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Big signal AM for sale in Jacksonville

I think the station for sale is WYMM (AM 1530), which is daytime-only radio station currently broadcasting religious programming. It's sister station is WYRM (AM 1110) in the Hampton Roads, VA area, which is also daytime only. WYMM has been struggling for many years, it was even off the air for a few years. The only way to make this station work is to rebroadcast the station on a FM translator with decent citywide coverage.
 
That is the original 2-tower directional 50kw religious WCRJ-AM 1530 which signed on the air in 1976, and at one time was co-owned with beautiful music WJEE-FM 107.3 Jacksonville. It has gone through multiple format and call letter changes over the years, including country, Top 40, adult standards, news-talk and back to religious. In 1986 it was adult standards WJXW and was owned by Arthur F. Dees, co-owned with WGTX-AM 1280 and WQUH-FM 103.1 DeFuniak Springs, Florida. It has very good daytime coverage over Jacksonville and North Florida. However, with no night service, it has challenges. Does anyone know the asking price?
 
If it isn't WYMM 1530, the only other possibility is 50kw WJXL 1010. I believe, however, the station for sale is WYMM
 
I really doubt that WYMM has been running 50kw in recent years...the signal doesn't even make it up to Yulee these days..

Last year I listened to them from the North end of 9A down to Costco & even though that's (East) where they're throwing all the power, the signal wasn't even great there...

I think they're saving on the electric bill and running 5kw or less...or the array is way off and they are putting an even bigger null to the North..

Bottom line, this AIN'T no big signal; it doesn't cover the Jacksonville metro with a listenable signal. Many of the lower (5kw or less) powered AMs in Jacksonville have MUCH better coverage.
 
While WYMM-AM is authorized for 50KW, I agree with GeorgeJ that they're most likely running less than 50, but unless there's a real problem with the transmitter, it's closer to 50, probably around 30KW. But there are many other factors affecting their signal, ground conductivity, the condition of their ground system (radials), their high dial position, plus they ARE directional, and as was already pointed out, do not put out a good signal to the north of their Westside transmitter site.
The WYMM signal gets really weak, really quickly when heading to Jax International on I-295, and cannot be heard at all in most of the Fernandina Beach area. But they do have a rather good to the South/Souitheast and West. A potential owner would be looking at having to re-haul that facility to bring it back to specs. Also, since WYMM seems to be too close to 1530 in Cincinnati, they have no pre-sunrise authority, and, very little chance of 24 hour operation without a companion FM or FM translator. BTW, there are 4 50KW AM's in Jax WOKV 600, WJXL 1010, WJNJ 1320, and WYMM 1530. WOKV and WJNJ are the only non-directional 50KW's during the daytime here, and, it should be pointed out, none of them is authorized for 50KW at night. In other words, Jacksonville does not have any fulltime 50KW AM facility.
 
nfladxer said:
While WYMM-AM is authorized for 50KW, I agree with GeorgeJ that they're most likely running less than 50, but unless there's a real problem with the transmitter, it's closer to 50, probably around 30KW. But there are many other factors affecting their signal, ground conductivity, the condition of their ground system (radials), their high dial position, plus they ARE directional, and as was already pointed out, do not put out a good signal to the north of their Westside transmitter site.
The WYMM signal gets really weak, really quickly when heading to Jax International on I-295, and cannot be heard at all in most of the Fernandina Beach area. But they do have a rather good to the South/Souitheast and West. A potential owner would be looking at having to re-haul that facility to bring it back to specs. Also, since WYMM seems to be too close to 1530 in Cincinnati, they have no pre-sunrise authority, and, very little chance of 24 hour operation without a companion FM or FM translator. BTW, there are 4 50KW AM's in Jax WOKV 600, WJXL 1010, WJNJ 1320, and WYMM 1530. WOKV and WJNJ are the only non-directional 50KW's during the daytime here, and, it should be pointed out, none of them is authorized for 50KW at night. In other words, Jacksonville does not have any fulltime 50KW AM facility.
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It would appear as though WJXL, power-wise has it best at night with 30KW compared to OKV's 25KW. All 3 are very directional throwing nearly all their RF east.
 
