The Future of 1040 Flemington?

[Danfm]

Now with 98.7 as ESPN Radio Will Disney end it's WNJE LMA with Nassau (or whoever buys Nassau) or do they want to continue the LMA for ESPN Deportes down the road?

 

[TimeIsTight]

The question to ask is "how many Spanish speaking sports fans live in the WNJE signal area?"

Certainly there aren't that many in Hunterdon County, but there may be enough in Allentown, Easton, Trenton, and even North Philly during the day, and in Bound Brook at night. The new English language ESPN signal on 98.7 will not reach that far out either, so the situation isn't changed that much, they could continue to put that audio on it.

I have always assumed that ESPN was involved in WNJE because it is on 1040, and should it ever want to open up the 1050 signal to the West, the 1040 license would be a problem. That situation won't change just because ESPN will now use 1050 to broadcast in Spanish.

I would have expected ESPN to buy WNJE in the Nassau bankruptcy. The station really isn't worth much to anybody else, and, in a bankruptcy it goes to the highest bidder, so they could get it really cheaply. We'll see, but I wouldn't expect any drastic changes unless the lease runs out.

 

[jvn]

These days it seems that ESPN is more into leasing stations then buying them.

 

[TimeIsTight]

These days it seems that ESPN is more into leasing stations then buying them.

ESPN's parent company, Disney, has not done well owning radio stations in recent years. Like someone who bought a house at the peak market price and now sees it worth far less, Disney bought a lot of AMs, for its kids network, that declined sharply in value, and they paid far more for the hobbled directional 1050-AM station in NYC than it is worth today.

A high up numbers cruncher, and corner office occupant, at Disney probably decided that radio stations are declining assets that aren't worth the capital investment, and there may also be tax advantages in leasing. So, they may have some kind of policy that says "lease" don't buy radio stations.

However, owning WNJE, if they can buy it cheaply, may be different. When WINS wanted to open its signal to the west it paid WRNJ in Hackettstown to move from the adjacent frequency. When WWRL wanted to expand its signal to the west it bought WERA in Plainfield and shut it down. If Disney decided to try and open 1050 to the west it would have to shut down 1040, that's why it might want to buy it cheaply now, and probably why its involved with the station in the first place. So it can take it dark if it wants to.

 

[luperm]

I'm not sure if buying 1040 and taking it dark would do much to help 1050's situation. They still have 1060 in Philadelphia to deal with.

 

[satech]

I'm not sure if buying 1040 and taking it dark would do much to help 1050's situation. They still have 1060 in Philadelphia to deal with.

WEPN's signal is nulled towards Philadelphia to protect KYW. 1040 WNJE has nothing to do with it, because they went on the air many decades after 1050.

They will find something to put on WNJE, because their 15 kW daytime signal does cover Allentown, Trenton, and parts of Philly. Unfortunately, their 1.5 kW nighttime signal covers mostly just Hunterdon County farmland!

 

[TimeIsTight]

I'm not sure if buying 1040 and taking it dark would do much to help 1050's situation. They still have 1060 in Philadelphia to deal with.

WEPN's signal is nulled towards Philadelphia to protect KYW. 1040 WNJE has nothing to do with it, because they went on the air many decades after 1050.

I understand what you guys are saying. No doubt, WEPN has always had to protect KYW and it likely always will. But when they constructed WNJE 20-years ago, or whenever, it brought another station into the picture that also had to be protected, and that station is 40-miles closer to WEPN than KYW, and farther north. WEPN probably couldn't move its signal into WNJE territory under any circumstances, but if it wanted to increase its North Jersey coverage it might have to keep the pattern a certain distance from WNJE, and it wouldn't have that problem if WNJE wasn't there. WWRL still hasn't got a good signal in Plainfield, but it still had to take WERA dark to change its pattern, likewise with WINS which still doesn't have a good signal in Hackettstown.

You really have to wonder what other benefit WEPN gets out of the WNJE lease? With the exception of a small part of Somerset County at night, WNJE's signal is completely out of the New York Radio Market, any listeners it has don't count for ratings or ad rates. And its daytime signal goes into markets like Easton, Allentown or North Philly that have locally focused ESPN affiliates of their own.

And the gap between WEPN's signal, and WNJE's signal in the more densely populated and affluent NJ suburbs that are part of the NY radio market is still there. The Jets still needed an affiliate in Morristown because the WEPN signal is lacking in that area 25-miles west of Manhattan. And the possibly of reaching those affluent suburbs may not be as important with a Spanish language format, although there are large Hispanic populations in Morristown and Dover. The bottom line is that WNJE may have lost the reason for ESPN to want to be connected to it, but things probably won't change until the lease runs out.

 

[w9wi]

Since WNJE is MUCH newer than WEPN, is it not reasonable to assume WEPN is not protecting WNJE in any way? -- i.e., whatever is limiting WEPN's coverage to the west is NOT WNJE, deleting WNJE won't allow *any* upgrade in WEPN's signal?

