[BC] Re: How A Station Can Stay Afloat...

[Paul B. Walker, Jr.]

How can a station in a market of 50,000 stay afloat?

Quite easily, actually..

For one thing, I'm the sole employee.. I do everything but sales and
engineering. I have a Contract/Chief Engineer who lives 3 hours away and
visits once every 2 weeks. I also have a retired electrician/ham operator
who helps out with very minor stuff and several on this list who graciously
provide me with LOTS of advice,

Secondly, the "other" station in the county, a Class A FM "tries" to serve
Greenwood, 15 or 20 miles away. I'm not knocking what they do as it works
well for them..... but with 1KW, our strongest coverage area includes most
of Abbeville County, which is about 26,000 people. We are improving what we
do, but we are paying attention to the little towns and issues around here
that the others dont


  Paul B. Walker, Jr.
Operations Manager/Program Director
*******************************************
WABV-AM 1590 Abbeville, South Carolina
"Serving The Savannah Lakes Region Since 1956"
www.wabv1590.com


On 3/27/07, Glen Kippel <glen.kippel at gmail.com > wrote:
>
> I don't see how any station can stay afloat in a market of only 50,000
> people, unless every last one is listening to your station.  Then you have
>
> something to sell.  And if one percent is listening to you on HD, well,
> that's not enough to attract advertising.  They could pay someone to stand
> on a street corner and pass out handbills.
>
> On 3/27/07, Paul B. Walker, Jr. < walkerbroadcasting at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I live/work in a COL with a population of 5750 people, county population
>
> > of
> > 26,000 and coverage population of just over 50,000 people. Some towns
> > around
> > here, like Promised Land, SC...Ninety Six, SC and McCormick, SC only
> have
> > a
> > 200 or 300 people.
> >
> > It seems that IBOC/HD is being used/implimented in much larger areas
> where
> > the population/coverage area is 10x what mine is, where people can
> afford
> > it.
> >
> > You think people around here even know what IBOC/HD is? Let alone be
> able
> > to
> > afford an HD Radio?
> >
> > Enough said.
> >
> > Paul Walker
> > WABV-AM 1590 Abbeville, SC
> > "Proudly Serving The Savannah Lakes Region Since 1956"
> > www.wabv1590.com
> >
> >
> > On 3/27/07, Gary Glaenzer <gglaenzer at hqradio.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Johnson, Richard" < rjohnson at analogic.com>
> > > To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net >
> > > Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 10:12 AM
> > > Subject: Re: [BC] IBOC "secrets" and my opinions.
> > >
> > >
> > > (in part)
> > >
> > > So, I think that instead of complaining that the new
> > > technology is not compatible with 85 year-old radio
> > > design, some entrepreneur(s) should take the bull by the
> > > horns and develop a decent radio. They don't actually
> > > need to get such a radio into production. Leave that
> > > for the Pacific rim. What they need to do is generate
> > > the "IP" intellectual property with as much as possible
> > > embedded into a single chip. Then they license this
> > > technology and, perhaps, the chip design. There are
> > > lots of "radio" engineers who are now quite versed
> > > in software. A development kit and some (sometimes
> > > not too) pleasant software debugging time, would
> > > establish the viability of the digital radio approach
> > > for conventional AM. Then you could attract some
> > > investors. All words and ideas presented here are
> > > placed into the Public Domain. Get to work!
> > >
> > > =================================
> > >
> > > What to do about the much-speculated 'royalty' for the IBOC decoder
> > > chipset
> > > ?
> > >
> > > I've read the figure of 40-45 bucks PER RADIO here-abouts in past
> > postings
> > >
> > > Is that figure accurate ?
> > >
> > > If so, it would appear to be an insurmountable obstacle:  a 40-buck
> set
> > of
> > > chips in a 15-dollar clock radio; even if someone came up with an
> > > alternative-design decoder, Ibiquity would no doubt tie it up in court
> > >
> > > Gary
>
>
>


-- 
Paul B. Walker, Jr.
www.walkerbroadcasting.com
walkerbroadcasting at gmail.com