Red Apple Media Acquires Long Island AM & Translators
John Catsimatidis' Red Apple Media is purchasing Spanish Christian 1370 WLID Patchogue and translators 95.7 W239CY Patchogue (with CP to
radioinsight.com
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Red Apple Media acquires Long Island AM & Translators
- Thread starter DavidZ
- Start date
radioinsight.com
Red Apple Media Acquires Long Island AM & Translators
John Catsimatidis' Red Apple Media is purchasing Spanish Christian 1370 WLID Patchogue and translators 95.7 W239CY Patchogue (with CP to
If I remember correctly, WLID is the former WALK-AM. And yes, I think the goal is to simulcast WABC's programming on eastern Long Island.
Does WLID 1370 AM reach any part of Long Island better than WLIR 107.1, which Red Apple already owns?
WLID appears to have a signal that reaches primarily fish.
Awful 1370 AM Signal
WLID appears to have a signal that reaches primarily fish.
Awful 1370 AM Signal
It's doubtful. But WLID does put a killer signal into Fire Island, and probably Bermuda.
The deal has nothing to do with the AM, but everything to do with the translators. WABC will soon have FM coverage of nearly all of Suffolk County. They need the AM to legally feed them, that's it.
That's true about for about 80% of AM's. They continue to exist to feed translators.
None that I know of. The last filing window for AM stations to get an FM translator ended in January 2018. FM translators from the 2017/2018 filing window are permanently tied to the AM station. So, that already limits their options on buying existing translators. At this point, Red Apple Media's chances of getting an FM translator for WRCR are little to none.
It's possible to buy an existing translator that's not permanently linked to another AM station, and there are some of those available in the NYC burbs.
But those translators could be fed directly by WABC itself, too.
Not to mention that the dial is so crowded in the NYC market, it would be hard to cram one in. Maybe he could pick one up from a willing seller, but most of the existing translators have pretty lousy coverage.
The consensus seems to be that Cats will use it as some sort of farm team for the big WABC signal, assuming it's moved closer to NYC.
The FCC approved the WLID transaction last week (2/12). And the WRCR acquisition is now on its second extension, following Commission approval last July 14th.
When is the Cat going to be let out of the bag?
When is the Cat going to be let out of the bag?
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Generally speaking, extensions of time for consummation means there is some financial or legal problem which needs resolving.
And it is not likely that the problem will be made public, so don't bother asking again ... no one will have the answer (other than Cat himself, and he doesn't hang out here).
And it is not likely that the problem will be made public, so don't bother asking again ... no one will have the answer (other than Cat himself, and he doesn't hang out here).
And now some Florida news involving Mr. Catsimitidis:
From the Tampa Bay Times:
Fierce wind gusts from Hurricane Milton sent a crane atop the Residences at 400 Central condo hurtling into the office tower at 490 First Ave. S, leaving behind a gaping hole in the top three floors.
With the fate of the office still up in the air, at least one prospective buyer has emerged: John Catsimitidis, the developer behind 400 Central.
In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, the Red Apple Group CEO expressed interest in purchasing the property.
“We’ve always offered to buy it,” he said. “We’ll write a check, we don’t have to borrow money.”
Catsimitidis did not disclose details about his supposed offer or what he’d like to do with the property.
Here's a link and it may or may not be behind a paywall: What will happen to the St. Petersburg office destroyed by Hurricane Milton?
From the Tampa Bay Times:
Fierce wind gusts from Hurricane Milton sent a crane atop the Residences at 400 Central condo hurtling into the office tower at 490 First Ave. S, leaving behind a gaping hole in the top three floors.
With the fate of the office still up in the air, at least one prospective buyer has emerged: John Catsimitidis, the developer behind 400 Central.
In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, the Red Apple Group CEO expressed interest in purchasing the property.
“We’ve always offered to buy it,” he said. “We’ll write a check, we don’t have to borrow money.”
Catsimitidis did not disclose details about his supposed offer or what he’d like to do with the property.
Here's a link and it may or may not be behind a paywall: What will happen to the St. Petersburg office destroyed by Hurricane Milton?
