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Maryland WJEJ’s land & building is for sale

radiofan2023

radiofan2023

Lou did a great job explaining the reality of radio in 2026. I figured the end would come 4 years ago when the owner passed away. His widow and daughters have managed to keep it going since, but despite the heritage, it's time let it go. Lou has been at WJEJ for 52 years, on the air for 50 of those. WOW! He's 74 now, so as he said, he's ready to retire.

The only way for WJEJ to survive, would be if someone were willing to spend 1.2 million to buy the property, and not develop it to keep the station on the air. Never say never but we know what the chances are of that happening.

This on the heels of WJEJ losing it's longtime CBS affiliation. Like Lou said, it's been a great run, but nothing lasts forever. I'm fan of this station, and will really be sad to see it go.
 
BTW, just wanted to add how appropriate tit was that he first caller was most likely WJEJ,'s oldest listener, Jack Myers (102 years old now?), a WW2 veteran. Letting everyone know he's still alive. Jack will probably end up outliving WJEJ!
 
I figure with relatively few advertisers, they must be keeping WJEJ afloat with the money they made selling the original FM, WWMD, in 2000. Those funds have to run out at some point, hence the sale.
 
JBraddock said:
I figure with relatively few advertisers, they must be keeping WJEJ afloat with the money they made selling the original FM, WWMD, in 2000. Those funds have to run out at some point, hence the sale.
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I noticed the advertisers disappeared during the pandemic, and never came back. I didn't know they had an FM at one time. I'll have to look up the history of that one.
 
KilowattKat said:
I noticed the advertisers disappeared during the pandemic, and never came back. I didn't know they had an FM at one time. I'll have to look up the history of that one.
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WJEJ has an FM translator at 104.3. Hopefully if someone buys the station and keeps running it, they will pick a lane with the music and decide whether they want to be standards, greatest hits or something closer to the 21st century. Going from 1940’s big band to Willie Nelson to The Beach Boys in the same hour makes my head spin.

There are still advertisers on the station, but in mornings they sometimes run Ad Council PSAs during breaks on the Phone Party (that’s the only part of the morning show I listen to). They also might run them at other times but I generally don’t listen to the station besides the Phone Party podcasts.
 
RadioGuy1864 said:
I know it's been a while, but do you recall how much the station sold for?
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It's muddled. Wikipedia claims that "On August 28, 2000, WWMD was traded to Verstandig for WAYZ-FM 101.5 for $2.5 million". But 101.5 (which then became WWMD), supposedly flipped to Top 40 a few weeks later, which doesn't sound like a format Hagerstown Broadcasting would be involved in. Later changes to 101.5 are credited to Verstandig, so it's unclear if the trade ever took place, or if Hagerstown Broadcasting was further compensated for giving up 101.5 to Verstandig later on.

The 101.5 signal doesn't get out as well to the southeast as 104.7, so it's mainly a Hagerstown-Chambersburg market signal whereas 104.7 also covers Frederick MD.

Verstandig just sold 104.7 for $3.5M last July, so it's reasonable to think it was worth at least that much in 2000 when station prices were nearing their peak.

So it appears that in 2000, WJEJ (Hagerstown Broadcasting aka John Staub) got at least $2.5M for 104.7 and perhaps more later for 101.5, certainly enough to subsidize 1240 for years, but it would require some more research to clarify the dollar amounts of those two transactions.
 
That console is a Gatesway 80. I actually have one in front of me on my desk at a transmitter site. That console replaced the Gatesway II. The Gatesway II was in the Broadcast and Communication Equipment Volume 99 that Gates put out in 1971 I believe. The Volume 100 put out around 1973 introduced the Gatesway 80 console. I also have a 79 Radio Broadcast Equipment & Accessories catalog that has the Gatesway 80 listed also. So my guess is that is a mid to Early 80's Gatesway 80 console. The tell tail indication would be the name tag where the Cue speaker is. Older units will say Harris Intertype Corporation to the left a bigger GATES. on the tag. Newer units as shown in the 79 catalog say Harris.

Wonder if the Turntables are under the wooden lids to the left and right. The Triple Deck Cart player looks to be a Gates Harris unit. The Criterion 90-3 listed in the 79 catalog looks a little newer than the one in the picture, so I would guess mid to late 70's vintage console and cart player.

Love playing name that vintage studio equipment. You can watch the las episodes of Stranger things and pause when they show the radio station and try to identify all the vintage gear. The Basement shots are fun to identify all the old gear down there. There is an old 5KW power rock in one of the shots and a shelf with some old cart machines. Name that Vintage gear. Fun game.

Another fun game is Wire Jenga! Pulling old wires out of a functioning station and not taking it off the air. If you do take it off the air how fast can you put the wire back.
 
The amount of clutter around the station is remarkable. It appears they never got rid of anything. Of course they have the room for all of it. It appears that the pic radiofan2023 posted is of the old FM studio, though I would think they'd have a few more reel to reel units around for what was an automated easy listening format. The reel to reel in the AM studio is used to play some of the old tapes from the FM format.

The 5-channel news console in another pic (Interiors 013) looks like an early 80s vintage LPB unit. I have the 10-channel version of that board in my garage.

I guess they'll finally have to go through it all when the sale closes.
 
xmtrland said:
Another fun game is Wire Jenga! Pulling old wires out of a functioning station and not taking it off the air. If you do take it off the air how fast can you put the wire back.
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Took me 45 minutes in Alaska.. suddenly I see internet is out in my studio and that killed the feed to all the repeater signals. Took me 45 minutes to find the ONE I had unplugged without realizing id ever even touched it
 
JBraddock said:
The amount of clutter around the station is remarkable. It appears they never got rid of anything. Of course they have the room for all of it. It appears that the pic radiofan2023 posted is of the old FM studio, though I would think they'd have a few more reel to reel units around for what was an automated easy listening format. The reel to reel in the AM studio is used to play some of the old tapes from the FM format.

The 5-channel news console in another pic (Interiors 013) looks like an early 80s vintage LPB unit. I have the 10-channel version of that board in my garage.

I guess they'll finally have to go through it all when the sale closes.
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I love the fact that they still use reel to reel and vinyl record players on air. I swear there is one pic where the back wall is filled with carts...
 
radiofan2023 said:
There is a pic with a bunch of carts. Also there is a pic of the old station RV by the back side of the building.
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I saw that. I wonder if that big RV even still runs. I don't believe I've ever heard it even mentioned on air, let alone used for remote broadcasting.

BTW, the online gift shop is having a sale on WJEJ T-shirts ($16). I just ordered one, as a souvenir...just in case, the end is coming.
 
KilowattKat said:
I saw that. I wonder if that big RV even still runs. I don't believe I've ever heard it even mentioned on air, let alone used for remote broadcasting.

BTW, the online gift shop is having a sale on WJEJ T-shirts ($16). I just ordered one, as a souvenir...just in case, the end is coming.
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I've heard Lou mention the RV a few times on the Phone Party in the last few years but it was just in the context of "we don't throw anything away here", which the pictures prove!

Just checked out the WJEJ online store, and it seems like a lot of the first few pages of it are items with what looks like AI art on them, but the last pages are items that have the old logo:
wjej.myspreadshop.com

WJEJ

WJEJ 1240-AM 104.3-FM
wjej.myspreadshop.com wjej.myspreadshop.com
 


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