Several TX stations were auctioned off by the FCC

[AnyHuman]

I compiled a list of the stations in the state of Texas which were auctioned off recently by the FCC, from RadioInsight's article on Thursday. Keep in mind the quoted content below is a paraphrase of the list and not the exact list, but the full list can be seen from the link at the bottom:

"Class C3, 104.1 Sanger, Radio Brands, Inc.
Class A, 98.9 Albany, WesTex Towers, Inc.
Class A, 101.5 Crystal Beach, Mekaddesh Group Corporation
Class C3, 95.3 Teague, Max Frequency LLC
Class A, 102.7 Milano, Max Frequency LLC
Class A, 103.5 San Isidro, Xavier Entertainment, LLC
Class A, 97.3 Bogata, Max Frequency LLC
Class A, 104.3 Olney, Two Way Communications, LLC
Class A, 93.5 Carrizo Springs, Xavier Entertainment, LLC
Class A, 98.7 Wells, American Broadcasting of Texas
Class C3, 100.7 Premont, Christian Ministries of the Valley, Inc.
Class A, 106.9 Carrizo Springs, Mekaddesh Group Corporation
Class C1, 95.1 Hale Center, Matos Barreto, Juan C
Class A, 93.5 Roscoe, WesTex Towers, Inc.
Class C, 100.5 Fort Stockton, Mekaddesh Group Corporation
Class C3, 102.1 Lockney, GRACE COMMUNITY CHRUCH OF AMARILLO
Class A, 105.5 Lovelady, Mekaddesh Group Corporation
Class A, 102.7 Centerville, Mekaddesh Group Corporation
Class C3, 105.9 Rising Star, Henderson, Suzanne D
Class A, 103.3 Mullins, Goehl, Bradley S
Class A, 94.9 Richland Springs, QXZ MediaWorks LLC
Class A, 97.9 Encino, Mekaddesh Group Corporation
Class A, 98.5 Rule, WesTex Towers, Inc.
Class C2, 98.3 Big Lake, Matos Barreto, Juan C
Class C3, 103.3 Junction, American Broadcasting of Texas
Class A, 98.9 San Isidro, Mekaddesh Group Corporation"

FCC Auction 109 Comes To An End; iHeartMedia Wins 107.9 Sacramento

The FCC's Auction 109 of of 136 FM signals and 4 AM signals has come to an end after eight

radioinsight.com

 

[AnyHuman]

Does anyone know anything about any of these winners?

Radio Brands, Inc. owns a lot of fast food and 7-Eleven franchises and has a stake in Asian "Radio Caravan" in McKinney, that's mentioned in the RadioInsight article.
Mekaddesh Group Corporation has one station on the air that I know of (KZAM Wichita Falls) and plays regional Mexican music on it.
Two Way Communications, LLC used to own 100.5 KBLY in Newcastle TX and played Christian music on it before selling it, it's still Christian music by the way.
Two stations were won by American Broadcasting of Texas, which may have a member of staff on these forums... I'll let them introduce themselves though if they want.
Christian Ministries of the Valley, Inc. runs a Radio Vida network of stations, with Spanish Christian programming. I believe they're based in the Rio Grande Valley.
GRACE COMMUNITY CHRUCH OF AMARILLO has a misspelling in their name that probably will get corrected, think they meant to put "CHURCH".
I think Suzanne D Henderson might be related to another broadcaster with the same last name who's been talked about before on these boards... But just a guess. She also owns KROY 1410 AM in San Saba TX apparently.

That's all I know.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Grace Community Church runs the Radio By Grace network

Mekkadesh is a relative of the Guel's.. maybe Caeser's wife/ex wife, I think?

 

[AnyHuman]

Did Cesar and his wife split or something? Also could be any other female relative.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Did Cesar and his wife split or something? Also could be any other female relative.

One of these less then stellar operators who abuses the rules split from his wife recently.. i think.. and i dont remember who.

 

[AnyHuman]

Hector Guevara. It's been talked about on the Houston board.

 

[Ryan Williams]

GRACE COMMUNITY CHRUCH OF AMARILLO has a misspelling in their name that probably will get corrected, think they meant to put "CHURCH".

