And speaking of WFME, does WFRH in Kingston, NY at 91.7 which is another Family Radio affiliate would affect with the date the world is ending? I don't see it for real, but not happening in this world. I hope they should find another place on 91.7 whether if it's a format of source. According to Family Radio's official website that you're only 27 days left until the May 21st date. They should blame Harold Camping for his calculations that are in the Bible. I checked there nothing happens. According to Matthew 24:36 "No one knows the day or the hour of his return", but that wouldn't affect our nation and the world. I listened to a little bit on WFRH about Judgment Day at sundown. That wouldn't affect everyone. This happens for the first time since Orson Welles did with "War of the Worlds" back in 1938. He's 89 years old, he's the president, preacher and founder of Family Radio who started back in 1959. He hosted the "Open Forum" for 50 years, but I don't listen to Family Radio that much. A bunch of billboards all over the country by speeding the word about the day of judgment cause a lot of controversy. By the time May 22nd comes, we should worry about it, maybe he will be stepping down as soon as he know it. Maybe bring in the Terminator or something like that, put Arnold Schwarzenegger in the mix and tell the people "I'll be back!"
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What will WFME's format be on May 22, 2011?
- Thread starter nd2023
- Start date
Nathan Obral said:
There is another BIG difference between now and 1994 - back then, he was only spewing his lies through his own radio stations. Now, he has put these billboards all over the world. Literally. I have seen people on Facebook posting pictures of them from New Zealand to New England! Of course, he also has his WEBsite and streaming audio.
Most likely, he WILL come up with "a likely excuse" for miscalculating the date... he will have no choice on May 22'nd! The Jehovah's Witnesses have made a number of "The end of the World" predictions in the past, most recently in 1975. Millions of people left that group, in utter disgust, when 1976 rolled around and everyone/everything was still here. Certainly, something similar will happen here. Support almost certainly will plummet. Christians who actually read and follow the Bible should have cut-off their support of him as soon as he started this. Those who continue to support him should be expected to cut it off on May 22'nd. His creditors will be knocking shortly after that.
What creditors? Family Stations has never bought a station, as far as I know, with anything other than cash on the table. They own their studio and transmitter site outright at most of their locations, and whatever limited costs they incur in operating their network are probably more than made up by some combination of listener donations and careful shepherding of the big piles of cash Camping received when he sold off his FMs in Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego and then Sacramento again.
I would expect he's paying cash for his outdoor campaign now.
If he needs more cash to make up shortfalls after May 21, all it would take is selling another station - and not even a big one like WFME or WKDN or WFSI - to replenish his coffers.
All of which is to say, there's no reason at all that I can see to expect any changes at Camping's stations on May 22, or any time very soon.
(It will be interesting to see whether he files a renewal application for WFSI in Annapolis before May 21; renewals for stations in Maryland, as well as in VA, WV and DC, must be filed by the beginning of June. I can't recall whether there was a renewal cycle underway during the 1994 "end of the world" business.)
I would expect he's paying cash for his outdoor campaign now.
If he needs more cash to make up shortfalls after May 21, all it would take is selling another station - and not even a big one like WFME or WKDN or WFSI - to replenish his coffers.
All of which is to say, there's no reason at all that I can see to expect any changes at Camping's stations on May 22, or any time very soon.
(It will be interesting to see whether he files a renewal application for WFSI in Annapolis before May 21; renewals for stations in Maryland, as well as in VA, WV and DC, must be filed by the beginning of June. I can't recall whether there was a renewal cycle underway during the 1994 "end of the world" business.)
"Cheap" is relative. Even if he's dropping $10 million on the billboard campaign, which is probably overstating things a bit, that's still less than a tenth of what he made on the sale of 106.9 San Francisco alone. If Camping banked that money, he could probably pay for the outdoor campaign just on the interest it's earned over the years since.
