They have 92.7 FM on now, but compared to its old 99.9 is more limited.
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Pat Sajak selling Annapolis' WNAV 1430
- Thread starter DXingRadio
- Start date
I read about the WNAV eviction only Saturday via a couple posts from previous employees. Was so disappointed about it but was so thankful that Donna Cole was able to get a hold of everyone, including the NCRTV out of Bowie, to grab as much of the history and equipment as possible.
Sad to see stations succumb to this, but glad history was preserved!
Sad to see stations succumb to this, but glad history was preserved!
Today (Monday) there wasn't a new posting on FCCdata. Of course sometimes the FCC is slow
I heard it broadcasting so either it's on until the building topples or the transmitter and equipment have all been relocated to another placement.
I did speak briefly with one of the curators that helped get some of the items. He admitted that the old tube transmitters could not be moved as they were too heavy and they had no place to place the heavy transmitters. Likely, they will be part of the debris when the equipment comes (if it hasn't already).
I was one of the minority partners in BMSC Media which acquired the station from Sajak and consulted on a number of pieces of the operation from programming to sales and attempting to build a lasting digital business.
It is a miracle that anything regarding WNAV outside of programming content is operating at this point. We inherited a mess, were unable to clean up said mess, and now two other operators have followed us in trying to salvage it. I hear Todd is making good moves and when everything is done (working at the speed of municipal and FCC bureaucracy), he'll no longer have to worry about a stable tower site, have a much better FM signal than the station has ever had and give the station much needed stability.
It is a miracle that anything regarding WNAV outside of programming content is operating at this point. We inherited a mess, were unable to clean up said mess, and now two other operators have followed us in trying to salvage it. I hear Todd is making good moves and when everything is done (working at the speed of municipal and FCC bureaucracy), he'll no longer have to worry about a stable tower site, have a much better FM signal than the station has ever had and give the station much needed stability.
How did it get to be such a mess?
It's a long, long story - but let's just say it's a challenge these days to get just about anything to the finish line, whether it be zoning or FCC approval or closing a sale. Especially in small-town radio.
Sajak for obvious reasons was an absentee owner. He let the staff run the place and I don't think he paid much attention to what they did since the station appeared to be a tax write-off for him.
I can't really comment on specifics as I'm not going to throw people under the bus when I don't know who was truly responsible, but until the day we closed on it they had a staff of 25 people working there with the revenue to support maybe 3. The station for long acted as if it was financially viable but it truly wasn't anymore. We had to rip off a lot of bandaids in a short period of time.
Correct. He played Chicken Rock on WSM AM in the mid 1970's. Started doing weather on WSM TV Channel 4 part time then moved to Weather full time. Went to LA doing weather and the rest is history.
WNAV seems to have dropped CBS News (soon to be defunct) and True Oldies Channel. Now running 60's-80's classic hits.
I fell in love with the station just a few years before the sale; I was amazed how a smaller market station could do full-service, and do it so well. I visited WNAV a couple times and it certainly wasn't a one-man show...though it only existed thanks to the wallet of one man. And I realized that. Heck, the news department (which was first rate) outnumbered the air staff of a lot of stations.
DelmarvaDX, DXingRadio and RF101- Thank you all for sharing.
Hourly news is back, Fox News Radio. Makes sense, the owner runs Fox on their Winchester VA stations.