I wouldn't necessarily bet on that. These types of typos can stick around a long time. For example, licensee and translator mogul "Wendolynn Tellez" is not a real person.

Many many years ago I inquired about one of the translators held by that licensee and was told there wasn't anyone by that name. The licensee was actually the daughter of the person answering the phone and her name was "Gwendolynn Tellez".

I think Suzanne D Henderson might be related to another broadcaster with the same last name who's been talked about before on these boards... But just a guess. She also owns KROY 1410 AM in San Saba TX apparently.

Suzanne is Roy's wife, if I remember correctly. Years back Roy used to post here occasionally. I haven't seen him in a while though.

 

[AnyHuman]

Two Way Communications has their application up already. This station is now a class C3 with 25,000 watts instead of the aforementioned class A, guess they were able to upgrade since buying it?

https://fccdata.org/?facid=762182

I wish them luck, they started KBLY and it's Christian music before selling it. The new owners share it with Two Way and have it with the same format. In 2019 they added KCKB to rebroadcast it. KBLY-FM 100.5 & KCKB-FM 104.1 PositiveRadio.Net

 

[AnyHuman]

Just curious does anyone know how the Olney station became a C3 with 25000 watts when it was auctioned with far less power?

 

[Ryan Williams]

Just curious does anyone know how the Olney station became a C3 with 25000 watts when it was auctioned with far less power?

The Olney allocation was a Class A in the auction, but there was apparently space (the CP hasn't been granted yet) to upgrade it to a C3. This is allowed. If you look at the application and pull up "exhibit a" you can see the channel report and while the margins in relation to the two Wichita Falls-area adjacent stations are tight, it does seem to fit.

 

[b-turner]

Some of these make me scratch my head. The two Class As in San Isidro will serve a very small population with only a few very small businesses. I can't see how either could get enough revenue just to pay operating expenses. This is not the first time this town has shown up for auction. I drove there. I checked retail sales, etc. I figure a station can reach about 2,000 people and a station can get about $500 a month in billing. There are not many businesses and they are all small. There might be 15 businesses in the 60 dbu and about $3,000,000 to $3,500,000 in gross sales combined.

Mullins, Texas is another. You can't get this class A close enough to Brownwood and at best have to look to Goldwaite that already has a local station. Not much in the way of revenue given you already have a station there and a newspaper that is still successful. I'm guessing the total of possible marketing dollars does not top $200,000 with most going to the newspaper.

Richland Springs, as a Class A, can target San Saba but Roy Henderson has an AM/FM simulcast classic country station that actually is run like a small town station should be. Certainly Roy would split the AM & FM if the bucks were there to support that. Henderson does not have a cash cow here.

The Big Lake C2 will cover a bunch of nothing. Maybe, but it's a long shot, you could set up to barely get a city grade over Big Lake and try for San Angelo or Midland/Odessa. At any rate, both are very over radioed markets. Big Lake can bill maybe $6k a month, give or take a grand or two and that's milking the business community for all you can get.

I know of every Texas town that went at auction. About half are first radio service for an area but most have larger population centers where they can concentrate their efforts.

The places I mention are about like the TWO Sanderson frequencies from the prior auction. Still trying to figure out how a Class C can be build in a 2,400 square mile county of 1,000 with 800 of those people in Sanderson. 100 watts and a 10 foot pole holding a single bay on the edge of town on the hill would have a chance. Still you aren't going to bill north of $2,000 even if you work at it. It's a cash your Social Security check and run a radio station from the garage.

 

[Greg Strickland]

Interesting thread and good comments.

 

[Ryan Williams]

Some of these make me scratch my head. The two Class As in San Isidro will serve a very small population with only a few very small businesses. I can't see how either could get enough revenue just to pay operating expenses. This is not the first time this town has shown up for auction. I drove there. I checked retail sales, etc. I figure a station can reach about 2,000 people and a station can get about $500 a month in billing. There are not many businesses and they are all small. There might be 15 businesses in the 60 dbu and about $3,000,000 to $3,500,000 in gross sales combined.

Great post with lots of insightful comments. People who are interested in getting into radio, should go read through your posts.

