• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WJLX 200' tower reported stolen

Status
Not open for further replies.
wattwatcher said:
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.)
Click to expand...
prw680 said:
No, per their website... Home - WJLX 101.5 FM
But, please send cash...
Click to expand...
Sadly, people who are either gullible or who don't know and understand the full story regarding this station have donated nearly $1,200 so far (of the $60k they're begging for) via their GoFundMe page.

If this guy just wants some quick money, why doesn't he become a TV preacher or some such? The folks who watch those programs, believe in what the "pastor" tells them and quickly open their wallets and send in unending streams of cash would surely be much easier and lucrative "marks" than he's getting by playing up the story about his poor radio station and stolen tower.

One alarm should be the fact that the guy didn't have any insurance. While I know that's bitten other station owners and some owners see insurance which is generally only needed "just in case" as something to cut when they're short on funds, at the same time if the guy wasn't concerned about his business and equipment enough to carry even a basic policy, then shame on him...
 
There are few AM's in the whole country that aren't having money problems. A 50 KW AM in my area has pulled the plug. They were number one in a major market in ratings for decades.

I can't believe some of what's posted here. By the way, I've had insurance for over 35 years and never needed it.
 
Flying Dutchman said:
By the way, I've had insurance for over 35 years and never needed it.
Click to expand...
...but that's why it's called "insurance". I also had insurance on my car for 7 or 8 years and never had a use for it. Then one day some guy busted a red light and took me out. My insurance that I'd seemingly been paying on for years with no need for it, suddenly saved me from a huge payout. Luckily there were no injuries, but they paid for all repairs to my vehicle, paid me in full for the rental I drove for the weeks my car was in the shop, AND went after the other driver to pay my deductible since it was his fault - making sure I had really no out of pocket expenses from the ordeal. I once worked for a station that had insurance for probably 40 years without any large claims - then one day disaster struck and they lost their studio and transmitter. Because they were insured they had guys from BSW on-site within a week with catalogs in-hand to start planning the buildout of a new facility.

But if what I'm reading above is true, the bigger story in this case isn't the lack of insurance - it's that the guy created a GoFundMe page to raise $60k when others have offered him equipment and even a replacement tower to get him back on the air at a cheaper cost, and possibly faster. If those proposed donations turn out to be old, used junk then OK..But if the guy's primary goal was to be a responsible station owner who's goal is to get his signal back on the air as quickly as possible, he doesn't need to wait until he raises $60k in donations to do so. There are folks with equipment to donate. If he's a decent guy, treats people well and has good contacts in the broadcast community, there are sympathetic engineers and people to do legal paperwork out there who, while they may not donate their time, may work for a reduced rate to help a fellow broadcaster out. If one of the posts above can be believed, it doesn't seem this guy has any interest in that.
 
Last edited:
Mikey Radio said:
If he's a decent guy, treats people well and has good contacts in the broadcast community, there are sympathetic engineers and people to do legal paperwork out there who, while they may not donate their time, may work for a reduced rate to help a fellow broadcaster out. If one of the posts above can be believed, it doesn't seem this guy has any interest in that.
Click to expand...
I've already told this story once in this thread but, I'll repeat it again so anyone predisposed to wanting to help will know:

Several years ago, another station manager I know loaned these very people a 500 watt FM transmitter to keep them on the air while their transmitter was sent back to Nicom for repairs. After about a month of operating with the other stations transmitter, their engineer brought back the "loaner" and told the person who has loaned it to them, "I almost didn't get your transmitter out of their in one piece! The Elmore's tried to get me to let them smash it since they see you as competition and the fact that you just kept them on the air for a month out of the kindness of your heart meant nothing to them."

These are also the same people who held down an engineer and extinguished a little cigarette on his face because he had the audacity to ask to see their public inspection file. (I believe he was hoping to help them with organizing it, of course, for a fee.)

Of course, anyone who chooses to help them is welcome to do so but, BE CAREFUL! You are not dealing with normal people, here.
 
prw680 said:
That small town's voice actually has another AM-FM translator combo on 1360khz w/ 12 kw day and 42 watts night (WiXI). The FM translator (W277DM) is on 103.3 mhz w/250 watts. So, they aren't really in the dark.
Click to expand...
Actually, no. WIXI and W277DM are programmed fully from Birmingham as Birmingham stations along with WJLD. Unless something has changed within the past month or two, they never mention Jasper at all other than in the legal ID. The only truly local Jasper station was WQJJ before they sit down the FM signal and went "online only".
 
analogrules79 said:
Off topic: I noticed my comment in here and the responses to it were deleted for no reason and with no explanation. 🤔
Click to expand...
Accusations that have no supporting documentation such as a court case, arrest or lawsuit are not allowed here. Any violating posts will be deleted.
 
I wonder if there will ever be any updates narrowing down when the tower was stolen? Some had speculated that it could've come a long time ago, but I finally realized I have access to newer satellite imagery than what Google Maps offers and could see if it was still standing as recently as a few months ago. It was, and the field looked fairly well maintained, too. Historical imagery going back to about 2002 indicates that, despite the operational issues, someone was at least keeping the field well maintained.

