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WFME STA

So the FCC ended up agreeing with almost everything Albert David said, but denied his objection anyway, and granted WFME another extension to operate at 500 watts from the former 94.7 tower in West Orange... even though the station has been silent since March 4th, and reportedly Family Radio removed their equipment and gave up on trying to make the site work for WFME due to "irrevocable technical difficulties".
 
Or perhaps Family will get tired of trying to find a suitable location that doesn't cause interference and will just turn in the license which is probably the best case scenario in 2024.
 
JJSPC said:
Or perhaps Family will get tired of trying to find a suitable location that doesn't cause interference and will just turn in the license which is probably the best case scenario in 2024.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that. The Bible doesn't allow for followers to give up spreading 'the word' because of interference.

I had hoped to see them explain their next step in this filing, but they seem to be waiting until they're ready to test.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if Family already knew what was coming in that letter which pretty much tells them to fish or cut bait. I suspect they shut down the current site in order to move on to their next step. They've probably already decided what that is, hopefully it doesn't involve 98.7. One way or another we should find out by July 29.
 
I see that Audacy had a situation in Las Vegas similar to Family Radio in NYC. Audacy made a nice profit by selling the land on which 720 KDWN and 1140 KXST's towers sat. It's similar to what Family Radio did with the transmitter site in Maspeth, Queens. Unlike WFME, both KDWN and KXST went silent when they lost their transmitter site. But Audacy said it was working on finding a new location for both stations, likely to diplex off someone else's tower. There are plenty of other towers in Las Vegas, right?

Well, I guess not. With an STA, you only get a year to return to the airwaves. The one-year anniversary to get KDWN and KXST back on the AM dial happened on March 1st. Audacy didn't even try running a wire and getting both stations on the air with the weakest of signals as Family Radio has done for WFME. So this month, the licenses for KDWN and KXST were turned in. They each had translators and those continue to air the same programming, now fed by the HD signals of an Audacy FM station.

WFME's programming is carried in a few sections of the NYC market. It's heard on WFME-FM 92.7, with its tower on the Queens-Nassau border, WYMK 106.3 Mount Kisco, which covers parts of Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Fairfield Counties, and 88.9 WFRS Smithtown, which covers some of Suffolk County. It's not ideal. Large sections of the NYC market are unable to hear any of those stations.

But maybe the folks at Family Radio have stopped being that concerned about the second word in their name. A large billboard on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway advertises Family Radio. But it says nothing about 92.7 FM, which is very audible in that section of Queens. It simply gives the network's website. So just stream Family Radio. Don't use a radio.


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Gregg. said:
But maybe the folks at Family Radio have stopped being that concerned about the second word in their name.
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If that was the view, why bother with the STA? It costs lawyer money to file these things. The original plan was to use the West Orange site. That didn't work out. Now it's time for plan B. The mission for Family Radio (and they see it as a mission) is not the same as Audacy.
 
TheBigA said:
If that was the view, why bother with the STA? It costs lawyer money to file these things. The original plan was to use the West Orange site. That didn't work out. Now it's time for plan B. The mission for Family Radio (and they see it as a mission) is not the same as Audacy.
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That's what doesn't make sense. A Plan B site requires a decent amount of money.

I guess we'll see if Family Radio packed the temp equipment for a Plan B site, but I can't imagine the land for such a Plan B—even as a tenant—is going to be workable from a cost perspective.
 
Nathan Obral said:
I can't imagine the land for such a Plan B—even as a tenant—is going to be workable from a cost perspective.
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How much do you think they can get for the West Orange property? Or perhaps they'll trade it with someone. Their consulting engineer is very well known around NY. Or perhaps they can try the slant antenna idea at one of their other locations around NY.
 
TheBigA said:
If that was the view, why bother with the STA? It costs lawyer money to file these things. The original plan was to use the West Orange site. That didn't work out. Now it's time for plan B. The mission for Family Radio (and they see it as a mission) is not the same as Audacy.
Click to expand...

The West Orange site could never have been intended as the permanent plan, just a stopgap measure to buy time to find a diplex arrangement at a price they liked or acquire an FM signal instead.

Plan A no doubt was to take the $51M payday from the land sale and figure the rest out later. I think they expected to be able to keep renewing STAs indefinitely until Mr. David's objection suddenly threw a wrench into that idea.
 
Gregg. said:
But Audacy said it was working on finding a new location for both stations, likely to diplex off someone else's tower. There are plenty of other towers in Las Vegas, right?
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The problem here has multiple aspects:
  • Each station has a different directional system that requires multiple towers.
  • The nulls and main lobes of each are differenty.
  • On is low band, the other mid-band. That affects tower height.
  • Existing towers at an available site may not be electrically spaced optimally for the frequency and pattern of the two site-less station.
Gregg. said:
Well, I guess not. With an STA, you only get a year to return to the airwaves.
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But, if you are actually making progress in returning (whether tied up in permits, easements, leases, etc. or actually building and tuning) you can get extensions.
Gregg. said:
The one-year anniversary to get KDWN and KXST back on the AM dial happened on March 1st. Audacy didn't even try running a wire and getting both stations on the air with the weakest of signals as Family Radio has done for WFME. So this month, the licenses for KDWN and KXST were turned in.
Click to expand...
The real issue here is how much an AM is worth in a very over-radioed market. 1140 is nearly worthless given its dial position and all the protections it has to give. 720 is a case of "overkill" when the FCC broke down the 1-A clears to give service to under-served parts of the country. There is next to nothing (as two of our well known participants who grew up or went to school in East-of-the-Sierras California can tell us) outside of the Las Vegas metro that is worth having 50 kw to serve.
Gregg. said:
They each had translators and those continue to air the same programming, now fed by the HD signals of an Audacy FM station.
Click to expand...
And a properly placed translator in Las Vegas covers nearly as many people as a 50 kw AM does. Outside of the Vegas-Henderson area, there is a lotta' sand and very few people.
 
TheBigA said:
I'm just going by what they said in their first application to move from Maspeth to West Orange.
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I believe the FCC addressed that in their latest letter:
The record does not indicate that at the time it sold the Station’s transmitter site, Family had a strategy for returning the Station to licensed operation, nor does it contain any information regarding specific potential sites for permanent, licensed facilities.
Click to expand...
 
Theater of My Mind said:
I believe the FCC addressed that in their latest letter:
Click to expand...

Here was the original plan from 2020:

radioinsight.com

Family Radio Sells New York City Tower Land For $51 Million

Family Stations Inc. is selling the five acre tower site of "Family Radio" 1560 WFME New York to logistics real
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

As part of the sale, Family Radio will continue to operate WFME’s 50kW signal from the three tower array until they relocate to a new facility.
Click to expand...

One month later, they found out they had to vacate that facility. So they had a strategy. But it got changed. Just as the West Orange plan ran into a roadblock. These things are not easy. It took WNSH five years to move from West Orange to the Meadowlands.
 
Family Radio already got another, although smaller coverage, metro NYC station using a small portion of the 51M money from the Maspeth land sale. WQBU-FM. IMHO turning in the 1560 license would be much superior to entering into an onerous tower diplex lease that burns through the rest of the $51M in short order.
 


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