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WAIT 850
- Thread starter JJSPC
- Start date
SO in less you know spanish you don't know what you would have been hearing
I thought that whole station is just brokered programming? (Just mostly Christian.)
Maybe for sale
With them clearing the deck, it's possible they could be LMA'g or selling the station with a need to offer an encumbrance free signal with no contracts or obligations.
Likely candidate could be Alpha in a similar manner as 100.7-Wilmington where they operate the station, but are not the licensee. But what would they put on the station??? Classic Country? Northwest 1/2 of the signal covers more acres than people in corn land. The other 1/2 is bland suburban. Two very different demo's.
RG
With them clearing the deck, it's possible they could be LMA'g or selling the station with a need to offer an encumbrance free signal with no contracts or obligations.
Likely candidate could be Alpha in a similar manner as 100.7-Wilmington where they operate the station, but are not the licensee. But what would they put on the station??? Classic Country? Northwest 1/2 of the signal covers more acres than people in corn land. The other 1/2 is bland suburban. Two very different demo's.
RG
Yesterday, I was hearing dance music.
I'll have to check it out. Several DX possibilities if it stays off.
WHAS (840) on daytime skywave? WNOV (860)? That one was audible here before the local 850 came on. KFUO/WWJC (850)? Both were occasional sunrise/sunset visitors before WAIT and its predecessors came on.
OR, if it doesn't go silent... Mal Bellairs used to own the station (as WIVS) during the 70s and 80s. He had a huge stash of tapes from his days at WBBM. Maybe they're laying around somewhere. and someone can find them put them on the air
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If those old WBBM tapes are still around they would be great to hear. What a find that would be.
I used to also hear WNOV before 850 went on the air. I'll check tomorrow if they're still off.
They're definitely off today. Or at least when I checked about an hour ago (at 11am CDT).
I live about two and a half miles from the WAIT transmitter site. I checked 850 in the car and on a radio at home. I DID hear what sounded like a weak carrier, and the channel sounded different than the two adjacents. 840 and 860 sounded about the same. Empty. Faint noise on 860, but not identifiable as WNOV....which was kind of surprising. But whatever I heard on 860 was weaker than whatever the weak stuff was on 850. My guess is some other local ambient noise source.
By the time I tuned in later in the afternoon they were back on.
Yeah, I checked at about 3:30 and they were back up and running. Same goes for today (Thurs).
Lilely for sale
They're running non-music programming this week. It definitely sounds like they're being sold and minimizing costs to licensing services pending a LMA to a buyer to be soon annouced. Likely for the labor weekend when format swaps often occur going into the fall ratings season...despite the fact they're a PPM encoded station and it really no longer matters. Could be they were off due to the buyer coming in and readying the systems for a new program source and chain. Why they didn't do that work during off hours is beyond me.... But it's not my station...
RG
They're running non-music programming this week. It definitely sounds like they're being sold and minimizing costs to licensing services pending a LMA to a buyer to be soon annouced. Likely for the labor weekend when format swaps often occur going into the fall ratings season...despite the fact they're a PPM encoded station and it really no longer matters. Could be they were off due to the buyer coming in and readying the systems for a new program source and chain. Why they didn't do that work during off hours is beyond me.... But it's not my station...
RG
When I tuned in yesterday and today, they were running rebroadcasts of "self help" type programming. Perhaps infomercials, although I didn't hang around long enough to hear anyone trying to sell something. If these were infomercials, I don't they were paid for. Between the canned shows there were PSAs and a guy giving IDs who didn't sound much like an actual announcer.
Agree that a sale (or LMA) is probably just about to go down. I can see where this signal would be attractive to an ethnic or brokered operator. Despite the fact that the highly directional northwest-southeast oriented signal essentially sends each lobe into markedly different demographic areas (as has been pointed out).
Agree that a sale (or LMA) is probably just about to go down. I can see where this signal would be attractive to an ethnic or brokered operator. Despite the fact that the highly directional northwest-southeast oriented signal essentially sends each lobe into markedly different demographic areas (as has been pointed out).
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Thanks for the update.
This makes even more sense than a sale of the station or an LMA. I thought the college already owned the land where the towers are located. But it turns out to be the other way around. And those 27 acres are in a prime location for development. So if the college doesn't plan expansion, holding the propertty for a few years could prove to be a good investment.
As for the future of WAIT.... Off the top of my head, I could see a couple of scenarios, relocate/downsize and perhaps simulcast a sister brokered station. Or, just turn in the license, take the money and run.
This makes even more sense than a sale of the station or an LMA. I thought the college already owned the land where the towers are located. But it turns out to be the other way around. And those 27 acres are in a prime location for development. So if the college doesn't plan expansion, holding the propertty for a few years could prove to be a good investment.
As for the future of WAIT.... Off the top of my head, I could see a couple of scenarios, relocate/downsize and perhaps simulcast a sister brokered station. Or, just turn in the license, take the money and run.
What do we think? Anyone going to wait on WAIT to return from its silent STA?
At least in the case of Newsweb, they have other tower sites in the area. But can they serve a COL of Crystal Lake from one of them? I'm pretty sure not.
At least in the case of Newsweb, they have other tower sites in the area. But can they serve a COL of Crystal Lake from one of them? I'm pretty sure not.
They're done
With what I've heard (FWIW), the station is history. The closest site would be their leased site at Arlington Heights. And then they need to protect Milwaukee--WNOV as well as across the lake. The prior pattern was so tight to the NNE that the station was unlistenable at the state line and suffered interference as far south as McHenry.
With what I've heard (FWIW), the station is history. The closest site would be their leased site at Arlington Heights. And then they need to protect Milwaukee--WNOV as well as across the lake. The prior pattern was so tight to the NNE that the station was unlistenable at the state line and suffered interference as far south as McHenry.
If they could make a deal with Polnet, they could potentially attempt to diplex or share the site with WNVR, maybe with less power. WNVR’s site is only a little over a mile west of the WAIT site. Diplexing is becoming more and more common in situations like this.
WNVR has 4 short top loaded towers. Not sure if that would work with 850, but WNVR also has a CP for a power bump from 10kw with 4 towers to 25kw with 6 towers. WAIT uses 3. If they pooled resources, maybe both could be built out there. The fact that WNVR also has nulls to the NE and SW couldn’t hurt.
Tower sites are hard to build these days. Nobody wants it around because it’s an “eyesore” and a lot of towns refuse to allow it. WSPY-AM (1480) for example is still running on a longwire in someone’s yard because of this. They lost their site to development 18 years ago and have been operating like this ever since. Several attempts to find another site were made, but never happened.
Unless they shut it down completely (Which seems likely) WNVR’s site or a longwire setup are the only things I can think of.
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