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THE JOY FM TO EXPAND BAY AREA COVERAGE

R

Rick Rose 2.0

Guest
I see that Family Radio is selling 91.7 WFTI St Petersburg to RTN the owners of Sarasota based Joy FM. Joy already has simlucast partner serving the north bay area but this new signal will blanket Pinellas county. Could we see signal adjustments to better serve Hillsborough county.
 
EJM said:
When was the last time Family Radio sold one of its non-commercial stations (i.e., one of its stations in the non-commercial band, which couldn't be converted to commercial)?

Also, the price tag here is $2.5 million. See http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/79300/family-radio-sells-91-7-wfti-st-petersburg and http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/111431/family-stations-sells-wfti-st-petersburg.
Click to expand...

Wow FR selling to another religious broadcaster... They usually don't do that.
 
I have some questions, why does the government give privileges to religious organizations. Religious broadcasting gets the bottom of the band up to 91.9. Government/ public radio are the only other stations to occupy that part of the band. Meaning the lower part of the band isn't as cluttered and is perfect in terms of not having so many stations shoehorned together.

Also why does the govt exempt churches and such from paying taxes. Prior to the 1960's / Johnson Administration a church or religious organization had to pay taxes just as a for-profit would. Now a hate group known as the Westboro Baptist Church does not have to pay taxes on their property. Given the church is on the same property as their pool and house.
 
WSMR still has virtually no Pinellas coverage. Seems USF missed an opportunity.
 
I don't think USF needs to spend 2.5 million for another analog radio station just so classical music can be heard in St. Petersburg. That's a total waste of money. However... if it was bought for the students of the growing USF St. Pete campus, then you'd have my attention.
 
Re: Family Radio selling allot

FrankF said:
We're just a little south of it ;D, but Family radio just sold one of it's biggest commercial stations (recently upgraded from non-com to commercial) 94.7 WFME in Newark, NJ to Cumulus.
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=221457.0
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That actually does apply to our Market as much as the sale of WFME might complicate the sale of WFTI.

It shouldn't, but there have been so many plot twists involving WFME, I wouldn't be surprised to see one come up, down here.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
And we, a couple hundred miles south of you guys, await with bated breath, the ultimate disposition of WMFL.
 
gamefreak said:
Also why does the govt exempt churches and such from paying taxes. Prior to the 1960's / Johnson Administration a church or religious organization had to pay taxes just as a for-profit would. Now a hate group known as the Westboro Baptist Church does not have to pay taxes on their property. Given the church is on the same property as their pool and house.
Click to expand...

Where do you get your information? Religious organizations have NEVER paid real estate taxes in the history of the United States on property used for religious purposes. Until the late 60s or so, churches didn't pay real estates taxes on other operations they owned (like a girdle factory, in one case).

In the case of Westboro, is that house used as the church's parsonage? If so, that's a religious use.
 
I guess his point is, why should he subsidize a religion or religions he doesn't believe in? In my case, I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to. ;D
 
billalm said:
I don't think USF needs to spend...However... if it was bought for the students...
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W280DW would actually make a better choice for a traditional "college" radio station (translating an HD two or three) had the St. Pete station been acquired, not that the two have any real overlap, but 'DW-104 covers the campus area nicely. Student run college radio stations never, ever, ever generate revenue. WUSF, you might be unaware, actually offered a nice progressive rock format back in the 1970's, at least in the evenings.
 
ai4i said:
billalm said:
I don't think USF needs to spend...However... if it was bought for the students...
Click to expand...
W280DW would actually make a better choice for a traditional "college" radio station (translating an HD two or three) had the St. Pete station been acquired, not that the two have any real overlap, but 'DW-104 covers the campus area nicely. Student run college radio stations never, ever, ever generate revenue. WUSF, you might be unaware, actually offered a nice progressive rock format back in the 1970's, at least in the evenings.
Click to expand...
IIRC, WUSF's evening program was the "Underground Railroad" and there was quite a protest from the students when WUSF went to a more traditional NPR format and petitions being passed about.

Back on topic, what you say is true about 103.9 being a good college station, if WUSF media had had the re$ources to purchase WFTI. Unlike sister station WUSF, WSMR receives no funding from the CPB and they bought WSMR at a firesale price with a one time grant. Had they been able to purchase WFTI they would have covered the most of Pinellas county, extreme n.w. Manatee and the Sun City, Ruskin and Appollo Beach areas plus parts of south Tampa, mainly south of I-4 and thought would have really complimented the coverage to the south.

drt
st. petersburg,fl
 
drt said:
...and there was quite a protest from the students when WUSF went to a more traditional NPR format...
Click to expand...
From one USF in the bay area to another.
 
I just saw that The Joy FM serving a chunk of the Atlanta market is partnering with the main JOY FM station to help raise money for the purpose of buying 91.7fm. The campaign is being promoted as the ONE DAY has come which will give the Tampa Bay area one signal for the Joy FM buy expanding the New Port Richey signal on 91.5 to blanket Tampa and St Petersburg. So that means 91.7 is moving or being shut down. I see no applications yet but its possible WCIE will move to 91.7 or stay on 91.5 through the planned upgrade.

The upgrade will move the WCIE tower very close to Tampa and will increase coverage from 589k people to 3.4 million. I am not sure if 88.1 will make any changes but i assume Joy will still want to maintain great Sarasota market coverage.
 
I wonder which license is getting the upgrade? 91.7 WFTI St. Petersburg or 91.5 WCIE New Port Richie? What happens to the other license? Is one or the other just eliminated or seriously downgraded to another frequency? My guess is the St. Petersburg WFTI license ends up with a full market signal on 91.5 and the New Port Richie WCIE license is downgraded, shifted to another frequency, or moved farther North into Pasco or Hernando and then sold off.
 
The station website says the New Port Richey signal is being upgraded and it appears to be 100kw according to the map on the Joy website. i assume the application will appear on the FCC website soon but it could be the first of the year if they reach the million dollar goal.
 
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