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WMFE-TV
- Thread starter Ai4i
- Start date
The sale of WMFE-TV is a strange one to me. Considering WMFE-TV has been the primary PBS TV station for Orlando and the surrounding Central Florida area since 1965, I would think there would have been a viable solution to keep WMFE-TV as a PBS affiliate.
What puzzles me is part of the reason given for the TV station sale found in the WMFE-TV Press Release which is PBS programming costing WMFE-TV over $1 million annually while corporate underwriting and veiwer donations were down in comparison to PBS affiliates WDSC-TV New Smyrna Beach and WBCC-TV Cocoa. The latter two TV stations, according to the same Press Release, states these PBS affiliates are paying about one quarter of the cost WMFE-TV was paying although WDSC and WBCC are serving the same Central Florida area.
Even more puzzling is the $3 million published acquisition price. To me this appears to be extrememly low for any full power TV station in a market the size of Orlando, even for a NCE-TV station. Tampa has two PBS affiliates - WEDU-TV and University of South Florida television station WUSF-TV. Orlando will have none even with WDSC and WBCC. That latter two are not Orlando TV stations as local programming on the latter two stations cater to Daytona Beach and Brevard County respectively.
I would think in order to keep WMFE-TV as Central Florida's primary PBS affiliate, Public Broadcasting Service would have been willing to re-negotiate the programming cost to a lower amount in order to preserve WMFE-TV as Central Florida's primary PBS television station. Certainly PBS receiving lower programming fees from WMFE-TV is much better than receiving no programming fees. Now, PBS will get nothing from WMFE-TV now that the station is flipping to a religious format after the FCC approves the license transfer and the sale closes.
Interestingly, WMFE-FM 90.7 with enhanced local news, talk and public affairs programming catering to Orlando will be retained minus WMFE-TV.
What puzzles me is part of the reason given for the TV station sale found in the WMFE-TV Press Release which is PBS programming costing WMFE-TV over $1 million annually while corporate underwriting and veiwer donations were down in comparison to PBS affiliates WDSC-TV New Smyrna Beach and WBCC-TV Cocoa. The latter two TV stations, according to the same Press Release, states these PBS affiliates are paying about one quarter of the cost WMFE-TV was paying although WDSC and WBCC are serving the same Central Florida area.
Even more puzzling is the $3 million published acquisition price. To me this appears to be extrememly low for any full power TV station in a market the size of Orlando, even for a NCE-TV station. Tampa has two PBS affiliates - WEDU-TV and University of South Florida television station WUSF-TV. Orlando will have none even with WDSC and WBCC. That latter two are not Orlando TV stations as local programming on the latter two stations cater to Daytona Beach and Brevard County respectively.
I would think in order to keep WMFE-TV as Central Florida's primary PBS affiliate, Public Broadcasting Service would have been willing to re-negotiate the programming cost to a lower amount in order to preserve WMFE-TV as Central Florida's primary PBS television station. Certainly PBS receiving lower programming fees from WMFE-TV is much better than receiving no programming fees. Now, PBS will get nothing from WMFE-TV now that the station is flipping to a religious format after the FCC approves the license transfer and the sale closes.
Interestingly, WMFE-FM 90.7 with enhanced local news, talk and public affairs programming catering to Orlando will be retained minus WMFE-TV.
The station is being sold to Daystar Communications which is a religious broadcaster for allot less then what it's worth. Expect more dollar a hollar and pay for pray programing. We have, including the sub channels 11 of those stations already. WTGL-45 has 3, WHLV-52 has 5, and WACX 55 has 3 Do we really need what could be (Depending how many sub channels Daystar wants to use) upwards of 4 more religious channels. Quite a bit of the programs that are shown on them are shown again at a later time on a different channel. You have to petition the FCC and let them know that we don't need anymore of these kinds of broadcasters. If enough people do this the FCC may move in and halt the sale.
Frank - Reading between the lines, I suspect that certain people over at Community Communications, Inc. were looking for any excuse that "sounded good" to the public to sell WMFE-TV. I eluded to that opinion in my previous post without actually saying it.
Yes, I agree, the price paid was too low which I also addressed in my previous post. This alone tells me Community Communications, Inc. literally wanted to dump the TV station as quickly as possible at any price to anyone who wanted it. WMFE-TV is worth ALOT more than $3 million although I will not go into any details and give my professional opinion on what that amount may be. In a market the size of Orlando, I charge upwards towards $5,000 for that information in the form of a TV station appraisal.
