WOW! What a steal.

[knoxbob]

I read the contract for the sale of the CC stations in Sparta and Mcminnville, PEG get all those stations for just $550K. I'm not a contract lawyer so I hope I read it right. That's about what they paid for the Crossville group they bought from CC a few years back. Is CC giving away all their stations at cut rate prices?

 

[Tibbs4]

I dunno about McMinnville, but the Sparta station makes the Fan (even prior to the 'big increase")
seem like a hundred billion watt station. The ought to just turn that crap off. Liability.

 

[scottwmro]

I read the contract for the sale of the CC stations in Sparta and Mcminnville, PEG get all those stations for just $550K. I'm not a contract lawyer so I hope I read it right. That's about what they paid for the Crossville group they bought from CC a few years back. Is CC giving away all their stations at cut rate prices?

I found they are selling them in market groups. I tried to buy 1 of them in Sparta, and I was told that I had to bid on both Sparta and McMinnville. Peg had already had a LMA at that time with them for these stations. But hold on, in a few more years, I see these smaller groups selling to individuals. The day may return where the "hometown" station will be locally owned and operated, especially on AM.

But here's a catch, I just got through selling an acre and one half of my property at my tower site. Where it is sitting, the property is way more valuable than the station itself! I still have room for a partical ground system, but not for a full quarter wave on 1560. I did this because property is at it's prime and I got a hell of a great offer for the unused ground around me. Broadcasters like Peg see this like I do. Property where an AM tower sits, taking up space is rising everyday in value and can be used for something else as our small towns and rural areas become more urban or suburban.

The small group owners already see this like I do. As a owner of an AM station, I see AM dying in 10 to 12 years anyhow, so my prediction is the AM's will sell very, very cheap. AM requires lots of valuable real estate for it's antenna system to work right. Also, receiver manufactures have roll off the high end to as low as 3.5 Khz on a typical car radio.

FM will be here much longer. FM has an advantage of being easy to build by going upon a big hill with a stick that requires 3 quarters less than the property that an AM station must have to maintain a full quarter wave ground system, with bunches of copper radials and 4" in width, long rolls of copper strappng that gets stolen by the drug lords, hookers, etc., needing thier fix for crack. AM has many evils against it that will kill it, vs. FM. Some engineers like Ted Hart just outside Atlanta, GA., have tried to overcome Maxwell's laws of physics concerning the tech side of AM antenna system requirments, but they have all failed. Ted developed the EH antenna that was tested and didn't work well.

AM towers must be at a certain height, depending on the frequency. Local city and county zoning officials around the country do not understand that. With the rise of cell towers and monopoles, local city zoning officials have tighten up on how high a tower may be. I read in one community up north where the rule is: "The maximum tower height for a AM tower is to be only 42 feet"! Now we all know that won't work, even if the tower is top loaded.

AM non-directional, and especially directional stations have had to face the NIMBY's, known as the "NOT IN MY BACK YARD" subdivision lords and neighboorhood associations. What burns me up is we need towers for cell service and the NIMBY's want thier cell phone to work, but they don't want you put that tower or pole nowhere near my $600,000 per home subdivision! That's why they get poor digital service on thier cell phone and terrible AM reception!

Sorry for my rant!

 

[deltas69]

scott, i know nothing about the engineering side of radio..but i do know that one of the original employees of wamg at your tower sight, said bigfoot originally had the ground system tied into gallatins old cast iron sewer pipes on that side of town..making one helluva a ground ..and kept the ground around the tower soaked with a sprinkler...i know originally i think wamg was a 250 watt station, but got out about as well as whin 1000 watter.....now those were the days..nothing but rock versus country in the format wars..with rock winning BIG TIME........

 

[scottwmro]

scott, i know nothing about the engineering side of radio..but i do know that one of the original employees of wamg at your tower sight, said bigfoot originally had the ground system tied into gallatins old cast iron sewer pipes on that side of town..making one helluva a ground ..and kept the ground around the tower soaked with a sprinkler...i know originally i think wamg was a 250 watt station, but got out about as well as whin 1000 watter.....now those were the days..nothing but rock versus country in the format wars..with rock winning BIG TIME........