(I'm thinking the limits on WEPN are KYW and CHUM or, more accurately & generically, Canada?)

 

[satech]

But when they constructed WNJE 20-years ago, or whenever, it brought another station into the picture that also had to be protected, and that station is 40-miles closer to WEPN than KYW, and farther north. WEPN probably couldn't move its signal into WNJE territory under any circumstances, but if it wanted to increase its North Jersey coverage it might have to keep the pattern a certain distance from WNJE, and it wouldn't have that problem if WNJE wasn't there.

WNJE has to protect WEPN, not the other way around. 1050 did not have to change their signal at all when 1040 went on the air, because 1050's signal pattern was calculated before 1040 even existed. And due to the FCC's "ratchet clause", if WNJE went dark and WEPN decided to adjust their signal pattern, WEPN would actually have to tighten up their pattern towards the west, rather than expand it, due to their need to protect 1040 WHO from Des Moines at night, which is the dominant 50 kW Class A signal on that channel (as well as 1060 KYW from Philly and 1050 CHUM from Toronto).

1040 WNJE (originally WJHR) was merely a "shoehorn fit" into that channel, with a directional signal pattern designed to fit within the existing patterns of all the stations surrounding them. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that their license was originally authorized prior to 1991 (even though they didn't get on the air until December 1997!), they never would've been given a license in the first place, because 1991 is when the FCC began taking adjacent channels into account; they would've ruled that a signal on 1040 kHz in Flemington, NJ would be too close to the existing 1050 in NYC and would cause too much overlap -- especially at night, when WNJE aims their signal due East, directly at NYC, in order to protect WHO.

 

[TimeIsTight]

Gentlemen, thanks for taking the time to explain the finer points of the WEPN signal situation. I didn't take the time to do the homework I should have on the situation, given all the details you have provided, I am sure you are both correct. I was thinking just daytime patterns, and completely forgot about the skywave situations at night.

However, I did read of another situation, on another board, that might offer another signal related explanation for the relationship between the two stations.

All that was was said was this comment relating to WNJE "Feds force them to cut power south of 100W nighttime in respect to 'EPN) since 2008?" So was WEPN having problems with its night signal in Jersey because of WNJE?

As, I stated above, the fact that WEPN leases this station makes little or no normal business sense. The station doesn't count in the NY ratings, and doesn't show up in Lehigh Valley, Trenton ratings or anyplace else. So why is a big outfit like ESPN's New York station doing this?

 

[GSP163]

I heard that sometime this past Saturday WNJE dropped the WEPN 98.7/1050 simulcast for ESPN Deportes.....WEPN has not ID'ed WNJE at the TOH since it moved to 98.7 a few weeks ago

 

[MikeD]

I wonder if losing 1040 could affect future negotiations for ESPN with the New York teams? 1040's covers an area of NJ that WFAN covers very well, but 98.7 doesn't. From Somerville to Flemington, then down through Mercer County 98.7 begins to fade out. I know these areas aren't in the NYC Arbitron area, so from a NYC ratings standpoint it doesn't really matter. However, any live play by play radio needs to cover all areas where that team's fans are. People in Hunterdon, Mercer, and Somerset counties are primarily split between NY & Philly teams (further north you go, the more NY centric it becomes). 1040 provided coverage of the Knicks, Jets, etc in these areas. Imagine if ESPN tried to go for the Yankees the next time their contract comes up for renewal? I don't see the Yankees signing with 98.7 if they didn't have the fringe coverage that 1040 would provide.

 

[satech]

1040 is now ESPN Deportes. I tuned in today and heard sports news in Spanish.

 

[TimeIsTight]

I wonder if losing 1040 could affect future negotiations for ESPN with the New York teams?

ESPN wouldn't be switching the station to Spanish if that lack of FM "out of market" fan coverage was a potential problem.

Unfortunately, 1040 has a substantially different night coverage area than days, and it may have been that little bit of Somerset County that it covers at night that originally made the station attractive to ESPN, and that area is now covered by 98.7. And ESPN probably switched 1040 to Spanish already, so that any regular ESPN listeners in that area would be forced to switch to FM where the ratings will count.

Who knows how long the ESPN contract with the station still has to run, and if it continues when the station officially changes hands soon? It's just a guess, but ESPN probably wants out as soon is it can. The station just doesn't have that many potential Spanish speaking listeners, and by switching to Spanish, it is apparent ESPN doesn't care about its English language audience.

