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WATO 1290 Oak Ridge

R

radio30

As a former broadcaster that still is interested in the A.M. Band and talk radio just wondering.... Has WATO 1290 in Oak Ridge gone dark or just having tech trouble? The station has been silent now for several days. I've lived in the area now for around 2 years and have always thought it a shame that the only station left in Oak Ridge is nothing more than a repeater for 850 in Knoxville and 1400 in Maryville. Would be nice if someone that is interested in actually serving Oak Ridge would buy the station which, does have a fairly good coverage.
I heard some rumblings awhile back that Horne had the station up for sale. Did he just give up and turn it off.
Anyone with any info? Thanks.
 
Rumor's been for awhile that all Horne's AM's were for sale. Not for sure though...I suppose everything's for sale if you speak the right language....namely cold hard CA$H! He jukeboxes oldies on WMTY @ 670. 670 comes in bleeding on my mod monitor as xmitter is less than a mile from my studio. Good strong signal. Maybe he could simulcast on WATO? Maybe not since 670 covers pretty much the same area. Score 0 for the "not"work!
 
For anyone else that may have been wondering about the dark station, Just found out that the reason behind he silence is that one of the stations three towers collapsed. (wonder when the last tower inspection was done???)

Now the only question remains....will WATO be put back on the air or will it's owner allow it to remain dark? Horne Radio has been trying to sell this station for years and could have, if the price had not been raised back when some businessmen locally tried to buy it.

I've never been on the inside of the building but one drive by it leads one to believe that a lot of updating needs to be done. The forsaken building puts me in mind of the radio station that Wolfman Jack worked at in the movie American Graffti. Equipment inside is probably from the era is well, just guessing , since the station was pretty much an "absentee operation" being remotely operated from Farragut most of the time.

With the history that this station has as far as local sports broadcasting goes, it would be a real shame to let this station stay among the dead.

As I said in my earlier post, it would be great if someone that is interested in operating a station that serves Oak Ridge (LOCAL programming, news, sports and so on) would take on the job. As far as funding, I could not do it but I could be lured out of broadcasting inactivity, retirement , or whatever you want to call it to help someone that could.

Anyway time will tell. It's a shame that a city the size of Oak Ridge is left without any LOCAL radio service.
 
radio30 said:
With the history that this station has as far as local sports broadcasting goes, it would be a real shame to let this station stay among the dead.

Anyway time will tell. It's a shame that a city the size of Oak Ridge is left without any LOCAL radio service.
Click to expand...

I agree that it would be a shame, also considering that another Oak Ridge Station "WORI AM-1550" (which was at one time the AM Sister Station for the original WOKI-FM 100.3) went dark quiet a few years ago.
 
Sad to hear about the downed stick. Isn't there some kind of FCC regulation regarding dark stations? A period of time before they must be returned to air or the license surrendered...I can't remember right off the top of my head. Hopefully Horne had / has some insurance on the towers and can get it rebuilt soon. Local service is always better, but with the dismal financial picture for most small AM owners, all that is left to keep them on the air is the automation system.
 
SpeakIngles said:
Sad to hear about the downed stick. Isn't there some kind of FCC regulation regarding dark stations? A period of time before they must be returned to air or the license surrendered...I can't remember right off the top of my head. Hopefully Horne had / has some insurance on the towers and can get it rebuilt soon. Local service is always better, but with the dismal financial picture for most small AM owners, all that is left to keep them on the air is the automation system.
Click to expand...

I would also be curious to know about the FCC regulation in regards to stations that have gone dark.

Another station that I remember going permanently dark that never returned to the airwaves was "AM-1430 WBMK" which was at one time owned by James Brown back in the 70's (WJBE-AM). The FCC deleted that frequency. I think AM-1430 went dark back in the late 80's from what I remember. It's sad to see something like that happen.
 
Also a station can apply for an STA (special temporary authority) to go silent and I think it's for up to a year unless you get an extention.
 
That's sad. WATO was the first station I ever worked for. I grew up right next to it (the house is just to the right of that tall tree in the background of the Oak Ridger pic (linked above.) When I was a kid in the '60s I used to have nightmares about those towers falling on my house! Looks like tower 3 fell toward the Turnpike at Elza Gate. I wonder how stable the other two are? Glad my mom moved to the West End!

