AM Station for Lease in Greenvile, NC- Put your money where your mouth is....

[Mafflerbach]

Here's an opportunity for all of you Eastern North Carolina broadcasters to prove everyone else wrong.

Are you certain that people are tired of the voice-tracking and cookie cutter formats that corporate radio have put on so many stations?

Have you got the perfect radio format running on a webcast or Part 15 station, looking for an audience in Greenville, NC?

Well, here's your shot.

We are running in payment problems (which are becoming more chronic as time goes by) with our current leasees for WECU 1570, licensed to Winterville, NC. We are looking for credible alternatives.

It currently operates at 3800 watts daytime, 200 watts night on a 300 ft antenna built in February 2006; the tower site is located on Forlines Road just off Reedy Branch Road (near South Central High School). We are applying for a power increase to operate at 8000 watts daytime shortly.

We'd be willing to work out a lease (preferably long term) with a purchase option. The deal is simple:

CTC Media Group, the licensee, will maintain the station for you. We own the tower, the land, the 10000 watt solid state transmitter, the backup 1000 watt transmitter, and the transmitter shack. There is no studio or studio gear. You supply the studio and equipment and put out the program audio (we'll work with you to get it all right).

You pay us $5000 a month and certain expenses which we prepay (utilities at the transmitter site and all music licensing fees) which average around $1000-$1250 a month. All you need to do is to sell it. Let me repeat that. YOU NEED TO SELL IT.

Everybody and their brother (and mother) thinks they know what people want to hear on the radio. That is not enough. Having listeners is not enough. You need to figure out a business plan which involves you (or employees) selling either ads, sponsorships, remotes, churches, anything. And you need to gross something like $8000 a month in order to pay us and pay yourself. This is what Henry Hinton and the Pirate Radio guys are doing (although they are probably making a lot more than $8k a month). But they have established relationships with business and ad agencies and an ability to generate that kind of money on a regular basis.

So, if you are interested, let me know or you guys can discuss how this is either doable or not in the Greenville market. By the way, I am in New Bern so I can get together with anyone who is interested in discussing this whenever we can both make time. Additionally, anyone who wants to see the transmitters and or who has more questions about how this whole arrangement works, let me know on this board or give me a call or email.

Mike Afflerbach
CTC Media Group
office 252-633-1490
email at mafflerbach at ctc-media.com

 

[w00t]

Re: AM Station for Lease in Greenvile, NC- Put your money where your mouth is...

Just an observation about your tower... and being you're in New Bern, maybe you're not even aware of this. But why do you guys have SO many problems with the lighting on your tower? It either stays on solid for weeks at a time or never comes on at all some nights. It's been like that ever since you put the tower up. Not good. I'm not sure what it's doing these days as I haven't really been paying attention, but the light stayed on solid every night for at least most of the summer.

 

[Mafflerbach]

Re: AM Station for Lease in Greenvile, NC- Put your money where your mouth is...

Thanks for the note. We have had some problems with the tower lighting. There is an intermittent problem with the motor which operates the flashing mechanism. We can get it to operate fine for awhile (we have recently been operating it 24 hours a day in order to stop the problems with it waiting 18 hours before trying to get it to come on), but there are problems with the lighting conduit leaking water into the control box for the lighting. If there are currently problems, let me know. Another concern with the leasees is that while we are trying to resolve the tower lighting problem (and we are in New Bern most evenings), we haven't been getting the feedback we need on this problem.....

 

[w00t]

Re: AM Station for Lease in Greenvile, NC- Put your money where your mouth is...

I live in the town of Winterville and can actually see your tower and U.S. Cellular's tower across the street from the end of my road. I'll check it out tonight and let you know if it's on.

