Re: Range?
> > Doesn't WCVP-AM in Murphy cover Clay County pretty well?
>
> Yes, it does--except at night. Same goes for Murphy's other
> AM, WKRK. Little night signal from either of these beyond 5
> miles outside of Murphy. WKRK does now stream, and has a
> fairly neat website. There is a Murphy FM, and it doesn't do
> bad, except the bays are on the WCVP-AM tower, which is
> somewhat tall--but still doesn't clear much of the nearby
> terrain--lots of multipath. The FM would be better on one of
> the many mountain/hilltops to choose from. So, yes Clay is
> served well by Murphy's AMs by day, and the lone FM at
> night. Hiawassee and Hayesville, though, are several miles
> closer versus the distance from Hayesville to Murphy. I was
> looking at the benefits of this station to Clay from this
> angle.
>
Folks, this is a Class C or what we used to call a Class IV AM.
It's true, that area probably has fewer viable radio signals than just about any area on the eastern seaboard. However, it also has the worst ground conductivity in the South. Instead of 20 miles daytime, we're talking 12 to 15 miles max in cars, maybe 10 miles in houses and at night, 5 to 7 miles in a car and maybe 5 miles in a house.
It is a growing area and someone knowing what they are doing could probably do about $10K a month, maybe $15K if they are a really good salesman and can bring in out of town dollars... but you would have to run it on the cheap to make any spendable profit.
The station at Young Harris has struggled, I think, almost from day 1 despite having fairly successful audience shares. Clay County has very little retail and yes, the Murphy stations have done well there with listenership, especially WKRK which still dominates the listening in Cherokee County, NC. In fact, at times, it has more audience that the other 3 local stations, WCVP AM/FM and WCNG, combined. It is a mystery why WCNG doesn't locate on a mountain top.
One of the issues one may face in the Hiwassee area and why the Young Harris never has done well, besides its signal problems, is the potential advertisers in Hiawasee have built their businesses without radio advertising. As a successful radio sales trainer once stated, "the truth is radio advertising is an intrusion on a business's profit." The point is...they built their business without radio advertising so why spend the money now. A new FM station can overcome that to a great extent but an AM startup...it can too..but it takes a good operator and lots of time...time and effort which may be spent better elsewhere. Another radio friend of mine says "never let your station fade." What that means is if a long time spender is not called on and stops spending advertising dollars with a station, it may find out it can make it without it. Of course, the radio station helped that business become successful over the years and develop a well known business.
I suspect that the owners of the new AM in Hiwassee understand it's a growing area and an area where many newcomers are moving. This might make a nice retirement business for one of those people.
