[BC] the end of radio ...

[Rich Wood]

------ At 12:38 PM 2/1/2010, RichardBJohnson at comcast.net wrote: -------

>Methinks there is entirely too much money including entire family 
>fortunes tied up in radio broadcasting for anyone to abandon it in 
>the near future. Eventually, the real estate value will exceed the 
>value of the radio operation and stations will go dark, but right 
>now, I do not see that happening.

Something close has happened in San Diego (actually Santee). KCBQ 
used to be a dominant station in the market. Their towers used to sit 
on prime shopping mall land. I'm told a shopping mall now sits there. 
It was inevitable.

WOR was "requested" to move their site fairly recently because of the 
value of the land. Fortunately, the city making the request paid for 
the move less than a mile away. While the request was a form of 
extortion, WOR got some fancy new equipment. After all, you can't 
turn a station like that off while you move equipment to the new site.

I'm sure others on this list know of stations that lost a lease and 
had to move because the land was more valuable to the landlord with a 
shopping mall's rent or purchase.

Rich