Can anyone confirm if 1540 WKDG Sumiton is on-air?
Thanks.
Thanks.
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1540 Sumiton
- Thread starter stereolane
- Start date
Last time I was in the area, a couple weeks ago, It wasn't.
-Travis
-Travis
As far as I know it's been off the air for nearly as long as Joy Christian Radio has owned it, going back to 2009 or 2010.
JCR seems to be a death-knell for AM radio stations, as every one they get their hands on is either already off or goes off quickly after acquisition.
I've been told that, despite only being off a year or two, the WKDG facility is in ruins and has been victimized by copper thieves. The chances of it returning to the air again seem pretty slim.
JCR seems to be a death-knell for AM radio stations, as every one they get their hands on is either already off or goes off quickly after acquisition.
I've been told that, despite only being off a year or two, the WKDG facility is in ruins and has been victimized by copper thieves. The chances of it returning to the air again seem pretty slim.
Zach said:
"Joy" donated WKDG to another entity, Kingdom Radio Network, out of Little Rock. They claim, in FCC filings, that WKDG is on the air. Not sure how that's possible, as they have no access to WKDG's facilities. "Ruins" is probably a bit strong. I would however, apply that description to nearby WCOC.
I was told several months ago by a radio engineer that copper bandits had left WKDG beyond reasonable repair. As for WCOC, I am not sure what their story is. I drove by their tower site last fall and it didn't look like anyone had been there in a while. Last I checked, they are being reported as "on air". I have tried to reach the owners several times with no luck.
R2D2onthe air said:
The owner of WCOC is delusional. He won't come to grips with the fact that he was a sucker, who overpaid for a junk radio station, that, as far as I can tell, has never been profitable under any of the long list of owners in it's history. At some point, you just need to cut your losses and move on. This fool will never get his money back, and frankly, he only has himself to blame.
This is Ed Smith with Joy Christian Radio. I'm not sure where you got the information that Joy is a death knell to AM stations? That's absolutely not true.
WRSM, now WKDG was on the air for over a year while we had it. The problem with that station stems from an ongoing legal dispute between the former licensee / current land owner. We were not able to meet their terms to purchase the 2 acres with a dilapidated mobile home for a studio for $90k after they donated the license. Another group from Arkansas, a minority group, indicated they had the funding to purchase the property, so we gave them the license and sold them our small transmitter ("utility") building and charged them for some engineering we did on the tower.
According to a friend who lives in Sumiton, the station is still silent, and was not turned on a year after we took it silent in 2010. However, I don't live there, and have no conclusive proof of this.
As to the charge that we are a death knell, I suggest you dig deeper into our very successful run at taking dilapidated AM facilities and making them productive again....it is not a perfect record, but it is quite impressive.
WRSM, now WKDG was on the air for over a year while we had it. The problem with that station stems from an ongoing legal dispute between the former licensee / current land owner. We were not able to meet their terms to purchase the 2 acres with a dilapidated mobile home for a studio for $90k after they donated the license. Another group from Arkansas, a minority group, indicated they had the funding to purchase the property, so we gave them the license and sold them our small transmitter ("utility") building and charged them for some engineering we did on the tower.
According to a friend who lives in Sumiton, the station is still silent, and was not turned on a year after we took it silent in 2010. However, I don't live there, and have no conclusive proof of this.
As to the charge that we are a death knell, I suggest you dig deeper into our very successful run at taking dilapidated AM facilities and making them productive again....it is not a perfect record, but it is quite impressive.
Hi Pastor Ed, thanks for replying. I can only speak to the stations in Alabama since that's my main area of focus, but the information I have doesn't paint a great picture for Joy's ability to keep stations running. If this is incorrect, I welcome any information you can provide to help make my Alabama Broadcast Media Page more accurate.
As far as I can tell, only WZTQ in Centre and WJLX in Jasper have run continuously during your ownership and beyond.
WPRN-FM in Lisman (Butler) was either off or went off after Joy acquired it and appears to have been on and off during your entire ownership as far as I can tell. The license was sold to Leap of Faith, who has turned it into country WHSL "Whistle Country" but no one has actually heard this station on air in the last several years so I have no way of knowing if it's actually on or not.
WRFS in Alex City was apparently acquired by Joy in the summer of 2005 and was reported silent in 2007. It was silent when it was sold to William Neeck and didn't appear on air again until August of 2008.
WKDG in Sumiton, which we've read about here, is beyond repair.
WXRP in Hanceville was sold or given to Joy in January 2007. The calls changed to WLYG and the station was reported to be silent as of August 2007, just eight months after Joy took over. It wasn't until the license was transferred to Queen of Heaven Catholic Radio that the station was able to return to the air with an STA, and that appears to have been in Q1 2009.
If any of this is grossy incorrect I'll be happy to update my site, but as it stands it doesn't seem like a very good track record.
As far as I can tell, only WZTQ in Centre and WJLX in Jasper have run continuously during your ownership and beyond.
WPRN-FM in Lisman (Butler) was either off or went off after Joy acquired it and appears to have been on and off during your entire ownership as far as I can tell. The license was sold to Leap of Faith, who has turned it into country WHSL "Whistle Country" but no one has actually heard this station on air in the last several years so I have no way of knowing if it's actually on or not.
WRFS in Alex City was apparently acquired by Joy in the summer of 2005 and was reported silent in 2007. It was silent when it was sold to William Neeck and didn't appear on air again until August of 2008.
WKDG in Sumiton, which we've read about here, is beyond repair.
WXRP in Hanceville was sold or given to Joy in January 2007. The calls changed to WLYG and the station was reported to be silent as of August 2007, just eight months after Joy took over. It wasn't until the license was transferred to Queen of Heaven Catholic Radio that the station was able to return to the air with an STA, and that appears to have been in Q1 2009.
If any of this is grossy incorrect I'll be happy to update my site, but as it stands it doesn't seem like a very good track record.
Zach said:
As Archie Bunker would say... "Case closed."
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