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Clear Channel duffs station that took WMBL dark

T

Timothy

Link

They bought this station in Chucktown, and WMBL, took WMBL dark to increase 730am in Chucktown, and now they have it simulcasting, soon to be yet another automated MOR station.

Does anybody at the FCC think these kinds of actions may warrant inspection? Can I buy all the 97.7's in the country and take them dark so my little 3kw will have the coverage of a 300kw? And then drop it when it's not fun anymore?
 
> Link
>
> They bought this station in Chucktown, and WMBL, took WMBL
> dark to increase 730am in Chucktown, and now they have it
> simulcasting, soon to be yet another automated MOR station.
>
> Does anybody at the FCC think these kinds of actions may
> warrant inspection? Can I buy all the 97.7's in the country
> and take them dark so my little 3kw will have the coverage
> of a 300kw? And then drop it when it's not fun anymore?
>
I was wondering about AM stations that turn in their licenses and go dark lately, so I'll ask it out loud: Why would an AM daytimer just let their license expire and go off the air instead of trying to sell the license for some kind of scratch, because all of them obviously could use it.

Instead of just selling the license, stations like WCRY in Fuquay-Varina, and WKKE in St. Pauls, and a bunch of others around the country, just go dark? Is there some kind of FCC rule that says they have to just give up or something?
 
> Instead of just selling the license, stations like WCRY in
> Fuquay-Varina, and WKKE in St. Pauls, and a bunch of others
> around the country, just go dark? Is there some kind of FCC
> rule that says they have to just give up or something?
>

The license and frequency for WCRY 1460 in Fuquay-Varina was purchased by a
local businessman for the proverbial song, but so far has done nothing with
it.

KL

<a href="http://home.nc.rr.com/gttyson/lastradio.html">The Last Radio Station<a><P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
>
> Instead of just selling the license, stations like WCRY in
> Fuquay-Varina, and WKKE in St. Pauls, and a bunch of others
> around the country, just go dark? Is there some kind of FCC
> rule that says they have to just give up or something?

I've often wondered that about WBTB/Beaufort. I can only guess they got into the move to PKS and discovered halfway through that it was a bad move, and then couldn't sell a half built nothing.

I feel fairly certain that if they had shopped it around, we would have purchased it.
 
Back in 1988, Hickory station WSPF was sold to rival WIRC(AM)-WXRC(FM) but the WSPF licensed was turned in. The only thing WIRC used was the real estate--moved their old studios/offices to the nicer WSPF building and moved the WIRC transmitter/tower to the old WSPF site. I THINK--but am not sure--the old WIRC site was leased and it was running out or because of its proximity to growing retail property along I-40 they were offered a hunk of money for the old WIRC site. At any rate, though the old WSPF(at AM 1000) was a daytimer, it had a great signal at 5kw. I think many times, owners attempt to sell their AMs, but for whatever reason they just turn in the license.
 
When you are talking about a nasty dog like a whole lot of signals are becoming these days, the issue with selling it is lack of upside. It's very hard to find an owner who, even though he could pick up a license for a song, is willing to invest the capital, blood, sweat, and tears necessary to rebuild the station. Of course, this assumes that the station could even be rebuilt. Unfortunately, the reality of the business is that, over time, communities change. There are some truly useless frequencies out there. Even if you could buy one for ten grand, it becomes a question of how much you'd have to spend before you'd even break even.

Most people who have been successful enough in business to have plenty of extra money are way too smart to take on a hobbled frequency without a lot of upside. It's just not a smart investment.


Besides, how on earth do you find a buyer, unless you personally know one right off hand? Not a whole lot of brokers (yes, myself included) are willing to go through the process of advertising a station, finding a buyer, and making a deal happen for just a few hundred bucks commission. It costs, on average, $4,000 in travel, advertising, and expenses to sell a small-market station. These poor frequences do not make fiscal sense for buyers, or for brokers...
 
In the case of WBTB/Beaufort, it was the last standing AM signal in all of Carteret County. At 1kw, it had a decent signal. How expensive would it have been to buy a new 1kw transmitter and a new tower? That would be the total expense, wouldn't it?

