WHO BOUGHT AM820 WOSU?

[Starroamer2012]

Rumor has it OSU has accepted an offer to sell WOSU-AM. does anyone have any inside info on who?

 

[gabigley1]

They say noting to report on this today.

What are the rumors going around?

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Maybe Rupert Murdoch? He already owns one mouthpiece in Ohio, John Kasich, so maybe he thinks he should add another. Just kidding ;D.

 

[trefdawg]

http://instantrimshot.com/classic/?sound=rimshot ;D

 

[gabigley1]

St Gabriel Catholic radio has purchased WOSU-AM from Ohio State University:

http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2011/09/09/wosu-sells-am-feed-completing-all-fm.html

http://www.radio-info.com/news/2-mi...-ohio-where-st-gabriel-moves-from-1580-to-820

Here is the announcement from St. Gabriel Catholic Radio on the purchase of WOSU-AM today:

http://stgabrielradio.com/

I mentioned to St. Gabriel Catholic Radio that WOSU-AM 820 was for sale last January and it would be a much better signal then 1580 AM.
It just made sense that St. Gabriel Catholic Radio would cover much more of the Catholic Diocese of Columbus with this frequency. After all,
that has been the goal of St. Gabriel Catholic Radio, to cover as much of it with a network of stations and WOSU-AM will be a great flagship
station.
Little was said about any interest in 820 AM so this sale was somewhat of a surprise to me and a remark was made on a thread that St. Gabriel Catholic Radio was having problems LMAing WKKO-AM so they didn't even have $1.5 million dollars to buy WVKO-AM/

WOSU-AM at $2 million dollars is a better deal then WVKO-AM at 1.5 million in my opinion.

Here is a article from three years ago on them trying to buy WVKO-AM, with the appropriate excerpts on WVKO-AM 1580:

What's the frequency, Gabriel?
Portsmouth Daily Times (OH) - Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Author: RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY ; PDT Staff Writer

St. Gabriel Radio is moving into West Portsmouth, hoping to spread the Catholic message throughout its listening area.

St. Gabriel Radio, soon to be found locally at 90.9 FM, is a 501.c3 non-profit radio station that has been granted a non-commercial educational (NCE) license by the Federal Communications Commission.

To help the West Portsmouth station get started, the company has begun a capital campaign to help raise $70,000. Barone said the money would be used for the transmitter, tower rental space, computers and software.

"Just to give you an comparison, our station here in Columbus that we're purchasing is going to cost us $1.5 million, and it's a 3,000-watt station, and it's AM, which is not as good. The station you're getting is an FM station and it's roughly 5,000-watts, for only $70,000," Barone said.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Sorry to see it happen, especially for yet another religious outlet.

 

[jakej]

I wish it had been Mr. Glimps who bought it. He's my dream owner.

 

[N1WVQ]

Sorry to see it happen, especially for yet another religious outlet.

Agreed.

 

[Limp73]

I'm happy things turned out well this way for WOSU. ....and St.Gabriel was hoping to upgrade and they got an answer to their prayers...so I wouldn't sweat the FM CPs in Portsmouth and Washington C.H. for now. What matters here is that they FINALLY have a station in Columbus that they can call their own...and they still have their FM repeater in the Mansfield area. This station now has a niche and a foundation based in the heart of the Columbus diocese...the other FM repeaters can come later when the opporitunity presents itself to-re-apply. 820 AM blows away both 1580 and 1270 by comparison. I've picked up WOSU-AM on my transistor back when I was a teenager on the farm in west central Ohio forty years ago...it will do well.

I've been told that Catholic radio is likened to a baby taking its first steps....it will improve over time as other Christian stations have over the years. I'm sure K-LOVE didn't happen overnight...it took time.

 

[xmusicmatt]

I'm happy things turned out well this way for WOSU. ....and St.Gabriel was hoping to upgrade and they got an answer to their prayers...so I wouldn't sweat the FM CPs in Portsmouth and Washington C.H. for now. What matters here is that they FINALLY have a station in Columbus that they can call their own...and they still have their FM repeater in the Mansfield area. This station now has a niche and a foundation based in the heart of the Columbus diocese...the other FM repeaters can come later when the opporitunity presents itself to-re-apply. 820 AM blows away both 1580 and 1270 by comparison. I've picked up WOSU-AM on my transistor back when I was a teenager on the farm in west central Ohio forty years ago...it will do well.

I've been told that Catholic radio is likened to a baby taking its first steps....it will improve over time as other Christian stations have over the years. I'm sure K-LOVE didn't happen overnight...it took time.

My understanding is they parted or are parting with their FM CPs... Is the Mansfield FM even on the air? Last time I was up that way earler this summer I didn't hear a trace of it and they don't mention it on their website.

My only confusion is they claimed they needed 1.5 mill to purchase WVKO-AM ... now thier purchasing WOSU-A for 2 mill.. How did they find the 2 mill if they could not come up with the 1.5 for 1580 WVKO? I know one of the reasons they parted with the FM CPs is they could not 'find' the funding to "build" them... I also noticed looking at their website they have apperently upgraded their 'studio' in the last year too (was a mackie mixer/simian) now their using a lower budget broadcast console/nexgen( or player 101)

I have nothing against them... at least it's something on AM that isn't already there (well currently on 1580 .. but I suspect WVKO-A will become another ethnic station after St Gabriel ends their LMA) just kinda find it striking out of the blue they have money to purchase from tOSU.

 

[nmoore6676]

As an alumnus of both WOSU and OSU I am saddened to hear this news. Does this mean that the old daytime site on the OSU golf course will be abandoned and that they will use the nighttime transmitter location only?

