[BC] WATO

[Tom]

In Knoxville, it's a sprint to get long-silent AM WATO, Oak Ridge
(1290) back on the air by March 19, to preserve the license. The
station's being sold by Horne Radio to Ann Walden's Sheepdog
Broadcasting for $25,000. WATO's a post-World War II "freeze" station
that went on in 1948 and is licensed for 5-kw days and 500 watts at
night, with different directional patterns day and night. It was doing
talk until Horne signed it off in March 2008. This will be Ann
Walden's only broadcast property. Horne Radio still owns four AMs and
two FM in Eastern Tennessee, including classic rock WLOD-FM (98.3).

I was looking at this one - first mentioned here, in fact, IIRC - for 
/ with a bunch of folks who have a good plan and a reasonable format 
for it.  Seems like we dithered too long... although getting the real 
estate to go with it was the biggest sticking point with us.

Chuck Lakaytis wrote:
>For several years I worked for Ingstad Broadcasting and Kanza 
>Society Public Broadcasting in Garden City, KS.  I was and am still 
>amazed that anyone thinks they can make money off propeties like 
>this!  Those M&P (mom and pop) operations were money sinks back then!
>Kanz-FM did have a translator licensed to Tractor, KS.  In fact it 
>was used as a relay to another translator.  Tractor at one time was 
>a company town for the tractor testing station of International Harvester.
>
>Dana Puopolo wrote:
>>I was thinking the same thing...it's an interesting question, isn't it?
>>
>>Let me tell you about one of the CP's they bought at auction: Ness City, KS.
>>For over TWELVE YEARS, the Ness City allotment was a 'first come, 
>>first serve'
>>allotment. This means that the first application filed for it got it. The
>>reason was because a filing window had opened and closed with no one wanting
>>it. So during this 12 plus years, no one wanted this station, because Ness
>>City is literally in the middle of nowhere.
>>