One thing you hit on is programming overlap. Each of the stations you mentioned broadcast many of the same national ministry programs over the main channels and not just on the sub channels. You will find many of the same national programs overlapping on WACX-TV, WTGL-TV and WHVN-TV main channels, and soon on WMFE-TV (or whatever the call letters will become under Daystar Television).
The bottom line is Orlando needs and is entitled to have its own PBS television station catering to the needs of Orlando and Central Florida. Perhaps another entity will see the need and fill it by bringing a replacement PBS television affiliate to Orlando in the near future.
Yes, I agree, the price paid was too low which I also addressed in my previous post. This alone tells me Community Communications, Inc. literally wanted to dump the TV station as quickly as possible at any price to anyone who wanted it. WMFE-TV is worth ALOT more than $3 million although I will not go into any details and give my professional opinion on what that amount may be. In a market the size of Orlando, I charge upwards towards $5,000 for that information in the form of a TV station appraisal.
One thing you hit on is programming overlap. Each of the stations you mentioned broadcast many of the same national ministry programs over the main channels and not just on the sub channels. You will find many of the same national programs overlapping on WACX-TV, WTGL-TV and WHVN-TV main channels, and soon on WMFE-TV (or whatever the call letters will become under Daystar Television).
The bottom line is Orlando needs and is entitled to have its own PBS television station catering to the needs of Orlando and Central Florida. Perhaps another entity will see the need and fill it by bringing a replacement PBS television affiliate to Orlando in the near future.
If you Google Daystar or Marcus Lamb it brings up some interesting articles. It seems odd that this is the only organization that wanted to spend $3 million for an Orlando TV station. It looks like they get the broadcast license, antenna, and transmitter for their money and then have to lease space on the tower and in the building for another $500,00-600,000.
ai4i said:
I'm even further from Central Florida than you are
but...WDSC and WBCC are both at 491m on the WKMG channel 6 tower. (491m HAAT, although in flat Florida HAAT and height above ground level are generally pretty much the same thing!) That's about 20m (65') lower than the WKMG antenna. WMFE is about 110m (350') lower on a tower very roughly 2 miles to the west.
WDSC is about 1/3 WMFE's power. The higher antenna probably makes up for about half that difference. WBCC is more like a fifth WMFE.
So I guess the bottom line is, these stations' coverage is pretty close to WMFE's but not quite the same.
Having headed up the underwriting department at WMFE-TV in the 90's, I am amazed at the notion of selling off channel 24. Even back then,
underwriting dollars for TV were shrinking a bit, but there were big sponsors, spending some big bucks to be a part of PBS Kids, etc. In those
days, WMFE had quality local programming, did good documentaries, and performed real community service. John Felton, who programmed the station was one of the best in the PBS community. When John left, the programming was farmed out and in my opinion, the station slowly began a slide down a in excellence and localism. Stephen McKenney Steck retiring took away a man who has a tremendous gift for excellence. Steve
made sure WMFE was always presenting a solid schedule that people wanted to see. I am at a lose to understand how the station could slip so
badly over the last decasde that it had to be sold.
There is no way the Orlando market needs 4 religious TV stations... it just doesn't make sense. Looking at Daystar programming, most if not all of what they run is available over the air -never mind the cable outlets, on Orlando's 3 existing stations.
I agree with Mark that this is a very strange deal.
underwriting dollars for TV were shrinking a bit, but there were big sponsors, spending some big bucks to be a part of PBS Kids, etc. In those
days, WMFE had quality local programming, did good documentaries, and performed real community service. John Felton, who programmed the station was one of the best in the PBS community. When John left, the programming was farmed out and in my opinion, the station slowly began a slide down a in excellence and localism. Stephen McKenney Steck retiring took away a man who has a tremendous gift for excellence. Steve
made sure WMFE was always presenting a solid schedule that people wanted to see. I am at a lose to understand how the station could slip so
badly over the last decasde that it had to be sold.
There is no way the Orlando market needs 4 religious TV stations... it just doesn't make sense. Looking at Daystar programming, most if not all of what they run is available over the air -never mind the cable outlets, on Orlando's 3 existing stations.
I agree with Mark that this is a very strange deal.
I thought this was Radio-Info! I have never even seen a thread about NPR, much less PBS. Let's move on dot org please, to RADIO! Besides I never got my directors chair when I sent them that check.ai4i said:
The Captain has spoken
Jose Fajardo chats with Mark Simpson on Intersection on WMFE-FM radio!
