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North Mississippi Radio Station Had It's License Revoked...

P

PaulBWalkerJr

Guest
WQMA-AM 1520 Marks, Mississippi had it's license revoked/cancelled on May 31, 2006 by the Federal Communications Commission because owner Jason Konarz didn't file a renewal in 2004, not paying the $21,000 NAL and never filing an ownership report in the 6 years he owned it.
 
Man, that's messed up. I wonder if anyone wants to buy that station from the ground up and hopefully keep 'QMA up to speed. Paul, what is the wattage of WQMA? I'm assuming that they are less than 1,000 watts. I'm sure that you've worked there before and maybe you might want to shed a little light on this.
 
The station is gone, Quitman Couinty can thank Jason Konarz for losing the county's only broadcast license. Once the call sign is deleted, it can't be gotten back unless the licensee files a petition for recon in 30 days or less then corrects the issues. He didn't do that before, why would he do it now? I'll bet $20 the same Holly-Ane POS Decoder/Encoder is still sitting in the rack, broken and unuseable.
 
Is the station totally in financial ruin?Maybe the guy said to heck with it.That part of Mississippi is tough,especially for radio.Hard to believe it's not worth 21k,though.Is the property without the license worth anything?
 
Jason bought WQMA from Larry Fuss back in 1999 for $50,000.. which included the building, the property and the station.I'd say the land (2.8 acres) is worth around $20,000! Jason's mom, DOnna owns a house valued at about $60,000 down the street. I wonder if they are going to sell the house, convert the station building to an apartment and live there while running an internet stream?
 
tonedeaf said:
Curious....was Larry Fuss at one time Larry O'neal on air?
Click to expand...
Yes.Larry used to browse these boards and occassionally post here. Larry, if you are there, come on back.
 
FM Sales said:
tonedeaf said:
Curious....was Larry Fuss at one time Larry O'neal on air?
Click to expand...
Yes.Larry used to browse these boards and occassionally post here. Larry, if you are there, come on back.
Click to expand...
come back and help radio!Larry's stations always sounded good
 
WQMA's webstream seems to be down......... and that originated from a channel on the board and the high speed internet there.. I wonder if he actually shut 1520AM off??
 
PaulBWalkerJr said:
The station is gone, Quitman Couinty can thank Jason Konarz for losing the county's only broadcast license.
Click to expand...

Paul there is WHKL licenced to Crenshaw and it's tower is also there.
WQMA was dark 10 yrs before Charlie Kendall put it back on the air.
Quitman county is not able to support a station there are very few businesses there.
What was the station billing when worked there?
 
I dont know what the station was billing.

However, I DO think WQMA could've survived if the owner was proactive and actually cared about the station or town. There's ALOT of things he could've done or wasn't........
 
i'm sure
but the facts are also
Marks population is 1551
Median resident age: 35.2 years
Median household income: $20,521 (year 2000)
Median house value: $37,200 (year 2000)
Marks, MS residents, houses, and apartments details
Races in Marks:
* Black (64.7%)
* White Non-Hispanic (34.6%)

For population 25 years and over in Marks

* High school or higher: 57.5%
* Bachelor's degree or higher: 16.5%
* Graduate or professional degree: 5.5%
* Unemployed: 5.1%
* Mean travel time to work: 21.4 minutes [ i guess everyone drives to Clarsdale or Batesville to work / where you can barely hear 250 watt QMA so you just those listeners if you ever had them to another station ]

ok so you are programming a station to a very very small segment less than 34% of 1551 people...
facts are most of them listen to an fm station already

That station will never stay on the air when it has to make a payroll and pay a light bill
 
I know for a fact that WQMA could've gone to 750Watts Non Directional without any readings being taken. It could've gone to 1,000 Watts after readings were taken against WNWS-AM in Brownsville.

Beleive this or not.. but adding two towers, WQMA could've gone a daytime directional signal of 10,000 Watts.

How do i know? I paid an engineer for the study back in November 2003.
 
all of thats doesnt change the facts and demographics of the area
WQMA is in a area that cannot support a local station
there are expenses to running a station and without advertising revenue
there will be no station
 
If the station was better organized business and programming wise, it mighta had a chance...
 
Is the station still on the air? Knowing the owner, it probably is....

I've tried verifying wether or not it is by getting ahold of a friend who lives down the street from WQMA .. but haven't ehard anything from her yet.
 
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