[BC] the end of radio ...

[Scott Bailey]

I had a contractor/developer come to me and wanted an acre and one-half of my station's property. He offered me as price I could not turn down. It was a price worth much more than my little 1 KW daytime station was worth. 

Originally, my station's property housed a station that was on 1130 Khz. The station was WAMG-AM (now WYXE-AM). The station went dark in September of 1991.My dad and I bought the building, tower, and three acres of land for $40,000 from the IRS in November of 1991. We got everything to operate a radio station, but no license. WYXE-AM (a daytimer as well) was forced to find another site, and they did. The station is on the air as a Religious/Spanish station. The WAMG calls are now in the Boston area, from what I understand.

We acquired the license of WWGM-AM 1560, Nashville (for nothing, but to pay for attorney fees) and moved WWGM-AM from Nashville to Gallatin, to operate at the old 1130 AM site we bought. This was in 1993. There was a reason why we change calls, but that's another story that's too long to tell and off topic.

Anyway, back to 2010, since we are on 1560, ground radials can be much shorter than they were originally were on the old 1130 channel. I sold the acre and 1/2 of the land and kept enough to have some sort of ground plane system for 1560. Of course, before I sold the land, somebody stole most of the radials anyway. When? I don't know. I know that we have had a satellite dish, buried coax cable, and a tractor with a trailer stolen off the station's property since me and my dad bought it.

I know that some engineers disagree with what I did, and throw the law of physics in my face, but reality has stepped in and today's Class D, AM daytime station is worth far less than 3-4 acres of prime property in our neck of the woods. As long as my 5 mv/m covers the COL, I figure were cool. 

We don't sell any advertising outside my COL. I have a few accounts outside my COL in our county, but not many, due to it is mosty rural area. As a matter of fact, I cover our county (Sumner County) very well with a stong signal for 1,000 watts, daytime.

My dad is no longer with us, but he would feel I did the right thing, being the shape the county's economic situation is in and AM is not what it once was.
--
Scott Bailey
WMRO Radio, Gallatin, TN
  

> 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.
>