1470 moving across the bay

[Nostalgia]

Pinellas county fans of "Timeless" on 1470 may have to string up an outside antenna. WMGG has filed to move their transmitter site to not one, but two sites in Hillsborough county: going daytime directional 3.6kw at WQBN site, and nighttime directional at .8kw from WTMP site! (currently non-directional 5kw day/.5kw night from their own tower on CR95 in Palm Harbor just off US19) Daytime coverage will definately increase over Tampa, nightime will still be so so. Seems like a rather large investment for this AM signal. Engineering and build out with two transmitters and phasors, two sets of diplex filters and ATU's (for 3 towers at each site) is big bucks. Genesis must have some big plans for WMGG.

One hint may have been last Saturday before noon when they broke format and had a one hour informercial on retirement planning. Maybe they are going to challenge WTAN and WHNZ for market dominance in the pay for play category.

City of license will also be changed from Dunedin to Egypt Lake. Genesis says this is OK since Dunedin is still served by WGUL providing full service AM coverage. Since I never listen to the GUL maybe someone can tell us the last time they did any stories, features, live remote, local football score, or even mentioned Dunedin (even during their legal ID). But then neither did WMGG.

 

[sbe1]

They should be fixing 1040's signal first. They are still operating on temporary authority since one of the towers was knocked down

 

[Ferreri]

Sounds like something is happening, or may have happened. Punched them up yesterday at Belcher and 580 and they certainly didn't sound as if they were a few blocks away.

 

[Nostalgia]

I used to drive by their tower on the way to a friends place but haven't for a couple of months. Last time though there was a big FOR SALE sign posted for the land. Didn't that used to be your stomping grounds FERRERI, any further insight?? That filing was back in January so maybe they have already started the move.

I always looked at that station as the spitting image of the first station I worked at in 1964, small building with offices and studios, and the tower out back. A true mom and pop operation. Then I read all the posts from people seemingly wanting a return to the "good old days" of radio: live on air jocks with personality, oldies, local news and features, etc and wish I had 2.6mil burning a hole in my pocket to buy it and have my slightly older than mid life crisis! But alas........... however, if everyone on this BBS who feels this way kicked in a couple of bucks............sorry, I was just daydreaming........... :-X

 

[sbe1]

I checked the FCC AM query database and looked the applications over. It's going to be an expensive proposistion to run this from 2 sites. Maybe the land at the old site will give them enough money to pay for the whole thing. I hope they get very long term leases on the land because not owning the land could put them back in the same situation one day they now have with 1040. BTW, no construction permits have been issued yet. I do see that all three Genesis stations have changed their call signs. It looks like the sale of 820 has gone through and they are no longer LMA'ing the station.

 

[Nostalgia]

I checked the FCC AM query database and looked the applications over. It's going to be an expensive proposistion to run this from 2 sites. Maybe the land at the old site will give them enough money to pay for the whole thing. I hope they get very long term leases on the land because not owning the land could put them back in the same situation one day they now have with 1040. BTW, no construction permits have been issued yet. I do see that all three Genesis stations have changed their call signs. It looks like the sale of 820 has gone through and they are no longer LMA'ing the station.

Yes, I read through the application also and wholeheartedly agree. But here is the kicker, they dont own the land on CR 95. The old owners of 1470, SYNCHRONOUS MEDIA GROUP INC still own it and are leasing it to Genesis. So they go from one land lease to two! Doesnt look like they got the land under the tower field in Largo with the purchase of WMGG either. Pinellas County tax database still shows the owner as Mega Communications and no listings for Genesis.

 

[dwtpa97]

For some reason, 1470 has always put a poor daytime signal into Tampa (and almost nonexistent at night). Perhaps the ground under them isn't very conductive. It's been a wasted frequency, at least as far as Tampa goes.

 

[Ferreri]

Indeed, old "stomping grounds". The ground system was always a problem at that site. That property is valuable Palm Harbor real estate.

 

[Nostalgia]

Pinellas county fans of "Timeless" on 1470 may have to string up an outside antenna. WMGG has filed to move their transmitter site to not one, but two sites in Hillsborough county: going daytime directional 3.6kw at WQBN site, and nighttime directional at .8kw from WTMP site! (currently non-directional 5kw day/.5kw night from their own tower on CR95 in Palm Harbor just off US19) Daytime coverage will definately increase over Tampa, nightime will still be so so. Seems like a rather large investment for this AM signal. Engineering and build out with two transmitters and phasors, two sets of diplex filters and ATU's (for 3 towers at each site) is big bucks. Genesis must have some big plans for WMGG.

