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WFCX to Central Michigan for $500,000

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audiophile
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Re: WFCX to Central Michigan for $500,000

Post by audiophile » Sun Dec 29, 2019 7:23 pm

No tower.

$500,000 is no deal for WCMU.


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MWmetalhead
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Re: WFCX to Central Michigan for $500,000

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Dec 29, 2019 7:36 pm

Yup. They paid what I'd call "full price" for 94.3. That said, they'll probably hang onto the station for as long as FM broadcasting remains viable. They are in this for the long haul.'

What I've noticed through the years is once an FM station becomes owned by a publicly funded college or university and goes non-commercial, they extremely seldom change hands.

Look at all the incumbent NPR-affiliated stations across Michigan; nearly all of them have been owned by the same institution for several decades.



CK-722
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Re: WFCX to Central Michigan for $500,000

Post by CK-722 » Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:25 pm

audiophile wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 7:23 pm
No tower.

$500,000 is no deal for WCMU.
Are they going to have to move, or is the tower lease just going to be exorbitant?

I'll tell you one thing, when they were 15 kW nondirectional as a Class C3, I heard 94.3 most of the time in SE Michigan with my antenna and receiver. They were on an 82 foot tower! After they went to Class C2 with a Directional Antenna, I never heard it again. But that was also before all the 94.3 drop ins and translators.

https://www.fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid= ... 203919&i=2


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Re: WFCX to Central Michigan for $500,000

Post by ftballfan » Mon Dec 30, 2019 8:57 am

CK-722 wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:25 pm

I'll tell you one thing, when they were 15 kW nondirectional as a Class C3, I heard 94.3 most of the time in SE Michigan with my antenna and receiver. They were on an 82 foot tower! After they went to Class C2 with a Directional Antenna, I never heard it again. But that was also before all the 94.3 drop ins and translators.

https://www.fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid= ... 203919&i=2
Is that the same tower that 88.3 WTCY is on now?



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Re: WFCX to Central Michigan for $500,000

Post by CK-722 » Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:48 am

ftballfan wrote:
Mon Dec 30, 2019 8:57 am
CK-722 wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:25 pm

I'll tell you one thing, when they were 15 kW nondirectional as a Class C3, I heard 94.3 most of the time in SE Michigan with my antenna and receiver. They were on an 82 foot tower! After they went to Class C2 with a Directional Antenna, I never heard it again. But that was also before all the 94.3 drop ins and translators.

https://www.fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid= ... 203919&i=2
Is that the same tower that 88.3 WTCY is on now?
No. The tower WTCY is on is a little shorter than 500 feet. Actually 480 feet.

https://www.fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid= ... 483284&i=2

Put Y04 (Y Zero 4) into the box on this link. The WIAR 94.3 tower was on Sugar Loaf. I doubt if it could have been more than 82 feet near that airport.

http://vfrmap.com


Is THAT where they got the idea for the 486-SX?

Same (x, y, z), different (t)

Your bullet missed my trial balloon.

RTN Price. Not guaranteed. As of 12:30, 157.71 Down 0.22.

Artificial Intelligence is a Child that needs a Parent to guide it through.

bmw
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Re: WFCX to Central Michigan for $500,000

Post by bmw » Wed Jan 01, 2020 9:31 pm

I'm pretty sure that sometime in the past few days they've decreased the power on 92.5. I'm in the fringes of their signal and it used to come in great on my home stereo. Now it is very weak and has been so for several days.



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Re: WFCX to Central Michigan for $500,000

Post by BigFreq » Sat Jan 04, 2020 5:15 am

Radio Sucks wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 3:58 pm
Here's how bad the Gokey family wanted out of the radio business - An AM/FM combo in Hillsdale MI (with a 60 dBu coverage map of NOONE) just sold for $675,000.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS_Att ... &exhcnum=1
You've got to remember, this is about cash and cash flow. Sure, NBI was probably exasperated after declining market conditions post-2008, followed by a failed LMA/purchase with Blarney Stone, and opted to get out. The Hillsdale combo you reference has likely been a steady cash flowing operation since they were put on the air in the 1960's, as they have essentially been all by themselves in pulling money from that county as a family-owned operator since day one. Hypothetically, a station -- on paper -- with say $500k in topline and $150k in cash flow is arguably worth more than a station billing $1 mil with $100k in cash flow, as in order to improve the value of the $1 mil stick you either have to cut your way to cash flow (which is often the end result) or you have to take the money away from someone else in the market, which isn't easy in a market where competitors are willing to leverage more of what they have just to maintain their existing share. Midwestern, because they have an existing infrastructure, can bring KLT into their existing operation, and likely run it profitably from day one (due, in part, to the cuts that have already been made prior to the transition) and the fact they are buying it at a good price. If a stand alone broadcaster had taken KLT over -- even at that price point -- it would have been messy, as the existing cash on the books would be absorbed with expenses. This is why it will be interesting to see what becomes of the 106.7, 105.5 and 92.5 signals, which have no cash, nor cash flow, to work from for anyone interested in acquiring them.



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Re: WFCX to Central Michigan for $500,000

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Jan 04, 2020 8:31 am

Exactly.

There is only one out-of-market station that places a city or near-city grade signal into the heart of Hillsdale County (Battle Creek-focused WNWN-FM).

There are only three or four out-of-market commercial FM stations that even deliver a grade B signal (WJXQ, WWDK, WRKR and maybe one other); all three have sales offices located about 60 miles away.

102.5 WBZV mostly uses satellite programming, and although I'll count it as an in-market station for purposes of this discussion, its studio & sales office is actually located in Adrian, not HIllsdale. Its sister stations were recently sold, leaving WBZV's future up in the air.

Bottom line...WCSR AM & FM enjoy a pretty wide sales lane all to itself. The programming lane is quite wide, too. None of the spillover stations with Grade B or better signals from out-of-market offer AC, Hot AC or CHR programming. (Ironically, new sister station K105.3 might be the default choice for anyone wanting current hit music, even though K105.3 has never programmed CHR in a pure form.)



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