Another One Bites The Dust

[JustPastBuffalo]

NY BZ-19940201AC DWHHO 5308 BILBAT RADIO, INC. DM
P 1320 KHZ HORNELL, NY
License cancelled and call sign deleted by letter dated 1/28/2010.

It's not on the scale of Corus turning in the license for two 50kw AMs in Montreal, but still newsworthy. Could Bilbat have donated the facility or license to the Hornell public schools or maybe Houghton College. Guess not.

 

[ThePickleReport]

Here's the info for those interested:

http://www.eveningtribune.com/news/...HO-radio-license-for-failure-to-pay-2007-fine

 

[SirRoxalot]

What would happen if someone else applied for the frequency?

 

[aaronread]

What would happen if someone else applied for the frequency?

Well, unless WHHO does something to "make nice" with the FCC and get the facility undeleted, there is now room for a completely new allocation in Hornell. Presumably any interested applicant would have to wait until a filing window and then apply, and there would be an auction just like for any commercial allocation.

I do wonder if anyone would bother, though...it was a fairly small station in a tiny market with seven other co-channel stations within 300 miles. It can't be a very good frequency to be on, especially not at night. I doubt you could move it to a "better" location, too...not with WRSB in Canandaigua and both WEBO in Owego and WSPQ in Springville...all three on the first-adjacent channels.

But in the end, I would think that if WHHO could come up with the $10k to pay the fine, they would've...the fact that they didn't (rightly or wrongly) gives the impression that WHHO wasn't profitable enough to make even that fairly small sum. Obviously it's a chancy operation trying to guess intent from an action, but if I were a bidder on a new allocation that had comparable facilities to WHHO, the fact that the $10k fine wasn't paid would weigh heavily into my guessing whether or not there's much earning potential there.
:-\

 

[SirRoxalot]

Gee, I wonder if the boys in Springville and Owego are smart enough to ask for a power increase to take advantage of the new "hole"?

 

[LowPayDJ]

Having worked there within the past 3 years, and having the knowledge of kinda what was going on there, I truly believe that this didn't have to happen. Even though the night time power was hardly anything at all, that station could have made enough money to pay it's bills and pay some basic salaries to a few that just love the business who weren't looking to get rich. I'd be embarrassed to tell you what I made there while I worked there, but like alot of guys in the business, we do it purely for the love of radio. R.I.P. WHHO, you will be truly be missed by many in the Hornell Area.

 

[ThePickleReport]

When something like that happens I do feel for the area because they've lost a local voice. Seems to me they could have done SOMETHING with the station to make a buck. $10k really isn't much considering they could have sold the station to someone, paid the fine, at at least exited ownership gracefully. I'm sure there's a lot more to the story.

 

[therealjm12]

In my early days of radio I worked at a number of small market AM stations. Back in those days a radio station license was money printing machine no matter how small the market. I still worked for some knuckleheads that did & deserved to go broke. They had no idea how to run any kind of business including a radio station. I did work for some pretty sharp operators, as well.
Until the economy hit the dumpster some small AM stations were going the way of drive in theatres. Especially, out west where the real estate value of the land was worth more than the towers that sat on them. I doubt that is the case WHHO.

 

[aaronread]

Gee, I wonder if the boys in Springville and Owego are smart enough to ask for a power increase to take advantage of the new "hole"?

Well, I like to say that I'm not a radio engineer, but I play one at my job...but even then my expertise is really just in FM. AM is mostly a black art to me.

That said, I think they'll probably LOOK at it but I would not be surprised if it really doesn't make any difference. First, changing an AM station's directionality is no trivial matter, just on the engineering side. Never mind the allocation side. And it's probably a safe bet that any increase would involve some amount of directionality; it wouldn't be just "crank up the watts some more". There's too many co-channel and first-adjacent stations in play on those freqs.

Second, I don't know HOW it would apply, but I'll bet the FCC's "ratchet clause" would come into play. If so, it usually means that any change requires you to reduce power so much that you end up worse off than if you just did nothing.

 

[GMV]

As a former morning man and PD for Joe Turman at WHHO back in the late '60 or early '70s, I'm sad to see it go. Small stations like that serve a real purpose, both for the community and as "basic training" for neophytes with a desire to break into the wonderful, wacky world of broadcasting. Their value goes well beyond their mere "bottom line."

I had some great experiences there and worked with some very dedicated people, both on the air and in the office.
Don Fox

 

[JakeLongwell]

Having grown up in that area, I hope the station does return to the air. I guess there may be hope for a reactivation, assuming the fine is paid off soon.

According to what I read in NERW, Bill Berry was informed of the station's license being cancelled when he attempted to file for a renewal of said license. So, I have to wonder if he has hopes of getting back on the air.

Or, if there are no plans to return to the air, a new owner could pay the $10k to BilBat, and once the license is restored, that payment could go toward the purchase price for the station. Better still, paying the fine off might be all a new owner would have to do to acquire the license. Though I am sure it's worth more than that, even though it is a standalone AM in a troubled economy.

