Thunder Country's Owner Should Buy WFAF 106.3

[Barry]

Usually it is tough to receive WKMK 106.3 in Bergen County, due to interference from WFAF in northern Westchester County NY, which is on the same frequency. With WFAF temporarily off the air following Irene, Thunder Country now comes in reasonably well in Bergen County, Rockland County NY and in much of New York City.
That gives me the idea that perhaps Thunder's owner, Press Communications should try to purchase WFAF from Cumulus, and use it to simulcast the country station.Thunder would not only be subject to less interference, but have a considerably more wide-ranging signal from the Jersey shore on into many other surrounding areas that do not have a country station.
Cumulus is taking on a lot of debt due to their upcoming purchase of Citadel. Perhaps they would be willing to sell WFAF, which is only being used to simulcast and slightly extend the range of WFAS FM. WFAF has been used to simulcast several stations over the years, as it is located in a relatively lightly populated area.
While this may be reminiscent of Y 107, which was also a country station in the area that simulcast on one frequency, I believe owner Press Communications is a more stable company than the one that ran Y107 till its end 8 years ago,

 

[bigtom101]

Cumulus will use WFAF for the Soft Rock format when they find a buyer for WFAS (currently licensed to Bronxville with a unbuilt CP from the WFUV site) rather than sell it is my guess (they have been pushing the 106.3 signal pretty hard whenever I listen).

Press doesn't have the cash on hand to go buying anything...the TV station out in Nevada took up a huge chunk of money from what I understand, as well as all the properties they bought at the height of station prices.

Why not just get a smartphone and stream it in the car whenever your out of range?

 

[MickeyD]

Press doesn't have the cash on hand to go buying anything...the TV station out in Nevada took up a huge chunk of money from what I understand, as well as all the properties they bought at the height of station prices.

Not really they got both of the stations for a steal. They paid either 2 or 3 million dollars for both stations. The plan was to relocate the two stations back east but the FCC would have no part of it.

Instead, even though Press found the available frequencies, they said thanks and auctioned them off themselves.

They would have struck gold if the FCC allowed the move. What they have now are two VHF stations in the far reaches of no-where that are incredibly difficult to receive over the air.

WHen they bought the stations for that purpose I thought it was a brilliant move until the FCC decided to screw them over.

 

[luperm]

Now that Cumulus and Citadel are merging, I'm not sure 103.9 is getting sold so fast...

 

[bigtom101]

WHen they bought the stations for that purpose I thought it was a brilliant move until the FCC decided to screw them over.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer company.

Press could scrape up the cash to buy one of the 106.3's in the area (WHCY or WFAF) if they wanted to. But would adding a signal up in Sussex or Westchester help add to the bottom line? Would the ROI be worth it?

Thunder is a Jersey Shore station - all of the local spots are for Monmouth or Ocean county businesses, with a few Middlesex thrown in. Do they really want to create Y107 2.0 with 106.3 signals? WKMK has a OK signal in the outer boros, but even with WFAF, being heard in Downtown Manhattan would be tricky on your average POS portable radio.