 

[allenv]

Hey Mike,
I Don't think we've ever met but let me start by saying thank you for streaming your stations.You and your Dad have done a fabulous job with the sound of the stream.I listen to WSME online and it sounds fantastic.I live in Winterville so I can't get it well on the radio so thanks again for a great sounding stream.As far as WECU goes, it has always been a dream
of mine to have a station but #1 I'm poor,#2 I'm poor,#3 I'm poor so it is simply a dream.Given the current climate of Eastern NC radio almost everything is being done format wise so what would I do with the station if it were mine.I guess you've read some of my posts,I think a classic top 40 if it charted,play it format is a viable option but music on AM in my opinion in this market is all but dead.I just don't see any way to compete with the FM's with a music format.1250 & 1070 do the sports/talk thing
and do it well.I detect from your post some frustration with urban gospel
format and I feel your pain.Without using names I think everyone in this market knows some of the stuff that goes on in the name of the Lord.Someone will write a book someday.I don't think anyone who post here has all the answers,I just enjoy chatting about the business and reading other people's ideas and I just write my opinion and sign my name.
I just kinda feel this put your money where your mouth is stuff is unnecessary and the tone of your post was talking down to those of us who are just sharing ideas and memories about radio.Again thanks for what you do in Greenville,New Bern & Jacksonville and I hope to meet you
in person someday.Good Luck Sir....

Allen Vick

 

[midatlanticengineer]

""""Hey Mike,
I Don't think we've ever met but let me start by saying thank you for streaming your stations.You and your Dad have done a fabulous job with the sound of the stream.I listen to WSME online and it sounds fantastic.I live in Winterville so I can't get it well on the radio so thanks again for a great sounding stream.As far as WECU goes, it has always been a dream
of mine to have a station but #1 I'm poor,#2 I'm poor,#3 I'm poor so it is simply a dream."""""

I'm poor too, but that isn't stopping me from working on the LPAM proposal [search yahoo groups]
BTW...I listen on an occassion to WSME here in NY. There are not many stations period, much less on AM that provides that format. I used to listen to WSME direct over the air when I lived in Elizabeth City [long wire and quiet location of course]

"""Given the current climate of Eastern NC radio almost everything is being done format wise so what would I do with the station if it were mine.I guess you've read some of my posts,I think a classic top 40 if it charted,play it format is a viable option but music on AM in my opinion in this market is all but dead.I just don't see any way to compete with the FM's with a music format.1250 & 1070 do the sports/talk thing
and do it well.""""

Allen..don't ever say something can not be done. Just because it is AM radio doesn not mean people won't listen. Give the listener something worthwhile to listen to on AM, they will listen....it has been proven. Up here in central NY, many AM's still run music formats....many of them MOR type formats.


Mike, best of luck in finding someone who will take on WECU radio [which BTW can be heard up here at night on certain occasions]

 

[ZAX Double J]

Hey Mike,
I Don't think we've ever met but let me start by saying thank you for streaming your stations.You and your Dad have done a fabulous job with the sound of the stream.I listen to WSME online and it sounds fantastic.I live in Winterville so I can't get it well on the radio so thanks again for a great sounding stream.As far as WECU goes, it has always been a dream
of mine to have a station but #1 I'm poor,#2 I'm poor,#3 I'm poor so it is simply a dream.Given the current climate of Eastern NC radio almost everything is being done format wise so what would I do with the station if it were mine.I guess you've read some of my posts,I think a classic top 40 if it charted,play it format is a viable option but music on AM in my opinion in this market is all but dead.I just don't see any way to compete with the FM's with a music format.1250 & 1070 do the sports/talk thing
and do it well.I detect from your post some frustration with urban gospel
format and I feel your pain.Without using names I think everyone in this market knows some of the stuff that goes on in the name of the Lord.Someone will write a book someday.I don't think anyone who post here has all the answers,I just enjoy chatting about the business and reading other people's ideas and I just write my opinion and sign my name.
I just kinda feel this put your money where your mouth is stuff is unnecessary and the tone of your post was talking down to those of us who are just sharing ideas and memories about radio.Again thanks for what you do in Greenville,New Bern & Jacksonville and I hope to meet you
in person someday.Good Luck Sir....

