I think if WCTA has no chance with a music format, I'd try paid ministries and/or a swap shop format on a repeating loop. Say $5 a week up front to announce your item for sale or garage sale. That might not lead to much billing but I'd bet you could keep the lights on and I'm sure it could catch on if it had a memorable name. They could sell ads as well and even trade merchandise for ads, selling the merchandise over the air at a discounted price. Just an idea that beats NOAA Weather Radio in my mind.
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WCTA 810AM Alamo,TN Dark?
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If they were to go to carrying paid ministries, I'd hope they stay with local programs from the main churches in the area. The problem is that while programs from some churches may be good, you could end up with Brother Blowforth and his "If you don't belong to our church you're going to Hell" show if they let any crckpot that flashes enough money in their faces. That's the problem with a lot Dollar a Holler "Christian" stations, and we don't need a local version of that.
I don't like such programs either but I would prefer not restrict unless I was striving for a format. Yes, I have cancelled a few that got in the mud slinging and the I'm right and you're not. I'd sit them down and say if what you have is so good why do you have to cut down others to make yourself look so good? If you have something good, it can stand on its merits. If you have something lousy, you have to bring the others down to look like you are not that lousy.
If WCTA is just going to rebroadcast NOAA weather radio, then they should look at moving to one of those extremely high frequencies (1600 and up) or low frequencies (530). My car radio runs from 530 to 1710, so plenty of room at both ends. TDOT has the 1680 frequency here in the Nashville area. I believe the airport has one of the lower frequencies.
WMRO in Gallatin sells pretty much their entire broadcast day on Sunday to local churches, and the owner apparently makes enough money doing that that he is able to put the station on autopilot for the rest of the week. I am assuming that all the churches are local, and that none of them are "crackpots."anotherguy said:
The paraphrase the old cliche about beauty..... "Crackpot" is in the ear of the beholder.
I even worked for a station that 'made it' thanks to paid local ministries that bought up the daytimer's Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. Monday through Friday I doubt we had more than 8 commercials a day and most of those were newscast sponsorships.
My thought is paid programming at about 10 Saturday morning through Sunday and a Tradio style format run off a laptop on weekdays by selling what is essentially audio classified ads that repeat through the day.
Back when you could call a specific number and the charge appeared on your phone bill, I suggested this mode with a long answering machine tape. Calls would be put in the loop the next day. Naturally some people would screw it up so that would be a thorn in your side. Today with internet and PayPal, that might be an option.
I also knew one station that joined with a very popular advertiser paper that offered radio and print, splitting the revenue. Buyers got the classified in the paper and on the radio.
My thought is paid programming at about 10 Saturday morning through Sunday and a Tradio style format run off a laptop on weekdays by selling what is essentially audio classified ads that repeat through the day.
Back when you could call a specific number and the charge appeared on your phone bill, I suggested this mode with a long answering machine tape. Calls would be put in the loop the next day. Naturally some people would screw it up so that would be a thorn in your side. Today with internet and PayPal, that might be an option.
I also knew one station that joined with a very popular advertiser paper that offered radio and print, splitting the revenue. Buyers got the classified in the paper and on the radio.
firepoint525 said:
The TDOT & airport stations are a different class of license, a "TIS". (Travelers Information Station) There is no route for converting a "regular" station into a TIS. (and it's possible TISs can only be licensed to local governments. I'm not entirely clear on that part, although I sure can't think offhand of a TIS that belongs to a private party.) There are also some pretty strict technical limitations.
I was being somewhat facetious with my previous comments. I actually did not even think that a commercial station would be allowed to have those extremely high or extremely low frequencies anyway.w9wi said:
But if WCTA cannot make a go of it, then they should leave the air. If WPFD in Fairview can sign off and leave Fairview without any stations, then WCTA can certainly go off the air, as well.
firepoint525 said:
They actually were off for several years, until last year when some friends of Mr. Williams got it back on to keep from losing the license. But considering no more than has been done since the station came back on, why waste the effort? I still think they're probably staying on to stay legal in hope of selling the station, but who would want it? If this is all they're going to do they might as well shut back down.
I was looking at the early posts in this thread. It's actually almost been 5 years since it started???
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
I totally agree with that statement. I've been called a crackpot (or in the words of Dr. Ben A. Byrd,) a psyco ceramic before, even being called out by a well-known and respected station owner, saying I was criticizing other local churches. I pointed out to him that I wasn't and he later came back and apologized. Every preacher draws listeners, whether you or I agree with them or not. If you're in it for local dollars, get all the local preachers/churches you can and treat them right. In turn, they'll get their friends to come on and they'll treat you right. Bottom line here is, the preachers have another local outlet for their ministry and the station makes money!
