BROCKTON STATION turns to JESUS

[JIBGUY]

Took long enough! It's 2008, and soon, Brockton will (assuming) have a religious station on 1410, which has seen nothing but turmoil since after the Sanft family owned it in the 70's. While the station has incurred $1,900,000.00 in debt over recent few years, it is being sold for $540,000.00 to Brockton's "Kingdom Church", headed by an Alex Hurt. Call letters are still WMSX. Formerly WATD(AM), WOKW, WAMK("Weather radio"). $540k for a small AM station in Brockton tells me that astation prices are not descending as much as people may think.

 

[pqgeorge]

Took long enough! It's 2008, and soon, Brockton will (assuming) have a religious station on 1410, which has seen nothing but turmoil since after the Sanft family owned it in the 70's. While the station has incurred $1,900,000.00 in debt over recent few years, it is being sold for $540,000.00 to Brockton's "Kingdom Church", headed by an Alex Hurt. Call letters are still WMSX. Formerly WATD(AM), WOKW, WAMK("Weather radio"). $540k for a small AM station in Brockton tells me that astation prices are not descending as much as people may think.

How the mighty have fallen. As WOKW, this was a really nice local station in its' day. Back in 1970, this 1000 watt daytime only station had a great signal, even in Boston. I visited the station in the summer of 1973. The people were really friendly. They let me sit in with the jock ("Tom Brown", aka Frank Cameron) for a couple of hours. He was very gracious to this little 13 year old radio "wannabee". 'OKW gave the Enterprise stations (WBET/WBET-FM) a run for its' money for many years. The facility was state of the art. The antenna system was maintained very meticulously. You could practically play golf in the field between the two towers.

Fast forward to 2008.....

You can't see the towers from the studio anymore. The area around the towers is overgrown with woods. The facility is run down. I'm amazed it still operates, considering the condition of the towers. I hope the "Kingdom Church" will put a little extra TLC into this long suffering occupant on 1410.

 

[N1WVQ]

They were advertised for $750k I think on one of the radio brokerage sites. I don't understand how prices for radio stations are still that high? It seems a lot of these A.M.s are worth no more than $250k! Didn't WBET go for $1M to B.T.R. a few years ago? Maybe 1 more round of suckers will buy @ the inflated price & then prices will be more or less back to where they should be. Other high prices (to me anyway): $900k for WNRI-Woonsocket, $1M for the 1140 C.P. in Greenville, R.I. (which the buyer would have to build), $575k for WJJF-Hope Valley, R.I. (or was it $550k?) & I hate to say it because they're a good local broadcaster transmitting in stereo, but $2M for WINY-Putnam, Ct. a few years ago. Still, WINY sounds pretty good on my brand-new Sony AX51V A.M. stereo radio.

Bob & Peter: you own stations. Am I right or wrong in thinking prices are still to high? I know the value of a station is really whatever someone will pay for it but it seems that a lot of these stations, especially suburban A.M.s, are priced too high. I know the sellers want to get back a substantial portion of what they paid for the station but it seems like their asking prices are too high.

 

[WLYNWAZNgm]

Keep in mind that the price for 1410 also includes real estate:
a single family house, converted for station use, the towers
out back, plus additional industrial-zoned land.

I was at WOKW 1980-81, until it was sold by the Sanft family.
Arrogant, inexperienced New York publishing people bought it,
(hi, I'm the new owner, and today is your last day here...)
put in a bunch of new equipment, and came up with a "great
new programming concept - weather radio". Huh, what is that?
Weather every ten minutes. Whatever... Within, I believe,
about 1 1/2 years they ran it into the ground, and it went dark for awhile...

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

Keep in mind that the price for 1410 also includes real estate:
a single family house, converted for station use, the towers
out back, plus additional industrial-zoned land.

I was at WOKW 1980-81, until it was sold by the Sanft family.
Arrogant, inexperienced New York publishing people bought it,
(hi, I'm the new owner, and today is your last day here...)
put in a bunch of new equipment, and came up with a "great
new programming concept - weather radio". Huh, what is that?
Weather every ten minutes. Whatever... Within, I believe,
about 1 1/2 years they ran it into the ground, and it went dark for awhile...

Then WCNX 1150 Middletown, CT tried all traffic and weather radio in the late 80s or early 90s

 

[MarcB]

Then WCNX 1150 Middletown, CT tried all traffic and weather radio in the late 80s or early 90s

Yep. Then around 95 or 96 Don DeCesare bought it and turned it into a neat little station and they now simulcast on 1420 in Old Saybrook. Just wish they'd stream it. Local Morning Show. Then Stephanie Miller at 10. Then a Local News Program at 12, brokered local talk at 1230, Ray Lucia at 1, Dr Joy at 3, Local Music Show at 5, NewsChannel 8 at 6, Repeat of 1230 at 630, Michael Savage at 7, Jerry Doyle at 10, When Radio Was at Midnite, and Joey Renyolds at 1AM. And the weekend is full of speciality shows. Plus high school play by play. Select Sunday Afternoon New York Mets Games. http://www.wliswmrd.net

