Broadcast Learning Center, Inc. has just agreed to sell its only station, WSJI (89.5 Cherry Hill, NJ), to "Educational Media Foundation" of Rocklin, CA.
Of course, there's really nothing educational about EMF. It's the largest of those religious broadcasters who abuse the reserved channels below 92 on the dial by masquerading as public broadcasters, relying on listener support and advertising disguised as "underwriting" (and they stretch the rules on underwriting much further than real pubcasters do). Worse, some of the programming from these outfits is not only not educational in any resonable sense of the word; it's also not so much religious as it is political -- and always far, far right.
From the standpoint of employment in radio, this is even worse than voicetracking. These outfits feed their right-wing pseudo-Christian drivel to stations all over the country, as well as to translators that are nowhere the parent station. There's only work for a contract engineer and perhaps a local manager, which is a nominal job with no real authority. And of course, localism is a dead issue for these people.
EMF is best known for its two "Christian" music formats. The larger one, "K-Love," targeted to 25-54's, is the "Christian Contemporary" format that will be on WSJI. The comapny also owns the smaller "Air-1," which is described as "Christian Alternative" and is aimed at 18-34's.
EMF is reportedly paying $2.5 million -- and that's good news, because they're overpaying for a very weak signal. Of course it's got great coverage in Cherry Hill, Hadddonfield and Moorestown -- three of the most affluent towns in South Jersey. But its 60 dBu barely touches the west bank of the Delaware River at a point in the lower Northeast. And to the South, its 60 dBu is only a couple of miles from overlapping that of WGLS (licensed to Glassboro but with its anenna in the sticks on the Channel 61 tower), which is a first-adjacent at 89.7. Their 50 dBu's overlap in a considerable area of South Jersey and South Philadelphia, limiting the stick value of both stations. And further south, WSJI faces even more first-adjacent interference from NJN's WNJB (Bridgeton) on 89.3. So this was hardly a good deal for EMF, though they were probably happy to get it because they've been trying to get a foothold in the Philadelphia market for years.
What do you Philadelphia board regulars think about this?
Of course, there's really nothing educational about EMF. It's the largest of those religious broadcasters who abuse the reserved channels below 92 on the dial by masquerading as public broadcasters, relying on listener support and advertising disguised as "underwriting" (and they stretch the rules on underwriting much further than real pubcasters do). Worse, some of the programming from these outfits is not only not educational in any resonable sense of the word; it's also not so much religious as it is political -- and always far, far right.
From the standpoint of employment in radio, this is even worse than voicetracking. These outfits feed their right-wing pseudo-Christian drivel to stations all over the country, as well as to translators that are nowhere the parent station. There's only work for a contract engineer and perhaps a local manager, which is a nominal job with no real authority. And of course, localism is a dead issue for these people.
EMF is best known for its two "Christian" music formats. The larger one, "K-Love," targeted to 25-54's, is the "Christian Contemporary" format that will be on WSJI. The comapny also owns the smaller "Air-1," which is described as "Christian Alternative" and is aimed at 18-34's.
EMF is reportedly paying $2.5 million -- and that's good news, because they're overpaying for a very weak signal. Of course it's got great coverage in Cherry Hill, Hadddonfield and Moorestown -- three of the most affluent towns in South Jersey. But its 60 dBu barely touches the west bank of the Delaware River at a point in the lower Northeast. And to the South, its 60 dBu is only a couple of miles from overlapping that of WGLS (licensed to Glassboro but with its anenna in the sticks on the Channel 61 tower), which is a first-adjacent at 89.7. Their 50 dBu's overlap in a considerable area of South Jersey and South Philadelphia, limiting the stick value of both stations. And further south, WSJI faces even more first-adjacent interference from NJN's WNJB (Bridgeton) on 89.3. So this was hardly a good deal for EMF, though they were probably happy to get it because they've been trying to get a foothold in the Philadelphia market for years.
What do you Philadelphia board regulars think about this?