Allen Vick

I have to agree with Allen. Music may work in a New York market because it is a much larger market, but here in eastern North Carolina, AM is all but dead. The only formats on it that are surviving are news/talk, sports, spanish and gospel the other AM stations have gone dark. In fact many communities who once had several AM stations have none now and are served exclusively by distant FM stations. Everyone who listened to AM has moved on to FM or other forms of delivery. Even though HD Radio is trying to make AM come back, but it's a little too late for many. AM is where unfortunately FM will be in another decade or two. Two things have killed American radio, consultants and corporate radio. It is WAY too costly for a small timer to start a radio station unless it is a part 15 and that's not going to get out that far to make any real difference for the moderately high cost involved. It's like the Wal-Mart coming into your area, the mom and pop businesses go out because they simply can't compete with a big corporate giant. The smaller stations have all been gobbled up by the huge mega coroprations and the few small timers that remain can't compete because they don't have the mega million/billion dollar budget.

I fit into the same boat as Allen. I have no real money to invest in a station, but I sure would love to. And for me it is a dream and an almost life long one at that. I'm a simple part-timer who works in this business that I love so much, but don't get the opportunity to shine like I would like to because I haven't worked full-time on-air anywhere and have no track record to prove I can do something. I believe that the Classic Top 40 philosophy that Allen has would definately work. I just don't have the bling to make it sing.

I also agree with Allen's comment "I just kinda feel this put your money where your mouth is stuff is unnecessary and the tone of your post was talking down to those of us who are just sharing ideas and memories about radio.". I too don't know all the answers, but after being in radio now for 21 years I see things as they are. Everyone says that we are right on the money with our ideas, but everyone knows that it's all about making the preverbial buck. No one wants to stick their neck out and admit it openly either that what we say is right. No one in any management authority cares about the qaulity of the product that is put out over their airwaves as long as they're making the big check. Those of us who are in the trenches everyday don't see any of that money and yet we are the ones who really cares about the stations and what goes out over those airwaves, but we are supposed to just keep our thoughts to ourselves or find another job because we don't know anything or have all the "facts" like the big bosses do. To that I say BS. None of my friends in radio HAS $5,000 a month to invest. We're lucky to just pay our own bills every month. But if I won the lottery, I certainly would buy or build a station.

 

[quadraphonic]

Re: AM Station for Lease in Greenvile, NC- Put your money where your mouth is...

No offense, yall, but that's kind of sad watching yall crush your own dreams.

Everybody all along has been saying "if I had a station...if there weren't any radio consultants...if...if...if...we would do this...we would do that...we would do the other..."
Then Mafflerbach comes along and says "hey, here's an answer to one of the ifs. Not all the answers, but one of them."

But, sadly, everybody just wants to critique things like the (Internet-delivered) tone of the way he stated it.
It's a challenge. It's supposed to sound challenging. It's not a gift basket full of balloons and daisies and rainbows and unicorns that will replicate itself indefinitely into the future.
Then they want to explain the reasons why they dismiss the idea: "Oh AM is dead...people listen to other media in small-town NC...I'm poor...Radio has made me this way...etc."
Yall should figure out a way to sell $8000 a month and MAKE IT OR SOMETHING CLOSE TO IT HAPPEN.
If not in Winterville, then somewhere else.
Yeah it sounds hard...difficult...but not impossible.
If Pirate Radio, Henry Hinton, Don Curtis, and even smaller momandpop operators around small town NC can make it happen, why couldn't yall? Other boards even here at radio-info have people on them who have managed to do it.

DISCLAIMER: Now, honestly, I don't know Mafflerbach, maybe he's a self-important blowhard who was talking down to yall and making fun of your mothers and baseball and apple pie and science fiction and local radio types to boot. I wish him and his company luck at keeping a radio station alive in NC (we don't need to lose any more do we?). He probably posted it here on this Eastern NC board because that's where the station is, not as a personal attack on yall. Yall would probably be closer to really figuring out if he's talking down to you by doing what else he said and checking out the situation, visiting the station, doing some leg work, etc...

