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Southern Arizona 'Dead' AM Stations

All radio stations in Arizona are up for possible license renewal this year. Renewal applications were due on June first. It appears that KWFM-1330 has not filed for renewal. See KWFM - AM Station Profile - FCC Public Inspection Files.
I would tend to conclude from this that the owner wishes to give up. Someone else could apply for 1330 but they would be best off finding a different transmitter site. The present location is surrounded with expensive houses and the real estate that the towers use is worth far more than the station is worth. I predict that 1330 will never return to the air. The loss of both 1330 and 1210 says plenty about the value of AM radio. FM is heading in the same direction but not as fast.
 
CAVEMANager said:
All radio stations in Arizona are up for possible license renewal this year. Renewal applications were due on June first. It appears that KWFM-1330 has not filed for renewal. See KWFM - AM Station Profile - FCC Public Inspection Files.
I would tend to conclude from this that the owner wishes to give up. Someone else could apply for 1330 but they would be best off finding a different transmitter site. The present location is surrounded with expensive houses and the real estate that the towers use is worth far more than the station is worth. I predict that 1330 will never return to the air. The loss of both 1330 and 1210 says plenty about the value of AM radio. FM is heading in the same direction but not as fast.
Click to expand...

NO ONE is going to build a 6 tower array. You might not even get 250 watts non directional at night, which is the minimum when you file for a new AM.
 
I think it's a glass-half-full, glass-half-empty situation. I'm amazed at the number of high-on-the-dial AM stations that are still hanging on!

Tuscon may no longer have 1210 or 1330. But it still has 1290, 1400, 1450, 1490, 1550 and 1600. Their owners are still keeping them all on the air.
 
1290, 1400, 1450, 1490, 1550 and 1600. Their owners are still keeping them all on the air.
And their biggest operating expense is probably their electric bills. 1550 does have some local news but it simulcasts with an FM.
 
1600...

50k daytimer. 🤯
 
Gregg. said:
I think it's a glass-half-full, glass-half-empty situation. I'm amazed at the number of high-on-the-dial AM stations that are still hanging on!

Tuscon may no longer have 1210 or 1330. But it still has 1290, 1400, 1450, 1490, 1550 and 1600. Their owners are still keeping them all on the air.
Click to expand...
Where is this 'Tuscon'?
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
NO ONE is going to build a 6 tower array. You might not even get 250 watts non directional at night, which is the minimum when you file for a new AM.
Click to expand...
It's been a few years, but AM-820 does well with their 6-tower array. It runs 50 KW omni during the day, 50 KW with 2 towers during CH, and 2.5 KW nights with a jack-legged, mostly north beam at night.
Over the metro, they have their strongest and best signal on the piddly night pattern.
I always wondered why they built 40 miles south of the market.
They also get a lot of DX'ers in Scandinavia....but lose the nighttime audience in southern Utah
 
kenglish said:
It's been a few years, but AM-820 does well with their 6-tower array. It runs 50 KW omni during the day, 50 KW with 2 towers during CH, and 2.5 KW nights with a jack-legged, mostly north beam at night.
Over the metro, they have their strongest and best signal on the piddly night pattern.
I always wondered why they built 40 miles south of the market.
They also get a lot of DX'ers in Scandinavia....but lose the nighttime audience in southern Utah
Click to expand...
comparing a long existing existing array on a fairly low dial spot to a much higher dial spot in a different city, one that would need to be built is like comparing apples to oranges and nome alaska weather to miami, florida weather
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
comparing a long existing existing array on a fairly low dial spot to a much higher dial spot in a different city, one that would need to be built is like comparing apples to oranges and nome alaska weather to miami, florida weather
Click to expand...
Nah. Just saying that they had some sort of forethought in mind, plus a good piece of property available at a decent price.
Maybe a few stations in similar situations might consider a "six tower array", or smaller. Not for everyone, of course.
 
Where is this AM 820? Fort Worth? Years ago the Arizona Star did a half serious article about what kind of place Tuscon might be. One source of confusion is that the airport code is "TUS".
I believe that 1330 is directional mostly to protect a station in Northwest New Mexico and another station in Los Angeles. You wouldn't need six towers to accomplish that though you might need six towers and 5 kw to get a minimum signal into South Tucson from such a distant site. Today there is probably no good reason why the station needs to be licensed to South Tucson. Three towers somewhere north of Tucson would likely work fine.
 
kenglish said:
Nah. Just saying that they had some sort of forethought in mind, plus a good piece of property available at a decent price.
Maybe a few stations in similar situations might consider a "six tower array", or smaller. Not for everyone, of course.
Click to expand...
now adays, no one in their right mind would consider a 6 tower array. that ship sailed 20 years ago
 
The station I was referring to is KUTR, in the Salt Lake City DMA. It was first granted a license on 11-02-2005. Took quite a while to finish building it, as the original owners sold all their licenses to Bonneville. So, it's been on the air about 15 years. It protects 820's in Dallas and Seattle, and various ones in the east.
The location gives them a really good nighttime signal all along the Wasatch Front, which they couldn't have done from the north side.
 
It's dead Jim.. KWFM 1330's license has been deleted.
 
99KTKT said:
So I guess I can give up on 'Disco Saturday Night with Dawn Avalon' ever returning to the 1330 AM airwaves...
Click to expand...
With 'Internet Radio', a person *could* resurrect the idea of that program, just for old-times sake... :eek:



Yeah, forget I even wrote that. :LOL::ROFLMAO:
 
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