 

[jlehmann]

With 1410 presumably dropping the Spanish format, I wonder if this will mean a bunch of new Spanish pirates popping up in Brockton. (Yes rapking, I know you love pirates)

 

[pqgeorge]

They were advertised for $750k I think on one of the radio brokerage sites. I don't understand how prices for radio stations are still that high? It seems a lot of these A.M.s are worth no more than $250k! Didn't WBET go for $1M to B.T.R. a few years ago? Maybe 1 more round of suckers will buy @ the inflated price & then prices will be more or less back to where they should be. Other high prices (to me anyway): $900k for WNRI-Woonsocket, $1M for the 1140 C.P. in Greenville, R.I. (which the buyer would have to build), $575k for WJJF-Hope Valley, R.I. (or was it $550k?) & I hate to say it because they're a good local broadcaster transmitting in stereo, but $2M for WINY-Putnam, Ct. a few years ago. Still, WINY sounds pretty good on my brand-new Sony AX51V A.M. stereo radio.

Bob & Peter: you own stations. Am I right or wrong in thinking prices are still to high? I know the value of a station is really whatever someone will pay for it but it seems that a lot of these stations, especially suburban A.M.s, are priced too high. I know the sellers want to get back a substantial portion of what they paid for the station but it seems like their asking prices are too high.

Hi 'WVQ:
I agree with your assessment. Station prices, especially AM's in suburban markets are out-of-sight. It's amazing how some people are willing to pay top-dollar for a station that will have a next-to-no-chance of servicing the debt, except by doing "dollar-a-holler" programming or going the religion route. 1410 Brockton is one of those type of stations. When the original WOKW signed on back in 1961, it was a different time and a different Brockton. AM was KING and Brockton, a fairly/modestly affluent city at the time, was ready for another radio outlet for countering the other stations in town. The other stations in town, WBET/1460 and WBET-FM/97.7 were owned by The Brockton Enterprise newspaper. Their main mission with the radio was to sell papers. The rest was incidental. Mind you, some great radio came from the Enterprise stations and I was proud to be a part of it, many years later. And they had some great people over there over the years, too many to be mentioned here. For nearly 10 years, from 1952 until 1961, WBET had no local competition ever since the demise of WBKA/1450 and WBKA-FM/107.1.

But back to 1410/Brockton. It signed on as Top-40 rocker WOKW which, in spite of being a daytimer, got a decent share of the local audience. Later on, the Top-40 format evolved into what we would call today as "full-service" with MOR (middle-of-the-road) music. Also, there was a lot of local "schoolboy" football on 'OKW every Saturday afternoon, in season. As you can imagine, that was very popular. Later on, many of 'OKW's people moved over to WBET and WCAV (formerly WBET-FM) once the glory days of 1410 had ended in the late 70's. It's amazing how a one-time, well-run local AM station (the FORMER WOKW) could deteriorate to what it has become. Unfortunately, that is the nature of the beast. Couple that with a economy that's basically sucking pond water and you've got a recipe for a disaster. I wish all the best to the new owners of 1410. And by all means, PLEASE get a new set of call-letters other than WAMK or the current WMSX. Unfortunately, WOKW is not available.

 

[JIBGUY]

Keep in mind that the price for 1410 also includes real estate:
a single family house, converted for station use, the towers
out back, plus additional industrial-zoned land.

Unless someone fixed up that house, it's probably more of a liability than an asset. It was lookin pretty bad in the early 1980's. And yes, I would imagine there is land that comes with it, but not sure of that either. Maybe they'll build a church on the property too! - And yep, those book publishers from New York City who bought the station making it WAMK "knew exactly what they were doing in their first radio venture" were a joke. They probably walked away from it saying to themselves: "I wonder why we never got any listeners from Boston... we were TOLD it was a Boston station.... on second thought, we didn't get any from Brockton either...."

 

[Laurence Glavin]

Keep in mind that the price for 1410 also includes real estate:
a single family house, converted for station use, the towers
out back, plus additional industrial-zoned land.

Unless someone fixed up that house, it's probably more of a liability than an asset. It was lookin pretty bad in the early 1980's. And yes, I would imagine there is land that comes with it, but not sure of that either. Maybe they'll build a church on the property too! - And yep, those book publishers from New York City who bought the station making it WAMK "knew exactly what they were doing in their first radio venture" were a joke. They probably walked away from it saying to themselves: "I wonder why we never got any listeners from Boston... we were TOLD it was a Boston station.... on second thought, we didn't get any from Brockton either...."

As I mentioned on another board, the recent sale of WFGL-AM 960 in FITCHBURG, was listed on radioandrecords.com as WGGL, Fitchburg/Boston!

 

[bub]

I was at WOKW 1980-81, until it was sold by the Sanft family.
Arrogant, inexperienced New York publishing people bought it,
(hi, I'm the new owner, and today is your last day here...)
put in a bunch of new equipment, and came up with a "great
new programming concept - weather radio". Huh, what is that?
Weather every ten minutes. Whatever... Within, I believe,
about 1 1/2 years they ran it into the ground, and it went dark for awhile...

