Dark or Distressed Stations

[notalkallstatic]

Just being curious, does anyone know any dark or distressed stations in this market, AM and/or FM? Thanks!

 

[LATarone]

In the immediate vicinity of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, I do not know. 1320 AM was dark, but last I heard a religious group had put it back on the air and it may still be.
But a little farther away, 550 AM, which used to be the old WHLM/Bloomsburg, is dark and has been for several years. It used to have a great signal, clearly reaching Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre. 1590 AM, the old WMIM in Mount Carmel, is also dark -- at least, the last I checked. Its signal used to be pretty good, as it took was audibile in both Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre, though weakly in the latter. 15030 AM, the former WMBT in Shenandoah, is also dark. Its last owner was the Pottsville Republican, which pulled the plug about two years ago. It signal covered Hazleton as well as if it had its transmitter here and I seem to remember its signal being strong southward. WISL in Shamokin is, I believe, also dark. Off the top of my head, those are all of which I'm aware.





> Just being curious, does anyone know any dark or distressed
> stations in this market, AM and/or FM? Thanks!
>

 

[notalkallstatic]

Do you know what company owns "1320 AM"? Also, what are the call letters?

> In the immediate vicinity of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, I do
> not know. 1320 AM was dark, but last I heard a religious
> group had put it back on the air and it may still be.
> But a little farther away, 550 AM, which used to be the old
> WHLM/Bloomsburg, is dark and has been for several years. It
> used to have a great signal, clearly reaching Hazleton and
> Wilkes-Barre. 1590 AM, the old WMIM in Mount Carmel, is also
> dark -- at least, the last I checked. Its signal used to be
> pretty good, as it took was audibile in both Hazleton and
> Wilkes-Barre, though weakly in the latter. 15030 AM, the
> former WMBT in Shenandoah, is also dark. Its last owner was
> the Pottsville Republican, which pulled the plug about two
> years ago. It signal covered Hazleton as well as if it had
> its transmitter here and I seem to remember its signal being
> strong southward. WISL in Shamokin is, I believe, also dark.
> Off the top of my head, those are all of which I'm aware.

 

[NEPA_RadioGuy]

> Do you know what company owns "1320 AM"? Also, what are the
> call letters?
>

1320 AM went dark in 1992. It was WSCR Scranton then WBQW, then WSCR, then WTSS.. Shamrock had recently submitted a request for a new station at 1320 licensed to Dickson City. They had since withdrawn that. Maybe KFitz can help you out on more info. He is an engineer with Shamrock. Good Luck.

 

[k2pg]

The licenses for most of those stations have been deleted by the FCC. If a station is silent for over a year, the FCC automatically cancels the license. WMBT cannot return to the air because it was a Class D station (protecting WSAI, Cincinnati) and the FCC isn't licensing any more of those stations. Under the new AM rules, it would be difficult for anyone to get a construction permit for any of the other frequencies. Times-Shamrock did have a pending application to put 1320 on the air from Dickson City, but, to my knowledge, no construction permit was issued and the station was never built. The original 1320 was WSCR in Scranton. It went dark years ago, the license was deleted, and the call letters are now on a station in Chicago.

Gone are the days when a station could go dark, revert to a construction permit status, and remain dormant while renewing the construction permit.

 

[R_R]

590. Maybe not dark but certainly dim

 

[LATarone]

Thanks for the clarification – I didn’t know that about the Class D’s. But I should have remembered Shamrock’s interest in 1320 AM. I worked there 100 years ago when it was WBQW. And about the time Shamrock was interested, I was the PD at WAZL and had just flipped it to talk. I was trying to talk the station’s owner, 4-M, into acquiring both 1320 AM and the then-dark 1340 AM in Wilkes-Barre and putting AZL’s line-up on all three to take on WILK and WARM head to head. The sales manager Tom Harpster thought it was a great idea, but it never happened. Pardon me for digressing.





> The licenses for most of those stations have been deleted by
> the FCC. If a station is silent for over a year, the FCC
> automatically cancels the license. WMBT cannot return to the
> air because it was a Class D station (protecting WSAI,
> Cincinnati) and the FCC isn't licensing any more of those
> stations. Under the new AM rules, it would be difficult for
> anyone to get a construction permit for any of the other
> frequencies. Times-Shamrock did have a pending application
> to put 1320 on the air from Dickson City, but, to my
> knowledge, no construction permit was issued and the station
> was never built. The original 1320 was WSCR in Scranton. It
> went dark years ago, the license was deleted, and the call
> letters are now on a station in Chicago.
>
> Gone are the days when a station could go dark, revert to a
> construction permit status, and remain dormant while
> renewing the construction permit.
>

 

[DowntownHazleton]

> The licenses for most of those stations have been deleted by
> the FCC. If a station is silent for over a year, the FCC
> automatically cancels the license. WMBT cannot return to the
> air because it was a Class D station (protecting WSAI,
> Cincinnati) and the FCC isn't licensing any more of those
> stations. Under the new AM rules, it would be difficult for
> anyone to get a construction permit for any of the other
> frequencies. Times-Shamrock did have a pending application
> to put 1320 on the air from Dickson City, but, to my
> knowledge, no construction permit was issued and the station
> was never built. The original 1320 was WSCR in Scranton. It
> went dark years ago, the license was deleted, and the call
> letters are now on a station in Chicago.
>
> Gone are the days when a station could go dark, revert to a
> construction permit status, and remain dormant while
> renewing the construction permit.
>
I'm not certain, but I believe no matter what class of AM it is, if the station goes dark without the proper FCC notification or CP for improvements and stays dark for over a year, the license is deleted and unable to return. Not just class D's. This is the commission's way of cleaning up the over-populated AM band. When Route 81 bought 1440 from Citadel they took it off the air for over a year, but they had to file a notification and CP with the FCC to make the necessary improvements. That's legal. But, if you just turn it off because the license is making no money and you're trying to find a buyer, if a year goes by, the ticket is cancelled. Kevin Fitz or Mike Moran would probably have a better explanation.

 

[k2pg]

> I'm not certain, but I believe no matter what class of AM it
> is, if the station goes dark without the proper FCC
> notification or CP for improvements and stays dark for over
> a year, the license is deleted and unable to return. Not
> just class D's.

That's what I wrote. My mention of Class D stations pertained to WMBT in Shenandoah, as it was a Class D station that went dark. The owner (the local newspaper) then surrendered the license to the FCC. Since a Class B station won't fit on that frequency, it will remain dark forever, as the FCC won't license a new Class D station under any circumstances. WMBT operated on 1530, where it had to protect WSAI in Cincinnati by leaving the air at sundown.

If ANY kind of radio station goes dark and stays dark for over a year, the FCC will delete the license. This applies to FM stations as well.

Once a license is deleted, someone may apply for the vacant frequency when the FCC opens a filing window. If the station was an AM station or a noncommercial FM station operating in the reserved band (88-92 MHz), an engineering study must be conducted to show the FCC that the proposed facilities will fit. Commercial FM applicants must specify a channel listed for that community in the FM Table of Allocations. The applicant must then bid in a spectrum auction (unless it is a noncommercial applicant requesting a reserved-band FM channel) and the winning bidder will get the construction permit.

The FCC has a list of silent stations on its Web site. A "D" before the call letters indicates a recently deleted license.