 

[Bill Harmonic]

Two things I was told about the deal from someone who was involved is that it wasn't a question of spending 1.5 million for 1580 but why spend that for something that has a lot of problems to say the least when you can lay out 2 million for a better signal and get a much better buy with less hassle and complications. Also, as it was told to me and as part of the deal, St. Gabriel is buying the land and towers in Grove City but leasing the OSU golf course site so the status quo should remain in that area.

 

[xmusicmatt]

This purchase makes perfect sense... while WOSU-A isn't a power house signal, it's multitudes better than 1580's coverage and their getting it for only .5 million more than they would have paid for WVKO-A

 

[gabigley1]

Dose anyone have any idea how much the land is worth at the Grove City tower site? Yes, they did purchase that land.
If they wouild have paid $1.5 million for WVKO-AM, this would not have included the land for the tower site.

So, did St Gaberal Catholic Radio get themselves a pretty good deal on this purchase?

Since I'm Catholic, I'm gald to see the Catholics are getting more and stronger voices on the air...

As far as WVKO-AM goes, if they are not able to LMA the station, they will probably go to Spanish programming.
.

 

[Goldilocks94941]

It's just another example of the decline of Am radio, in my opinion, to narrow casting (and not much variety in those narrows, either). The AM 820 signal IS a powerhouse, at least during the daytime and an hour after sunset, and was the only way to get a public radio talk format into much of the rural Ohio flatlands that otherwise only have access to WGTE-FM's network of mostly-classical music outlets.

 

[nmoore6676]

It's just another example of the decline of Am radio, in my opinion, to narrow casting (and not much variety in those narrows, either). The AM 820 signal IS a powerhouse, at least during the daytime and an hour after sunset, and was the only way to get a public radio talk format into much of the rural Ohio flatlands that otherwise only have access to WGTE-FM's network of mostly-classical music outlets.

But maybe narrow casting is the only way to keep signals on AM and thus radios on the market that will receive it. The station that I grew up with in Springfield is now a Catholic station. Many others have been given over to ethnic programming so even though there is a narrow special interest listener ship it will keep AM capable receivers available. AM radio in event of a major catastrophe could be the only way to transmit news and public service announcements to wide audiences as it has in the history of radio. When local stations are silenced the distant AM stations have provided information. FM and TV need tall towers that can be toppled in storms and earthquakes. TV is more and more becoming a wired in service and cable systems can go down plus the electricity needed to power the receivers. Small portable radios have been around for years and will be for years to come.

 

[gabigley1]

Stole a few post from the Ohio board on this topic:

Sounds like St. Gabe is struggling. This is a loss for them but at least they were kind to hand the Washington C.H. CP over to Deacon Mike Learned and offers him to expand further.

Seems to me that leasing WVKO has been detrimental. Was in hopes that St. Gabe would have purchased WVKO by now.

My guess is their paying more for the WVKO AM LMA signal than their making in donations... which is hurting their efforts to expand.

:Their + there + they're = 3 different words. I know what you're trying to say though, and you're right.
And Limp, why would you hope that St. Gabe would have purchased WVKO by now? They're getting their propaganda out to their 5 listeners just fine as it is. Why would you care whether they owned it or were leasing it?

And BTW, St. Gabe will NEVER buy WVKO.

St Gabe Catholic radio was quoted in the November, 2008 Portsmouth newspaper that they were buying WVKO-AM for 1.5 million dollars. It's been
almost three years now and St Gabriel Catholic radio has yet to buy WVKO-AM 1580. Anyone know whats holding St Gabriel Catholic Radio back?

In order to buy something for 1.5 million you have to have 1.5 million. They can barely make the monthly LMA payments.

After reading some of these comments a couple of months ago, I thought St. Gabe Catholic radio would not be able to purchase WOSU-AM. Goes to show, you can't believe everything you read here.

It's just another example of the decline of Am radio, in my opinion, to narrow casting (and not much variety in those narrows, either). The AM 820 signal IS a powerhouse, at least during the daytime and an hour after sunset, and was the only way to get a public radio talk format into much of the rural Ohio flatlands that otherwise only have access to WGTE-FM's network of mostly-classical music outlets.

I'm expecting WOSU media to field complaints from people tuned into WOSU-AM that aren't able to hear NPR news and information on WOSU-FM. These are people in some of the rural areas of Ohio that can hear WOSU-AM 820 just fine but can't get WOSU-FM 89.7. BTW, WOSU-AM can
be heard in Toledo with a weak signal.

 

[gabigley1]

Also, as it was told to me and as part of the deal, St. Gabriel is buying the land and towers in Grove City but leasing the OSU golf course site so the status quo should remain in that area.

The WOSU 820 Night tower site has 39 acres total... How much would that land in Grove City be worth if there was not a tower site on it? Just curious... I would guess at least $500,000.

Here is a photo of the WOSU-AM NIGHT SITE in Grove City:

http://www.fybush.com/Tower Site/040219/wosu-night.jpg

 

[xmusicmatt]

That sounds logical.. considering the WOSU-A Night site land is surrounded by development now. Still a pretty good chunk of land and at least St Gabriel is getting some physical property out of the deal and not just a tower site lease like they would if they had bought WVKO-A license. I would suspect the lease of the WOSU-A Daytime site at the OSU Golf Course will likely be "reasonable" I can't see tOSU jacking up the price... Their making off with 2 Mil in the deal to begin with (WOSU-A has been pretty much a placeholder since they took over 101.1 FM and tOSU has wanted to 'rid' of it if the price was right) .. Any 'lease' money they make from the daytime site is 'additional' profit to them. (and by not "booting" the Catholic group from the golf course - tOSU looks like a "Good Neighbor")

 

[kirkiefan]

Question:

What's the "t" in tOSU for???