So lets say those stations had to make that $30 mil difference if they didnt sell....
@DavidEduardo could probably tell us it would take a few decades too get that.
Las Vegas has been an underperforming market since the pandemic began, and there is concern that the nation's travel patterns may have permanently changed. There are lots of regional gaming options all across the US, so Vegas in the future will be based on the combination of huge entertainment options, from shows to major sports. Overall, the sale of valuable land produces more than a local ad market that seems to be less prosperous than it once was.
Serious question---if FM translators were meant to help AMs survive, how is it okay to take an AM dark and feed the translator from an HD?
@DavidEduardo ?
@fybush ?
Translators that are strictly tied to an AM are just one "kind" of that class of FMs. There are others that have formed a major part of both state and national educational and religious formats, where there is no local requirement for a "station to translate". And still others that must have a local licensed signal of any kind to operate... such as an HD2, HD3, HD4 signal. And there are some that are operated by AM stations, but which are not tied to that one specific license.
There are several experts on translators here who are more knowledgeable and can add some additional details, but I just wanted to mention that not all of them are strictly tied to one single AM license and can move from one to another or from an AM to an FM HD channel.
What I do see is an obvious wake-up call to the FCC to reconsider tying continued operation of a parent AM to a specific translator. AM is becoming unsustainable, and forcing stations to remain on the air just to keep the translator permit is not realistic. Of course, what is obvious to you and me may be received with a totally oblivious attitude by Fox Charlie Charlie.
Were I inside the Beltway in a position of authority, I'd look carefully at how Mexico and several other nations in our hemisphere reacted to the slow decline and, now, imminent death of AM: they changed the second adjacent channel separation requirements to allow more full, licensed FMs in more congested markets. By doing so, they were able to move about 80% of all existing AMs to the FM band with full facilities ranging from what in the US would be A's to complete C's.
The US separation requirements for FM stations were established to the greater extent over 60 years ago when FM receivers were not as selective and were subject to drift. Transmitters were not endowed with today's technology and the creations of Messrs. Orban, Oginowsky and Foti were decades away. It's time to revisit the FM band and declare AM to be obsolete.
Of course, there are issues of public safety where AM is a vastly superior communication service due to its primitive simplicity and that may need to be dealt with with a different, government based system of emergency stations and the provision of the populace with devices intended to provide communication when all else fails. And maybe (sarcasm: ON) a system of air balloon based transmitters to be launched in any emergency, local or national (sarcasm: OFF).
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