It's jinxed!
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It's jinxed!
Its future is cloudy.
Oddly, Cumulus made that a condition of the sale. I really can't see how it mattered.
Someone's personal vanity being satisfied?
A CP gives them 3 years to build. That being in effect overrides the 365 off air rule iirc.
2.5 kw at 540 blows away 10k at 1550...they should have stayed on the old frequency
WFME Null in Night Pattern from Queens across Manhattan. Pattern Change varied from month to month, approximately three hours after Sunset in New York City. A New Jersey TL would improve this situation. Class As have a large 0.1 mV/m Groundwave footprint, so it is unlikely that such a move would be impossible.
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Not once you're licensed. As soon as your facility gets its first license to cover granted, you CANNOT (legally) be off the air for more than 365 consecutive days afterward.
Just based on co-channel interference, no, it wouldn't be. But dealing with adjacent channels gets a little more complex. There's a 1570 in Pennsylvania and a 1550 in Connecticut that present limiting factors to a move.
Depending on what the perceived value of 1560 is, buying and closing the adjacent channel stations is a definitely possibility. Neither of the two you mention seems to be billing significantly.
The Towanda station is a 500 watter that covers less than 20,000 with a usable signal so likely could be convinced to sell. The CT station makes a little doing religion, but is part of a group that very likely has had a bad year and could also be convinced.
The real issue is whether improving any AM station is worth it.
Towanda isn't relevant. It's the 1570 in Bucks County, WISP, to which I was referring.
Out of deference to a client of long standing, I won't comment further here on the 1550 in Connecticut.
As long as the overlap situation is maintained or improved it would be possible. If they did diplex on or locate close to another array, they could use the proofs of performance or measured conductivities for another nearby array in the Meadowlands area, which usually show less conductivity than M-3, could be used if there was overlap shown, that increased it. Have you used a program that shows overlap? Was it reasonably priced? PM me with details if you do. I do have Radiosoft software from very early programs, but the founder is prevented from selling anything by a noncompete agreement once he sold it I am told, and the costs of new software are very high, and they lease it rather than sell it. I'll see if I can get my old DOS based computer up and running.
Without getting into the finances of any licensee, the value of a high-band low power AM is limited. In some cases, a sale might turn into a two-step if the station is productive: sell the 1550 or 1570 and buy something better if you get enough for the sale.
Again, is a rebuilt 1560 worth the effort?
If either of those two stations sold, they are likely worth less than $500 k without land. Rebuilding 1560 by sharing with another, existing, AM site, might be in the $1 million range, give or take a small fortune. Legal and engineering fees might get to the low six figures, too.
So is an improved 1560 in NYC worth an investment of $3 million, give or take? Add in the new rental expense for the diplexed site and I think the only winner is the owner of the existing site...
I wonder what the electric bill for a 50 kw station is in the NYC area.
I wonder what the electric bill for a 50 kw station is in the NYC area.
A little googling showed electric prices as of last November averaged 20.1 cents a KW hour in NYC/New Jersey area. Since my math skills are horrendous [due to dyscalcula, a form of dyslexia but involving numbers] I'll leave it to someone else to figure out the matmatics. Of course, in this era of deregulation I'm sure a station could negotiate a smaller cost with the electric company, especially if they own multiple stations in a service area of said electric company.
A little googling showed electric prices as of last November averaged 20.1 cents a KW hour in NYC/New Jersey area. Since my math skills are horrendous [due to dyscalcula, a form of dyslexia but involving numbers] I'll leave it to someone else to figure out the matmatics. Of course, in this era of deregulation I'm sure a station could negotiate a smaller cost with the electric company, especially if they own multiple stations in a service area of said electric company.
What if the license were picked up by a station currently using an inferior signal though, as an upgrade? There are a few around the NYC area, from the Chinese language stations to BIN. Could they use their existing towers to move to 1560, and wouldn't that cost a lot less than Family Radio rebuilding as you've described?
Or with a big signal upgrade, WMTR or WGHT in NJ could hypothetically flip to a N/T format serving a good chunk of North Jersey similar to what WKXW does in central Jersey.
There's 1700 in Rockland county. I don't know what they're doing now but moving to 1560, even if it were at less than 50kw, would be an upgrade for that station.
I'm not an engineer so I don't know how feasible any of those ideas are or if Family is even selling. But maybe there's still value to that license.
WGHT is currently owned by the city of license (Pompton Lakes), so I doubt they're interested in doing anything other than what they're doing now. They also don't have a budget.
It seems that every time someone mentions paying the electric bill as a factor in a station's being able to stay on the air, the notion is shot down by one of this forum's omniscient industry gurus and electricity costs are deemed irrelevant. Would this be the case with 1560?
It looks like WWRU 1660 could benefit from moving to 1560. They apparently have 6 separate towers, 2 for Day, 4 for Night. fybush could answer this. 4 are short enough to be unregistered, about 140 feet. I think they reduced the Class A required efficiency and it may be efficient enough. Maybe he has pictures of the site. They are presently 10 kW Day and 10 kW Night. Depending on details, I would think that they could make it work, and be close to or 50 kW. They could at worst case send it into the Ocean.
OK, looks like 8 towers there with WKDM. The late Glen Clark could certainly have come up with something for 1560 with his Multinode Supercomputer with all those towers!
Scott , there is also 1570 in Montour County, Pa.
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