One hint may have been last Saturday before noon when they broke format and had a one hour informercial on retirement planning. Maybe they are going to challenge WTAN and WHNZ for market dominance in the pay for play category.

City of license will also be changed from Dunedin to Egypt Lake. Genesis says this is OK since Dunedin is still served by WGUL providing full service AM coverage. Since I never listen to the GUL maybe someone can tell us the last time they did any stories, features, live remote, local football score, or even mentioned Dunedin (even during their legal ID). But then neither did WMGG.

A couple of months ago we speculated on what Genesis had in mind for 1470 with their expensive move to Tampa. We may have a hint of what it will be. A press release on the Genesis website referred to WMGG Bay Biz 1470 So either a financial based talk format or another all infomercial station (like we need another one of those).

As of yesterday they were still playing "Timeless" oldies.

 

[jefflaurence]

When Uncle Fudd had WDCL..later WWQT "Get your news on the QT" there was a "grant" that was apparently approved for the station to be run on SOLAR CELLS. Allegedly there was a rather large amount of wiring buried on top of the ground system to facilitate the planting of several hundred solar cells to gather all that gorgeous Florida sunshine, and become "America's Fisrt Solar Powered Radio Station" Also supposedly Bud bought the WSOL call letters from the owners who changed calls on 1300 to WTYM..rember "Tampa Bay's TYME MACHINE"

Further I was told once that the batteries that needed to be installed to store electricity were very toxic in nature and Mr. Paxson could not get a variance from the EPA to install them in that part of the county..the cost of constructing the building to house these batteries, and hire a full-time battery-tender to watch the whole thing..ended up going waaaay past the orignal grant.


Proabaly a lot of this is suburban-legend, but it makes for good Lowell-Lore huh?

 

[Studio20]

When Uncle Fudd had WDCL..later WWQT "Get your news on the QT" there was a "grant" that was apparently approved for the station to be run on SOLAR CELLS. Allegedly there was a rather large amount of wiring buried on top of the ground system to facilitate the planting of several hundred solar cells to gather all that gorgeous Florida sunshine, and become "America's Fisrt Solar Powered Radio Station" Also supposedly Bud bought the WSOL call letters from the owners who changed calls on 1300 to WTYM..rember "Tampa Bay's TYME MACHINE"

Further I was told once that the batteries that needed to be installed to store electricity were very toxic in nature and Mr. Paxson could not get a variance from the EPA to install them in that part of the county..the cost of constructing the building to house these batteries, and hire a full-time battery-tender to watch the whole thing..ended up going waaaay past the orignal grant.


Proabaly a lot of this is suburban-legend, but it makes for good Lowell-Lore huh?

Let's not open a can of worms....unless you've got one of his electric can openers......

 

[jmtillery]

Lowell "Bud" Paxson has done quite well for himself as a result of all those can openers he sold at a revenue lossing WWQT. Those can openers turned that station around and was the beginning and basic building block in the formation of two very large media corporations... Having started the Home Shopping Network in the '80s and Paxson Communications in the '90s, both companies worth millions, Paxson proved there is "gold" in those can openers as we all discovered when Paxson later moved the entire operation to Palm Beach where "Uncle Bud" drives a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow and resides in a multi-million dollar Palm Beach mansion. "Bud" Paxson has made hundreds of millions of dollars for himself. To me this is a sign of true successful entrepreneurship.

Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
[email protected]

 

[flwfg]

Yes folks... this IS the same Lowell W.(Bud) Paxton who used to also own 1280- WYND Sarasota (then a 500 watt two tower directional daytimer) when he was a bit less known...(early 70's)

The TRADE OUT KING...

traded Windjammer cruises for his kids orthodontia.. got a 21' Winnebago for a remote unit on trade... groceries from the old Marabel's Market...cars .. of course... gas too...


Yeah, I'd say he's done alright for himself...

 

[Ferreri]

Will never forget having a brewski with Bud in Countryside eons ago and hearing him call his concept on 1470 as "K-Mart with a tower".
Then a few years later Bud gave me a tour of a small office on Hercules Avenue that had a room with a desk, camera on a tripod and a blue curtain back drop. Bud announced that he was going to do on cable TV what he had done on the radio. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

[zoneguy]

Bud made out ok and still has millions... He got out of the radio biz at the peak of the merger mania and made a fair amount of cash selling the radio group to Clear Channel in 1997. However, much of those profits were lost in the disaster that became PAX TV. Paxon stock which traded around 12.00 a share when the company was a radio group and went as high as 16 shortly after the sell off. Fox made an offer of 22 a share at that time to by the whole company and he turned it down. Instead he took some money from NBC and continued to flush it away on PAX TV. When he finally sold off PAX TV and his tock to ION it was trading at less than one dollar a share.