In our case, if we had purchased it, we pretty much had a built in audience ready to listen.


> When you are talking about a nasty dog like a whole lot of
> signals are becoming these days, the issue with selling it
> is lack of upside. It's very hard to find an owner who, even
> though he could pick up a license for a song, is willing to
> invest the capital, blood, sweat, and tears necessary to
> rebuild the station. Of course, this assumes that the
> station could even be rebuilt. Unfortunately, the reality of
> the business is that, over time, communities change. There
> are some truly useless frequencies out there. Even if you
> could buy one for ten grand, it becomes a question of how
> much you'd have to spend before you'd even break even.
>
> Most people who have been successful enough in business to
> have plenty of extra money are way too smart to take on a
> hobbled frequency without a lot of upside. It's just not a
> smart investment.
>
>
> Besides, how on earth do you find a buyer, unless you
> personally know one right off hand? Not a whole lot of
> brokers (yes, myself included) are willing to go through the
> process of advertising a station, finding a buyer, and
> making a deal happen for just a few hundred bucks
> commission. It costs, on average, $4,000 in travel,
> advertising, and expenses to sell a small-market station.
> These poor frequences do not make fiscal sense for buyers,
> or for brokers...
>
 
For a new tower and transmitter, probably a hundred grand. The area is definitely AM-poor. The population in the county isn't so bad, 60,000 or so. However, it looks like there are at least 8 or 10 FM signals that hit the market. That makes for pretty tough competition. It would take a good long while to make your money back...
 
> For a new tower and transmitter, probably a hundred grand.
> The area is definitely AM-poor. The population in the county
> isn't so bad, 60,000 or so. However, it looks like there are
> at least 8 or 10 FM signals that hit the market. That makes
> for pretty tough competition. It would take a good long
> while to make your money back...
>
Man I wish I was a prettyboy lotterywinning local businessman in a lot of local areas lately. ;)
 
I would think, with one of those AM's, a standards or a softer-than-soft AC format (like WDUV-FM/Tampa, FL www.wduv.com) would work. Sure, it wouldn't be the largest biller in the area, by any means. However, if marketted and programmed properly, it could do well with retirees in the area, serve as a good community service, and make a few bucks (again...IF marketed and programmed properly)

> > For a new tower and transmitter, probably a hundred grand.
>
> > The area is definitely AM-poor. The population in the
> county
> > isn't so bad, 60,000 or so. However, it looks like there
> are
> > at least 8 or 10 FM signals that hit the market. That
> makes
> > for pretty tough competition. It would take a good long
> > while to make your money back...
> >
> Man I wish I was a prettyboy lotterywinning local
> businessman in a lot of local areas lately. ;)
>
 
> Back in 1988, Hickory station WSPF was sold to rival
> WIRC(AM)-WXRC(FM) but the WSPF licensed was turned in. The
> only thing WIRC used was the real estate--moved their old
> studios/offices to the nicer WSPF building and moved the
> WIRC transmitter/tower to the old WSPF site. I THINK--but am
> not sure--the old WIRC site was leased and it was running
> out or because of its proximity to growing retail property
> along I-40 they were offered a hunk of money for the old
> WIRC site. At any rate, though the old WSPF(at AM 1000) was
> a daytimer, it had a great signal at 5kw. I think many
> times, owners attempt to sell their AMs, but for whatever
> reason they just turn in the license.
>

I was at WIRC/WXRC at the time and our company did buy WSPF and turn the license in. Back in the heyday of local AMs, WSPF was THE CHR radio station in that town. When WXRC dropped it's hick approach to country, boosted the power and went Drake/Chenault CHR (the format voiced by John Leader), that was the end of WSPF. That was the end of a LOT of local AM stations in surrounding communities.

WSPF did go country but never really recovered it's past glory--cursed with a daytime only signal that didn't sign on until 7:45am during the shortest month of the year. We we all listening that final day; even though WSPF hadn't been big in a decade, there was something very sad about that spot on the dial being vacated forever.

