• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WASB 1590 AM

M

Mark Giardina

If WASB is in violation of numerous FCC requirements and regulations, as suggested in another post, why then is the station allowed to continue broadcasting whatever they air?

Let me also pose another question, just for the fun of it. What would you do if the opportunity arose and you could buy, or were given, WASB?

What is a real shame is that if WASB had a decent coverage area, it could be one of the few small market radio stations in the metro Rochester area left that could actually be a training ground for up and coming talent. Then again how many medium size market stations are hiring on-air or news talent these days?
 
WASB is nothing more than a voice for the local militia and conspiracy theorist and a vehicle for others to sell their natural health supplements and long distance phone services. They don't give a crap how their signal sounds. They haven't spent a DIME on equipment since they purchased the station in 1988. And since a Baptist church runs it, they're anti-government and, as such, don't care about rules and regs. How they're able to stay on the air is a mystery to me at all. They give Christian Radio a bad rap.
 
qman said:
WASB is nothing more than a voice for the local militia and conspiracy theorist and a vehicle for others to sell their natural health supplements and long distance phone services. They don't give a crap how their signal sounds. They haven't spent a DIME on equipment since they purchased the station in 1988. And since a Baptist church runs it, they're anti-government and, as such, don't care about rules and regs. How they're able to stay on the air is a mystery to me at all. They give Christian Radio a bad rap.
Click to expand...

Then why hasn't someone reported this station to the FCC?
 
Perhaps someone already has and the FCC, being understaffed, hasn't gotten around to it yet. I've heard that due to budget cutbacks the FCC has less field agents than in the old days. Don't know if that's true, but that's what I've heard. Look at all the pirate stations running all over the place that don't cut shut down(I've heard, I think, 3 pirates in this area over the last several years).

I agree with qman, they give all religious broadcasters a bad name. Not all laws are bad.
 
I can't speak too much for the Rochester area specifically, but the FCC enforcement bureau hasn't exactly been "vigorous" when it comes to the AM & FM bands. Between the mess that is the DTV transition, the lack of US Marshals to accompany FCC agents post-Sept.11th, and the constant billion-dollar fights over cellphone/wireless spectrum, the FCC doesn't seem to come after anyone breaking the rules between 0.53-1.7 and 87.9-107.9 MHz unless it's for one of three things:

  • You're an owner who admits you've broken the rules on your public file when you renew your license.**
  • You're a pirate on the same or first-adjacent frequency to a licensed station...and even then only if the licensed station has the time and inclination to heckle the FCC enough to come after you.
  • You say naughty words on the air and some Christian conservative group hears it.

** Even though I'm a responsible GM who probably would admit it if I were breaking any rules...I can't help but think that I'd be an idiot for doing so. Given their inability to actually nail anyone who lied about this aspect on their renewals (and I have direct knowledge of a few stations that did the last go-around) the FCC has created a wonderful incentive plan to lie, haven't they?

Given the incredible damage to the spectrum...and to the business of legal operators...that a pirate (or an AM station that refuses to switch to night power) can cause, has anyone tried to sue the offending parties in court?
 
qman said:
WASB is nothing more than a voice for the local militia and conspiracy theorist and a vehicle for others to sell their natural health supplements and long distance phone services. They don't give a crap how their signal sounds. They haven't spent a DIME on equipment since they purchased the station in 1988. And since a Baptist church runs it, they're anti-government and, as such, don't care about rules and regs. How they're able to stay on the air is a mystery to me at all. They give Christian Radio a bad rap.
Click to expand...
Haven't you heard? All Baptists go to heaven. Catholics, Jews, Lutherans and Muslims also go to heaven but only to wait on the Baptists. :D It's a joke. Calm down.

And in other news:

It's true the FCC is below staffing levels, but given the state of this particular station, you'd think the FCC Field Office in Buffalo would bring the hammer down on WASB. There are Part 15 and pirate stations that cover more area and are run more responsibly.

You think WASB gives Christian radio a bad name?! It gives the AM band a bad name! It's like radio hell. Walk in the front door and Lucifer is sitting in the GM's office with a wicked spit eatin' grin. WASB must stand for We Always Sound Bad.

How many religious stations does a COL or area really need? Turn off the radio and go to church, fer cryin' out loud. And who'd want the honor of owning WASB? Even if you ran it responsibly, locally and professionally it has so much bad will that it'd be a money pit. Hell, it's not like WBTA, WLVL or WYSL which have good will and community support. WASB is "that AM station on the far end of the dial that nobody listens to." The real estate is probably worth more than the license. Buy it, take it down, put up condos and storage units for the SUNY Brockport students and make money.
 