The deal for WLID Patchogue and the 2 translators was consummated 2/27, and the Commission was notified on 3/4. Earlier this morning, 1370 WLID was running WABC programming, with “77 WABC on WLIR” bumpers/liners. However right now, it’s just dead air.
I knew some folks who worked at the daytime-only 1370 in Patchogue back in the late 60's when I was a kid, and later in the mid 70's, and worked for WALK-FM in the mid 80's. They simulcast the FM and AM.
The WALK studios were in a private building at the end of Colonial Drive in East Patchogue next to a marina and canal on Great South Bay. The 1370 stick, 500 watts, probably its original location, was in the proverbial back yard. Probably still is. I don;t know if that tower also housed the FM signal. The FM was something like 11000 watts (and mono) when it was inland on Bald Hill by 1980, and went to the full 50K ERP -- directional because of Trenton's 97.5 -- around 1984.
Up until around 1980, the village of Patchogue itself was an outpost on the south shore. The local Montauk Highway, hugging each of the south shore's numerous scenic villages, went through the downtowns. The faster Sunrise Highway, inland and parallel to the north, was 'quicker'. Once you drove the SRS Hway east from there, you felt as though you had left civilization. There was nothing for 20 miles but pine barrens, sand, ducks, a few windmills and water towers. On the car radio some AM stations from Connecticut were louder than any Long Island station.
Once you got to Riverhead you were in a different country -- the unofficial Gateway to the Hamptons and its society. And lo! Licensed to Riverhead was 1000 W daytimer WRIV 1390, also owned by the Island Broadcasting System. AARPers here from the Island will remember the names of Jack Ellsworth, Bob Klein, Kenn Bell and Frank Brinka, who were heard at times on both stations.
Each generously-populated village of stature had its own AM station. Huntington's WGSM, Freeport's WGBB, Sag Harbor's WLNG, Hempstead's WHLI and Babylon's competors WGLI and WBAB were others. They were all well-staffed with jocks, newspeople, salespeople, and their share of listeners. No Nassau-Suffolk AM station really had a big coverage area that concerned it They cared about only locally, with the businesses and status quo politics getting equal priority with the audiences.
Now, haven't been back on Long Island in over 20 years. And lots of progress has filled in where the potato farms once were. So what's the point of this? Well, back on the topic of WLID's coverage: one overnight a few engineering types dropped by to turn off WALK's FM and do some tests. One of them, a pal of mine, beer in hand, flipped his thumb at the AM rack and asked me 'So what time does the dummy load sign on?'
The WALK studios were in a private building at the end of Colonial Drive in East Patchogue next to a marina and canal on Great South Bay. The 1370 stick, 500 watts, probably its original location, was in the proverbial back yard. Probably still is. I don;t know if that tower also housed the FM signal. The FM was something like 11000 watts (and mono) when it was inland on Bald Hill by 1980, and went to the full 50K ERP -- directional because of Trenton's 97.5 -- around 1984.
Up until around 1980, the village of Patchogue itself was an outpost on the south shore. The local Montauk Highway, hugging each of the south shore's numerous scenic villages, went through the downtowns. The faster Sunrise Highway, inland and parallel to the north, was 'quicker'. Once you drove the SRS Hway east from there, you felt as though you had left civilization. There was nothing for 20 miles but pine barrens, sand, ducks, a few windmills and water towers. On the car radio some AM stations from Connecticut were louder than any Long Island station.
Once you got to Riverhead you were in a different country -- the unofficial Gateway to the Hamptons and its society. And lo! Licensed to Riverhead was 1000 W daytimer WRIV 1390, also owned by the Island Broadcasting System. AARPers here from the Island will remember the names of Jack Ellsworth, Bob Klein, Kenn Bell and Frank Brinka, who were heard at times on both stations.
Each generously-populated village of stature had its own AM station. Huntington's WGSM, Freeport's WGBB, Sag Harbor's WLNG, Hempstead's WHLI and Babylon's competors WGLI and WBAB were others. They were all well-staffed with jocks, newspeople, salespeople, and their share of listeners. No Nassau-Suffolk AM station really had a big coverage area that concerned it They cared about only locally, with the businesses and status quo politics getting equal priority with the audiences.
Now, haven't been back on Long Island in over 20 years. And lots of progress has filled in where the potato farms once were. So what's the point of this? Well, back on the topic of WLID's coverage: one overnight a few engineering types dropped by to turn off WALK's FM and do some tests. One of them, a pal of mine, beer in hand, flipped his thumb at the AM rack and asked me 'So what time does the dummy load sign on?'
It's still on Colonial Drive, with the tower in the marshland, the FM has always been on Tower Hill. The building itself fell into some disrepair since Connoisseur donated the station to Cantico Nuevo, although not as bad as its sister station. Jack Ellsworth must be rolling over in his grave.
45 Pennsylvania Avenue, Medford, NY 11763 | MLS #L3568192
, Additional information: Building Size:5...
@kevin 411
I took one of those free casino bus rides to Atlantic City one morning. About 20 of us in Minersville here got issued a $10 roll of quarters and dropped off at the basement entrance to a casino. I walked right through the place out the other door to the beach, bought a massive, sloppy cheesesteak sub, and DXed and burped on the beach the rest of the time.
WLID was 'WALK' at the time, with overresearched Standards then. As one would've expected, the water path was equally generous at both L.I. and A.C. Just in reverse gear. With the GE SR 2 even local WMID 1340 was no problem hearing 1370. I'm sure, though, that M'sieur Cats doesn't give a goya bean about any audience along the Jersey coast. 'WLID' is an LPAM -- a transformer to feed stepped up transformers at extension-speaker translators. I imagine someone aboard here will be aware if Cats wishes to get a CP to lower that 500 watts to a minimum.
Thanx for the pics of the old 'WPAC 1580' site! I actually did work there as a pup, up until they sold their mono 106.1 FM to Beck-Ross, who turned it into huge, stereo WBLI, and cooked WPAC's local -contemporary duck. 1580 became 'WSUF' after that and slid even further, eventually burning down one day. Twice! Separate fires.
Perry(?) Silver took it over around 1980 and it became Where Your Friends Are' WYFA, a pretty good-sounding A/C itself, but doomed by FM's left and right while hanging off the end of the AM dial at 1580.. I doubt anyone working there ever dared to suggest the calls stood for 'where's your fire alarm.'
Jack Ellsworth wound up with the place, made it 'WLIM', and made a go of it with the same music approach as his old WALK.
I mention this because WLIM 1580 was the loudest L.I. station on the Jersey beach that afternoon.
Quite a network of 'something' is being assembled. Well, it's Cat's' money.
I took one of those free casino bus rides to Atlantic City one morning. About 20 of us in Minersville here got issued a $10 roll of quarters and dropped off at the basement entrance to a casino. I walked right through the place out the other door to the beach, bought a massive, sloppy cheesesteak sub, and DXed and burped on the beach the rest of the time.
WLID was 'WALK' at the time, with overresearched Standards then. As one would've expected, the water path was equally generous at both L.I. and A.C. Just in reverse gear. With the GE SR 2 even local WMID 1340 was no problem hearing 1370. I'm sure, though, that M'sieur Cats doesn't give a goya bean about any audience along the Jersey coast. 'WLID' is an LPAM -- a transformer to feed stepped up transformers at extension-speaker translators. I imagine someone aboard here will be aware if Cats wishes to get a CP to lower that 500 watts to a minimum.
Thanx for the pics of the old 'WPAC 1580' site! I actually did work there as a pup, up until they sold their mono 106.1 FM to Beck-Ross, who turned it into huge, stereo WBLI, and cooked WPAC's local -contemporary duck. 1580 became 'WSUF' after that and slid even further, eventually burning down one day. Twice! Separate fires.
Perry(?) Silver took it over around 1980 and it became Where Your Friends Are' WYFA, a pretty good-sounding A/C itself, but doomed by FM's left and right while hanging off the end of the AM dial at 1580.. I doubt anyone working there ever dared to suggest the calls stood for 'where's your fire alarm.'
Jack Ellsworth wound up with the place, made it 'WLIM', and made a go of it with the same music approach as his old WALK.
I mention this because WLIM 1580 was the loudest L.I. station on the Jersey beach that afternoon.
Quite a network of 'something' is being assembled. Well, it's Cat's' money.