Pat,

Yes, at one time Big Foot did have some radials tied to the manhole and cast iron pipes of the city sewer system out near the AC Pole that feeds the building. This no longer holds true. Over the years along Blythe Ave, the city replaced the cast iron sewer pipes with PVC to save money plus to give us a better flow of water and waste. The old ground system that Big Foot used is no longer on the property. It was either stolen or just plain old corrosion over a period of years. There are no copper radials connected to that manhole or sewer pipes anymore, nor any of the radials Big Foot used are connected to the new tower.
The copper wire he used looked to be a #12. He should have used #10, which is a better copper conductor. The old transmitter shack that Big Foot had used to house the old Gates, 250 watt transmitter (when the studios were downtown) has been torn down. I had it torn down in January of this year. All that is left is the concrete slab, and that will go away soon. It was an eyesore and illegal aliens were sleeping in that old shack at night! The 4 inch strapping going from under the building to that old shack now has been removed. I had it torn down myself.
When I first got the property, I found many pieces of water hose that he used to keep the ground wet to keep good conductivity. This was because the property has mostly rock under it. We found that out when the new tower went up in 1999. The new tower stands 60 feet away from where the old tower stood. We had to dig down nearly 30 feet to build a large concrete slab for the new self supporter. I forgot how much concrete it took, but it was a big bill from Garrott Brothers!
All in all, and I think Big Foot realized this, the property was not the most suitable for a AM tower site vs. WHIN's site, due to there was way too much rock under what little soil there was. I have spoken to several engineers and we have found new ways around this, but revenue has kept me from spending money on it, and the surroundings/neighborhood has gotten worse on stealing for drug money!

 

[deltas69]

i wish i had seen the old wamg studios when it was uptown in the old arcade..i think the old tower is still out back..not sure on what the power was originally, jerry pond would know..he helped put it on while in high school as a 9th grader..we used to ask him.."hey say something in your radio voice"..never thought five years later we would be turning underground atlanta upside down when i went down to take the fcc test...i passed two parts using one eye..failed the broadcast endorsement part and had to take that 90 days later in nashville..for some of the youngsters here..there was a time you had to take a pretty hard test and know some minor engineering just to get your third class ticket..

 

[romer979fm]

hey Pat...her are two of the scariest words you'll ever hearL
[size=10pt]'ELEMENT NINE"[/size]ooooooo...scary stuff kids.

 

[Bat Fastard]

Careful, Romer. Stuff like that will reveal your TRUE age....and when I reply to it, I'm confirming mine. Took Element Nine twice the first time I got my 3rd phone. Thankfully, it was all re-newals after that.

By the way, when are the gonna come out with "The Best of Romer"? ;D

 

[scottwmro]

i wish i had seen the old wamg studios when it was uptown in the old arcade..i think the old tower is still out back..not sure on what the power was originally, jerry pond would know..he helped put it on while in high school as a 9th grader..we used to ask him.."hey say something in your radio voice"..never thought five years later we would be turning underground atlanta upside down when i went down to take the fcc test...i passed two parts using one eye..failed the broadcast endorsement part and had to take that 90 days later in nashville..for some of the youngsters here..there was a time you had to take a pretty hard test and know some minor engineering just to get your third class ticket..

Pat,

Yes the old monople is still there for the old 104.5, WFMG (now the Zone). WAMG's tower site has always been where it has been since 1966, on Blythe St., but the WAMG studios were up there in the old arcade, now known as the run down Enlow Center. I remember the old WAMG logo and the old WFMG logo's painted on the building, then some idiot painted over them with ugly grey paint. No way to bring them back now. The old WFMG monopole is still in good shape, I could get it sanded down, repaint it red and white, and use it as an STL Antenna to get the studio signal back to the transmitter on Blythe St.

