Page radio stations to go dark on Dec 31

[kwthom]

Reference: https://www.radiodiscussions.com/threads/ksco-am-santa-cruz-ca-whoops.755077/page-6#post-6558329

See also: Page radio stations to go dark on December 31

"Lake Powell Communications encompasses KXAZ radio (93.3 FM and translator 100.1 FM), the Bandit radio (1340 AM and translator 98.3 FM), the Lake Powell USA Visitor Guide, the lakepowelllife.com website and several information kiosks around town. "

 

[exdjted]

This situation has arisen from a variety of factors. The pandemic. The drought which is causing Lake Powell to recede to historic lows and has affected tourism, which is all the town really has. The fact that there is no property actually owned by the station. The city wants to tear down the AM tower to build houses in a recession. Who in this day and age is going to spend a ton of money to relocate an AM with the zoning laws most towns have now? Plus, the city owns the office building she's in. I wouldn't trust the city now if my life depended on it. The future of these stations is for someone to swoop in, turn in the AM license, put HD on 93.3, and use the 2 translators to feed HD2 and HD3 channels, and run it remotely from another town with a "suite" in a UPS store and 1 salesperson working from home. Or, be sold to EMF and go K-Love. I don't blame her for retiring.

 

[michael hagerty]

Reference: https://www.radiodiscussions.com/threads/ksco-am-santa-cruz-ca-whoops.755077/page-6#post-6558329

See also: Page radio stations to go dark on December 31

"Lake Powell Communications encompasses KXAZ radio (93.3 FM and translator 100.1 FM), the Bandit radio (1340 AM and translator 98.3 FM), the Lake Powell USA Visitor Guide, the lakepowelllife.com website and several information kiosks around town. "

That's kind of a perfect storm. The owner's house ruined by flooding accelerates a decision to retire, which makes this a fire sale instead of a well-planned exit. The loss of the lease for the AM tower makes for a tougher sale.

Too bad, because, based on this article and some listening I did when we vacationed at Lake Powell four years ago, Janet Brown is the polar opposite of Michael Zwerling and ran a successful local operation.

 

[davideduardo]

I do not understand why the city does not support, encourage and promote a local radio and web service. They should be helping and even, with conditions, providing facilities and financing for local radio.

 

[kwthom]

I do not understand why the city does not support, encourage and promote a local radio and web service. They should be helping and even, with conditions, providing facilities and financing for local radio.

As in the case of many small communities in Arizona, it's all about the finances available to the municipality. Radio station vs. an extra patrol car and officer?

@exdjted succinctly explained it in his post above. Beyond the lake, there's not much at all up in that part of the state.

 

[Prescott Joe]

Dave, I couldn't agree more. Since there is not much other than Lake Powell, The City of Page needs to step
up and make it, not only viable for residents but a destination other than the lake.
kwthom, I cannot help but wonder why The City of Page didn't prepare for hard times, saving money for
projects that would enhance the experience for tourists and locals alike..... Obviously, Page's local government
didn't plan ahead.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

I do not understand why the city does not support, encourage and promote a local radio and web service. They should be helping and even, with conditions, providing facilities and financing for local radio.

I don't get it either. Residents of a small community like that usually treasure their local media outlets. I've visited Page, AZ and remember seeing the station logos around the area, especially The Bandit as the name left an impression. Those stations had high visibility, and we used the website and travel guide as resources for our trip planning. Their shutdown will be a loss to the community and the whole region.

Is there something really special about that tower location that a developer has to build right there and the mayor would greenlight it? Page is a small town with tons of undeveloped land around. It's not Los Angeles. There must be more to the story.

 

[exdjted]

Is there something really special about that tower location that a developer has to build right there and the mayor would greenlight it? Page is a small town with tons of undeveloped land around. It's not Los Angeles. There must be more to the story.

The city actually owns the property. I don't know for certain, but I would say some developer has convinced a few politicians that the land is more valuable with houses than a radio tower.

As for the city preparing, nobody looks ahead and worries about droughts or other natural disasters and how they may be affected. Page politicians probably thought the lake area would just keep giving and giving, never dreaming it would go belly-up one day and affect an entire regional economy. That doesn't have anything to do with the radio station.

The city of Page doesn't care about the loss of the AM. They won't until the local sports broadcasts go away. They won't care until they try to get word of a water main break and boil water advisory needs to go out. Ultimately, though, it's not the city's responsibility to keep the stations on the air.

I don't see a white knight from the immediate area coming to the rescue. As I said, I see someone from outside adding it and running it remotely as the only financially viable option.

 

[Greg Strickland]

I don't think an owner should be faulted or criticized for selling to fund a retirement or something else in life.

Someone can operate a business as a for-profit enterprise, as a hobby or labor of love.