Then WCNX 1150 Middletown, CT tried all traffic and weather radio in the late 80s or early 90s

Before WCNX (now WLIS-WMRD), around 1989-90, WZMX 93.7 FM in Hartford, Ct. was an all weather station, I believe under their old call letters, WLVH, after a number of years as a Spanish format. Speaking of...

With 1410 presumably dropping the Spanish format, I wonder if this will mean a bunch of new Spanish pirates popping up in Brockton. (Yes rapking, I know you love pirates)

How do you say "Arrrrrr, shiver me timbers" in Spanish? ;D

 

[N1WVQ]

They were advertised for $750k I think on one of the radio brokerage sites. I don't understand how prices for radio stations are still that high? It seems a lot of these A.M.s are worth no more than $250k! Didn't WBET go for $1M to B.T.R. a few years ago? Maybe 1 more round of suckers will buy @ the inflated price & then prices will be more or less back to where they should be. Other high prices (to me anyway): $900k for WNRI-Woonsocket, $1M for the 1140 C.P. in Greenville, R.I. (which the buyer would have to build), $575k for WJJF-Hope Valley, R.I. (or was it $550k?) & I hate to say it because they're a good local broadcaster transmitting in stereo, but $2M for WINY-Putnam, Ct. a few years ago. Still, WINY sounds pretty good on my brand-new Sony AX51V A.M. stereo radio.

Bob & Peter: you own stations. Am I right or wrong in thinking prices are still to high? I know the value of a station is really whatever someone will pay for it but it seems that a lot of these stations, especially suburban A.M.s, are priced too high. I know the sellers want to get back a substantial portion of what they paid for the station but it seems like their asking prices are too high.

Hi 'WVQ:
I agree with your assessment. Station prices, especially AM's in suburban markets are out-of-sight. It's amazing how some people are willing to pay top-dollar for a station that will have a next-to-no-chance of servicing the debt, except by doing "dollar-a-holler" programming or going the religion route. 1410 Brockton is one of those type of stations. When the original WOKW signed on back in 1961, it was a different time and a different Brockton. AM was KING and Brockton, a fairly/modestly affluent city at the time, was ready for another radio outlet for countering the other stations in town. The other stations in town, WBET/1460 and WBET-FM/97.7 were owned by The Brockton Enterprise newspaper. Their main mission with the radio was to sell papers. The rest was incidental. Mind you, some great radio came from the Enterprise stations and I was proud to be a part of it, many years later. And they had some great people over there over the years, too many to be mentioned here. For nearly 10 years, from 1952 until 1961, WBET had no local competition ever since the demise of WBKA/1450 and WBKA-FM/107.1.

But back to 1410/Brockton. It signed on as Top-40 rocker WOKW which, in spite of being a daytimer, got a decent share of the local audience. Later on, the Top-40 format evolved into what we would call today as "full-service" with MOR (middle-of-the-road) music. Also, there was a lot of local "schoolboy" football on 'OKW every Saturday afternoon, in season. As you can imagine, that was very popular. Later on, many of 'OKW's people moved over to WBET and WCAV (formerly WBET-FM) once the glory days of 1410 had ended in the late 70's. It's amazing how a one-time, well-run local AM station (the FORMER WOKW) could deteriorate to what it has become. Unfortunately, that is the nature of the beast. Couple that with a economy that's basically sucking pond water and you've got a recipe for a disaster. I wish all the best to the new owners of 1410. And by all means, PLEASE get a new set of call-letters other than WAMK or the current WMSX. Unfortunately, WOKW is not available.

It seems like there are always 3 stations in these small areas. 2 were co-owned & 1 has always been a stand-alone that has seen better days. Woonsocket also has 3 stations licensed to it. Thankfully B.T.R. hasn't bought WOON!

 

[JIBGUY]

As I mentioned on another board, the recent sale of WFGL-AM 960 in FITCHBURG, was listed on radioandrecords.com as WGGL, Fitchburg/Boston!

Back in 1992, the just-starting-up USA Radio Network listed their "Boston" affiliate as "WGAW-1340".

 

[DanStrassberg]

Back in 1992, the just-starting-up USA Radio Network listed their "Boston" affiliate as "WGAW-1340".

Well, because of a day pattern designed to protect WROL, Class B WFGL, with 2500W by day, actually sends less of a signal toward Boston than does Class C WGAW, with 1000W. But, then, Gardner is farther from Boston than is Fitchburg. Both WGAW and WFGL are first-adjacent to Class B AMs (both 5 kW by day--though WRCA is soon to be 25 kW-D) licensed to Boston or close-in suburbs. So one can debate endlessly which claim of a Boston signal (960 or 1340) is more absurd. I'd call it a tie.

 

[rapking]

With 1410 presumably dropping the Spanish format, I wonder if this will mean a bunch of new Spanish pirates popping up in Brockton. (Yes rapking, I know you love pirates)

I LOVE PIRATES !!!!