It's funny you call out the San Isidro allocations because I can't figure them out either, for the business reasons you spell out, but also the disparity in price. Both Class A allotments, but one went for the minimum bid of just $750 to Makeddash Group Corporation, while the other went for $64,000 to Xavier Entertainment, LLC. Maybe one has much better move in/upgrade potential than the other, but from casually looking at it, I don't see that to be the case.

In Carrizo Springs, TX there were also two Class A stations auctioned off. Makeddash got one for $25,000 and... you guessed it, Xavier got the second for $47,000. Weird, right? Carrizo Springs is 40 miles from Eagle Pass and there is very little population in any other direction.

I find the winning bid for the C3 in Sanger to be astronomical even though it does cover a substantial number of people (mostly in Denton County). The winning bids for Crystal Beach, Milano, Olney, and Teague are baffling to me. So much money to cover so few ears.

 

[b-turner]

I'm with you on most of these. The Olney station could be essentially a Graham station but that's slicing the pie even more there. At least Olney has some businesses and can generate some income. It wouldn't be easy.

For Teague, that might be better than it appears. That will get you a few similar sized towns like Mexia, Buffalo, Fairfield and Groesbeck. A little from all those towns might work. Expect long days...very long.

Milano can target Hearne easily. It could be placed to be a rimshot for Bryan/College Station but it sure would not be a dominant signal. Rockdale, Cameron and Caldwell could be at play here. Cameron and Rockdale have stations that seem to do okay. You'd get nothing out of Milano.

I used to work in Eagle Pass many many years ago. I recall The Carrizo Springs/Crystal City area had 3 stations: an AM in Carrizo, an FM in Crystal City and Paulino Bernal Evangelism had an FM. Everybody in Crystal City was real nice to this English only speaker but Crystal City was known for some corruption and a chip on its shoulder. There were times the school insisted on Spanish language instruction for a short period until the state called them on it. The city frequently refused to conduct meetings in English and Spanish. There's more money in Crystal City so the station would have to compete with their FM that seems to do pretty well. I heard about $12,000 a month. Years ago I heard the Carrizo station was doing about 5k. You also have to consider the oil industry is no longer booming in this area.

The prior auctions did produce some unusual stations. There a 100 watt FM in Sabinal. Another low wattage station is in Guthrie. Menard has a 100 watt FM. These are all Class A to C3, I think, but built out at the minimum and actually operating. I have to wonder why. Could it be they think their frequency might be 'in the way' of a station hoping to upgrade and they can cash out? Or might they want to operate a few years and try to find a sucker that doesn't understand how few people live in some places in Texas.

I'm still waiting for the two Rocksprings stations to come on (it has been years since that auction). I think these were full Cs and I figured the idea was to be Del Rio & Uvalde Stations. Maybe these will pop up in a future auction.

 

[b-turner]

I've been thinking about the Sanger frequency. There are some interesting social aspects involved. For those north of Denton, they consider themselves small town folks that prefer not to go south of Highway 360 where traffic gets heavier. Folks in Denton County, a million strong, consider themselves separate of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Denton County (and Collins County) lack local radio. Plainly put, a million people lack a local radio station or TV station. There could be some incredible local dollars for a station that centered on paying attention to Denton County. And one bank president I talked to sounded like he would help make that happen. Add in the fact the metro is moving north. Towns in northern Denton County are seeing new housing developments galore. My dollars would be on targeting Denton versus rimshotting DFW with the Sanger frequency.

 

[b-turner]

As a footnote, some might wonder why my emphasis is all about money. First it costs money to bid for the right to spend more money to submit an application and then pay the fees for the license and ongoing frequency usage. It takes money to acquire land, build or rent towers and equip a station after paying engineers to create the right scenario for a legal operation and then put that on the air as licensed. Only at that point can you begin to gather monies from advertisers to pay the initial investment while you incur operating expenses and salaries to generate that income. You can bet, as a person that has had a construction permit, the best laid plans including a plan B, C and likely plan D will not even resemble the estimated costs or plans. Expect overages that can make your eyes bug out. Expect to have tons of patience and an attitude of winning at any costs knowing it can take a very long time against impossible circumstances to get there.

To not keep your eye on the dollar spent and a way to regenerate that dollar in some way, you are setting yourself up for failure, likely before you even make it on the air.