He still has plenty for himself...But PAX TV has always been a losing affair and now ION is having the same trouble.

 

[jefflaurence]

My wife Carol was Mr Paxson's (and John Frost, and Bill Watson, and Bill Pasha's) executive secretary. She thouroughly enjoyed working for all of those guys and they treated her well. Bud was also branching out in those days with his Home Shopping Marts (Next to the executive office formerly an Ellis Bank on US19) where people would bring thier returned HSN purchases, and they would sell them all really cheap.

Mr. Paxson also dared to get into the sportswear business, buying a large part of the Panama Jack line..and a company called Vanishing Species that featured posters and t-shirts of endangered animals..the posters were printed on recycled thick poster stock, and the t-shirts featured a special process ink that featured an animal, or fish, or whale..that would "dissapear" in direct sunlight..very clever and would be a big seller even today had it stayed around. Paxson Outdoor was (i think) the billboard company that had been 3M National..and he also was starting to market a new soft drink called "Rio Rickey Cola" the biggest stumbling block of which was the decision as to the shape of the bottle..It casued such a ruckus that Uncle Fudd, pulled the plug on that one.

As Mr. Tillery observed..Lowell Paxson is the sort of risk taker we won't soon see again in this business..He won some, he lost some..and now lives next to Donald Trump. Both of whom you can sling arrows at, but God what a colorful life they have both led..and as an aside, his daughter Nicole has taken some of "daddy's money" and become an icon in the cosmetic industry developing a line of products for people with lupus, roseacea, and other skin conditions..and done so successfully and quietly.

And it all started on the QT

 

[Mike_Hennessy]

Will never forget having a brewski with Bud in Countryside eons ago and hearing him call his concept on 1470 as "K-Mart with a tower".
Then a few years later Bud gave me a tour of a small office on Hercules Avenue that had a room with a desk, camera on a tripod and a blue curtain back drop. Bud announced that he was going to do on cable TV what he had done on the radio. The rest, as they say, is history.

OK Frank, 'fess up. Did you roll your eyes, mumble something polite and grab your wallet? Or did you suspect that Bud was about to hit the jackpot?

My stint as WHNZ didn't go very well, but that's water under the bridge and it was no fault of Bud's. He really was ahead of his time with his original all news concept at WHNZ, but the problem was that the computer technology of the day (pre-Internet) couldn't keep up with the demands the format put on it. Not to mention that the geeks who wrote the software oversold it and didn't realize it wasn't stable enough to handle the job. Another 7 or 8 years and his concept might have worked. However as the old joke say, the way you can tell who the pioneers are is they're the ones laying alongside the road with arrows in their backs.

 

[Ferreri]

Mike, yes the eyes rolled. Being a "purest" at the time, the thought of selling "stuff" on the radio was not what my values would accept. Then, years later during the tour of the small studio my comment was "Bud, no one has cable". Lesson was learned to keep an open mind and be open to new ideas.

 

[dwtpa97]

As a listener of Timeless 1470, I have noticed more and more half-hour or hour-long infomercials. When such an infomercial comes on, I switch stations (usually to FM), and it may be a day or so before it occurs to me to switch back. I think a mixed music/infomercial format doesn't work very well.

The way that WGUL (when it was music) handled that was pretty slick - they devoted all of Sunday morning to infomercials. This block of programming allowed the listeners for each type of format to know when to listen, and apparently gave the station the revenue that infomercials perhaps provide.

But haphazardly inserting half-hour or hour-long infomercials into a music format is likely to lose both types of listeners for the station. There needs to be some rhyme or reason for the scheduling, in order for it to work.

 

[Mike_Hennessy]

Mike, yes the eyes rolled. Being a "purest" at the time, the thought of selling "stuff" on the radio was not what my values would accept. Then, years later during the tour of the small studio my comment was "Bud, no one has cable". Lesson was learned to keep an open mind and be open to new ideas.

Great story, Frank. Thank you for sharing. I would love to say that I would have been smart enough to buy HSN on the IPO. Of course, if I had I would have been able to buy the Cayman Islands instead of working there. But obviously, I'm not that smart!