You can't compare WWKB to WASB! KB has a rich heritage in Western New York and is operated on a professional level. WASB is rinky dink to the core.
 
They should probably go the way of the late WBUZ in Fredonia and just be shot and put out of it's misery. Bulldoze the studio, remove the towers and suddenly there's some value - valuable real estate.
 
Coldfinger appears to be new to the board. Welcome. There is a world of difference between WASB and WWKB with its storied history. There is some validity, however, to both stations being a mere shadow of whatever they may have been.
 
While WWKB may be a shadow of what it once was. As far as WASB is concerned, it's hard to be a shadow of what it never was, a radio station.
 
There is a world of difference between WASB and WWKB with its storied history.
Click to expand...

WASB has a storied history. Take, for instance, the time the main building was destroyed by fire and they had to move down into the basement and snakes were coming out of the basement walls and they had a BB gun in the control room for DJ's to shoot the snakes. Now that's a story.
 
Maybe the BB gun was also there to keep creditors away from the station. ::)

Anyways I just can't believe that this station is still on the air. It's obvious it isn't making any money since it's signal is so directional one can't hear it five miles down the road.

On a trip back from Buffalo I decided to drive by the station and was amazed how shabby the property looked. Grass as tall as me and the building looked like some shack. What was more surprising is that I couldn't pick up the signal until I crossed the Orleans/Monroe County line and then was a "hum".

I'm still wondering why officials in Brockport don't make the owner at least cut the grass and make the station look presentable? It's an eyesore. As for violating FCC rules and regulations, someone should contact the congressman representing that district and inform him of what is going on. Let the congressman contact the FCC.
 
Yeah, the joint's a mess, a sink hole, a rat trap, it's a suicide rap, you better get out while you're young... oh wait, that's been done before. Just seems that with GM going belly-up, Chrysler in a tail spin and the country waist deep in the big muddy in Iraq and Afghanistan, the last thing a congressman or woman needs on his/her "things to do list" is sic the FCC on a station in Brockport that 8 people listen to and 12 radio geeks are writing about on a message board.
 
"Yeah, the joint's a mess, a sink hole, a rat trap, it's a suicide rap, you better get out while you're young... oh wait, that's been done before."

LOL!

But seriously, your station studios and offices can be a toilet and still produce great radio and beaucoup $$$, if your signal has decent market coverage. The difference is, if you start with a halfway decent signal footprint, how much are you as a station owner willing to invest in programming talent and on marketing the station?

WKBW in the late 1970s, before it moved from Main St. to Delaware Avenue, had to be the worst toilet in the history of large market radio. (Trust me, I was there.) Henry Brach even gave each of the rats names. But the place was loaded with talent and CapCities didn't mind paying a decent buck for it even if they hated to spend a dime on any aspect of the physical plant that didn't directly affect the air sound. Result...it was a killer, it was the station to beat. When WBEN finally beat it in 1978, it was because Larry Levite used the same philosophy--invest in the people who put quality on the air, and the rest would take care of itself. (That was a little easier to carry out because he inherited a state of the art studio complex from the Buffalo Evening News, I suppose, but he carried out that philosophy consistently for the 15 years he owned it, and owned the market as a result.) KB also continued on that track until CapCities had to sell it in '86, and until that day, it always gave WBEN a hell of a run for its money.
 
cee said:
WASB has a storied history. Take, for instance, the time the main building was destroyed by fire and they had to move down into the basement and snakes were coming out of the basement walls and they had a BB gun in the control room for DJ's to shoot the snakes. Now that's a story.
Click to expand...

If you shoot the snakes, what'll keep out the rats and mice?
 
Bob is right about KB - what crappy Main St. studios they had. Rodents running free and in the hot days of summer, an A/C system that, uh, wasn't workin' too good(one air personality is said to have, on one particularly hot summer night, removed all his clothing and done the show naked, much to the surprise of the female air personality who followed him at midnight).

Bob is also right about Larry Levite's WBEN. They invested in top talent and it always paid off big. Even after they lost The Bills and Sabres around '89 or '90?? --- and had no major leagues sports -- they still had a big market share. Being early to sign on with Rush around that time period(IIRC) was a smart move too. Of course, they have no sports nowadays and still do quite well with News/Talk(though not with the great local staff they once had).
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom