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WJLX 200' tower reported stolen

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I honestly would have never expected this story to be passed around the media world as much as it had. Who knew!

It also made it to the Washington Post today, and if the FCC wasn't aware of the backstory before now with NBC and CNN reporting it… They will certainly know because it seems most of the Federal government reads the paper still. And the comments are… amusing.
 
tomservo said:
And the comments are… amusing.
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Have you seen his GoFundMe campaign, yet? Of course, you have and some people are actually being scammed out of their money. In the meantime, I'm sitting here, living every minute of this and "ROTFLMAO" because everything that is now coming to light about this radio station manager and Walker County Alabama in general is something that I watched someone else say years ago and everyone laughed and said, "Nah... That can't be possible!" and, here we are, seeing it and, even better, seeing it clearly because of the stupidity of this one person. Just sit back and keep watching! It only gets better from here! (Until done of them decide he's making the entire bunch look bad and then he disappears to never be seen again.)
 
To those who think WJLX stole their own tower

I think you are wrong. How would doing $100,000 worth of damage to your own business save your license? Instead it puts your license at risk. because now it's $100,000 to get back on. There was no insurance and the translator had to sign off with the AM gone.

The AM transmitter could have been fixed for way less than one hundred grand.

An AM station in a small Alabama town is only worth about $100,000 with a translator. Many broadcasters would just turn in the licenses after this happened.

I suspect this was a hit job by someone connected to radio who is a real whack job with intense hatred for WJLX. In my state years ago several stations were vandalized. by thieving radio pirates. I believe someone wants to off WJLX.
 
The shortest possible version of the real story: Around five years ago, the manager of the station (the one who pretends to be the owner) decided that AM is a high-maintenance operation and that he could "do much better" by no longer operating his AM transmitter so, he shut it down when it was in such a sad state of repair that major work was required. The site was "forgotten" and neglected for all of this time. Several months ago, someone started complaining to the FCC that the AM was silent. In the interim, the tower (already in really sad condition when the site was shut down) feel and, over a period of months (not days, as reported), local people cut and scrapped the tower a little at a time. When he realized someone was complaining of the shut down of the SM and that an inspection was imminent, someone decided to go to the AM site and found that five years of neglect had resulted in what is now there and, lo and behold, it's also a neat way of disposing the evidence that the AM has been silent for about five years. But, in order to cover up the prolonged period of noon-operation, it is necessary to claim the damage happened "within the past several days" instead of over a five year period as it happened in reality.

He's begging for $60k. If he would calm down and do some networking within the engineering groups, he could get back on the air for around $10k. I've already seen one person offer him a tower. He didn't want the free tower. He wants cash. (The offer of the free tower can still be seen on his personal Facebook profile.) I have a 250 foot 45-G that I would GIVE him if he wasn't the thief that he is and, if I didn't know his current problems were neglect from allowing the old tower to fall and leaving the transmitter building open so vandals could come and go at will during the five years since he intentionally shut-down WJLX AM. I've already seen him turn down the offer of a free transmitter. Instead, he wants cash. If you don't see the problem with this by now, I'm not going to be able to point it out too you because you are choosing to not see it. This was originally intended to be a small town scam to ripoff the local people but, it has now grown so far out of proportion that he's "locked in" and forced to follow through and it will indeed be a fun and entertaining ride *if* the investigators do their jobs. Now, I'm not going to argue this point. I'm going to wait and watch. I'm also going to ponder why, after all of this, we don't have, at least, a make and model for the transmitter or any of the other equipment. It would seem that, if anyone wanted to find out, we would say least be told what to be looking for? Well, if it even existed, we would buy, I'm being it's all been gone for so long now that even the station manager can't specify what was there. It was the AM and, he no longer needed or cared for that after making that decision five years ago!
 
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wattwatcher said:
The "crime" wouldn't have the police (or anyone else) baffled at all of they would pull the utility bills and see that power consumption at that site today - after this alleged "theft" - is the same as it has been for the past four or five years.
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Bet the FBI looks into that right off the bat. Thinking your synopsis of what happened in your 0931 post is Spot On...
 
prw680 said:
Thinking your synopsis of what happened in your 0931 post is Spot On...
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It is. He was thinking this would be a "quick and easy little white lie" that would save the license of an AM which should've been deleted several years ago and a translator which has been originating programming. When it went viral, all of those hopes went down the drain.
 
Flying Dutchman said:
Wondering about the LPFM in Jasper? Is it on the air?
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It isn't on air, hasn't in a while, and the station didn't bother to notify the FCC... as the phrase goes, "don't throw stones at glass houses" if you know what I mean. Some have an interesting vendetta towards a certain station. For years, the management between WQJJ and WJLX have had a less than stellar relationship.
 
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tvallred said:
It isn't on air, hasn't in a while, and the station didn't bother to notify the FCC...
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That depends on your definition of "on air". I find these when I look and, I've been told that they are doing much better than the LPFM ever did and that all of the death threats and online attacks and such stopped when they went "online only":

CAT40Hits.com - Classic American Top 40 Hits, 1950s - Today!

Bama Country Hits – Alabama's Classic Country Hits Radio Station!

Stardust, WQJJ-HD3 101.9 FM, Birmingham, AL | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn/

I really don't think ownership of WQJJ-LP cares to be bothered with any of the drama. They've moved on several years ago and now the rest of the place has imploded just as the former manager of WQJJ said it would with no involvement from them at all.
 
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