As much fun as it is to speculate that something nefarious is afoot, I'm still leaning towards the local methheads thinking they can sell it for scrap. But then you'd think there'd be pictures of the damage they did, and evidence that someone was smart enough to rip up the ground system since that's actually valuable copper.
 
tomservo said:
As much fun as it is to speculate that something nefarious is afoot, I'm still leaning towards the local methheads thinking they can sell it for scrap. But then you'd think there'd be pictures of the damage they did, and evidence that someone was smart enough to rip up the ground system since that's actually valuable copper.
Click to expand...
That's assuming someone actually knew what a ground system is. Truthfully, they probably saw what was visible, and took it. Drug thieves will take a Rolex and sell it for $100 just to get their next fix.

All of this could have been detected sooner IF someone at WJLX actually ever tuned to the AM band to monitor it, or took a meter reading, but that would be acting like us old-timers who actually remember a time when the FCC made us take meter readings and keep logs and were on the lookout for an inspector to darken our doorstep.

Flying Dutchman said:
Maybe this case will change how we feel about translators for AM stations because they should have been allowed by the FCC to stay on FM.

The rules need to be changed.
Click to expand...
No, they don't. They need to be followed and used with common sense. The translators are there for AM revitalization, not to be a stand-alone operation. If this Brett Elmore had cared about his AM or even tuned in ONCE instead of treating his operation like an FM-only, he would have discovered this weeks ago. When I see good operators shutting down their AMs and turning off their translators and filing STA's immediately, I don't feel bad for operators who can't be bothered to even monitor their primary signal and have their tower and transmitter magically walk off and have no idea when.

No, the rules don't need to be changed. In this case, the people having to abide by the rules need to change. Maybe now they'll remember it's WJLX-AM and W268BM, not WJLX-FM.
 
tomservo said:
I wonder if there will ever be any updates narrowing down when the tower was stolen? Some had speculated that it could've come a long time ago, but I finally realized I have access to newer satellite imagery than what Google Maps offers and could see if it was still standing as recently as a few months ago. It was, and the field looked fairly well maintained, too. Historical imagery going back to about 2002 indicates that, despite the operational issues, someone was at least keeping the field well maintained.

As much fun as it is to speculate that something nefarious is afoot, I'm still leaning towards the local methheads thinking they can sell it for scrap. But then you'd think there'd be pictures of the damage they did, and evidence that someone was smart enough to rip up the ground system since that's actually valuable copper.
Click to expand...
I believe you.
 
exdjted said:
That's assuming someone actually knew what a ground system is. Truthfully, they probably saw what was visible, and took it. Drug thieves will take a Rolex and sell it for $100 just to get their next fix.

All of this could have been detected sooner IF someone at WJLX actually ever tuned to the AM band to monitor it, or took a meter reading, but that would be acting like us old-timers who actually remember a time when the FCC made us take meter readings and keep logs and were on the lookout for an inspector to darken our doorstep.


No, they don't. They need to be followed and used with common sense. The translators are there for AM revitalization, not to be a stand-alone operation. If this Brett Elmore had cared about his AM or even tuned in ONCE instead of treating his operation like an FM-only, he would have discovered this weeks ago. When I see good operators shutting down their AMs and turning off their translators and filing STA's immediately, I don't feel bad for operators who can't be bothered to even monitor their primary signal and have their tower and transmitter magically walk off and have no idea when.

No, the rules don't need to be changed. In this case, the people having to abide by the rules need to change. Maybe now they'll remember it's WJLX-AM and W268BM, not WJLX-FM.
Click to expand...
So you have some first hand knowledge? Do you live in their coverage area? Or, are you cherry picking what you believe from Radio Discussions?

Some of these posts are not the truth. The old switcheroo instead.
 
Last edited:
These FM translators are not revitalizing AM. Instead they are moving the remaining AM listeners to FM. And, most AM listeners switched to FM forty years ago.

The translators were meant to save the butts of broadcasters who have served their communities for decades..
 
Flying Dutchman said:
So you have some first hand knowledge? Do you live in their coverage area? Or, are you cherry picking what you believe from Radio Discussions?

Some of these posts are not the truth.
Click to expand...
No. I'm not in their area. I don't know this character. What I do know is it takes 20 seconds a couple of times a day to flip your radio to AM and listen to your own signal. Asking me if I'm cherry picking what I believe? Do YOU live in their area? Do you know them? If you do, ask them when was the last time they actually tuned in the AM to listen to the signal.

I don't have to have the FCC telling me to check my meter readings or listen to my own station to see what it's doing. I do that because I have been in this business my whole life and I give a damn about running a quality operation. Maybe in your eyes I'm wrong to care about all of my signals, and drive out to the tower sites every week to check the locks, lights and do a visual inspection, and check my power bills and monitors to try to head off potential problems.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


Back
Top Bottom