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This Dog Won't Hunt ~ WDSP?

H

H82BL8

I've been watching the BuySellRadio listings for awhile and I read some of the older posts on RI from November '05 and July '07 about WDSP being for sale, the price being too high, the power being too low, the connectivity being an issue, a new transmitter, a new studio, land more valuable then the station, etc. etc.

It seems like a long time for a station to be silent and on the market. So, what is the real problem? Is the asking price just too high? Or are there real infrastructure issues? Or, maybe too many darn hurricanes?

Is it really a dog or can you train it to hunt? How much training would it take to hunt in a competitive market?

H82BL8
 
The land is more valuable than the station? In Defuniak Springs?
Is this the station that has (had) the CP to move south to Destin on a lower frequency?
 
Kind of a cute town, but not exactly a gold mine. Only 5,000 people & a very small retail base. With the lousy soil conductivity in the Panhandle, the 5-kw AM daytime signal limits the audience & sales market to DeFuniak itself and they share that with the other AM in town, 1460/WZEP, which has a much stronger day and night signal.

A recent change in FCC rules would allow WDSP to add an FM translator to shore up the 46 watt night signal and effectively turn it into a small FM instead of a small AM (see what Cumulus has done with 1400/95.3 in Harrisburg, PA)--but you'd still be splitting a very small town and very little money with another (better established) radio station.

Another (somewhat bizarre) FCC rules change that has been in effect for several years now does allow an AM licensee to just pick the thing up and move it damn near anywhere as a "minor change"--even changing frequency and/or power--to any community that currently doesn't have a station licensed to it. So maybe the trick is to buy it and move it to some tiny suburb of Atlanta or LA or NYC and forget about DFS, FL altogether!
 
Thanks red,

So, this doq will hunt, but only in it's own back yard. And, with some work and some money, an experienced trainer could take the dog to a better dog show. Sounds like it might just be easier to go to the pet store in my home town and train a new puppy?

H82BL8
 
An experienced trainer would "no" not to put that dog in ANY competition. If you have to borrow a penny and don't have
deep pockets to survive every possible obstacle on the runway, you don't want to waste your time. Poetic that the calls
are WDSP, cause that's what the seller is. Take Dave Ramsey's advice. If it's a hobby, and you can survive without
needing any $$$, that's a different subject.

What RNR hasn't mentioned is the time and investment to get that (or any AM) tin can moved. I can only imagine the $100,000's
to do all that.

I've seen it happen right before my eyes...it's just to tough. I tried it with 100kw station and it wasn't easy. But, what do I know.

RNR -- where have ya been?
 
Tibbs2 said:
An experienced trainer would "no" not to put that dog in ANY competition. If you have to borrow a penny and don't have
deep pockets to survive every possible obstacle on the runway, you don't want to waste your time. Poetic that the calls
are WDSP, cause that's what the seller is. Take Dave Ramsey's advice. If it's a hobby, and you can survive without
needing any $$$, that's a different subject.

What RNR hasn't mentioned is the time and investment to get that (or any AM) tin can moved. I can only imagine the $100,000's
to do all that.

I've seen it happen right before my eyes...it's just to tough. I tried it with 100kw station and it wasn't easy. But, what do I know.

RNR -- where have ya been?
Click to expand...

Oh, I still lurk on a regular basis and chip in whenever I actually have a thought!

And I agree 100 percent with you, Tibbs. Unless the opportunity to move one of these SOBs has a huge upside--that is, to NYC or LA, for instance--the upfront/whip-out cash involved make the entire idea impractical. Unless, like Ramsey says, you're independently wealthy and are just looking for something to fill your otherwise idle time. (If that was me, I'd spend it on wine, women & song instead)! Or at least wine & women...
 
RNR ---

Good hearing from ya! I know where I can get you a bunch of good wine, but I have yet to see any
good deals on any radio stations that have a frequency between 92.0 and 108.0 in a market under
#300. With all the $$$ tightening in all forms of business (especially we'll see about retail in the next 90 days)
and the crashing of corporate radio stocks, I am surprised there is no mass dumping of underperforming
stations in oversaturated smaller markets like PCB or perhaps FWB. Wine si a better investment, by the
way. No joke.
 
WDSP....so they went back to their original calls.....and became one of the maaaaaany Talk stations in the US.

Shame.....I went up near that area in '03 when they were still WGTX and they spun everything from Elvis, to Starship, to the Smashing Pumpkins.
 
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