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FCC Oks WELE license and donation

cflradio

cflradio

The FCC has conditionally renewed the license of WELE and approved the donation of the station to BCU.
more here http://www.cflradio.net/What's_News.htm

Bob Padilla
www.cflradio.net
 
Just on the FCC Web Site looking it all over and FCC making it clear that Wilhite is to receive no payment of any kind or any benefit from any kind of Tax Breaks for the Donation of the Radio Station to BCU.In addition Big John's LMA is Dead.Very Interesting...in all my 34 years I've never seen anything quite like this.
 
My eyes glaze over when I start reading legal stuff but it looks like all Bethune Cookman is getting from Wings is the license. Who owns the towers and transmitter? Is that what Goliath is donating?
 
"However, compelling public interest determinations support actions that will allow a donation of the Station’s license and related assets to Bethune-Cookman University (the “University”). Wilhite will derive no financial benefit from the donation."
It looks like everything goes with the donation. License, equipment and real estate.
 
Wings Communications, Inc. nor F. Douglas Wilhite owns the tower site nor the four broadcasting towers; however, Wings Communications, Inc has an assignable 99-year, prepaid, lease on the tower site which became effective in 1979 under previous owner, Hunter-Knight Daytona, Inc., William Hunter and Phillip Knight. I. E., Bethune-Cookman University will have no ownership interest in the tower-site under the Wings/Wilhite donation; however, BCU will have use of the tower site and towers at no cost to the university under the terms of the Hunter-Knight 99-year lease which was orignally assigned to Hale Communications, Inc and former WCPX channel 6 meteorologist Thomas Hale before being assigned to Wings/Wilhite in 1990. BCU may, however, have an option to acquire said real estate from its owner which is separate from Wings/Wilhite, Big John or Goliath Broadcasting, LLC. If such an option exist, BCU may be able to acquire the real estate in a separate transaction.
 
BCU is going to have a lot of work ahead.After the Hale bankruptcy the station was OFF THE AIR for quite some time bringing the radio station signal to where it was supposed to be...I worked for McMahon (the receiver) when it was under receivership and as I recall those Field Tests went on for quite a while even after we were back "on the air" circa "87-'88-'89...Ovie Loman was the Chief Engineer. Wings bought WELE at Auction in August or Sept of 1989 as I was the JOCK on the air during the Auction and had to Sign the Station Off the Air at that time.
 
I wonder if they might try to find a single tower to co-locate on and downgrade to D. That seems to be a trend for directional stations that need new towers or major work on their current ones.
 
BCU can certainly downgrade to a class "D" using a single tower but it isn't advisable. It's FMV will be greatly reduced not to mention 1380 will also sustain a greatly reduced signal. Right now WELE has the BEST AM signal in the overall Daytona Beach area, and it further has advantages the other stations never will have under current FCC rules.
 
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"John is donating the station’s south Nova Road studios, towers and equipment to the university." "The donation is expected to be near $1 million, B-CU officials say, though appraisals are not complete. John said he has owned and operated the station for about four years but has been waiting since 2009 for FCC approval to take over the license from Wings Communications."

Here's the link to the full article in the Daytona Beach News Journal
http://tinyurl.com/nhjrblc

Bob
www.cflradio.net
 
Actually WELE is Doug Wilhite's Radio Station John has a Lease Management Agreement to take over...something happened where the FCC would not grant Transfer to John so technically Doug is donating the station to BCU. Doug Wilhite appears on all of the FCC Forms...NOT Big John.
 
I haven't verified anything with the Volusia Country Property Appraiser's Office to verify who owns the real property; however Big John may actually own the real estate and all associated personal property, I. E., all related broadcasting equipment, furniture and fixtures; however, the license itself is still licensed to Wings Communications, Inc., F. Douglas Wilhite, President and majority stockholder, and as JPlainJohn explained, WELE is under contract with a Local Marketing/Management Agreement with Goliath Radio LLC. The original plan was that Wings would sell the station's assets and transfer the station license to Big John's Goliath Radio, LLC. When that didn't happen, it appears that Wilhite and John moved to implement "Plan B". As for the towers and the tower site (which sits in the middle of a mobile home park); unless Wilhite or Big John negotiated an acquisition of that property, neither Wilhite, nor John owns the tower site. As explained in an earlier post, that property commenced a 99-year lease beginning in 1979 with the previous station owner William Hunter and Phillip Knight.
 
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I tried doing a Google Search and I could not find the story-there was a Fire at WELE it had to be around 2008-2009...was that caused by an Electrical Short or something in the Rack,Lightning??? I don't recall as it had to be at least 5 or 6 years ago.
 
I don't know what I'm looking at but Volusia county property appraiser website lists Big John as owner of the property at

432 S NOVA RD ORMOND BEACH 32174

I don't know if this is where the towers are located. Where is Miss Marple when you need her!
 
The tower site property is located directly behind the main studio building listed at the above reference address, and it was once a part of the total real property owned by, what was then, WDAT-AM 1380; however, when Hunter-Knight Daytona, Inc. sold the radio station, the tower site was not a part of the sale. Only the real property beneath the building at 432 South Nova Road and the building itself was sold with the radio station. Bill Hunter retained the tower site and developed a mobile home park on the property, carefully arranging the mobile homes and access roads around the four towers. Neither Wings Communications, Inc., F. Douglas Wilhite, Goliath Radio, LLC nor Big John ever owned the tower site. The towers (minus the tower site real estate) are leased to Wings/Goliath and soon to be leased to Bethune-Cookman University.
 
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Jm-I Don't know what they have now but prior to that fire-if memory serves me right the Main Transmitter (Of course) was the 5000 Watt Transmitter and when you dropped power I believe it was 2,500 and we clicked something for the Nighttime Directional Pattern put the Transmitter on Low Power. But as with everything back in the day you had redundancy (which some stations lack nowadays) but I believe the Back-Up Transmitter at that time was a 1,000 watt that did run possibly,Non-Directional.
 
The last time I was there a couple of years ago, the main was a Gates 5, which was running, but had had a lot of work done on it. The backup was a Gates 1, and it had been cannibalized partly to keep the 5 running. AS I recall, Wilhites son was the person working on it.

The phasor was a fairly new Phasetek, but I don't know if they actually switched patterns. All the doghouses were in fair shape. I don't know if the control cables were good. That may have been the switching problem. I never looked into that.
 
Originally WELE was a 1kw daytimer as WQXQ, moving to 1kw-U; DA-N in 1969 using three towers with a call letter change to WDAT. It upgraded to 5kw-D, 2.5kw-N; DA-2, adding a forth tower in 1978, using two patterns, so it may very well have had a 1kw transmitter as backup although I don't remember ever seeing anything other than the 5kw transmitter when I was there in 2009 when I was GM.
 
Thanks,maybe Doug got rid of the 1kw..seems to be common anymore that you have hardly any redundancy,that said even at 1590 in South Daytona we had an old Collins as a back up to the Gates both 1kw and 250 or 500 I don't recall now as Low Power before the FCC came thru with that Daytimer 2 hour post sunset where you powered down every 15 minutes (as if).So Hopefully BCU can invest some money in new stuff at WELE or I guess if they (BCU) so chooses-find a buyer who can.Does this in any way effect BCU's ability to own the LPFM??? I'm guessing if they decide they don't want to keep it they can hold it in a seperate Trust until it is sold and then the LPFM would not be effected?
 
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