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Last Call

Rusty Bridges

Rusty Bridges

Seems there's no shortage of stories predicting the demise of radio, AM in particular. While briefly listening to WXRL a few days ago, the thought occurred, "Who's gonna buy these mom and pop AM radio stations when the owner dies and they become part of an estate?" Will family members simply pull the plug and sell the land to developers? Will they sell the station for pennies on the dollar just to settle the estate? Seems to me that the owners of small AM stations may be the last owners these stations will ever have. Who in their right mind would spend a bushel of money to buy an AM in say... Lancaster, Lockport, Batavia, Brockport, Niagara Falls or Springville. An AM with a translator or two, or three, like Warsaw's WCJW, doesn't seem to be all that enticing.
 
I think you've described it pretty well. Based on what I've seen, some stations have sold for under $100K, In some places, some enterprising former broadcasters have bought these licenses for hobby stations. There's one outside of Knoxville TN that is run by a former engineer who's programming his personal favorite music. Rising music royalties have made internet radio less of an option for hobbyists, and Part 15s or LPFMs have their limitations. So why not take a chance with a small AM station and see what you can do?
 
Now the guy in Knoxville has a translator with some semi-decent coverage. So we can see if geek-and-collector radio can get an audience.
 
Standalone AM stations that are in areas where the FM spectrum is full under the current mileage separation scheme might have some value if there is an FM translator attached. It wouldn't bring as much as if it were a class A FM, but it would still have some value.

However if a station needs a complex directional array just to operate daytime, such as the case of WJMP Kent OH, a 6 tower DA, daytime only ( http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/patg?id=WJMP-AM&h=D ), an FM translator wouldn't be of much help. Maintaining a 6 tower DA would be rather expensive, and if the land has much value, such a station would likely be doomed. With a co-channel station just 30 or so miles away in Canton, it might be tough for WJMP to get down to a 2 tower DA even if they were to cut power to 250 watts, but more learned minds here would have a more definite answer.
 
TheBigA said:
I think you've described it pretty well. Based on what I've seen, some stations have sold for under $100K, In some places, some enterprising former broadcasters have bought these licenses for hobby stations. There's one outside of Knoxville TN that is run by a former engineer who's programming his personal favorite music. Rising music royalties have made internet radio less of an option for hobbyists, and Part 15s or LPFMs have their limitations. So why not take a chance with a small AM station and see what you can do?
Click to expand...

That's a novel idea, but the problem is keeping the lights burning and the transmitter humming. If you can afford to burn money, then by all means jump in. If not, then you better be someone who can sell iceboxes to Eskimos.
 
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