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WCON-FM seeking upgrade

R

Rick Rose 2.0

Guest
I noticed this morning that 99.3 WCON Cornelia is seeking to go 100kw from its current site. They are at 19.5kw right now with a HAAT of 256m which is maxed out class C2 at this point. The upgrade will blanket Gwinnett and offer areas north and east a decent in car signal if approved. I wonder if it will tie in with the 99.3 translator on the northwest part of town down the road like cox did with 107.1fm.
 
Rick Rose 2.0 said:
I noticed this morning that 99.3 WCON Cornelia is seeking to go 100kw from its current site. They are at 19.5kw right now with a HAAT of 256m which is maxed out class C2 at this point. The upgrade will blanket Gwinnett and offer areas north and east a decent in car signal if approved. I wonder if it will tie in with the 99.3 translator on the northwest part of town down the road like cox did with 107.1fm.
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How close would they be to bumping into 99.7 as a second-adjacent? Wondering if they could move closer in and/or higher up with any room to spare. The power upgrade alone gets their 60dBu from Cumming/Buford/Arcade to Johns Creek/Duluth/Lawrenceville/Athens.

Again, echoing another thread, this would coordinate well with 105.3.
 
WCON is owned by a very old couple, John and Bobbie Foster. Bobbie is still the person you need to speak with regarding advertising, and she's very nice. I wonder if the application means they're almost ready to cash out.
 
Yea more country, we don't need it. This station needs to change formats if they do get the increase. It's a tired boring small town sounding station.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
WCON is owned by a very old couple, John and Bobbie Foster. Bobbie is still the person you need to speak with regarding advertising, and she's very nice. I wonder if the application means they're almost ready to cash out.
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Roddy is 99.8% correct in his assessment. This is not an attempt to double the WCON rate card from $8 to $16, nor should Kicks and Bull be looking over their shoulders at the hottest programmers from NE GA coming in to teach them how country is done. The Fosters, particularly Bobbie, have devoted their entire professional lives - since the 1950s - to their AM/FM combo and, while they won't go down as innovators, they will be known as principled pioneers who paved the way for future broadcasters to go into NE Ga and find success. Now they are in their early 80s and after watching their sons operate a little bit, I don't think either has the desire/commitment/werewithal to continue in the family business long-term.

They are going to make one of the Cs very happy. My prediction is a handshake deal is already done - maybe with Dickey/Cumulus to get 680 a bigger FM presence?

Also, Roddy, ALL small radio station operators are "very nice" to media buyers !
 
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This is one thread where I can not post from an objective business point of view. I'm afraid CompleteGame may have the most likely scenario so far.

I always wanted to BE the The Fosters or Art Sutton or the Jacobs Family or even Dean Dyer in Cleveland. If I could wave a magic wand, I might will that 99.3 be acquired by the Jacobs organization in Gainesville and they in turn dispose of their FM licensed to Clarkesville.... maybe CompleteGame would like to have that one! :rolleyes:

We have an interesting study in sociology, politics, religion, education and business when you look at rural North-east Georgia. In the past it has NOT been Atlanta. North-east Georgia is in a lot of ways different than rural Georgia south of Atlanta. It is almost a state unto itself. And yet, broadcast consolidation (which has affected the entire nation in many different ways) is hammering North-east Georgia.

Yes, CompleteGame, your analysis may be right on target. It hasn't been too many years ago that I read of a broadcast organization being off by a family that paralleled what may happen here and I knew that broadcasting as I knew it, broadcasting as I loved it... had numbered days. When the heirs of Jerrell Shepherd over in Missouri took a long hard look at their broadcast properties and announced that they had decided they could put that capital to better, more interesting uses, I knew the axis of the entire earth had a slightly new tilt.

And North East Georgia is in the process of trying to figure out who it is going to be as it grows up. Part of Atlanta? Part of rural Georgia? A little region that is almost it's own state?

Theings that make you go.... Hmmmmmmmm.
 
CompleteGame said:
They are going to make one of the Cs very happy. My prediction is a handshake deal is already done - maybe with Dickey/Cumulus to get 680 a bigger FM presence?
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That would be good since 680's biggest nighttime null is in 99.3's territory.