There was nowhere to put an AM tower/radiator up there due to the parking lot is not big enough to have ground radials for 1130, so when Big Foot applied for the Construction Permit for WAMG, the studios were in the arcade building, while the tower was house in that old shack that I just tore down. They used Bellsouth (now AT&T) phone lines for audio and telemetry to control the Gates BC-250GY Transmitter in the shack on Blythe St. From day one when 1130 WAMG signed on, the transmitter was always on Blythe St.

I was told, and from the documentation I found, the currnet WMRO building was built in 1970, when they decided to move from the old arcade building to Blythe St. It appears that Lee Raines built onto the building sometime in the mid to late 70's, adding two more offices, which one of them is my office today.

Leslie and I went up to the old arcade building back last year, looking into moving the WMRO studios up there, but the offices needed lots of work, the building's roof may be leaking, and I'm not going to put any money in it unless they sell me the building. If they were to sell it to me and Leslie, we would have to spend lots of money for a flip and with the square almost dead, I don't know if I want to risk it, due to I'm afraid I could not find renters to lease office or store space to.

Unlike Franklin and Lebanon, Gallatin has not take good care of it's buildings on the square. Reggie Mudd, whom the last I heard still owned most of the buildings up there is trying, but it takes lots of money!

If you come up with an idea to move up there that is cost effective, then let me know. Do you know who owns the building? Let me know or ask Buntin.

Scott

 

[romer979fm]

It appears that Lee Raines built onto the building sometime in the mid to late 70's, adding two more offices, which one of them is my office today.

exactly right...the construction (including a water heater) was summer 1976

 

[scottwmro]

It appears that Lee Raines built onto the building sometime in the mid to late 70's, adding two more offices, which one of them is my office today.

exactly right...the construction (including a water heater) was summer 1976

Chris,

That water heater you remember was in the restroom. When it died, I moved the plumbing to it to what I call now my kitchen which was a production room. I took some PVC, schedule 40 pipe and ran them into the other room. It's a tiny water heater, that sits in the corner, out of the way, since all we use it for is to wash our hands.
Chris, I never understood the reason why the two offices were not built on with the original building in 1970. Why did they wait 6 years later for the add on.

Oh by the way, the Frig bit the dust yesterday. Leslie and I are hedded to Lowe's to buy a new one tonight when she gets off work at Comdata. Got to keep the bottled water and drinks COLD, and guess what, We don't charge for someone getting a can of pop from the frig like other tight owners! We consider you as our guest and it's like you being in our home. How stupid in a small station like mine and Leslie's to put in a drink machine and charge for it! We can afford to offer our friends a cold drink for free!

 

[romer979fm]

We don't charge for someone getting a can of pop from the frig like other tight owners!

apples/oranges...
the "tight owners" have employees...that's who's paying for the drinks.
clients/guests never pay for refreshments when in for business

 

[scottwmro]

We don't charge for someone getting a can of pop from the frig like other tight owners!

apples/oranges...
the "tight owners" have employees...that's who's paying for the drinks.
clients/guests never pay for refreshments when in for business

I don't have any empolyees, except for contract empolyees that are used when needed. My contract empolyees are not charged for the drinks either. Nobody is. Even if I had a full time empolyees on payroll, I would not dare ask for an empolyee to pay for a cold drink out out the my stations frig. or a hot cup of coffee! I'm tight with my money, but not that tight!

When Melissa Alexander-Manning was my sales manager, she was so happy and appricated the fact that I didn't charge for drinks, hot or cold, that she would use her own money to keep the fiig full. I told her she didn't have to do that. She came to work for me from Lighting 100.

 

[deltas69]

'ELEMENT NINE"ooooooo.....yep..that's the one i failed.. ;D had to wait 90 days to take the test again just for the dreaded element nine..but then they were in nashville on west end in what i think is now thr roy orbison building..passed it then..and the rest is low paid non relevant history..

 

[oldies5161]

I took the 3d class liscense test in 1968 in Washington DC, as I was visiting family in the Northern VA area. I passed the entire test 1st time, although I missed the allowable number of questions on element 9. Damn, that part was hard!

 

[deltas69]

try passing it after closing down underground atlanta in 1970..took it with one eye open..and still saw multiple images....my head still hurts..