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WMMW rumors?

W

WPHA

I've seen rumors that Buckley may be considering just turning-in the license for WMMW. (1470AM) If there is any truth to this, it would be a stinking shame, considering it's a 24 hour operation with halfway decent coverage! (2 patterns, both serve Meriden, Wallingford, & North Haven with a good signal.)

If they plan to just throw this station away... wouldn't it be feasible for someone to offer to take it off their hands for the cost of doing the paperwork? I'd love to see someone LOCAL do something with it.
 
Does the station have a directional signal? I get almost nothing from them during the day here in New Britain's south end. WPOP-AM 1410 of Hartford overloads that portion of the AM dial...unless one uses a good quality receiver.
 
If those rumors are true, give Buckley credit for keeping the WMMW signal on with at least some regional connection for 15 years after it last faced the prospect of going dark. Directional away from much of Hartford County with a nighttime null toward Cheshire/Waterbury, WMMW did fill in many of WDRC AM 1360's weaker coverage areas. It doesn't seem to have helped WDRC AM's ratings and doesn't really hit New Haven and the shore with a city grade signal, so maybe its time has come.

WMMW was marketed as a local station 30 years ago as "Connecticut's largest single station market." That noble effort and the upgrade to fulltime did nothing to improve their already struggling situation when AM was more viable. Different owners before Buckley tried everything, some of it downright strange. Unlike Danbury, New London or even Torrington, the Meriden/Wallingford area is completely in the shadow of bigger Hartford and New Haven stations with no breathing room. The directional array is also in the shadow of a big mall, so the property may have value for something else. There were some memorable personalities back in the day, including Phil Callan and Walt Solek. Mike Stevens of WDRC got his start there.
 
If there were any truth to the rumor, I would assume it's because of impending transmission system repairs that exceed the value of the license. There'd be no sense in selling it or donating it if it's going to cost more than the station's worth to fix it.

The station's BE transmitter isn't TOO ancient, but the 4 tower array is around 30 years old if I remember correctly. Ground systems, ATUs, transmission lines, etc are just downright expensive, but if an actual tower or 4 had to be replaced? Zoning can make it literally impossible.

Again, the whole scenario is total speculation. However, it'd be similar to what happened at WNLC 1510 in '98. The cost to repair the 8-tower array was well above the value of the license, and because the station was built on wetlands, zoning issues made any type of rebuild with fewer towers impossible. It was cheaper to turn in the license and buy 98.7 in East Lyme.
 
Bill DeFelice said:
I'm surprised they haven't offered it to a local school or university, as in the case of 1220 in Hamden and 1260 in Westport.
Click to expand...

There are no universities in Meriden or Wallingford, and Southington has only Lincoln (formerly Briarwood), which doesn't have a communications program. I can't believe that high schools, especially with the focus on computers in the curriculum and ever-tightening budgets, would want anything to do with a "legacy medium" like radio. Perhaps someone will take 1470 off Buckley's hands at a fire sale price and put Spanish-language music or religion on it, but its signal would limit it strictly to Meriden at night, reaching a largely poor Hispanic community with not enough discretionary income or thriving businesses to pay the bills.
 
CTListener said:
Bill DeFelice said:
I'm surprised they haven't offered it to a local school or university, as in the case of 1220 in Hamden and 1260 in Westport.
Click to expand...

There are no universities in Meriden or Wallingford, and Southington has only Lincoln (formerly Briarwood), which doesn't have a communications program. I can't believe that high schools, especially with the focus on computers in the curriculum and ever-tightening budgets, would want anything to do with a "legacy medium" like radio. Perhaps someone will take 1470 off Buckley's hands at a fire sale price and put Spanish-language music or religion on it, but its signal would limit it strictly to Meriden at night, reaching a largely poor Hispanic community with not enough discretionary income or thriving businesses to pay the bills.
Click to expand...

When did Briarwood (now Lincoln) eliminate the broadcasting course? When I was a Freshmen in High School circa 1997 Briarwood's broadcasting class was leasing airtime on WNTY in Southingon from Noon until 2PM Monday-Friday. They were playing uncensored rap music. Later former WRCH morning show co-host Kathy Wyler was teaching the course.

Prior to Buckley buying WMMW they were a Spanish Station - La Brava 1470. They started out by leasing time on Saturdays and Sundays and eventually bought the station. Then they ran the station into the ground and sold it dirt cheap to Buckley. Then in 1999 they began leasing WNTY in Southington and ran that station into the ground too. La Brava 990. Peter Arpin (who owned WNTY at the time) had to take them (El Principe Communications) to court to get them evicted from the radio station for non-payment of rent and holding the radio station hostage. It was a big mess. Both parties called the cops on each other several times. They changed the locks on each other. Peter Arpin's ADD Radio Group won the court fight and El Principe had to be off the air by Midnight September 15, 2000. They shutdown at 9:30PM. The next day when WNTY's general manager went to put the station back on the air he couldn't. He found that the board, transmitter, and other equipment was damaged. El Principe claimed everything was working fine when they went off the air the night before. It took WNTY about 2 weeks to get back on the air.
 
Lincoln College does offer A.A.S. Communications courses. See http://www.lincolncollegene.edu/forms/lincoln_college_ne_course_catalog.pdf Page 40. Tom Zarecki, MBA is the Academic Program Director, Communication and Mass Media Department. Tom is a longtime broadcaster and friend.

I have performed engineering services for Buckley and two previous owners of WMMW. I have no knowledge of, nor involvement with any planned transmission system work. Given increased competition from other technologies, AM stations face an uphill battle for advertising dollars. In some cases such as WLAT, the value of the transmitter site real estate has increased to where it makes financial sense to weigh this value with that of continued operation of the station. We have even seen this in the NYC market (NJ Meadowlands). WLNG-AM was bought for the purpose of turning it dark to allow WWRL a power increase. WOWO was bought for the purpose of reducing night power to allow WLIB a fulltime opportunity. It was sold shortly after the WLIB night operation was licensed. It is also true that a career in broadcasting is not what it used to be. A graduate has loans to pay off and the opportunities for entry level positions offering a starting salary sufficient to live on and pay down debt are very rare if they exist at all. Automation, voice tracking, satellite delivered programming and consolidation have all contributed to the dwindling number of employees at a typical station.

These are the realities as they exist today. Playing music on AM is not really a viable option today, at least not with fulltime announcers. You have to ask yourself "How would I operate a profitable standalone AM station?" Examine your expenses, potential advertisers and competition. It's more difficult than you think. I speak from experience as a former GM in a highly competitive market.
 
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