The reality is that most directional AM stations are worth a lot more dead than alive. Especially on the lower frequencies, the transmitter site can be as much as 100 acres for a nine tower parallelogram array.  When you consider what residential building lots are worth, and that you can easily get 6 to 8 per acre, it's not hard to understand a "wonderful opportunity to monetize".

Last edited by Skywave (July 20, 2021 7:38 am)

It can be confusing, but "-LP" and "translator" are two very different categories of FCC license. An LPFM station (service class "FL" with a -LP callsign) is limited to 100 w/30 m or equivalent, must operate noncommercially, and cannot be co-owned with any other station, full power or LPFM. A translator (service class "FX" with a callsign of the form W200AA, where the numbers are the FM channel number) cannot originate its own programming but must relay a full-power station, can operate commercially or noncommercially, and can operate with up to 250 watts with no limit on height. 

There's no precise comparison to Canadian license classes, but the LPFM class is reasonably close to your developmental/community stations, while some translators are functionally equivalent to your nested rebroadcast transmitters (like CFZM's 96.7). 

Worth noting that Mr. Fybush has an exceptional radio site of his own. He offers news about stations in the northeast part of the U.S. and tours cities and towns, including the antenna sites of many places you'd normally never get to see. (This week he was in Olean and Salamanca, N.Y., and next week he's promising to take a tour of Buffalo. Now THAT should be interesting to see!)

Have a look at his site here. 

RadioActive wrote:

Worth noting that Mr. Fybush has an exceptional radio site of his own. He offers news about stations in the northeast part of the U.S. and tours cities and towns, including the antenna sites of many places you'd normally never get to see. (This week he was in Olean and Salamanca, N.Y., and next week he's promising to take a tour of Buffalo. Now THAT should be interesting to see!)

Have a look at his site here. 

He’s also done quite a bit of touring in Canada, prior to the pandemic. He’s visited Quinte Broadcasting in Belleville several times.

MJ Vancouver wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

Worth noting that Mr. Fybush has an exceptional radio site of his own. He offers news about stations in the northeast part of the U.S. and tours cities and towns, including the antenna sites of many places you'd normally never get to see. (This week he was in Olean and Salamanca, N.Y., and next week he's promising to take a tour of Buffalo. Now THAT should be interesting to see!)

Have a look at his site here. 

He’s also done quite a bit of touring in Canada, prior to the pandemic. He’s visited Quinte Broadcasting in Belleville several times.

And I promise I'll be back before long! A man needs his Hawkins Cheezies, after all. 

As for WFME, it has applied for a temporary longwire facility, a slant wire attached to an FM tower that Family still owns in New Jersey. It won't be great coverage, but it will keep the license alive. (Under US rules, if a station doesn't transmit at all for 365 consecutive days, its license is automatically deleted.) 

Here's another indication of how low they can go. According to a brief blurb in a California daily, (scroll to the bottom of the page to read it) a radio station in Madison, Georgia - WYTH-AM 1250 - has been sold, despite the fact it's been off the air supposedly for years.

How much would you pay for a 1,000-watt day, 79-watt night outlet in a small southern town? 

Well, someone gave out the less-than-princely sum of - get this - $10 to buy the place and all its equipment (!) Of course, that's ten bucks U.S., so it's roughly equivalent to $12.60 Canadian at current rates. 

The article pointedly notes that the new owners did not buy the land the transmitter sits on, which is certainly worth considerably more and they'll have to negotiate a new agreement to keep using it. But imagine being able to purchase your very own AM station for only 10 bucks. When you think of what they once sold for, it's yet another sign of the sad state of that band.

No word on how the new owners intend to resuscitate it. What would you do with such an outlet for your ten dollars?

Apparently that new signal has been up and running since October 26th. But good catch! I heard it through the static here in northern North York. It's weak but it's there. 

Scott Fybush, a great SOWNY poster, explained the return of the station in a column on his website last June. 

turkeytop wrote:

If they're licensed for 50 KW, is it a violation of their license to be running only 1 KW?

Not if they have requested "special temporary authority" (STA), which they have. The FCC recognizes that it can be difficult for AM broadcasters to maintain high-power facilities these days, so it allows stations to explain technical issues that may require temporary use of lower power or less-efficient antennas. STA operation must be renewed every six months, and in theory stations are supposed to be showing the FCC they're making some sort of progress each time toward resuming fully licensed operation, though in practice the Commission gives licensees great leeway these days.