With these auctioned frequencies, it might mean building out a facility not to your liking and not capable of returning any of your investment just in order to move your station and build out at a new spot later at a much higher cost.

Obviously the ones that have it good are those that know the local area, have land, a good relationship with government officials and a pocket full of money you can invest without the need to have a quick return. If you have the skills and abilities of an engineer, a good understanding of programming (and I'm talking creating listener bonds versus songs you play) and a good handle on sales (you know it takes the slow road of building relationships based on being liked and trusted so you can create a need for and a plan that addresses what your client needs and wants at a dollar amount they are comfortable with) have a big advantage. Most of these frequencies are small markets where the importance for the listener to identify geographically with you is crucial. I work small market radio. An advertiser that signed an annual with me recently said they heard the names of those having a birthday or anniversary on our morning show and realized some had done business with them and they knew some of the others.

Some of these applicants run a model of running national programming with the emphasis on getting some new ears. Most are in the Christian broadcasters realm. For these folks it is likely the network can monetize the investment.

No matter, the thing that makes anything happen is money.

 

[Ryan Williams]

Plainly put, a million people lack a local radio station or TV station. There could be some incredible local dollars for a station that centered on paying attention to Denton County.

There is a lot of wisdom in what you are saying, but do you really believe Radio Brands Inc. bid $3,000,000 (they paid more than 2,000,000 after bidding credits) to operate a Denton/Cooke county station with a direct, mom and pop sales operation? That seems very unlikely.

The mirage of being a player in market 5 is just too strong to resist.

Looking again at the old KTDK signal which is what was bid on for Sanger, it doesn't put a 70 dBu signal over Denton proper and the 60 dBu doesn't even get to southern Denton County such as Argyle and Highland Village.

Probably also worth considering is this that the bottom half of Denton County probably has more 65/70 dBu signals than anywhere else in the Metroplex as it is essentially the center of a venn diagram with the Cedar Hill Signals and Montague/Wise and Grayson rimshots.

That is an enormous amount of competition and fragmentation to overcome to even get established.

 

[b-turner]

I agree that the Sanger station will jump in the DFW ring versus Denton County. I'd think Denton County could get $3-$4 million in billing. It would be most likely local. Being a part of the DFW market I doubt it can pull many, if any, agency buys unless they're directed to buy by the client.

Good point on number of signals in the bottom half of Denton County. There would not be many media options for targeting the county to garner awareness. Billboards?

Even targeting DFW, any entry has a hard road to travel unless there is a hefty marketing fund that can ramp up awareness fast. Radio Brands might have that as a plan. Format choice is a tough one as well. It's not as if we have huge holes in the market.

 

[Kent]

Denton County (and Collins County) lack local radio. Plainly put, a million people lack a local radio station or TV station.

KLAK 97.5 has been trying to be Collin County's radio station for at least 10 years. I don't know how well that's working for them, but Denton and Collin both have more than a million people.

As a footnote, some might wonder why my emphasis is all about money.

To those of us who have been around, it makes perfect sense. None of us got into radio for the money, but, if your station isn't making money, it doesn't have a business, and you don't have a paycheck.

There is a lot of wisdom in what you are saying, but do you really believe Radio Brands Inc. bid $3,000,000 (they paid more than 2,000,000 after bidding credits) to operate a Denton/Cooke county station with a direct, mom and pop sales operation? That seems very unlikely. The mirage of being a player in market 5 is just too strong to resist.

Mirage or not, betting on the Denton and Collin County audience has proven a bad bet in the past. As I mention above, I don't know how well it's working for KLAK, but it didn't work at all for KLTY. Granted, that was 20 years ago, but Sunburst passed on buying the 94.1 signal and only bought the intellectual property for its rimshot signal because, "With where our audience lives, having a Collinsville tower makes more sense for us than a Cedar Hill tower." Ratings went to rock bottom. Not even a year later, KLTY was acquired by Salem and found itself back on a Cedar Hill stick.

 

[stan]

I've been predicting that the Crystal Beach frequency won't get built on Bolivar, given the people who acquired it. My bet is they put it on Galveston Island, even though many say it can't be done. Legalities don't seem to bother some folks.