 

[allenv]

I'm not trying to crush my dreams.Man I admire those who can make it work on AM.This market is just so saturated with stations a music format in this market on AM especially on a smaller AM signal with a very small night signal would be an uphill battle.I'm just trying to be realistic.The Carl
Lamm's of the world are my heros.Music on AM around here was dying
20-25 years ago and it hasn't gotten better.In bigger cities or markets
out west there don't have so many stations it may work but here in my opinion it just doesn't.Again, I wish I was wrong.I could be..

Allen

 

[ZAX Double J]

My dream of owning a station has not been deminished at all. I physically don't have the cash to do it. Those people who have done it I too admire and think what they do is a supurb job, but if you only make x dollars a month or week then what's got to give. Oh let's see do I get my medicine I NEED to stay alive or "invest" it in a station? Humm.. I vote right now of the medicine I need. A lot of good the station would do me if I'm dead from not getting the necessary medicine. Unfortunately, most of us here are in the same boat. Yeah they'd love to own their own station and put their ideas on air, but let's get realistic here. If you know someone who can plunk down 5k a month and not have to worry how you're going to pay you light bill at home, or buy groceries, etc then more power to you. Those guys already have a cash flow larger than I will ever see and they probably had richer friends who could "loan" them the cash to get started. Yes with anything worth anything is always a challenge, but at the end of the day you have to look at it realistically. Is it POSSIBLE for ME to do? Yes, it IS possible, but can I do it on what I currently make? Aboslutely not, so it remains a dream. That said, if I won the mega lottery, then YES I would start my own station. But since I'm more likely to be struck by lightning than win the lottery I guess it will have to remain a dream.

Again as Allen said, here in eastern North Carolina AM radio was dying 20-25 years ago. This is so true since I have lived here all my life and have followed radio especially here in Rocky Mount and AM has pretty much died throughout the region. Yes in much larger markets it still thrives and maybe out in Kansas or whereever it may still be the top medium, but here it isn't. Yes, someone could/will make it work somewhere, but I just don't see it happening here in eastern NC, not on AM. I can't tell you how many stations on AM I have seen go dark or go to the few formats that seem to "work" on AM. Music is not one of them unless it is gospel or spanish. Mainstream music is not on AM here in eastern NC and has not been for 20 years I doubt it ever will be. Yeah maybe if someone did it it might turn a few heads for a brief moment, but that would be all. I'm mostly an optimistic person, but I also know when to give up too and not try to beat a dead horse for the sake of optimisim.

When I first read his post I thought WOW! I'd like to do that. A perfect opportunity I thought. I didn't think about the "looking down" part, but then I read how much money I would have to invest and well you know the rest of the story...

 

[radioboy]

Re: AM Station for Lease in Greenvile, NC- Put your money where your mouth is...

Here are a few thoughts from someone who recently looked into a similar type of lease..

Whether it's "doable" or "not doable" really depends more on the persistence, motivation, and
ability to sell others than anything else.

A radio colleague and I looked into a time brokerage agreement at a station in Florida. The transmitter
needed replacing, there were other serious FCC volations and it was better to not do it. That licensee
was looking for someone else to do ALL the work. For more money..and then he still wasn't willing to
maintain the technical aspects. Under FCC regs, that is the licencee's responsibility. So, due diligence
is required, for sure. He found another group to lease the station..and they've battled each other ever since.

I don't know much about WECU or CTC Media but this seems like a pretty straightforward offer. If I were
close to the area and was interested, I'd probably:

Write up a business plan. Try to figure out ways of selling your chosen format (whatever it is) to businesses
and ad agencies. Maybe get some church programs on Sundays. You don't want the $5k coming out of your pocket. You want the station business to generate that revenue. Can't quite come to $5k? Find out
if there is any flexibility whatsoever.

Meet with the gentleman and take a tour of the station facilities. This would be a time to discuss ways
that the arrangement would be mutually beneficial..because what you want is a win-win.

I'd form some sort of company..LLC, or corporation, or something..to lessen personal liability.