nfladxer said:
there are 4 50KW AM's in Jax WOKV 600, WJXL 1010, WJNJ 1320, and WYMM 1530. WOKV and WJNJ are the only non-directional 50KW's during the daytime here, and, it should be pointed out, none of them is authorized for 50KW at night. In other words, Jacksonville does not have any fulltime 50KW AM facility.
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I had forgotten about WJNJ. Thank you for pointing that one out.

Regarding AM 1530, under current FCC rules, there is no opportunity to add night service due to the short distance beween Jacksonville and Cincinatti. I do not know what WYMM is currently running powerwise, however, in my opinion its full 50kw day signal is fairly good over Jacksonville. Of course that would not be the case if the station is operating with less power and if there are also any other technical issues in question.

And while there are some 50kw-U AM stations in Florida, there are NO Class A clear channels this side of Atlanta, with WSB-AM 750 Atlanta, WWL-AM 870 New Orleans and WSM-AM 650 Nashville being the nearest Class A AMs to Florida. In Jacksonville and North Florida, by far, WOKV has the best AM day signal.
 
They are playing a feed of a station out of Virginia Beach now - commercials and all.
 
They are speaking another language on 1530 as of Saturday morning - doesn't sound like Spanish. It may be French???? It definitely isn't English
 
1530 has a very weak signal for a 50kw. It is so directional that it doesn't come in around the Charleston area, maybe very weak. At least half a dozen AMs in Jacksonville have better signals. 690 (of course, one of the best AMs on East Coast), 600, 550, 930, 1320, 1570, and probably even 1010. Almost all of them come in around here.

Dino Costa was on 1570 back when they were a sports station. I remember him there.
 
Parttimer said:
Wasn't 1530 the home of the infamous Dino Costa (who somehow found his way onto Mad Dog Radio on Sirius/XM)?
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Almost! He was part of a huge tease of a format change that never happened. A few years ago, all the programming 1530 had at the time (and I forget what format) was wiped, and a loop of promos started playing, promoting an all new radio station coming soon featuring Dino Costa and a host of others, called The Mighty 1530.

My favorite part was a line that people at Cox probably laugh about to this day: "Depend on WHO?! Depend on The Mighty 1530!"

Say what we will about Andy Johnson, but at least he got on the air!

edit:
Maybe Dino did get on the air, but the rest of the day was that loop. Or maybe it was Andy, and the rest of the day was a loop. Either way, there was a very laughable, ominous loop designed to strike fear in the hearts of WOKV employees.
 
According to what I've been told, the main reason WYMM 1530 doesn't have a good Northerly signal is because it's DIRECTIONAL. Apparently when they signed on years ago, they had to protect another station either on 1530 or on an adjacent channel that was too close for them to be non-directional. In other words, they can't radiate much of their daytime power up the coast North and Northeast of Jax like 690 and 600, and to a lesser extent the other Jacksonville stations higher on the AM dial. Too bad for them, because the geography actually seems to favor a strong Northeasterly coastal AM signal from Jacksonville, but the WYMM license doesn't allow that at this time.
 
It may be worth looking into the viability of "letting out" the signal or possibly going omni-directional assuming the protected station(s) is(are) no longer an issue. If the original protected station(s) is(are) still an issue, it may be to someone's advantage to consider acquiring the protected station(s) and either A) moving the protected stations's frequency; B) reduce the protected station's power, C) moving the protected station's transmitter / tower site; D) changing the protected station's COL bringing "first service" to an area further away from Jacksonville; or E) as a last resort, sign the protected station(s) off the air and canceling the license(s), any of which will clear the way for WYMM to open the directional array or possibly become non-directional.
 
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