For us radio folks it might help to think of this in another way: What if someone has operated a sandwich shop for decades, and over the years it has become less profitable, and is now effectively a hobby. But they own the real estate, and the current market value of the real estate is 1.5 million dollars. The owner is not getting any younger, and owner's grown children have other careers and have no interest in the sandwich shop. If this were you, what would you do?

 

[b-turner]

If the city wants the tower site, this means am engineering study must occur, FCC approval sought, new tower site found and secured and the cost to build it out. The cost is major and the downtime can be major. You'd lose so much revenue during that time, it might take a couple of years to get it back. That would give me the thought that bailing out is much better than the hard work involved to stay. And while the City owes them nothing, they are willfully harming the business.

 

[Mikey Radio]

What if someone has operated a sandwich shop for decades, and over the years it has become less profitable, and is now effectively a hobby. But they own the real estate, and the current market value of the real estate is 1.5 million dollars. The owner is not getting any younger, and owner's grown children have other careers and have no interest in the sandwich shop. If this were you, what would you do?

I've seen this same scenario play out a number of times and in the case of local sandwich shops or restaurants, there's often groaning by long-time customers and a sense of loss in the community, but if no one is willing to actually step forward, buy the business and take over running it, all the grumbling in the world shouldn't stop the business owner from doing what they need to do for themselves after years of working hard.

 

[99KTKT]

Surprised there hasn't been any interest interest from the Navajo Nation. Page is on the edge of the Nation (and the land was Navajo until the Federal government bought it in the 1950s for the town site--Page did not exist until the dam was constructed, a la Boulder City NV). A Navajo-language station, like the one in Window Rock on the other side of the Nation, would seem to be a possible outcome. Also, Page does have one other nearby tourist spot other than Lake Powell. The Antelope Canyon Tribal Park is just east of the town, off of AZ 99. World-renowned slot canyon, popular enough that reservations are required in peak summer season.

 

[Mikey Radio]

If the city wants the tower site, this means am engineering study must occur, FCC approval sought, new tower site found and secured and the cost to build it out. The cost is major and the downtime can be major. You'd lose so much revenue during that time, it might take a couple of years to get it back. That would give me the thought that bailing out is much better than the hard work involved to stay. And while the City owes them nothing, they are willfully harming the business.

The other question that must be raised in scenarios like this one is, while the current owner referred to this station/website as a "cash-flowing cow" in the article linked to by the OP, how many current advertisers spend $$ with this station/website because of personal relationships they have with the current owner, and will they stick around once new ownership comes in? I remember someone on Radio Discussions talking about a scenario where they were considering buying a small town station and when they spoke with existing advertisers, few of them spoke about the return they get on their advertising spend or how well their advertising on that station paid off for them. Instead, most all of them spoke about how long they'd known the existing owner and their family, and the deep personal relationships they had. In the end the guy considering the purchase declined to buy it because he feared the moment he took over, all those advertisers who liked the former owner personally would cease spending $$ with him.

Something else to consider for anyone thinking about taking over this station - Is there enough of a surplus built up to cover the cost of the tower relocation and if so, will that surplus be given to the new owners?

 

[kwthom]

kwthom, I cannot help but wonder why The City of Page didn't prepare for hard times, saving money for
projects that would enhance the experience for tourists and locals alike..... Obviously, Page's local government
didn't plan ahead.

emphasis added above

Look, there's only ~7400 residents in the Page, AZ area. The area probably doubles in size when the lake level is up and the tourists from Maricopa County have invaded the area.

From the way I'm reading it, the station was able to make sufficient funds to survive, pay the bills, and hire a few people to help run the place, then good on her - a successful business owner. Not sure where government needed to be involved. Yet, that's on the owner/operator of the station to go after funds (if any were available) in order to prosper.

As stated earlier, someone in government made 'em a great deal for the AM stick's location (I need to look at Google for that...). Yet, if they're now being asked to move, then it would seem to be on the station to be on the lookout for an improved location.

 

[exdjted]

I actually did look at this station a few years ago. The info I have on the station came BEFORE the pandemic, so I can only assume that her business took a tumble just like everybody else. When I looked at it, there was a note that the city was looking at developing the AM tower site at that time. The fact that Page itself only exists because of the dam, and the reliance on tourism with NO industrial employers of any note. The city itself is very isolated as well, being over 2 hours to Flagstaff. Mrs. Brown was doing ALL sales, so yes, she has built up personal relationships that can't be magically replicated overnight. No real estate is owned by the station.

The sales were impressive at the time of the offering, but I never saw anything about expenses, other than being told by a broker that a new owner who did what she did would "take home a hell of a salary". I know what she was asking at that time, but I have no idea what she would take today. I never actually got to the point of talking to her, only the broker.