The equipment inside when I worked there (mid-late 70s) included several Gates Yard 80 boards and some really sweet sounding RCA ribbon mics. The transmitter (Harris, I believe) had "hand cranks" to make phase adjustments (three tower array) for the night pattern. I think only the center tower was used for daytime power. When I was around fifteen I begged for a job there: I went from emptying garbage cans and cleaning out the coffee machine (yuck) to board op for Atlanta Braves (on WATO-FM, later WUUU) to part-time news anchor on AM before James Freeman (now in TV in Knoxville) hired me away to WBIR-FM during the final months of the country format. I'm sure James, Larry Solomon (an occasional visitor to this board), Randy Miller, and many others have some great stories to tell about The Mighty 1290! (Hey to David Clary if he stops by here!)

Take care,
Carson Cooper
 
"The Horne Radio Network" is one of the most pathetic wastes of space on the airwaves. Doug Horne should divest WATO to the people of Oak Ridge so that the COMMUNITY can have its radio station back.
 
MusicDoctorRadio said:
Wasn't Bob Anderson <aka> Bandit the PD of WATO-AM and WETQ-FM (WKNF) back in the mid 80's?
Click to expand...
Yes he was. Wonder if he owns a pair of wire cutters <grin>
 
ratman2005 said:
"The Horne Radio Network" is one of the most pathetic wastes of space on the airwaves. Doug Horne should divest WATO to the people of Oak Ridge so that the COMMUNITY can have its radio station back.
Click to expand...

The COMMUNITY can buy WATO from Doug Horne for $275,000.00. It has been listed with a Media Broker in Florida for some time now.

Horne has requested an STA from the FCC to stay off the air until September while they determine the direction they need to go. The FCC web site says that stations may stay off the air for up to 12 months without jeopardizing their license. WATO only needs two of the three towers to achieve its normal 5,000 watt daytime pattern, so after they clean up the mess, they could probably get back on the air from the remaining two towers. I would assume they could reduce their night time signal from 500 watts to some smaller power level the remaining two towers can accomodate within the confines of a pattern that does not extend interference toward whatever co channel or adjacent channel facilities they protect.

One of you brilliant operators should buy this thing from Horne and show everybody what a success an AM station can be!
 
I saw the listing and I thought it was for the 4 station group for $1.2M. I must have missed the listing on WATO itself. It might be worth that for the property but the equipment is not up to snuff and I'll bet billing isn't much either. Oh yeah , you need to replace 1 tower and look at the other two real good while your at it.
 
Actually the license shows the two outside towers are the day pattern and all three for night. So the downed tower effects both day and night.
The system would have to be reworked greatly to run day or night. Should be cheaper to just put back up a new tower, rather than trying to rework only to get temporarily greatly reduced power.
 
I stand corrected on the center tower being the only one in use for daytime power! (earlier post)  Does the FM antenna still reside on the top of the center tower? For that matter, does WATO still have it's FM signal?
Carson
 
The FM 94.3 was moved back in the early 80's when they changed to WETQ, or it could have been a little earlier. I worked there in late 1980 and early '81 and the tower was closer to Knoxville. Johnny Pirkle bought them and spun off the AM in the 90's.
 
BTW, WGAP in Maryville has been off the air for a couple of days. Someone needs to call Weasel and tell him before he reads about in the paper again...
 
I worked at WATO in 1978. I remember that nightime power was only 500 watts and the signal was highly directional. In fact, there were places that you could physically see the towers and not pick up the station! The low power had its advantages, however. On my Saturday night shift, I could "break format" and not get into trouble because the GM and PD lived too far away to pick up the station. To this day, I don't think they know that WATO played AOR and jazz-fusion on Saturday night - at least after sunset!
 
Hey Deep Tracks! 1978, huh? Very cool. Who was the PD when you were there? Was it Mike Earl? (You're not Mike Moore, are you?) How about that Hugh Newsom? I'll bet Dave Brown would never let those towers fall! :D Carson
 
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