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Townsquare Cancels KSLI License in Abilene

R

Ryan Williams

Townsquare cancels another AM, this time KSLI (1280) in Abilene. Which was country las time I was through there.

I inquired a number years ago ago about purchasing KSLI since it was barely hangin on back then but the talk went no where. If I remember right, the transmitter is in a flood plane, so i doubt this is a real estate play. I guess it just didn't make any money or enough money to fool with any longer. Sad.

I wonder how long their other marginal Texas AMs have left. Thinking of KGKL, KSFA, KKAM, etc.
 
Ryan Williams said:
Townsquare cancels another AM, this time KSLI (1280) in Abilene. Which was country las time I was through there.

I inquired a number years ago ago about purchasing KSLI since it was barely hangin on back then but the talk went no where. If I remember right, the transmitter is in a flood plane, so i doubt this is a real estate play. I guess it just didn't make any money or enough money to fool with any longer. Sad.

I wonder how long their other marginal Texas AMs have left. Thinking of KGKL, KSFA, KKAM, etc.
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KSFA is the only AM in the Townsquare cluster serving Luf-Nac. Unless they have sudden aspirations to move SFA to FM, and seeing as how they sent KVLL-FM to the scrap heap just last year, that would be a pretty foolish move on their part to blow up Kicks 105 or The Fox for the N/T format of SFA.

I reckon it'd be better odds to cross 860 off of that particular list. They wouldn't have killed 94.7 off and, instead, moved SFA to 94.7, sending 860 to the history books.
 
rosecitymedia said:
KSFA is the only AM in the Townsquare cluster serving Luf-Nac. Unless they have sudden aspirations to move SFA to FM, and seeing as how they sent KVLL-FM to the scrap heap just last year, that would be a pretty foolish move on their part to blow up Kicks 105 or The Fox for the N/T format of SFA.

I reckon it'd be better odds to cross 860 off of that particular list. They wouldn't have killed 94.7 off and, instead, moved SFA to 94.7, sending 860 to the history books.
Click to expand...

Then again KSFA is a borderline daytimer and they put the translator on the KSFA tower in between Nacogdoches and Lufkin which subsequently doesn't serve either city much at all. It's a rimshot translator to a small town. My guess is this was done to eliminate any additional tower rent and more STL equipment. But, why even bother? I guess it is a check list item; "Yeah, we're on FM too."

In my area Townsquare has a long established AM newstalker that probably bills decently. They put it on a translator in 2021 right before the "free" translator expired and for years the audio level was so low, it wasn't really listenable. Why even bother?

The levels are still not quite right but better than the firs 3-4 years and it is listenable on FM now.
 
JJSPC said:
At the same time, Townsquare has also filed an application to move 1470 KYYW to the KSLI site.
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Only practical change is that the night power will go from 110 to 130 watts. Still 5kw days.

Wonder why KYYW would bother to move for essentially the same facility? Cheaper lease at the old KSLI site? Or do they own the land?
 
rosecitymedia said:
I reckon it'd be better odds to cross 860 off of that particular list. They wouldn't have killed 94.7 off and, instead, moved SFA to 94.7, sending 860 to the history books.
Click to expand...

That one struck me as a little odd, too. I suppose it's possible that it owned 860's tower and rented 94.7's and concluded that moving KSFA to 94.7 was going to cost too much long-term. If KSFA is like the Townsquare talk station in my area, it's mostly a repeater for satellite shows that angry old men enjoy. I'll admit to being surprised it's made it this long, but that programming will hit the end of its shelf-life at some point, probably fairly soon.

Ryan Williams said:
In my area Townsquare has a long established AM newstalker that probably bills decently. They put it on a translator in 2021 right before the "free" translator expired and for years the audio level was so low, it wasn't really listenable. Why even bother?

The levels are still not quite right but better than the firs 3-4 years and it is listenable on FM now.
Click to expand...

Seems like I heard that one might be on the chopping block, too, because the value of the land was going up. I'd think that one would be fairly easy to replace if Townsquare found the value in it. It's a single-tower AM, and, if I remember correctly, the FM translator is on the same tower. Both should be fairly easy to move, though an AM on 1400 doesn't typically have a very tall tower and would still need to cover Temple. So, piggybacking it onto one of its FM towers might be tougher than it looks at first glance.

Mediafrog+ said:
Only practical change is that the night power will go from 110 to 130 watts. Still 5kw days.

Wonder why KYYW would bother to move for essentially the same facility? Cheaper lease at the old KSLI site? Or do they own the land?
Click to expand...

If I were guessing, Townsquare probably has a potential buyer for or a plan to put 1470's site on the market and makes enough money with it that moving it is worth its while. I know Townsquare sold a sizable number of its towers roughly 10 years ago, but those companies don't typically buy AM towers unless they think they can repurpose them as cell towers or otherwise have to buy them to get the FM towers they really want. As Ryan mentions, the KSLI site where 1470 wants to move is in a flood plain. That's not going to get much demand. I haven't been to Abilene in about 30 years, but what little I remember of it seemed like a sleepy town that didn't have much growth potential. Who knows, though? Thirty years is a long time, and that could've changed. Might also be a good place for a data center.
 
One thing about Townsquare. That company isn't shy about cancelling AMs it doesn't want. If I'm not mistaken (and please correct me if I'm wrong), the only station left on 1280 kHz in the state of Texas now is the station licensed to Brenham.
 
ted chittenden said:
One thing about Townsquare. That company isn't shy about cancelling AMs it doesn't want. If I'm not mistaken (and please correct me if I'm wrong), the only station left on 1280 kHz in the state of Texas now is the station licensed to Brenham.
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I believe that is accurate, Ted. There weren't a large number of operations calling 1280 home, here, anyway.
 
ted chittenden said:
If I'm not mistaken (and please correct me if I'm wrong), the only station left on 1280 kHz in the state of Texas now is the station licensed to Brenham.
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KMFR in Pearsall (SW of San Antonio) appears to be still going on 1280, licensed for 460 watts days and 190 watts nights, both nondirectional. However I have not been in that area recently to personally confirm.
 


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