The programming is actually the easiest part of this to figure out. I've gotten the song database
from Double J and I like it. I started a Part 15 station on September 24 and am using a lot of the
music that is in it. People ARE flipping to AM to check it out. The 5kw boys aren't doing that..I know,
because I've seen the Arbitrons.

The main thing needed is the ability to SELL. Mafflerback stated this, in capital letters..because that
is the secret you need to make it work.

I've done music on AMs successfully. While other people said "That will never work," I worked at developing
the format, relationships with advertisers and agencies..and ended up with some ratings and revenue.
One station on AM had over a 4 share.

If the lease offer's too much for you to stomach, save up about $1500 and build a Part 15 station. Make
your mistakes with it and then keep moving up.

A $5k a month lease is not for the fainthearted. It takes a lot of work to generate that kind of money regularly.

May all your dreams come true, folks!

 

[Carl Lipbaum]

Mr. Aflabach: Would it be possible to start this at less than 5,000 a month and work up to that level? If so, I know someone who might have a strong interest. Have been discussing it with him. He might be willing to back my friend and me in the deal since we have a programming idea that we think would work.

 

[ZAX Double J]

I guess I should have stated that I am not a good salesperson. I once worked in retail sales as an electronics sales associate and I was not good at it that's why im back in radio. IF the amount can be reduced I MAY be interested. 1500 may be in my reach, but it may push it since I haven't really looked at the numbers to find out if I could go that amount. I'd be willing to work in some technical fashon, i.e. computers, automation system, music library, console selection etc. I AM considering building a part 15 here in Rocky Mount. I already have most of the studio equipment, but just need to get the transmitter/antenna.

 

[mjcarter1981]

Re: AM Station for Lease in Greenvile, NC- Put your money where your mouth is...

Hey Double J, if you get one started, let me know. I'd be happy to cut some liners for you. BTW, how are things at First Media. I can't believe it's been over 2 years since I left, a move I now regret. Take care and best of luck to you.

The artist formerly known as Mike James.

 

[ZAX Double J]

Re: AM Station for Lease in Greenvile, NC- Put your money where your mouth is...

Hey Double J, if you get one started, let me know. I'd be happy to cut some liners for you. BTW, how are things at First Media. I can't believe it's been over 2 years since I left, a move I now regret. Take care and best of luck to you.

The artist formerly known as Mike James.

I certainly will! You cut some great commercials some of which are still running! They're still the same. I'll PM you with more details. Wow has it been that long.

 

[allenv]

Mike James... How are you man???? Boy have you missed some fun over the last couple of years.Hope the family is well.

Allen Vick

 

[mjcarter1981]

Re: AM Station for Lease in Greenvile, NC- Put your money where your mouth is...

Hey guys, we're doing all right. We're back in Indiana after stints in Ohio and Maine. Out of radio right now but looking to get back in. The family is fine, girls are in school and the twins are 4 and typical boys...rotten like their dad.

I've kept in contact with Doneva and Angie and they've kept me posted on what's been going on there. Sounds like fun!!!!!

Miss you guys, keep in touch. [email protected]

 

[allenv]

Good to hear all is well Mike.I guess you know Donna James is back in Goldsboro
at Kix 97.7.I hope that works out for her.She is a good lady and funny as well.
Take care sir...

Allen

 

[mjcarter1981]

Re: AM Station for Lease in Greenvile, NC- Put your money where your mouth is...

I didn't hear about Donna being at Kix, thanks for the news there. She is talented, but she dug her own grave at Big Dawg demanding this and that, all while being a part-timer. I wish her well.

Where are you these days?

 

[allenv]

107.9 in Greenville doing swing shifts and annoucing at a local race track,playing the occasional party,club and doing some production for a couple of internet stations.Basically doing what I can to survive in this business and hoping to celebrate 25 years in it next July and I just turned
41. It is cool to hear from you.I hope it works out for Donna.I like her alot but she can be shall we say..... vocal but so can I.It's gonna be interesting with her and Bill Johnston in Goldsboro. I can see a personality
clash