue is the cost of that lease. If it exceeds the revenue, then the decision is simple.
 
As someone else said earlier in this thread, they don't own the tower land. It's a lease. So the issue is the cost of that lease. If it exceeds the revenue, then the decision is simple.

I'm trying to find the agreement from 1986, but the 1050 towers are on land that now is part of the Hayward Regional Shoreline. The 560 towers have been on land leased since 1938 from the State Harbor Commission that was transferred to the Port of San Francisco in 1968.

There are no real estate rights or potential profit for Cumulus, and the towers on the land were sold to Vertical Bridge a few years ago.
 
UPDATE: Found one document---the towers are on what used to be a Hayward city landfill that was closed in 1974. As of 1987, the city owned the land.


After the towers went up, the area became part of the Hayward Regional Shoreline and the land is now owned by the East Bay Regional Park District.

I'm sure they'd love to have them gone and to return those 45 acres to their natural state.
 
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Guess it gets down to the lease for each site an utility costs. Still I would rather take care of a 5kw, two tower array. Fewer moving contactors lower power bill.
 
If 560 goes dark, it's not necessarily the end...

Cumulus will probably hold on to the license for a year. Plenty of time for any last chance sale. I find it hard to believe that no one would be interested in this signal, and give it a stay of execution.
 
And yes, I think there will be a lot fewer AM stations.
A theory came to mind: with Trump's ascension to office, there will be less reason, or even no reason, for his fans to listen to talk radio, i.e. mainly AM radio, because they'll get plenty of reinforcement from mainstream media, either in course of the usual coverage of a president or because some media owners have fallen into sycophancy. In any event, there'll be no need for talk show hosts to amplify the extreme-right platform: it's going to come right out of the government. Those hosts have thrived in opposition; now they'll have nothing to rail against.

This theory may be nonsense but I believe it's worth thinking about, at least.
 
It's probably the biggest revenue source for the station. Likely been that way for a few years.

Why not continue the contract? Perhaps because it means breaking format. The program vendors they have now would get pre-empted by sports, and they don't like that. That's why, apparently, Cumulus sent a letter to those vendors about the simulcast. One advantage about the deal Audacy made with Good Karma for 880 in NYC was that their Mets coverage wouldn't require a break in format. People who listen to news or talk don't want their show interrupted by sports.
And yet iHeart chose a Sports and Talk hybrid with KNEW after the loss of Bloomberg. They go from George Noory to Dan Patrick.
 
And yet iHeart chose a Sports and Talk hybrid with KNEW after the loss of Bloomberg. They go from George Noory to Dan Patrick.

How are they doing? BTW I believe that's a temporary format meant to fill in until the dust settles with Cumulus. That's just my opinion.
 
How are they doing? BTW I believe that's a temporary format meant to fill in until the dust settles with Cumulus. That's just my opinion.
Since they were a no show (0.0) in the last PPM...I would say HORRIBLE! So, yes, that does prove your point. The last month as Bloomberg, they at least had a 0.3.
 
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