A man for whom Christ died,
Josh
http://www.thegladtidingsbroadcast.sermon.tv
You raised a question that I never asked myself. A licensed (operating?) station has an obligation for office hours and an available Public File. If your tower is blown down, or your transmitter "threw a rod" or your bank account has a flat tire so you file for permission to remain silent for 6 months or so, what does that do to your Public File obligations? Do you post a note on the door: "We are currently not operating and have notified the F.C.C. If you are wanting to see our Public File, call 987-654-3210 or come to this address: Resthaven Acres, North Main Street."
It would be adding insult to injury if you went off the air due to lack of sales income and needed time to re-finance and arrange for credit, and you got hit with a big fine for violation of Public File Rules. Catch 22?
It would be adding insult to injury if you went off the air due to lack of sales income and needed time to re-finance and arrange for credit, and you got hit with a big fine for violation of Public File Rules. Catch 22?
I haven't seen any indication of anyone around the station since the time just over a year ago that I saw someone in the studio, which can be seen from the front window, and talked to him. I looked tonight and the front office, which can also be seen from the front window, is a mess and it looks like there has been nobody there for months. There is is note on the door saying that for information call the contact person with a Missouri phone number. They probably got the station back on the air last year, but it's been running automated ever since and if anyone checks in it's very rare.
Somebody has to be paying for the station to keep running, but how much longer can that continue?
Somebody has to be paying for the station to keep running, but how much longer can that continue?
Sorry to hear about Mr. Williams. I hadn't looked at the Facebook page for several months, but their last posts were announcing his passing. They were supposedly claiming the changes were coming very soon in February, although very little has actually changed. I wonder what if anything will actually happen.
Can't help but think that the owner's passing is a death knell to the future of the station. What did he specify in his will (if he had one) for the future of his station? (I am guessing that that white brick building that I am seeing on their Facebook page is the courthouse at Alamo.)
The comparisons between this station and WQSV are just endless. I did not see any rationale for WQSV to return to the air, but their egomaniacal owner did so just last month. (You can search "Richard Corky Albright-WQSV" for their Facebook page. Yes, that is right, the station does not have a Facebook page; only HE has one!)
The comparisons between this station and WQSV are just endless. I did not see any rationale for WQSV to return to the air, but their egomaniacal owner did so just last month. (You can search "Richard Corky Albright-WQSV" for their Facebook page. Yes, that is right, the station does not have a Facebook page; only HE has one!)
I can't see how that WCTA can stay on with the current "format" and no sponsors. With Mr. Williams passing the question has to be who is paying the bills to keep the station going, and how much longer they can continue. I've said before that I think they're just on to keep the station legal until it can be sold, but who would want it?
Hey, AG, didn't the family of the original owner(s) of WDSG shut it down after his/her death? That is what I see potentially happening with WCTA. I know that a couple of years later, WTRO bought the WDSG transmitter, and moved their own programming over to the 1450 frequency. Of course, that left the 1330 dial position empty in Dyersburg. Only now, AM radio has gone so far down the tubes since then that I seriously doubt that anyone would want to take on a solo AM station, particularly one without an FM translator.
I only know about the WDSG/WTRO situation because it occurred roughly during the same time frame that I was working at WHDM in McKenzie. Whenever my mother would visit her sister down in Dyersburg, she could listen to me on the air at 1440 AM. Had anything been broadcasting on 1450 at the time, that likely would have been impossible. I was at WHDM in 1990-91.
After the (then) owner of WHDM died (sometime in the '90s), his widow sold the station. (It was off the air for a couple of years in the mid '90s.)
I only know about the WDSG/WTRO situation because it occurred roughly during the same time frame that I was working at WHDM in McKenzie. Whenever my mother would visit her sister down in Dyersburg, she could listen to me on the air at 1440 AM. Had anything been broadcasting on 1450 at the time, that likely would have been impossible. I was at WHDM in 1990-91.
After the (then) owner of WHDM died (sometime in the '90s), his widow sold the station. (It was off the air for a couple of years in the mid '90s.)
The original owner of WDSG's widow kept it going until her death, and their family shut it down until it was sold to WTRO. I always wondered why someone didn't try to start a new station on 1330, but it will probably never happen now, and I won't be surprised to see the same thing happen with WCTA.
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