The bigger question in my mind isn't what happens on May 22; it's whether Camping has any kind of succession plan in place. I don't get the impression there's a designated successor to helm Family Radio, and so the real changes are likely to come not when "the world ends" but rather when Camping's gone - and given that he's 89, we're not looking at that long a time horizon, most likely.
The bigger question in my mind isn't what happens on May 22; it's whether Camping has any kind of succession plan in place. I don't get the impression there's a designated successor to helm Family Radio, and so the real changes are likely to come not when "the world ends" but rather when Camping's gone - and given that he's 89, we're not looking at that long a time horizon, most likely.
Scott Fybush said:
GLADLY!!!
Here is a nice video about and featuring "The Voice":
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QPMvj_xejg
ansky212 said:
In the case of San Francisco and San Diego, Camping had the opportunity to trade a big-signal, commercially-licensed FM facility for an AM and a big pile of cash. In Sacramento, he was able to sell a big-signal commercial FM for a big pile of cash and move to a decently big-signal noncommercial FM that he'd obtained for free during an application window. Then he got a second noncomm FM out of that window and sold the first one. (He picked up an AM in Sacramento along the way, too.)
So Family got to keep reaching its listeners in each city, plus it picked up a nice cash infusion to keep its operations going. Nice work, if you can get it.
ansky212 said:
That puts ESPN on 101.9 and Family on 1050. What moves in on 94.7? Who buys it? Remember, 94.7's stick is in NJ, not on the ESB. Moving it to the ESB creates a short space with 94.7 in Springfield, MA. That could probably be dealt with since 100.3 and 101.1 are short spaced to Philadelphia and 99.5 is short spaced to Wilmington, DE. Springfield, MA is further from NYC than both of those locations.
Or perhaps ESPN should just forget about dealing with Emmis for 101.9, swap 1050 for 94.7 and deal with the tech issues of moving the stick to the ESB.
radioguy39nj said:
There is no reason they would have to move the stick to ESB. The current location in West Orange still puts a city-grade signal into all 5 boroughs of NYC. The entire coverage area of WFME really isn't much different than any other NYC FM.
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WFME&service=FM&status=L&hours=U
94.7 can't be moved to the ESB, at least not without the installation of a directional antenna, and there's no room for a standalone DA on the crowded mast at Empire.
The signal from West Orange looks good over NYC on paper; in practice, it's somewhat impaired in Queens and Brooklyn by shadowing from Manhattan, and it's somewhat impaired in midtown Manhattan by receiver overload from the strong signals on Empire.
It's still a pretty good signal...just not quite as good as an Empire B would have been.
The signal from West Orange looks good over NYC on paper; in practice, it's somewhat impaired in Queens and Brooklyn by shadowing from Manhattan, and it's somewhat impaired in midtown Manhattan by receiver overload from the strong signals on Empire.
It's still a pretty good signal...just not quite as good as an Empire B would have been.
Scott Fybush said:
Thanks for the info! IMHO, that rules out any swap of 94.7 for any operator if they can't move the stick to the ESB. 94.7 will likely stay with Family long after Harold Camping is gone.
I don't think it "rules out" anything. Even if it's not quite as good as a full Empire B, 94.7 is still a very, very valuable piece of FM real estate, and if Camping wanted to sell or swap, he'd have a long list of buyers ready to pay serious cash for the signal.
That said, there's no evidence that Camping has any desire to sell or swap WFME. Unlike nearly every other FM signal in town, he owns it free and clear with no debt load to service. It runs with a tiny staff (I think Charlie Menut is the only full-timer there), and there's not even any tower rent, since Camping owns the tower and studio site, too. Why would he sell?
That said, there's no evidence that Camping has any desire to sell or swap WFME. Unlike nearly every other FM signal in town, he owns it free and clear with no debt load to service. It runs with a tiny staff (I think Charlie Menut is the only full-timer there), and there's not even any tower rent, since Camping owns the tower and studio site, too. Why would he sell?
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