Captain Parrot said:
Although this is a radio board, the pending WMFE-TV sale has a direct tie-in to radio with WMFE-FM. The sale also has a direct impact on Central Florida broadcasting, including radio, as a whole and has stirred great interest as you can plainly and clearly see by reading the previous posts.
Additionally, considering there is no Florida Television Board, this particular board was deliberately and systmatically chosen as the best alternative to introduce and discuss this very relevant and important topic.
I would suggest and highy recommend that if there is nothing relevant you personally find to be of interest to you herein, do as I do when I find a topic of no interest to me, and that is simply "seek and identify" a thread that is of interest to you. There are literally hundreds of threads containing thousands of topics. I'm sure you will find one that is to your liking.
However, in the meantime, the rest of us have an interest in discussing the WMFE-TV sale until such time it is no longer valid or of any continued interest to those who have or may participate in the discussions.
Mark has Spoken
SIDEBAR: There is a Public Radio Board on this site.
w9wi said:
Looking at the FCC data it appears that WDSC-TV and WBCC-TV both have 41dBu contours over all of Orlando and much of Central Florida. I also believe WDSC and WBCC are both on the local cable systems in Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties.
This may be a very real opportunity for either of these TV stations to become the primary PBS affiliate for Orlando and Central Florida provided at least some of its local and regional programming is catered to the Central Florida area beyond Daytona Beach and Brevard County.
Well said Mark... sometimes some people forget we are all in Broadcasting! This TV story has a lot of interest to all broadcasters..
Although Mark Tillery is not in the habit of throwing anyone in particular under the bus, as, perhaps we've seen here pertinent regarding the "Captain" I do have to agree with Mr. Tillery, and I too find the info regarding WMFE and the Public television issue very informative and very interesting. In other word's the aformentioned is something I was unaware of until this particular thread, so with that, thanks to all of the contributor's....
I neglected to mention Quadman102 is also correct, regardless of whether it's about radio or it just so happens to be about TV, posted here on Radio-Info.com, it's still alllll about broadcasting..... I think that pretty much rings true and sums it up!
Stormychuck said:
My intent is not to throw anyone "under the bus". My intent is to point out that this particular topic is directly related to broadcasting, whether the broadcast medium is radio or television, and the pending WMFE-TV sale has made big news to some degree creating a certain amount of interest in the topic.
Conversely, if you stop by the Tampa board, you may occasionally see a thread or two about local TV. There's a huge thread about WTSP-TV's transmitter that's a hot topic at the moment.
As a prior poster points out... all falls under the umbrella of broadcasting - and more importantly, local broadcasting.
As a prior poster points out... all falls under the umbrella of broadcasting - and more importantly, local broadcasting.
Daystar a couple of years ago bought one of the two at the time VHF PBS stations in the Dallas market. Both stations were owned by the same organization and with digital broadcasting about to arrive, they really didn't need two PBS stations. The remaining station has several digital subchannels with alternate PBS programming.
But I wonder why WMFE didn't make a deal with Daystar to continue broadcasting WMFE's PBS programming on one of Daystar's subchannels? I believe that Daystar is non-commercial, funded by viewer contributions, same as a PBS station. It may be odd but not illegal for WMFE's PBS programming to piggyback on Daystar.
I would guess if you're in a community somewhere between Orlando and Ocala, you may not get a decent PBS signal. You'd be too far from Daytona and too far from Gainesville to get either of their PBS channels over the air. Same thing for Winter Haven, Lake Wales and Haines City. They may be too far from Melbourne and too far from Tampa to pick up a PBS signal over the air. Very odd for a top 50 TV market.
Gregg
[email protected]
But I wonder why WMFE didn't make a deal with Daystar to continue broadcasting WMFE's PBS programming on one of Daystar's subchannels? I believe that Daystar is non-commercial, funded by viewer contributions, same as a PBS station. It may be odd but not illegal for WMFE's PBS programming to piggyback on Daystar.
I would guess if you're in a community somewhere between Orlando and Ocala, you may not get a decent PBS signal. You'd be too far from Daytona and too far from Gainesville to get either of their PBS channels over the air. Same thing for Winter Haven, Lake Wales and Haines City. They may be too far from Melbourne and too far from Tampa to pick up a PBS signal over the air. Very odd for a top 50 TV market.
Gregg
[email protected]
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