Said to be an accidental fire. The station is/was uninsured and is a complete loss.
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WGOP Pocomoke City goes up in flames - literally
- Thread starter ixnay
- Start date
According to one website, WGOP had an oldies format without local airstaff. Per this older website and photos from 2015, it appears the transmitter and "studios" may have been in the same building, at the base of the tower. If the station was uninsured that may eliminate much of an investigation or complications. The owner can take down the rest of the building and sell the land - if there's a market for it.
Sad; I would have loved to see the inside of that place. While basically all automated, there had been some local Sunday programming at least in the last year or so.
Not having insurance was a huge, costly mistake.
Mike Powell appears determined that WGOP will ride again.
Mike Powell doesn't even own anything; he's merely been the operator, Sima Birach holds the license and IIRC owns the land.
I did pick them up mid June, when I was in Cape May, during the day, not a bad signal, but too much hash at night, the format was a jukebox, a mix of off the wall oldies and standards, my kind of format.
Far and away, the saddest part of the whole story.
I'm not sure who either of those people are. Did you possibly intend to reply to someone else's post?
You can get a glimpse through the front windows from the Google street view.
I wonder if the owner was even bringing in enough money to cover the cost of insurance premiums for that place.
From the transmitter shed, wow. From the video report and street view, I don't even see a fence around the tower.
I forgot to add Birach also owns WPON in the Detroit area rare oldies, that I stream on occasion plus many other outlets.
I was wondering that same thing when I first saw they were uninsured.
If you have a look at the link in my first post in this thread, there are some photos of the building and tower from 2007 (I mistakenly said in my earlier post that these were from 2015 - I was looking at the date stamp incorrectly). A few of them do show a fence around the base of the tower - An old, rickety looking wooden fence that's not very high and is quite close to the tower base:
Of course, the group owner may self-insure. When the stations I managed in Puerto Rico were owned by a major supermarket and food processing company, we were large enough to do that. It was estimated that even in a worst-case scenario we would, over the years, save more by not insuring than by paying insurance for about 50 markets, a distribution center, a bakery and other companies. We did a reserve and any extraordinary losses were paid from that. It saved at least 50% over outside insurance.
He owns 18 stations and translators in total.
Would it really be worth rebuilding that facility from your own disaster fund, though? I don't know the owner at all but it's just a small town brokered AM station. How much income could there be to make that payback period math work?
If the tower is still standing, I'll bet they could put in a business trailer or a Butler building for a small amount. It all comes back to what the ROI is on the rebuild.
When WBEY owned the station it actually ran some interesting, local faire, especially on Sundays.
Birach does not have a good track record lately when it comes to AM stations in the region. The WVAB/WBVA fiasco down in Virginia Beach remains one for the history books. Both licenses were eventually cancelled after paying serious money for those outlets.
Oh yes, Salisbury MD FAA has been notified to contact the local Pocomoke City authorities to check for a possible NOTAM condition. I hope that 324' tower remained illuminated after the fire.
The problem with 540 is that low dial position does not do well against summer electrical storms. Even worse, the Islip Hindi station, WBWD really clobbers WGOP.
It's not worth reviving...
Birach does not have a good track record lately when it comes to AM stations in the region. The WVAB/WBVA fiasco down in Virginia Beach remains one for the history books. Both licenses were eventually cancelled after paying serious money for those outlets.
Oh yes, Salisbury MD FAA has been notified to contact the local Pocomoke City authorities to check for a possible NOTAM condition. I hope that 324' tower remained illuminated after the fire.
The problem with 540 is that low dial position does not do well against summer electrical storms. Even worse, the Islip Hindi station, WBWD really clobbers WGOP.
It's not worth reviving...
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I have visions of an old, giveaway mobile home or a beat-up rental office. And some of those portable sheds are pretty spiffy. If you're running 100% automated, do you really need much of anything? An old van? Still...I've heard the kind of ads they were selling (on the few occasions I could pull 540 in here on the mid-shore.) I enjoyed those spots for Blondee's Express Tours, "The Fun Coach!" but I don't see how they paid the electric bill. I do hope it comes back.
They just need to be aware of all the applicable codes to ensure whatever they use to house everything is legal. I recall one station that was heavily damaged several years ago and they commented to the media that they planned to bring in portable trailers to temporarily house their entire operation from offices to studios to transmitters. Their tower was on-site and was not damaged. A day later someone from the state drove up with a printed copy of their comments, a copy of the code and an "Oh no you're not!" attitude. After some back and forth discussions, they ended up placing the transmitters in a separate concrete block building.
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A good example of how legislators and regulators write rules about things they know nothing about. A coffee maker or a portable heater are more dangerous than a type accepted transmitter, but regulations in some jurisdictions make it seem like they were fire-breathing dragons!
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