WIRC/WXRC did move into the much nicer WSPF studios, but we did not use their tower site for WIRC. WIRC continued to use it's facilities along I-40 through at least '89. (Cool radio story: That old tower stood up fine during Hugo, making WIRC one of the few stations on the air in the whole Charlotte TSA when that baby blew through. We rigged up a Shure mike mixer at the studios, hooked it (and a Coleman generator) up to the STL and stayed on the air several days like that.

To answer your question about AM stations turning in their licenses to the FCC....
As part of the FCC's plan to salvage AM radio--after their botched attempt at AM stereo--they decided the AM band was terribly cluttered, like the FM dial is now, and encouraged companies to buy stations and shut them off. The idea being less interference on all frequencies and better coverage for the remaining stations. That's also why they extended the AM dial down to the 1700's; stations could simulcast on those new channels for a certain number of years, then eventually sign off their old frequencies once radios with the expanded range were widely available.
 
> Link
>
> They bought this station in Chucktown, and WMBL, took WMBL
> dark to increase 730am in Chucktown, and now they have it
> simulcasting, soon to be yet another automated MOR station.
>
> Does anybody at the FCC think these kinds of actions may
> warrant inspection? Can I buy all the 97.7's in the country
> and take them dark so my little 3kw will have the coverage
> of a 300kw? And then drop it when it's not fun anymore?
>
i asked this in another thread too. is WMBL's tower still standing? does clear channel own that broken down building on radio island or does it belong to somebody else?
 
Eric Calhoun said:
Back in 1988, Hickory station WSPF was sold to rival WIRC(AM)-WXRC(FM) but the WSPF licensed was turned in. The only thing WIRC used was the real estate--moved their old studios/offices to the nicer WSPF building and moved the WIRC transmitter/tower to the old WSPF site. I THINK--but am not sure--the old WIRC site was leased and it was running out or because of its proximity to growing retail property along I-40 they were offered a hunk of money for the old WIRC site. At any rate, though the old WSPF(at AM 1000) was a daytimer, it had a great signal at 5kw. I think many times, owners attempt to sell their AMs, but for whatever reason they just turn in the license.
Click to expand...

What happened with WSPF was that the owner, Willis Deal wanted to retire, He was in very bad health and would not live very much longer. Deal owned a couple of businesses, the Radio station and quite a bit of rental property. He wanted to sell the whole lot of properties as a package deal, and I believe shopped them around for over a year. Finding no buyers, he would not separate the station from the rest of the property, so it finally went dark.

Such a shame, because even as just a daytimer, WSPF had a long bright history. A long time rocker in the '60s and '70s, it had gone country in the '80s and still had a very large following.
 
WBTB Tower and studios were bulldozed to make way for condos. the licence was snapped up by Dr Benfield and has been moved to Jacksonville, NC. I wold really like to put an AM on in Carteret county, Other than WTKF and a Moody 100kw that is nothing but a sat reciever connected to a transmitter The Down East community has no voice at all. Even thought of putting a LPFM on here, but, The FCC is unclear when the filing window will open, if it ever does. There is an Ocracoke allocation out there, but I have no Idea what is up with it. I have a strong tie to WBTB, or as it was WBMA. I worked there in the old days,before and after the call letter change. The original licence was granted on my birth day. It would have been 51 in feb 2006. WMBL was a hoot in the old days as well. Even though it was just a killowatt, It sounded like a million dollars. Jay Cobb had his act together and had some of the best Pams jingles that money could buy. We catered to the folks arround carteret county, doing fishing reports, surf reports, ect. I loved the reverb on the air, It just made that little station on radio island sound bigger. All just a fond memory now.
 
I used to listen to WMBL when I lived in Wilmington. Signal was good down at Wrightsville Beach.

Problem with AM today is all the manmade interference - high tension power lines, cell phones, computer monitors, all those computer controlled stoplights, traffic cameras, etc. To save AM, the FCC needs to grant across the board power increases to everyone. Remember when the changed the rules on local signals and allowed them to go to 1KW at night?

I am not an engineer, and I know there are skywave issues, but it would seem that the across the board power increase would counteract any distant interference.

Digital could help, but it is likely to end up just like AM Stereo.
 
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