poledo said:
For a couple of decades now I've been expecting most of the 5 or 6 AM radio stations in Tally to start shutting down as their equipment falls apart. Several of them aren't worth as much as the real estate required... toss in the costs to build towers and a physical plant... just enough equipment to simulcast something off the bird... I don't think any AM in Tallahassee is worth that much money.
I wouldn't be surprised if Tallahassee became the first rated market in the country with no AM radio stations left... If the current rules allowing new 250 watt FM translators to simulcast AMs stay unchanged I could see where a couple of Tallahassee's AM stations might still have a purpose, but if the FCC comes around and does the right thing, letting AM stations shut down and continue broadcasting legally on FM, Tally would not have any reason to keep it's remaining AM stations on life support.
Having worked for a couple of these AMs..you're pretty much right, poledo.
WFRF-AM 1070 probably has the nicest facility. It's the flagship to several FM stations now, carrying an inspirational Christian format. The AM is located in a former house off of US 27 heading toward Havana. Beautiful studios, for a station that was once housed in a small 500 square foot engineering shack, it has come a long way.
WCVC-AM 1330 is being leased/purchased by a Catholic man from Pensacola. It runs EWTN straight off the bird. The mobile home is boarded up and weeds higher than I am. What's
left of it is inside the transmitter building. I bought their former CCM music library. I worked here
for 13 years!! The tower also serves Cumulus' WHBT-AM 1410, which runs a gospel music feed from Sheridan.
WTAL-AM 1450 is where I started in radio in 1979. It's a shell of its former self. It runs the Rejoice Musical Soulfood channel.
WNLS-AM 1270 might have a little life left, being a sports station. I have not been in the control room since Clear Channel bought it. In the 1970s 1270 and 94.9 were sister stations, with the country on the AM as "WTNT Country Dynamite." This is where I hung out as a wanna-be DJ, learning the board there but never getting hired..ended up at WTAL instead.
WSTT AM-730 is licensed to Thomasville and runs a local black gospel format. I haven't been to WSTT in several years now. Wasn't much to look at but has a decent signal with live board operators and announcers.
I don't think any of them need a translator. They need programming that might compel someone to..walk over..or reach over..and flip over to AM radio.
It isn't there anymore.
I occasionally get calls from absentee folks wanting to know "Is my station on the air?" Sometimes it isn't but no one has noticed. I kid you not.