The low power AM ESPN affiliates in Easton/Allentown were also part of the bankruptcy auction and Goldman Sachs will now own them too. Perhaps, Goldman can put together some kind of regional sports network using the national ESPN feed, and using the 1040, 920-AM in Trenton and the two Lehigh Valley AMs together most of the time, but allowing the Trenton station to carry the Thunder baseball games, and Titan hockey, while 1040 could carry the Somerset Patriots and the Lehigh Valley teams could carry their usual teams. ESPN could then make a deal with that group if it needed NYC team game coverage in those areas to please a particular team.

But, it's more likely that the Lehigh Valley stations will ultimately become part of some local cluster, very cheaply.

920-AM will keep running paid religion in Trenton, and 1040 will then do same. One outside option, is that Goldman Sachs make some kind of deal with non-commercial WDVR-FM for 1040. There may be tax benefits for Goldman, and DVR might be able to use the studios on Rt-12 at the 1040 transmitter site. It has a nice building and parking lot. DVR could fill the AM air time with more of its community programming. That might actually be the best win-win solution for what to do with 1040, but who knows if the parties are even interested?

 

[nd2023]

Goldman Sachs doesn't want to get into the radio business. I think Nassau's management will still have control over the stations, but Goldman Sachs is just the owner of the licenses waiting to sell them. A regional sports network with 1040, 920, and the Lehigh Valley stations would have to cover the NYC and Philly teams since the fanbase is split in the coverage areas of those stations.

 

[John1]

ESPN Deportes was on daytimer 860 AM in Philadelphia for a time last year and quickly switched to ethnic programming moved from WNWR when they went to a Chinese-English format. At the time people on the Phila. board commented the format did not concentrate on the sports the Philadelphia Hispanic community cared about. Not sure there are enough listeners/audience interested to sustain this format in their main signal area. 1040 actually puts a huge signal into the northern Philadelphia suburbs, in fact for a time it carried the religious programming of WCHR which was for 30 years aimed at the northern Philadelphia market on 94.5 FM, then moved to 920, 1040, & back to 920. If 'Family Radio' was serious about trying to find a new AM home in the NYC-Phila. corridor this might be a good choice before and after possibly selling 94.7 in Newark. Another possibilty would be to put a KYW simulcast on 1040 to pick up the weaker areas in Bucks & Mercer counties and extend their listenership. I can't see WDVR needing an AM signal or moving from their barn studios in Sergentsville, but maybe it could expand the country format of WCVH's small signal into an area where the format could work. Of course it was nice when it was run originally as a local station but that probably won't happen.

 

[TimeIsTight]

I can't see WDVR needing an AM signal or moving from their barn studios in Sergentsville

Actually, its been couple of years, but the last time I saw Frank Napurano, who founded WDVR, he had plans to build an new studio and office building out on Route-12, near the WDVR transmitter, and not far from the WNJE transmitter and office site.

DVR was leasing that old blacksmith shop in Sergeantsville. Things could have changed, but it looks like that WNJE building would make an ideal studio and office space for WDVR, if the price was right. And if there weren't worries about the AM RF leaking into all the audio equipment.

WDVR is a 501-C-3 non-profit, so it would have certain tax advantages in running the AM. And there could be certain tax advantages to Goldman Sachs in donating it, if it can't find a regular buyer at the hoped for price. Then again, somebody else may own the building and land, and Nassau may have just been leasing too. There might be a way that WDVR, could sell time to other non-profits, like churches, on the AM and use that cash flow to help support its entire non-profit operation.

It would also be a good station for Family Radio, or any other broadcaster not dependent on ratings. And that extra coverage would help KYW in the daytime, but the problem with WNJE is that its day and night patterns are so different.

Let's just hope somebody finds something useful to do with the station, and that it doesn't go the way of WERA, WCRV, or WRAN and just go dark.

 

[satech]

1040 would be a more attractive buy if 1350 WHWH had not gone back on the air. But as-is, the Delaware Valley is simply too saturated with AM stations, and of course 1040's Jeckyll-and-Hyde signal patterns don't help. You can get them in Allentown during the day, but at night the pattern swings around and covers Somerville and New Brunswick instead. Only Flemington itself enjoys reliable 24-hour coverage on 1040, and as they found out during their "WJHR - Jersey's Hometown Radio" era, Flemington is too small of a market to support the station with local advertisers.

 

[nd2023]

Is it possible to get an FM translator to translate 1040? That could revive the frequency

 

[satech]

Is it possible to get an FM translator to translate 1040? That could revive the frequency

I believe the FCC rules say that an FM translator has to be already existing and licensed in order to be used for simulcasting an AM station; so the owners of 1040 wouldn't be able to set up a new one from scratch.

Nearby 1510 WRNJ got lucky because when they sold off 107.1 WRNJ-FM to join the Y-107 quadcast, they retained the license to WRNJ-FM's two translators, on 92.7 and 104.7 MHz. These both came in handy when the FCC started to allow AM-to-FM translators, especially the 92.7 translator in Washington, where WRNJ's very limited nighttime AM signal has absolutely no coverage.