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Someone stole WLBE's copper

Once again an operator "saved money" by not having a security system at the transmitter site. Isn't there something in the FCC rules about securing the transmitter, studio and associated equipment? Sooner or later the insurance industry are going to look a remote radio sites' losses and say NO MORE. In Georgia several years ago we had a string of outside AC compressors stolen from churchs . The meth heads or dumb criminals would steal a multi thousand dollar unit for less than a $100 scrap.

Local or State rules requiring identification (driver's license) of folks selling scrap would be helpful. Really an HVAC or plumbing license for air conditioning units or copper tubing and an electrician license for copper wire would most likely stop a lot of this.

IMHO you would be hard pressed to find an area of over 20K population without a local security company that would consider some form of trade out. Any operation that gets their stuff stolen were it takes time to cut the copper only has themselves to blame.
 
secondchoice said:
Local or State rules requiring identification (driver's license) of folks selling scrap would be helpful. Really an HVAC or plumbing license for air conditioning units or copper tubing and an electrician license for copper wire would most likely stop a lot of this.
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Some localities already have this, or at least the scrap metal company takes precautions. Here in Houston there is a well known scrap metal company (that advertises heavily on radio and TV) that I use, and the first thing they ask for when you drive up is your drivers license.

They take all kinds of items, and I take a pass on being paid for what I bring them, as it would not be much, anyway. Sometimes simply having stuff taken off my hands is payment enough.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Some localities already have this, or at least the scrap metal company takes precautions. Here in Houston there is a well known scrap metal company (that advertises heavily on radio and TV) that I use, and the first thing they ask for when you drive up is your drivers license.

They take all kinds of items, and I take a pass on being paid for what I bring them, as it would not be much, anyway. Sometimes simply having stuff taken off my hands is payment enough.
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Taking a pass on those crisp, new $2 bills, eh? I don't believe that rule is exclusively in Harris County. Tyler Scrap and Iron requires a State ID, AND they will accept nary a catalytic converter to boot.
 
The thieves were quickly caught, so a security system probably wouldn't have helped much. The thieves were caught while on the site by the engineer and they took off, but tried to scrap it locally and were caught there by LCSO. Had cut a bunch of the line up into short pieces - station is silent now. Main tower fell during a recent storm and they were using the night time directional tower until the cable was stolen. That tower is on its last legs as well, so this one may not come back on from this site.
 
ok walters said:
The thieves were quickly caught, so a security system probably wouldn't have helped much. The thieves were caught while on the site by the engineer and they took off, but tried to scrap it locally and were caught there by LCSO. Had cut a bunch of the line up into short pieces - station is silent now. Main tower fell during a recent storm and they were using the night time directional tower until the cable was stolen. That tower is on its last legs as well, so this one may not come back on from this site.
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Just curious and I don't know, but how many years has it been since WLBE and/or WQBQ have been relevant/profitable in Leesburg?
 
JJSPC said:
Just curious and I don't know, but how many years has it been since WLBE and/or WQBQ have been relevant/profitable in Leesburg?
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I'd be surprised if either was consistently profitable in the last 20 years. 1240 under rama amounted to nothing, and icant imagine any of the leasors(right word?) made any consistent money
 
JJSPC said:
Just curious and I don't know, but how many years has it been since WLBE and/or WQBQ have been relevant/profitable in Leesburg?
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Good question.
I remember when WLBE returned to the air in 2020, they were playing what they called "timeless music".
Basically a gold based A/C.
Funny thing was, it was commercial free for 2 years till they began the temporary simulcast of WQBQ.
 
WLBE 790 had a pretty good run for about 8 years between 2010-2018 before fading away to its current condition. I was there as GM from 2012-2014 and it was doing 20-25K per month as a stand alone AM with only three employees. Shortly after I left, James Floyd left as well and started leasing WQBQ. He took much of the revenue with him, and WLBE slowly declined until it was sold. Floyd is one of the best small town radio guys I have ever been around and he bought WQBQ from Rama a few years ago. Live and local 6-8 hours a day and full of local small business sponsors - swap shop, auction shows, live paid programming, high school sports. Is he getting rich? Nope. Is he paying the bills and loving what he does? Yep.

So WQBQ has been more profitable and relevant over the last ten years than probably anytime in its history, and WLBE had one solid run as well. My guess is that WLBE will either diplex with WQBQ or will be moved to Orlando and diplex over there - I can't see it coming back where it is considering everything that has happened and the condition of the WLBE towers. WQBQ is in good hands and Floyd owns the tower site, studios, and has an FM translator. Having said that, if I was asked to predict the futures of these two stations 10 years ago, I would have said the exact opposite of the current scenario. That was before Floyd took it over - check him out online sometime weekday mornings 8-11 - live auction show and swap shop with plenty of callers. You will think it is 1978 again. :cool:
 
I'm glad to have been a part of WLBE 790AM back when Bobbie DePew was on as her Board Operator. I also helped OK Walters with his Oldies launch back in 2012.
 
To update this, I guess they'd rather not spend the money to replace what needs to be replaced at their original transmitter site, so Q-Broadcasting is proposing a change of city of license from Leesburg to Geneva, and a frequency change to 780.
Oh yea, if this goes through the new WLBE (or whatever they'll call themselves) will be an 8000-watt non-directional daytimer.
So now I'll ask the dum question, WHY?
Unless they have a translator for 780 and/or could stay on 24 hours why bother.
Sell the license or just surrender it.

 
FrankF said:
To update this, I guess they'd rather not spend the money to replace what needs to be replaced at their original transmitter site, so Q-Broadcasting is proposing a change of city of license from Leesburg to Geneva, and a frequency change to 780.
Oh yea, if this goes through the new WLBE (or whatever they'll call themselves) will be an 8000-watt non-directional daytimer.
So now I'll ask the dum question, WHY?
Unless they have a translator for 780 and/or could stay on 24 hours why bother.
Sell the license or just surrender it.

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Based on the coordinates on the application, they will be using the towers of WONQ 1030 AM in Oviedo
 
ok walters said:
They are diplexing on a tower they own, and they have several translators assigned to other stations they could tie to this station. Bottom line is that they end up with a daytime AM signal on a tower they own that covers the #33 market solidly for about $75K plus diplexing costs.
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Great decision. Thanks for the additional context.
 


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