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Tower rent expensive in Boston

J

joshzz

We had looked into purchasing an AM in Boston. The pirce was certainly fair at about 550 k but the monthly tower rent was more than I could handle . .. Approximately $ 20 k per month.. and that didn't include the studio .

I know AM towers occupy a large amount of land but 20 k per month was just too much . I would have to make amount $ 300 k per year just to cover rent .. that doesn't include all the other expenses.

Is this an anomaly or is this status quo cost for the Boston area? :eek:
 
Welcome to the world of commercial broadcasting! Tower rents
are based on supply and demand. In a large market, with a crowded dial
and real estate at a premium, this means big $$$. When you
buy a station - all that you get is a license, a piece of paper
that allows you to operate a legitimate station. This does not
include transmitters, tower space, engineering work, office/studio space,
staff, etc. Not to mention all of the other continuing costs involved to
keep the station on the air. When there are clueless individuals
who keep telling us what stations should program, or what
Boston "needs" it becomes especially foolish. This is not even
math involved - it is simple arithmetic that any 12 year old should know.
If you think that you can make the numbers work, then put up the cash,
and have at it. Best of luck to you!
 
For stations that apparently own their tower/towers and the real estate, some of them seem to have turned them to profitable use in addition to broadcasting. On a few occasions, Costa-Eagle owned WNNW-AM 800 has gone off-the-air for hours at a time (while continuing to air programming on its translator* on 92.1) to install cellular or communications equipment. I see such additions on some towers elsewhere. On a few occasions, I've gone to concerts in Great Barrington, MA in the Berkshires, and WSBS-AM 860 there has some extra antennas on its tower. *(Why do they call it a "translator" when the programming on it is almost all-Spanish, like the AM?)
 
To Josh, who started this thread: why not consider leasing some
time on an existing station? If you have a good programming
idea, and can market it well, start out small and try to build a
following. There are stations out there that will lease you some time.
I'm just saying... ;)
 
Did not mean to post the same message twice, but when I couldn't get my first reply to post, I re-posted it, only to find that the lost post finally did go up. I next tried clearing out the contents of one of the duplicate posts, only to be chastised for posting an empty message. I think this is known as being unable to win for lising.
 
josh said:
We had looked into purchasing an AM in Boston. The pirce was certainly fair at about 550 k but the monthly tower rent was more than I could handle . .. Approximately $ 20 k per month.. and that didn't include the studio.
Click to expand...

Well, now we all know which station you wanted to buy. I think the lease on their site is an anomaly. Discussions of it have probably consumed a megabyte on this board over the past decade.
 
josh said:
We had looked into purchasing an AM in Boston. The pirce was certainly fair at about 550 k but the monthly tower rent was more than I could handle . .. Approximately $ 20 k per month.. and that didn't include the studio.
Click to expand...

Just curious.....what plans did you have for this station if the lease wasn't an issue and the sale was do-able?

...or had you planned that far ahead?
 
It would be a local community station with an emphasis on Contemporary Christian Music but we would do high school games, various community remotes, host concerts, do benefits to help the needy, etc.

We're already doing it at our station, LIFT FM but this would have been a big market leap. :)
 
There are pirate stations who have everything except a license. And you would have a license but nothing else. Sounds like a perfect match.
 
josh said:
It would be a local community station with an emphasis on Contemporary Christian Music but we would do high school games, various community remotes, host concerts, do benefits to help the needy, etc.
We're already doing it at our station, LIFT FM but this would have been a big market leap.:)
Click to expand...

You realize, or maybe you don't, that the station in question was owned by Communicom and did a Christian format of some stripe some 15 or 20 years ago. Back then, in one of the legions of threads here on the exorbitant tower-site lease, the president of Communicom stated that, if he couldn't make a buck on a 50-kW AM in a market the size of Boston despite the huge rent (which, IIRC, was "only" $15k/month at the time), he ought to get out of radio. Not too long afterward, Communicom sold the station. I don't know whether the guy got out of radio or not.
 
Not too take this too far off topic, but is 1510 really for sale?

Has anyone seen it listed for sale?

If so why isn't Santos buying it, Progressive Talk's supporters who have been screaming for years that they NEED the format should be willing to invest in a venture such as that to keep it on the air.


And to the OP, for what it would cost you monthly to acquire the license, rent studio's, get up and running, equipment, and maintain a transmitter, transmitter site, and pay a C.E., you could buy a real nice chunk of time on WLYN or WAZN, give us a call !!!!!
 
MRBIboredop said:
If so why isn't Santos buying it, Progressive Talk's supporters who have been screaming for years that they NEED the format should be willing to invest in a venture such as that to keep it on the air.
Click to expand...

I've always assumed that, although he seems able to raise enough money to continue leasing time month by month, his backers are not willing to fork over the asking price or close to it in one chunk. For sure, Santos's key backer at the Save <whatever> group (NOT his key backer overall) has repeatedly stated her absolute opposition to raising money from the group members. You may recall that Nova M was listener supported and it went belly up. I think she fears that the same thing would happen if the group were to try something similar with the WWZN LMA. But Santos has some other backers who apparently have pretty deep pockets and it doesn't seem to bother them that, after a few years of putting up $$$ month by month, they probably could have bought the station by now. I also think that Santos and his backers are happy to let Anthony Pepe worry about the day-to-day operation of the station. Based on Santos's management style, I question whether day-to-day operations of any more than the LMA are anything he wants to become involved with. If I've got the situation figured out correctly, Santos gets kudos for recognizing his personal limitations. I would not have thought that someone so egotistical would be likely to be able to recognize his own limitations.
 
i thought mr kraft was interested at one point maybe it was one of his associates?? could be anyone on here.
 
Wbzfm2010 said:
i thought mr kraft was interested at one point maybe it was one of his associates?? could be anyone on here.
Click to expand...

The rumor was that Kraft and the group he had put together were interested in buying 1510 ONLY if the transmitter could be moved to the Gillette Stadium property in Foxboro; they had zero interest in the station if it had to stay at 411 Waverly Oaks Rd. Well, as I pointed out here on several occasions, Foxboro doesn't work for 1510 unless the engineers are really cute and can figure out a frequency to substitute for 1510 in Sherbrooke QC. (Long-dark CJRS remains internationally notified as do almost 100% of Canada's dark AMs and the required protections would make it impossible for 1510 to cover the market adequately at night from Foxboro. 1530 might be a possible substitute for 1510 in Sherbrooke, but it is highly questionable.)
 
At one point we were ready to put "progressive talk"
on WAZN. It could have worked well for all concerned.
hey decided to go in another direction, at the time.
Hey, we could STILL do it. If they want to sit down
with me, and talk seriously, I'll listen! Posting on
this board every other week telling us what Boston
"needs" and what stations "should program" just
isn't going to cut it...
 
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