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Liscences Going to Waste

B

beantownradio25

Guest
It is sad to me all the Liscences going to waste as this Nassau-Sharpio deal has seemed to fall apart.
 
How long does the FCC let a station stay silent before they delete the liscense? Is it one year? Are these stations safe since theyre supposebly in the process of being sold?
 
@beantownradio25: Please, for the love of God, use spell check. *Licenses*

Nothing personal, it just really annoyed me.

As to the FCC part of your question, there are extensions that can be filed, but at some point they will revoke. Also, owners can petition to forfeit, which might not be a bad idea where some of these frequencies are concerned.
 
If I'm reading the CDBS properly (and I'm not exactly sure of its accuracy), WNNH and WWHQ went silent 3/1/2010. There's no way Nassau will let them get deleted...they'll just simulcast something for a month and shut it down again. Isn't WWHK simulcasting WTPL? If so, isn't there a whole lot of prohibited overlap there?


beantownradio25 said:
How long does the FCC let a station stay silent before they delete the liscense? Is it one year? Are these stations safe since theyre supposebly in the process of being sold?
Click to expand...
 
beantownradio25 said:
How long does the FCC let a station stay silent before they delete the liscense? Is it one year?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's one year. It wasn't the FCC's decision, an Act of Congress ordered the FCC to cancel the license of any station that remains off for more than a year.

(I doubt the FCC had any objection to the Act though)

Are these stations safe since theyre supposebly in the process of being sold?
Click to expand...

Not that I know of.
 
Yes, one year, it is, with NO EXTENSIONS for existing stations that were on the air. The only extensions are for CP's of stations that never made it on the air, particularly when the CP changes ownership. - Back to existing on-air stations that go off, it's just one year, period. A dark existing station can go back on the air for 3 hours on day 364 of silence, then go off again and it's got another year, if it has a reasonable reason/explanation, and the FCC is reasonable about that. - As to the Act of Congress, that is true... it was part of the much-deserved-maligned Telecommunications Act of 1996.
 
WPHX 1220 AM/Sanford Maine. When it is on the air the audio is garbage and it's been off the air for 2 weeks. That is a waste. WFNX Boston, owns it and 92.1 but all you get is an answering machine.
 
DCBurns said:
WPHX 1220 AM/Sanford Maine. When it is on the air the audio is garbage and it's been off the air for 2 weeks. That is a waste. WFNX Boston, owns it and 92.1 but all you get is an answering machine.
Click to expand...


That's your opinion. Call WFNX, Boston and ask for an engineer if you'd like to discuss it.
 
Love too, but I did call Boston and got the voice mail run around and no option for engineer. So, pressed 0 for the attendant and got a voice mail.

It's not opinion, but fact that it was off all of last week and 3 days the week before. And I don't beleive it was just the feed... I heard other stations on 1220 in the middle of the day. When it is on the audio cut's out every other word and is terrible. I have never heard this station at full song and I work in Sanford 3 - 5 per week.

If you are the engineer, please e-mail me and I can relay what I hear. I am at [email protected].

If not a good contact number would be nice if you could pass that along.

Thanks
 
So, just for fun I called 781-595-6200, Main # for the group and same crap. No one answers the phone. No way to get to the engineers mailbox. Of course they don't give a rat's ass about the little AM in Sanford. It's just a write off and a waste of a license.... Hey, give it to me and I can do local radio for the area it covers. What a novel idea.
 
I was on the fcc page for WPHX-AM and found this

WPHX HAS BEEN OPERATING AT REDUCED POWER DUE TO A MALFUNCTIONING TRANSMITTER, PURSUANT TO SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORITY BSTA-20081201DNZ, EXTENDED BY BESTA-20100122AAF. ON JULY 23, 2010, THE TRANSMITTER CEASED OPERATING COMPLETELY, AND THE STATION WENT DARK. WPHX WILL NEED TO ACQUIRE AND INSTALL A NEW TRANSMITTER. WPHX REQUESTS A SIX MONTH STA TO COMPLETE THIS PROCESS.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/w...xt=25&appn=101395156&formid=910&fac_num=74068

This was typed on their newest application.

So it looks like it will be about 6 months until they're back on the air.
 
DCBurns said:
I was on the fcc page for WPHX-AM and found this

WPHX HAS BEEN OPERATING AT REDUCED POWER DUE TO A MALFUNCTIONING TRANSMITTER, PURSUANT TO SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORITY BSTA-20081201DNZ, EXTENDED BY BESTA-20100122AAF. ON JULY 23, 2010, THE TRANSMITTER CEASED OPERATING COMPLETELY, AND THE STATION WENT DARK. WPHX WILL NEED TO ACQUIRE AND INSTALL A NEW TRANSMITTER. WPHX REQUESTS A SIX MONTH STA TO COMPLETE THIS PROCESS.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/w...xt=25&appn=101395156&formid=910&fac_num=74068

This was typed on their newest application.

So it looks like it will be about 6 months until they're back on the air.
Click to expand...


i bet they don't come back....just buying time to see if it's worth it to invest in a new set up.
 
DCBurns said:
I was on the fcc page for WPHX-AM and found this
Click to expand...

Actually WPXT found it and posted it on the other forum.

As far as the station is concerned, when I visited not that long ago they were using an old MW1 which was in rough shape then.

A little BE AM-1A would solve the problem and not cost a ton of money either.
 
beantownradio25 said:
How long does the FCC let a station stay silent before they delete the liscense? Is it one year? Are these stations safe since theyre supposebly in the process of being sold?
Click to expand...


It is supposed to be a year before they pull a license. After 30 days off the air the station is supposed to request an STA but the FCC doesn't enforce any of it. Probably due to the economy.
 
tvnetdude said:
beantownradio25 said:
How long does the FCC let a station stay silent before they delete the liscense? Is it one year? Are these stations safe since theyre supposebly in the process of being sold?
Click to expand...


It is supposed to be a year before they pull a license. After 30 days off the air the station is supposed to request an STA but the FCC doesn't enforce any of it. Probably due to the economy.
Click to expand...

I believe it is a year from the date a station files a silent STA with the FCC. There are a number of stations (WRJI) which are silent but never notified the FCC. Unless someone else notifies them, it just slips through the cracks.
 
WCME Am 900 Brunswick is a case of a station that has gone dark, but set up a temporary antenna to keep the license alive. This station has a real serious reason to be off the air. It has not tower site! But the owner and I are looking at possible sites.

RDP
 
Run a long wire... go old school :) You think Phnx group would want to get rid of the Sanford AM? I am always looking for dirt, I mean dirt cheap projects.
 
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