The only string would be that Dickey could only buy the FM and not the AM, unless they dumped 1230 or 1340, lest they (Dickey + Cumulus) go over the FCC's ownership limits. They may not want to sell only the FM (see LFM and Star 94).

CC is the buyer that makes the most sense to me...as a simul of 105.3. The AJC ownership thing aside, could Cox run into (smaller) ownership limits in the outlying area now that they have 103.7 and 106.1, as well as 95.5 and 97.1 coming off the Chateau Elan tower? That's 4 stations in the same rural area already.

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/review-broadcast-ownership-rules

Local Radio Ownership. The rule imposes restrictions based on a sliding scale that varies by the size of the market...and (4) in a radio market with 14 or fewer radio stations, an entity may own up to five radio stations, no more than three of which may be in the same service, as long as the entity does not own more than 50 percent of all radio stations in that market.

Jacobs might be able to make something out of the AM. None of the Cs would be interested.
 
jabba17 said:
Local Radio Ownership. The rule imposes restrictions based on a sliding scale that varies by the size of the market...and (4) in a radio market with 14 or fewer radio stations, an entity may own up to five radio stations, no more than three of which may be in the same service, as long as the entity does not own more than 50 percent of all radio stations in that market.

Jacobs might be able to make something out of the AM. None of the Cs would be interested.
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I'm too lazy to look it up tonight.... plus, because the Cs likely would NOT be interested in the Cornelia AM stations, but I do have a question: For the purpose of ownership limits, where does the Atlanta market end going that direction? Would the modestly powered AMs in Cornelia be considered Atlanta stations for ownership purposes? If one of the Cs want to buy an AM in Clayton, Ga would that be considered a station in the Atlanta market? What if they while shopping wandered all the way over to Toccoa and went banging on Art Sutton's door yelling "Hey, ya wanna sell? Were in the mood to buy?" Would that count as an Atlanta station.

Curious minds just have to know! Even if I have to take time tomorrow and read for myself. :)
 
Oooopps! Correction, boys and girls, and a whole new thought about any transactions involving Cornelia.

They have ONE AM station. Why I wrote something indicating they have a second AM station is beyond me.

However, overlooked in all this conversation is the fact the Fosters appear to have an FM translator for their Cornelia AM station. Try this for a game plan: Sell the BIG FM for the BIG BUCKS. That might mean that family members would then be in financial shape to be in about any line of business and work they like in the Cornelia area. (Or some Caribbean Island if that floats their boat!)

But if they keep the full-time 1KW AM station AND the FM translator, that puts them in as good a shape for market coverage as most comparable markets in that part of the world. Better shape than some of their neighbors. They get rid of the maintenance and operation expense of a large juice-eating transmitter that down the road a piece.

With the AM and the FM translator, if they only keep 70% of the business they do now, a lot of station operators will look at them as having a "plum operation". But what if with some elbow grease and due-dillegence, they bill 95 or 100% of what they are now billing... even after turning loose of the big FM.

Unless they want to relocate to the Caribbean, why do we assume they need a buyer for the AM? :cool:
 
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:


I'm too lazy to look it up tonight.... plus, because the Cs likely would NOT be interested in the Cornelia AM stations, but I do have a question: For the purpose of ownership limits, where does the Atlanta market end going that direction? Would the modestly powered AMs in Cornelia be considered Atlanta stations for ownership purposes? If one of the Cs want to buy an AM in Clayton, Ga would that be considered a station in the Atlanta market? What if they while shopping wandered all the way over to Toccoa and went banging on Art Sutton's door yelling "Hey, ya wanna sell? Were in the mood to buy?" Would that count as an Atlanta station.

Curious minds just have to know! Even if I have to take time tomorrow and read for myself. :)
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I'm actually thinking the reverse. Does the rural area of Georgia in the foothills up past I-985 count as its own "market", outside of the Atlanta market? Cox already owns 4 FMs that cover this area pretty good, two of which are considered "Atlanta" and two of which "aren't". My guess--strictly a guess--is that 95.5 and 103.7 don't sufficiently overlap their city-grade signals (!) or it doesn't count as a "market" by the FCC (!!). I know that 103.7, 95.5, and 106.1 all carry UGA sports, which makes 103.7 seem very redundant in this role, unless the objective is a big middle finger to Jacobs.
 