 

[Savage]

aaron pretty much nails it: the engineering costs to modify the night authorizations in Springville or Owego would probably make the move counterproductive. Modifying the phasor and ATUs - and perhaps even adding a tower - could be necessary to achieve even a modest increase in power. I would guess that the engineering and filing costs in a best-case scenario, one that might grab you 200 or 500 more watts at night, could easily run $30K or much more.

You be better off spending the dough on an FM translator.

 

[fybush]

You be better off spending the dough on an FM translator.

Says the man who should know!

For clarification, though, it should be noted that WHHO lived and died as a class D station, with no protected nighttime service of any sort. So any direct improvement that a WSPQ or a WEBO might be able to gain from WHHO's apparent demise would be purely during daytime hours.

And that having been said, any new applicant for 1320 (or adjacent channels) in the region would have to propose class B service, with day and night facilities, which would certainly mean a directional array and all the costs that go with it.

It's a complicated chess game, without a lot of attractive moves.

 

[Mark Giardina]

This is a true shame.

WHHO was part of the Hornell community for decades. And, as someone else mentioned, stations like WHHO is where many of us were able to get our first radio gig.

 

[LowPayDJ]

Considering the Debts that Bilbat Radio has, I'd be more then surprised if they bother to do anything at all. They owed more then they'll ever recoup. I myself, have a judgment against Bilbat, as do many others. That along with a Buck, might get me a cup of coffee. Really sad though, since myself along with a couple of the other Judgment holders, maybe could have taken possession of the station and probably made those monthly FCC payments to keep the station active. But with only 22 watts at night and a weak daytime signal as well, due to many factors, it probably wouldn't have been worth it in the long run.

 

[JakeLongwell]

Could WLEA move (back) to 1320, and upgrade to 5kw by day?

If that were to happen, would 1480 have to be reapplied for during the next filing window? Or could someone else take over the frequency right away?

In the 80s, WIQT (now WWLZ), in the Elmira market, moved from 1000 to 820, upgrading to fulltime status. The 1000 daytime facility wasn't dark for long, as WLNL soon began operation there.

I'm sure much has changed since then, but I wondered if something similar could happen with 1320 and 1480 in Hornell.

 

[fybush]

There's no particular reason for WLEA to move. 5 kW on 1320 won't get them significantly more coverage than they already have with 2500 watts on 1480.

If they really wanted to do so, though, I believe they'd have to either buy the WHHO license and move the WLEA calls and format there, or (assuming the WHHO license is really dead for good) wait for a major-change window to file for a change of frequency to 1320. Because 1320 and 1480 aren't mutually-exclusive, I don't think there's any way WLEA could file for 1320 as a minor change, which can be filed at any time.

 

[theengineer]

As I understand it the current FCC Policy will allow Bilbat or any buyer to bring it back within 12 months of the station having gone silent, even though the license is deleted. They would obviously need to satisfy the fine first and if sold, satisfy any legal issues or any legitimate debtors. The FCC does also allow additional time on a case-by-case basis for silent and "D" call stations for things like completion of site construction, equipment installation, etc. In this case the tower is still standing and the transmitter presumably is in working order. Scott may be right though.. the time of the community oriented AM station may be in the past.

Anyone wanting to upgrade at the expense of the deleted WHHO should be able to do so provided the station does not return, after a year of being silent.

Alternatively, a City of license change is now a minor change there is nothing preventing someone from purchasing D-WHHO, paying the FCC's 10K fine and filing to move the station to a more lucrative market anywhere in the US to any open frequency regardless whether it's daytime or fulltime provided they are willing to bring it back (even at low power under an STA) on 1320 in Hornell until the application is approved. This is how Pittsburgh managed to get two daytimers (660 and 770) long after no new daytimers were allowed. They were not new -- both were moved in from out of town.

 

[dustintv]

Sad to hear about Hornell losing WHHO. Even sadder was the story in today's NERW of just how WHHO was financially unable to deal with the fines because of poor revenue. Tis a sad day and clearly shows the current bleak outlook.

 

[aaronread]

Alternatively, a City of license change is now a minor change there is nothing preventing someone from purchasing D-WHHO, paying the FCC's 10K fine and filing to move the station to a more lucrative market anywhere in the US to any open frequency regardless whether it's daytime or fulltime

I'm going solely on a fuzzy memory here, but didn't someone try to pull that with move from the middle of nowhere and a 1000 miles away (I mean like, Wyoming or something) to New Jersey (NYC market) and the FCC smacked them on the wrists for it? Or was that a TV thing?

Or course you say "any open frequency"...that pre-supposes that there ARE any open frequencies in any market big enough to be worth it. With the exception of the expanded band, I don't think there are any, are there? Not in the top 20 markets, anyways. Perhaps if some of the vacated Canadian freqs were removed from protection, but that's not going to happen anytime soon.