Saw where Birach Broadcasting won the action for a CP for am 640 in Terre Haute. Anyone know what they may do with it?
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CP for AM-640 in Terre Haute
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Judging from Birach's portfolio, I'd bank on brokered programming. Although, they have been known to program news/talk and standards.
Here is the deal..640 will never return to the air in TH...ever...It will be moved towards the Chicago market or towards Grand Rapids, MI. Anyway he is a BAD operator. Mark my words, I know!
W9WI you are right on! 640 will never go back on in Terre Haute, it will be head 
ed to Chicago suburbs by Birach, one of the cheapest operators of all time.
The fact Birach was the only bidder for 640 in Terre Haute shows how depressed and poor the Terre Haute area is and no one else even made a bid for tht best AM signal in the market.
640 had 75 mile coverage daytime with its day signal. 640 was the lowest AM frequency in the state of Indiana.
ed to Chicago suburbs by Birach, one of the cheapest operators of all time.The fact Birach was the only bidder for 640 in Terre Haute shows how depressed and poor the Terre Haute area is and no one else even made a bid for tht best AM signal in the market.
640 had 75 mile coverage daytime with its day signal. 640 was the lowest AM frequency in the state of Indiana.
True, the Terre Haute market is depressed however, there are only two AM stations on the air in town and no one (outside of a few on this board) even knows they are on the air. So, with no one listening to AM in town and all of the major formats covered, what would you put on that would draw an audiance? The only thing you could do with it is a non-profit religious format and we already have two of those. One done well and another one not. So why bother. AM in Terre Haute is probably gone for good.
busterluck said:
The best Birach story is the one where he leased AM 810 in Rockford, MI to a group of spanish broadcasters. The "renters" used 810's long shuttered, decaying studios at the transmitter site, where there had been no running water connected for years. A newer housing development is adjacent to the place, and soon, residents were calling the city to complain about radio station employees (ahem) "using the facilities" outdoors, which prompted a visit from the zoning / building code enforcement. Birach's answer was that he never promised them a studio or office, let alone a functional transmitter building with running water. In other words (literally) tough s**t. ;D
I'd love to get 640 just a ways south of TH and give service to a rural area (Ag, Sports, News).... Could it be moved and bought?
There used to be some interesting material on the web about Birach Sr. and Birach Jr. Birach Sr. also had a rather messy divorce and the ex implicated him in a number of interesting activities (not sexual).
Of course just about everything on this topic has been removed but suffice it to say Birach is in it for the money. What he does with it could raise eyebrows.
Of course just about everything on this topic has been removed but suffice it to say Birach is in it for the money. What he does with it could raise eyebrows.
I never saw the pattern of 640 when it was on the air. I was able to pick them up in Owensboro so the signal did go south during the day. The night pattern probably couldn't have been much more than a teardrop.
Regarding low AM dial positions, Indiana seems to have very few. 560 is technically Gary but identifies as Chicago.
Evansville had 630 when it was WGBF's early home. They operated on a time share with a station in Jefferson City, Missouri. The company that owned the Missouri station had interest in what became KXOK. They wanted to focus on St Louis so the owners paid WGBF to move. The Jefferson City station received the St Louis high dial position full time allocation while 630 moved to St Louis for full time operation.
If WGBF stayed at 630 and upgraded with a Powell Crosley desire, they would have owned that regional frequency during the day and only had to protect heritage adjacent channels and WMAL at night.
Regarding low AM dial positions, Indiana seems to have very few. 560 is technically Gary but identifies as Chicago.
Evansville had 630 when it was WGBF's early home. They operated on a time share with a station in Jefferson City, Missouri. The company that owned the Missouri station had interest in what became KXOK. They wanted to focus on St Louis so the owners paid WGBF to move. The Jefferson City station received the St Louis high dial position full time allocation while 630 moved to St Louis for full time operation.
If WGBF stayed at 630 and upgraded with a Powell Crosley desire, they would have owned that regional frequency during the day and only had to protect heritage adjacent channels and WMAL at night.
radiorob2.0 said:
WIND's city-of-license was changed to Chicago shortly after World War II.
Very close but not 100% accurate.
The station WGBF was sharing time with on 630 was KFRU in Columbia, Missouri. By 1940 KFRU had a permit to move to 1370 (a "local" channel); WGBF and KXOK were to swap frequencies -- WGBF from 630 to 1250 and KXOK from 1250 to 630. (so the St. Louis high dial position fulltime allocation ended up in Evansville, not Columbia)
The Great Frequency Shift of early 1941 changed KFRU's 1370 assignment to 1400, and WGBF's 1250 assignment to 1280. (I rather suspect neither station ever operated on 1370 or 1250, that both waited for the Great Shift)
There was a Jefferson City station in the mix until 1936. WOS belonged to the Missouri State Marketing Board. I would presume it was used to broadcast crop reports. (The State of Wisconsin owned a similar station, WLBL. WLBL is still on the air, as part of Wisconsin Public Radio.) KFRU was originally owned by Stephens College. I might imagine both Missouri stations operated a somewhat-less-than-full schedule & were thus felt able to handle sharing a frequency with each other and WGBF.
640 in Terre Haute was non-directional days and a two tower DA at night with a very small pull-back towards KFI. The night directional covered almost the same area as did the non-directional day. 640 had a CP for 500 watts day, using the night time directional two tower array.
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