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MRS Ventures - Pine Bluff

Russell:Nice to see you on here... we last talked when I was living in Montgomery.Drop me a line.. my email address is below...
 
Speaking of unattended and unlocked radio stations, several years ago I went by KTPA-1370 AM in Prescott. At the time, the station was airing a local high school softball playoff game. Anyway, I found the back door wide open, but no cars were around. I walked in and found the remnents of the days when KTPA was actually operated in Prescott, not in nearby Hope as it is today with KXAR-AM and KHPA-FM. Of course, the transmitter is still in the Prescott location, along with the old board, numerous pieces of old equipment and boxes of old documents. Judging by things hung on the walls, I figured that the KTPA studio was moved to Hope sometime in the mid to late 1980s'. A speaker on the old board was pumping out the softball game I had heard while driving up, and the A/C seemed to work really well, considering it was almost 100 degrees that day. The Harris 1 KW transmitter, (early 80's vintage) - the one with the blue front, was running only about 700 watts, not the 1000 watts on the license. Heck, I could have turned the transmitter off and drove away and it would have took someone 30 minutes to get out of Hope and run up there to look at the thing. One more note, current 4th Dist. U.S. Congressman Mike Ross worked there at one time, and he also worked at KXAR in Hope for a time.
 
I was just down there but didnt check out either.KXAR Fm was always an intresting one back when it was in Hope.Even more so since it has a translator in TexarkanaKTOY was the only competition before KZRB signed on in New Bostonof course KTOY has always dominated that marketThe Arkadelphia stations are sounding much better these days.KDEL was sounding pretty bad at one pointWhat about KZHE down in Magnolia? They have a great signal and sound good too. I drove passed their studio and also stumbled on K296FC at a church right off the square downtown.
 
Michael said:
was down in SE Ark and Greenville today and 101.9,103.5, and 105.7 are off the air
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Man,those stations BEEN off because nobody at the MRS camp gives a damn about any of them. I learned very well on that they are treating those three stations like dead horses.....beaten! And I'm quite sure that they didn't care about Pine Bluff as a whole. Jerry Russel's camp has literally destroyed the first half of the three stations.

Also Michael, did you also checked out WDSK? Are they off the air? Shoot! No wonder they didn't inform this to the FCC. What sorry excuse for broadcasters they've become.
 
Wow! That figures! Andy Hodges and his Delta version of Sports Radio all over 2/3 of the stations that DO work.....Oh well......
 
Maybe Larry can answer this one, since I know that he's more up on the FCC stuff. How much longer will it be before the FCC steps in and does something to this totally incompetent broadcaster??
 
PaulBWalkerJr said:
It took them 2 years to catch Jason Konarz
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If the FCC can catch Jason, they can sure as hell catch Jerry Russell....wherever he's hiding nowadays.
 
Oh, Im sure they can...... and I hope they do.

Me and a friend were interested in buying one or two of their Pine Bluff AM's and they wanted $275,000 about a eyar ago!!
 
I sent an email to an AOL address I found somewhere, on an FCC application.

I almost fell outta my chair when I was told how much they wanted for those Class C licenses........
 
PaulBWalkerJr said:
I sent an email to an AOL address I found somewhere, on an FCC application.

I almost fell outta my chair when I was told how much they wanted for those Class C licenses........
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Yeah, I was told they wanted $200,000 for KWRD-AM in Henderson TX. It was a 5,000 watt daytimer, that had no ad revenue coming in after MRS had made their changes. THe equipment was breaking down because the engineer (an employee of the cable company who worked for trade for cable spots) was basically terminated when MRS took over. All the NEws and features the station ran were cancelled to "cut expenses and expand the bottom line". So the station was broke, the equipment in disrepair, and hte talented staff was run off. And they still wanted more than they paid for it.

Had I been able to purchase it for 60,000, I could have raised that capital and made a run of it. But for 200,000? Clear Channel couldn't have broke even.
 
Yeah, I second that.. it's worth something, but not $200K....... Oh well
 
NO ONE should pay anymore than 50K for KOTN or 30K for KCLA in Pine Bluff. Maybe 100K for the 99.3 and 150K for the 101.3. NOT A DIME MORE. You have to keep in mind that if you were to purchase one of these dilapodated properties, you basically are getting just the license and nothing more. So it would be a long, uphill, total rebuild. But it could be done. Jerry Russell must be high on crack if he thinks he can get anything more for these stations considering that they are in total disrepair. I repeat - How long will it take for the FCC to drive this totally imcompetent baffoon from the airwaves?????
 
I can highly agree with you 100%. 200Gs for KWRD-AM? I'm not surprised. I wouldn't pay for a transister radio for that mess (perhaps a measly 50 cents at some flea market somewhere). I'll agree with 'Sweep. 60Gs would do the trick for you, but with 200,000? Shoot, I would pay 50 for KZEY (as in grand) for their useless operation and turn it back to its legendary glory. Sure repairs can be improved, but knowing Russell, if things weren't done right the first time, he'd run the engineers off and I must say he has done a fantastic job doing so.

Paul, even if you and your partner DO decide to purchase the two AMs in Pine Bluff, what would you do with them? KOTN has always had a great talk format (but not a great lineup) and KCLA was standards. Would you keep it the way it was or take them to a new direction? I mean the transmitter that has been at the Commerce Road location has been a dinosaur since the 1960s or something and still works like it's a whole new one. When I was there three years ago, I kept the stations maintained from the transmitter to the programming (of course I had help). Being operations manager for the four station cluster was rewarding in spite of its limited conditions
 
LOL, I'm sure there's LOTS of love for him on your part, Fuss :)

I have yet to verify wether 1520- is off the air or not in the delta....
 
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