LISA FRANK is selling Country WTNK-A and FM translator W228CB/HARTSVILLE, TN to LORI and KENNETH FORTE's R & F COMMUNICATIONS, INC. for $191,000. Guys I know this is way out of Nashville radio..but c'mon someone explain to me why anyone buys a small AM daytimer with a 250 FM watt translater for that amount..am I missing something here?? The new owners own the Dickson AM from what I can tell...If you not familiar with Hartsville..small town..not very many business's that can spend dollars....No real industries there..not dissing the town...nice people, and a pleasant area to live....but I just don't understand this buy..confused ???
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Hartsville station sold.....
- Thread starter deltas69
- Start date
I've seen stations going for more and some for less. WJJT in Jellico went for $250k a few years ago and it didn't have a translator. Have you ever been to Jellico? It's smaller than Hartsville. The station in Hartsville has a nice building and some property with it which helps the overall value. The two AM stations in Sparta are for sale and the owner wants around $250k for them. You have the AM in Madisonville that went for $100k and the owner had to carry the note on it. The new owners at least have some radio experience and they probably saw something in that town they liked and think the station can make a profit. I've seen radio stations in small populated towns that do quite well and some that haven't.
Yes, just to confirm, the Fortes own WDKN in Dickson. They bought it and put it back on the air in 2009 after a few months off the air. They also added an FM translator sometime last year, I think. That station had an FM sister station WDKN-FM back in the day, but it became a Nashville "move-in." You now know it better as "The Game." Well, at least that's their name for it this week, anyway. :deltas69 said:
since i am pretty much clueless on the tech side of the tower..if an AM is broadcasting in mono..and they have an FM translater..is it also broadcasting in mono ??..more or less a simulcast thing ?? and as a FM signal goes..isn't HAAT the optimum setup...meaning a 250 watt fm on top of a 2000 foot hill would have more coverage area than the same signal at the bottom of said hill ??
I'm pretty much clueless on whatever you just wrote Pat...but for a journey to Lebanon broadcasting for a while, the Hartsville station first went on the air in 1966...I was the origianl joc/news guy/restroom cleaner/ sweeper and house shoe wearing guy at the station.....don't ask if you don't know. I know they did a lot of selling in the nearby markets, and had a strong signal when I was there. Please don't tell me technically why the signal is not as strong as it was....probably like me.....older
deltas69 said:
It's definitely a simulcast thing. With EXTREMELY limited exceptions, a translator *must* be a 100% simulcast of the "primary" station, in this case WDKN. There's nothing technical that forces that -- a translator is, in essence, a low-powered FM station. It's a FCC thing -- it's the Commission that requires a translator to be a 100% relay.
WDKN's translator is stereo.
Under the rules a translator located within the coverage area of the primary station may receive its programming by any means. In WDKN's case, the FM translator is on the AM tower - so probably they just ran another pair of wires from the air studio over to the transmitter room.
HAAT is certainly important. WDKN's FM antenna is 106m (about 330') above average terrain. The FCC predicts it to deliver 43dBu of signal to my location near Pleasant View. If their antenna were only 30m (100') high, they'd only deliver 32dBu. You don't really need to know what a dBu is, just that a station that has 11 fewer of them is 11 times weaker.....
thanks w9wl....tech stuff in English...I think I may have understood. And Tibbs...Thank you for reminding me again I'm old.
I liked your response to the person who posted about all on here being over 60...my thoughts were, 'yea...we know what the reality WAS, not just the dreams of those too young to know the difference between then and now.
I liked your response to the person who posted about all on here being over 60...my thoughts were, 'yea...we know what the reality WAS, not just the dreams of those too young to know the difference between then and now.
;D Yea Buddy..know all about the house shoes..almost got to wear them myself. once I got the all powerful third class license with the important "broadcast endorsement" , I was hired at the "Mighty 1090" on a Friday afternoon...got the complete tour, all the regs as compiled by Chester..and told to report for duty the following morning...sign on...........to.........sign off..for the rest of my life..lol. Fortunately.......or perhaps not so...Buntin called me that night, said to meet him at his 'Executive" location, where upon..he hired me to do weekends, and Jack Williams to sell and twist wires. Nothing ever was mentioned concerning the wearing for house shoes at WHIN...I never even called Chester..figured he's had that happen before......the rest is lowly paid radio lore...
deltas69 said:
Lessee, 32,257 meters which is about 106,000 feet.
Or, more readably, about 20 miles
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Actually, that figure varies *wildly* depending on the quality of your radio. The 20 mile figure is the distance at which the FCC would protect the station from interference.
Good radios (car radios, mostly) will provide a good quality signal at a much greater distance if there isn't any interference in the way. In the absence of interference my car radio would probably pick up this hypothetical station to a distance of 70km or more. (that's just shy of 40 miles)
I can pick them up here in Pegram, too, although usually not strong enough to stop the seek/scan feature on them. Since we are in Cheatham County, and they are a primarily Dickson/Dickson County station, we are just bonus coverage area for them.w9wi said:
And the name "the One" has been overused here in middle Tennessee.
20 miles would be enough to cover Dickson County (which is what they want), and maybe reach into neighboring counties.w9wi said:Lessee, 32,257 meters which is about 106,000 feet.
Or, more readably, about 20 miles
Actually, that figure varies *wildly* depending on the quality of your radio. The 20 mile figure is the distance at which the FCC would protect the station from interference.
B
bigrobmjca
Guest
Well, WTNK was my first radio job. I wish Lisa the best of luck in the future.
B
bigrobmjca
Guest
Well, Gary Frank gave me my first chance at being on commercial radio. I left 2 months after my internship ended to go run the board overnights at WTN. Gary and Lisa were two of the nicest people you could ever work for.
firepoint525 said:
That 20-mile figure was for deltas69's hypothetical station atop a 2,000-foot hill. For WDKN whose antenna is about 340' high, the figure is more like 8 miles.
But again, that's the interference-protected contour; in the absence of interference, it'll do a lot better on many radios.
And, even at 8 miles it more than adequately covers the city of Dickson & adjoining populated areas, including the commercial strips down towards I-40:
https://maps.google.com/?q=http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/contourplot.kml%3Fgmap%3D2%26appid%3D1448909%26call%3DW268BN%26freq%3D101.5%26contour%3D60%26city%3DDICKSON%26state%3DTN.kml
Great map! That means that even at their worst, they are still covering the Dickson area, including that ever-important hwy. 46 corridor, and even a little bit of I-40 each direction from exit 172. 8)
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