Ave Maria radio buying Lansing area AM

[Graham Wellington]

https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/storie ... ion,100206

Any idea who is selling? WLCM? WUNN? WWSJ? KTGG? One of the commercial operators? WKAR?

[Calvert DeForest]

I'll put my money on WWSJ. As I recall the Harps were interested in selling to a Catholic broadcaster some years back but couldn't work out a deal at the time. Second bet would be KTGG although WWSJ comes with the EMF translator lease which gives the buyer FM coverage in metro Lansing.

[Graham Wellington]

Just to add intrugue....I've noticed that WVFN has started simulcasting Detroit Tiger games along with WJIM. Perhaps getting ready for WVFN to take over as the Detroit Tiger affiliate later this summer?

[FredLeonard]

Somehow I don't see an evangelical religious broadcaster selling out to a Catholic religious broadcaster. So, what commercial AM stations are chronically loosing money? WXLA maybe?

[Graham Wellington]

Somehow I don't see an evangelical religious broadcaster selling out to a Catholic religious broadcaster. So, what commercial AM stations are chronically loosing money? WXLA maybe?

In thinking about it, KTGG is feeding 2 FM translators, for an organization that is in growth mode. I'm thinking that's not going anywhere either. WUNN is used to feed a translator with excellent coverage for FLR, so hard to see them. WLCM most likely brings in big cash.

The rep from Ave Maria stated in the article that the station had the capability to reach 550,000 people. Per the interwebs, the Lansing MSA is 541,000, which makes me think it's a smaller signal that covers the immediate area, unlike WXLA, WILS, or WKAR who have a large coverage area beyond the immediate area.

My money is on WJIM or WWSJ.

[edj]

The only station I would rule out is WILS.

[fairbankshockeypuck]

Tigers on 730..great daytime signal..what? six city blocks or so at night??? Did they miss the boat on getting an FM translator????
Side note...am1250WJMK translator gets out a good 20-30 miles on car radio..AM is 5,000 watts days...1100 night shooting directional North out of Bridgeport south of Saginaw....

[SpartanAM]

Tigers on 730..great daytime signal..what? six city blocks or so at night??? Did they miss the boat on getting an FM translator????

Running with the premise that Townsquare might swap programming between 1240 and 730 then offload 1240... could the 106.9 translator in Haslett be moved over to 730?

Hindsight is 20-20, but in a big ten sports city like East Lansing, I would have put the sports format on 1240 with its better nighttime coverage and closer proximity to MSU then put news talk on 730.

[Ben Zonia]

WVFN 730 is limited by CKAC Montreal, a Class A skywave protected facility. It was 18 watts with their Day DA PSSA, which is maximum in the general direction of CKAC, and was later authorized 50 watts nondirectional. Numerous rule changes probably limit what can be done. Probably a power or inverse field reduction would be required to diplex at the WJIM 1240 site, as it is closer to CKAC. Many other sites near city centers have decent signals with their original PSSA, so they don't change it. The FCC wanted to reduce the PSSA powers to about 40% of their original PSSA power, and there was such an outcry that they left it alone with licensed PSSA power.

Stations that never licensed their original PSSA authorization, find the new power authorizations next to useless, especially if they have an FM translator.

[Graham Wellington]

While WJIM on paper may have the better nighttime signal, in reality I have never experienced a significant difference between them and WVFN. WJIM may have more even nighttime coverage across the immediate Lansing area, but 5 miles out of Lansing it is pretty much gone.

[Graham Wellington]

Tigers on 730..great daytime signal..what? six city blocks or so at night??? Did they miss the boat on getting an FM translator????
Side note...am1250WJMK translator gets out a good 20-30 miles on car radio..AM is 5,000 watts days...1100 night shooting directional North out of Bridgeport south of Saginaw....

I recall there being CPs a few years ago for a WVFN translator at 102.3 and WJIM at 107.7. For some reason they went away, WKAR ended up with 102.3 and WJIM settled for the 106.9 translator (which I'm sure covers Meridian Twp well but does a terrible job of covering the Lansing Metro area).

[Calvert DeForest]

As I recall the local translator rule requires simulcast of a parent signal for a minimum of five years, after which the parent station license can be transferred or surrendered and the translator can operate as a standalone. In this case the AM would be the parent license. All of the aforementioned AM stations except for WXLA have maintained FM translators for at least five years, making them eligible to continue FM translator operation without the parent AM.

That being said, WWSJ and WJIM lease FM translators licensed to EMF (K-Love). Not sure how the rule would apply to them as they're not the translator licensees. WUNN hadn't even occurred to me in my previous post. Since FLR licenses the 99.9 translator covering most of the Lansing metro, they could conceivably sell 1110 and just run the translator. WUNN has fairly decent coverage of the metro although it's a daytimer which limits its operation hours. It's the only AM stick FLR owns and I can imagine they don't really need it at this point. They would likely sell it to another Christian broadcaster regardless of denomination if indeed they did.

[audiophile]

In most cases you need to keep the AM, unless it's HD of another local FM.

[ChrisWL1980]

As I recall the local translator rule requires simulcast of a parent signal for a minimum of five years, after which the parent station license can be transferred or surrendered and the translator can operate as a standalone. In this case the AM would be the parent license. All of the aforementioned AM stations except for WXLA have maintained FM translators for at least five years, making them eligible to continue FM translator operation without the parent AM.

That being said, WWSJ and WJIM lease FM translators licensed to EMF (K-Love). Not sure how the rule would apply to them as they're not the translator licensees. WUNN hadn't even occurred to me in my previous post. Since FLR licenses the 99.9 translator covering most of the Lansing metro, they could conceivably sell 1110 and just run the translator. WUNN has fairly decent coverage of the metro although it's a daytimer which limits its operation hours. It's the only AM stick FLR owns and I can imagine they don't really need it at this point. They would likely sell it to another Christian broadcaster regardless of denomination if indeed they did.

FLR also owns 1400 WBFN in Battle Creek, which feeds a translator at 101.1.