As b-turner has pointed out, relocating the AM is really a non-starter because of time and money. The city was required to relocate the AM facilities "in the event of a sale of the land, with a one-year notice" according to the info I have. The loophole here is, as she stated, the city is developing the property, so if there is no sale, what legally are they required to do? I also have to assume that the city told her more than a year ago that they wanted the AM gone. I'm from Missouri. Here, you typically own the land you build on. Looking at properties out West was the first time I got hit with "leasing the land" and owning everything built on it. That's another reason I ask about real estate OWNED first before tower leases or rent.

Something else to consider for anyone thinking about taking over this station - Is there enough of a surplus built up to cover the cost of the tower relocation and if so, will that surplus be given to the new owners?

What surplus? Any sale I've ever been involved with means you start out the moment you take over with what YOU bring to the deal. The former owner is taking their hard-earned money and cashing out. Janet Brown will be sipping tea on her patio in New Mexico while someone else deals with the headache of what to do with the AM in Page.

 

[Mikey Radio]

What surplus? Any sale I've ever been involved with means you start out the moment you take over with what YOU bring to the deal. The former owner is taking their hard-earned money and cashing out. Janet Brown will be sipping tea on her patio in New Mexico while someone else deals with the headache of what to do with the AM in Page.

I've seen sales before where businesses had funding allocated for capital projects that were in the works or expected expenditures and that $$ went with the business. Regarding radio specifically - just last year there was a radio station that sold and the former owner planned to sell the property the tower was on. In that case, one of the terms of the sale was that the current owner agreed to give the buyer $100k toward relocation of the tower and all that goes with that, and it had to take place within a certain period of time once the sale was complete. Those are a few examples.

The point of my comment above was that, if there is no funding in place to cover the relocation of the tower in this instance, Mrs. Brown is likely hard-pressed to find a buyer, as that's quite obviously not a cheap undertaking and must be considered by any potential buyer. In the article, she called this station/website a "Cash-flowing cow". Great! So is any of the cash flowing from said cow allocated to tower relocation?

 

[michael hagerty]

A chunk of the problem with a new tower site is that there's not a lot of privately-held land in Coconino County---a little over 12 percent. Tribal land and Forest Service land makes up 67 percent, then comes that 12-ish percent of private ownership, followed by state, public and BLM (Bureau of Land Management). And if you look at Page on this map, it's mostly tribal and public:

https://www.coconino.az.gov/DocumentCenter/View/923/County-Land-Composition-2-reduced?bidId=

That doesn't mean you couldn't lease a tower site from any of those entities, but having lost your last government lease, I think you'd be nervous.

 

[exdjted]

I've seen sales before where businesses had funding allocated for capital projects that were in the works or expected expenditures and that $$ went with the business. Regarding radio specifically - just last year there was a radio station that sold and the former owner planned to sell the property the tower was on. In that case, one of the terms of the sale was that the current owner agreed to give the buyer $100k toward relocation of the tower and all that goes with that, and it had to take place within a certain period of time once the sale was complete. Those are a few examples.

From the info I was given a couple of years ago, there was no consideration of that. I was told that what you purchased at the time was what you were dealt, and dealing with the city as a landlord of both the AM tower and the office itself, was a huge factor in my deciding not to pursue it. I'm currently looking at a couple of properties, and they have land, buildings and towers attached. I won't touch some other properties for just this reason.

 

[KilowattKat]

The only other licensed radio station to serve Page is KNAD, and that's used to air KNAU (NPR) from Flagstaff. If commercial radio is no longer viable, given the remoteness of the area, and sizeable population, I would think KNAD/KNAU as a PUBLIC broadcaster should be obligated to step in and fill the gap in providing news , important community info, weather alerts, etc. At the very least this could be fed from Flagstaff during local breaks on Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Too many public stations use signals (not translators) like this strictly to increase fundraising from other parts of the state, with no regard to providing any content to the community it's licensed to serve.

 

[michael hagerty]

The only other licensed radio station to serve Page is KNAD, and that's used to air KNAU (NPR) from Flagstaff. If commercial radio is no longer viable, given the remoteness of the area, and sizeable population, I would think KNAD/KNAU as a PUBLIC broadcaster should be obligated to step in and fill the gap in providing news , important community info, weather alerts, etc. At the very least this could be fed from Flagstaff during local breaks on Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Too many public stations use signals (not translators) like this strictly to increase fundraising from other parts of the state, with no regard to providing any content to the community it's licensed to serve.

From what I can tell looking at its website, KNAU has a fairly small news staff. That said, they do cover news from the Navajo and Hopi nations and share a county commission (Coconino) with Page. I'm guessing that, even without having a bureau in Page, they cover significant stories from there.

KNAU and Arizona News

Also, and this may have changed in the nine years since I left Arizona, the Phoenix TV affiliates covered news and weather for that part of Arizona (essentially the entire state, minus Tucson and Yuma's viewing areas). KTVK had a Northern Arizona bureau in Flagstaff for years (again, no idea if they still do).

It's not the same as having your own local station, but it's also not nothing.