I concur, being primed for buyout by the cloud company, crap channel or cox. The writing is on the wall.

Yep, the greedy pigs at the C's cannot dare allow leave a local market rimshot opportunity to suck up another dial placeholder with the grunge.
Will probably be moved in the same way they bend, distort and bastardize the current rules to become another "X107.1" experiment in futility.

What are these corporate casters end game? They are bleeding money yet they keep consuming more and more and more. I don't get it.
 
I have a proposal. With this signal upgrade 99.3 WCON is pursuing, if the Fosters are interested in going the extra mile to sell the station, they could sell the station to the folks at PABC (Prince Ave. Baptist Church) & Christian School in Bogart, and PABC could simulcast the Great 88/88.9 FM WMSL out of Athens on it. It would be an exact simulcast of the exact same programming they're doing now: Christian FM (Regular CCM) during the day Mon-Fri & weekend afternoons (Sat & Sun), The Night Light Masterful Music (overnights every night), Solid Southern Gospel on Saturday mornings, and The Sounds Of Faith on Sunday mornings. I know the signal doesn't reach Cartersville (where my parents' church is located), but the 99.3 WCON signal does reach where my parents & I live off Wade Green Rd. & SR 92/West Alabama Rd. in Acworth. We live in the fringe coverage area of the station, but it would come in handy in the event I can't listen online to The Sounds Of Faith on Sunday mornings. I would be able to listen via a regular AM/FM radio. Now, my parents & I wouldn't be able to listen while in route to church, but that's okay. Anyway, that is all.
 
Actually, please disregard my previous post. The proposal I made in that post is a good idea except there's another thing standing in the way: the 99.3 W257DF-FM translator that's currently simulcasting Old School 1010 AM WTZA. I apologize for my previous post. I had forgotten about the 1010 simulcast on 99.3. My parents & I also live in the fringe coverage area of the 99.3 W257DF-FM translator. Not a good place to be if the signals of 2 separate stations (a full power FM WCON & a translator W257DF) are overlapping each other. Anyway, that is all.
 
I happened to hit 99.3 the other night, and a live local DJ was spinning records. Thing is... this was 2:30 AM! I went to their website and found nearly every time slot is covered by a live announcer: http://www.wconfm.com/announcers.html

Kudos for the "small" rural station, eh? Atlanta, take note.
 
If you like country music from a certain time period, tuning in WCON is a treat, a feast, a musical banquet. When I'm punching from station to station in the car and I come to WCON, I turn to my wife and announce: "Welcome to 1965!" Actually their time frame of country music probably represents a 15 to 20 year era somewhere back in the 60s and 70s. But it is not like walking into a stale archive in a library or museum. It's very good and being what it is trying to do.

Apparently some of their announcing staff have known each other and worked together for a number of years.... some of them working in Gainesville in years gone by.... and as times changed they were able to find this new location where musically, time stands still. (A cynic might describe the station as a working retirement center. :cool: )

And for a number of years, the Southern Gospel concerts fit their style much the way rock concerts have worked for rock stations in the cities. But I gather the Gaither style gospel sings no longer has the same draw and ticket sales so that leaves WCON to 'scratch it's head' and ask: If it is o.k. to be something of museum tribute to country music, is it still viable to also be a museum tribute to Southern Gospel.

All I can say is that WCON reminds some of us of a time when radio seemed to be fun, seemed to be a lifestyle, and then this folklore/fairy-tale wicked old witch shows up screaming: "Don't you fools realize that radio is nothing but a BUSINESS. Who started this corrupted idea that radio was FUN? (both doing it.... and listening to it.)
 
From a listener standpoint I think it would be very sad to see WCON sold and brought into line with the big conglomerates. I am barely within the area that can listen to WCON (albeit with an excellent antenna) and I enjoy this station a lot. Reminds me of a Country version of Lake 102 used to be...except their library keeps growing because they play the obscure classics and the currents. Definitely the largest Country music library in the State but is dwarfed only by WSM regionally and nationally. I've heard songs from at least seven decades played on WCON. Not to mention one of my only choices for a High School football scoreboard show right now...at least until the Braves season ends

On the other hand I'd love to see a happy ending for the family that owns the station. They have run an excellent station and deserve all the best.
 
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