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Hypothetical: WDAC is sold

D

danwxman

Let's just say that WDAC gets sold to Clear Channel, Citadel or some other large radio company. What changes would happen? Would they keep the Christian format? If one of the new operators decides to flip... what would it be to?

I'd say CC would flip it to Country. Citadel would go CHR or Soft AC. Either would probably move to the tower to where WLAN is located.
 
WDAC is an extremely successful operation.
I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt the chance of that
station being sold would be slim to none for quite some time.
Also that station is so successful in terms of revenue even if it
did get sold anyone would be a nut to change the format.
There is considerable income in Christian broadcasting and WDAC does
consistently well in the ratings in it's market as well.
Financially WDAC does as well if not better than most of its major
Lancaster county competitors for quite some time.
 
I agree with grandoleopry that it would be quite unlikely that this station would be sold any time soon, due to it's success. Though that being said, the Crawfords' did put sister station WBYN in Boyertown up on the market and would have had it sold had Nassau not had its financial troubles.

As for it being moved to the WLAN tower, I don't think that would work. It would be short-spaced with WRBT (94.9) in Harrisburg and, I believe, WBHV (94.5) in State College. I'm sure there would be other problems created, but those are the obvious ones to me right now. It probably would ease the co-channel short-spacing with WPST in Trenton, but that's beside the point.
 
grandoleopry said:
WDAC is an extremely successful operation.
I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt the chance of that
station being sold would be slim to none for quite some time.
Also that station is so successful in terms of revenue even if it
did get sold anyone would be a nut to change the format.
There is considerable income in Christian broadcasting and WDAC does
consistently well in the ratings in it's market as well.
Financially WDAC does as well if not better than most of its major
Lancaster county competitors for quite some time.
Click to expand...

Hence the "hypothetical"

But thanks for your comments and I agree WDAC isn't going anywhere anytime soon
 
KSB said:
I agree with grandoleopry that it would be quite unlikely that this station would be sold any time soon, due to it's success. Though that being said, the Crawfords' did put sister station WBYN in Boyertown up on the market and would have had it sold had Nassau not had its financial troubles.

As for it being moved to the WLAN tower, I don't think that would work. It would be short-spaced with WRBT (94.9) in Harrisburg and, I believe, WBHV (94.5) in State College. I'm sure there would be other problems created, but those are the obvious ones to me right now. It probably would ease the co-channel short-spacing with WPST in Trenton, but that's beside the point.
Click to expand...

But then why isn't WLAN shortspaced with WRVV? I think the move would be fine, and it moves away from WPST.
 
Dan said:
But then why isn't WLAN shortspaced with WRVV? I think the move would be fine, and it moves away from WPST.
Click to expand...

I'll admit I'm not an engineer and know just enough to be dangerous. I would think that WLAN and WRVV are short-spaced under grandfathered rules (pre-1964, maybe?). I'm not sure that WDAC could go from not being short-spaced to being short-spaced with WRBT at this point. I do know that WDAC/WPST are grandfathered, so that's not an issue that needs to be fixed - though anyone caught in the middle would disagree. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable, such as Scott Fybush, could jump in and give more explanation on why it would or would not work.

Like you said, it's only a hypothetical and likely will never happen, but it's interesting to know if it could even happen. In my opinion, WDAC has a great signal, at least from my vantage point in Lebanon Co. Sure, they could gain a little to the west and northwest, but I'd think they would lose a lot of coverage in just about every other direction because of WPST. Not to mention, they'd probably have to shut down their pair of 103.9 translators in Shillington and Wagontown, unless they decided to relay WBYN instead.
 
WLAN is short spaced to WRVV by -25.8 km.

WDAC is shortspaced to:

WBHV -2.2 km
WIAD -41.46 km
WPST -117 km

It only has clearance to WRBT by 2.49 km as it is now.
It only has clearance to WIOV of 11.75 km due to an IF spacing. (10.6 MHz)

There is no way WDAC could ever be moved. All of this per rfInvestigator software using a current FCC database.
 
Well, it could be moved, but not in any way that would make any sense at all.

The short-spacings to WIAD and WPST are pre-1964 grandfathered short-spacings. You could move WDAC even closer to one or the other, but only by decreasing the total amount of interference, which in practice would mean downgrading WDAC from B to B1 or even less. No reason to want to do that.

WDAC would have been better off, ironically, if it had been short-spaced to what's now WRBT prior to 1964; as a second-adjacent, it would then have had no spacing restrictions against 94.9, though it would still have been limited by other factors, primarily WBHV. But as it now stands, WDAC has to abide by the post-1964 spacing rules with respect to WRBT, and as vetguy notes, it's already very close to the minimum spacing there.

As for WLAN and WRVV, they're already short-spaced, as vetguy points out. It's a pre-1964 short-spacing, so the two stations could move closer to each other...if that were the only spacing consideration, which it very much is not.
 
If WDAC were sold, and I don't see that happening.....it would probably be sold to another Christian broadcaster. After the mess with Nassau in Boyertown, I think they'd stay clear of the larger companies that just want to add to their portfolio. There isn't really any format available right now that could do nearly as well for them as the Christian format has done over the years. The station has evolved over it's history...and has always been state of the art. Did they have a translator in Camp Hill at one time?
 
While you may not be into the format, WDAC is a cash cow and makes a bundle of money. End of story. Anyone who would try to change that is a fool.
 
vetguy said:
While you may not be into the format, WDAC is a cash cow and makes a bundle of money. End of story. Anyone who would try to change that is a fool.
Click to expand...

I guess some people have reading comprehension issues.
 
TODDMAYOR said:
what does wdac stand for??? we all know wlan lancaster. wgal gardens around lancaster. wiov i o v (105) ETC.
Click to expand...

From their website, www.wdac.com

"Many people through the years have wondered if WDAC's call letters actually stand for anything. Well, indeed they do. Ruth and Percy Crawford had 5 children...Don, Dick, Dan, Dean, and Donna. When Percy Crawford turned in his application to the FCC for possible call letter combinations, he sent 5 suggestions...the initials of all 5 of his children. The combination that the FCC chose to allow Percy Crawford to use for his new radio station was "DAC", which were the initials of his son, Dean Alan Crawford."
 
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