WZLY (7 w) to sell license

h/t Fybush

http://thewellesleynews.com/2014/10/23/wzly-to-sell-91-5-fm-radio-frequency/

You have a station that was the first all-women _college_ radio station but most listen online...so you're selling the station's lic.
and no longer will have to deal with FCC regs. A mighty 7 watts.
http://radio-locator.com/pats/WZLY_FM_LU.gif

the license is worth ZERO, 7 watts, unprotected, and the spoiled rich kids couldn't figure out how to stay inside the FCC rules and regulations.... booo hoooo.

Luckily I went to an engineering school and we had at least 6 people with class 1 or 2 tickets involved with our station, we managed to keep our FCC required EBS system up and running (we were fed by WCGY) and even managed to get our required tests done and the teletype tests logged too!

I guess they couldn't afford Grady or P.Q. George to consult for them

Like I say a mighty 7 watts... agree, you need folks with know-how around to stay legal.
At WMWM when EAS came about we had to beg the college for 2 grand I think so that we could stay on...had staffers & listeners write the college prez
(Nancy Harrington maybe)

Would a religious outfit buy it? How 'bout a group that wants to do community radio with that signal.

at 7 watts it is going to get zero protection from the FCC, WMFO could file to open their pattern up to the west, Curry College WMLN on co-channel could make a move... forget any power increase.... not going to happen then here are problems with first adjacent stations.....

I'm surprised 7 watts covers the city of license

MRBIboredop said:

the license is worth ZERO, 7 watts, unprotected, and the spoiled rich kids couldn't figure out how to stay inside the FCC rules and regulations.... booo hoooo.

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A little judgmental, perhaps?

Seems logical to me: nobody is listening to WZLY over FM, the coverage area is tiny so there's no way to really grow FM listenership, and by moving to online-only, on-air staff will have more freedom in terms of content.

As for buyers... a low cost way for WCRB or WUMB to boost its signal in an area of big donors?

encarta95 said:

A little judgmental, perhaps?

Seems logical to me: nobody is listening to WZLY over FM, the coverage area is tiny so there's no way to really grow FM listenership, and by moving to online-only, on-air staff will have more freedom in terms of content.

As for buyers... a low cost way for WCRB or WUMB to boost its signal in an area of big donors?

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well as for WCRB, that is going to be an issue since their 60Dbu contour is covering that area already, and the FCC may not look favorably on simulcasting

WUMB.... it is a close call, the 60Dbu contours are really close where the existing antenna sits now, Any move has to cover the city of license and at 7 watts that does not give them a lot of locations, especially in the land of NIMBY. The listeners they want are probably already well served by the 50Dbu contour.... a lot of money to spend for a license, FCC paperwork, EAS equipment, etc etc etc for what return on investment? Remember the current licensee is going online only rather than eat the expense, and Wellsley College isn't exactly impoverished...

Can't blame Wellesley College for wanting to sell it. With declining interests by students of radio, it's hard to keep up with FCC rules. I see several buyer possibilities, but none that will enhance much financial gain for Wellesley College... except for decent rent payments if W.C. would permit the transmitting facilities to stay there.
1) - religious
2) - someone like Steve Proviser who did Allston-Brighton Free Radio or Skippy White. (Didn't Skippy White live in Wellesley in recent years?) -or any community-focused group.
3) - The local access TV cable channel.
4) - If I still lived in Needham, I'd probably go for it, as a WJIB simulcast. (I lived in Needham 1979-1999).

and the other limiting factor is it is in the Non Commercial part of the spectrum.... even the mighty WJIB s not a 501-C3 so we can pretty much rule out any "for profit" use..... "Underwriting" perhaps?

Local Public Access stations are usually funded by franchise fees (this writer has served on a CATV board negotiating contracts) and as more and more people dump Cable for internet or sat fed programming, the franchise fee money goes down. Franchise fees can not be levied on internet or VOIP services offered by cable providers.

Many cable providers, Comcast in particular, are doing everything they can to get out of funding P/E/G access operations. I'm pretty sure Swellsley isn't going to waste money on this license. I have heard many P/E/G operations voice interest in LPFM, but none have done it that I know of.

Local cable access channels are right beside "student run" radio.... nobody does it anymore when they can be a YouTube star.

MRBIboredop said:

I'm surprised 7 watts covers the city of license

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Remember when tons of college stations were class D's? (10 watts) Very common.

The idea for most of these stations was to have enough power to to let people listen anywhere on the campus with a simple radio. (how quaint, huh?)

Wimmmex said:

Remember when tons of college stations were class D's? (10 watts) Very common.

The idea for most of these stations was to have enough power to to let people listen anywhere on the campus with a simple radio. (how quaint, huh?)

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Ohhhhhh I remember, WPAA on 91.7 was 10 effn watts and I was praying they would not upgrade so they would loose their protection...when the 10 watt stations were told they had to upgrade or face the consequences...... I was CE of adjacent 91.5 Lowell, and although we would have had to keep from blowing WMFO off the air, I would have liked to have had the stereo pilot light come on over on the Lowell Tewksbury line where we were nulled to the max... just enough to get the covering of the C.O.L. done.

And speaking of WPAA, Phillips Andover surely had the resources to do whatever they wanted, and enough pull at the FCC to do it, yet they decided to go dark and turn the license in rather than put any money into relocating the antenna after the previous site became unavailable due to construction

MRBIboredop said:

And speaking of WPAA, Phillips Andover surely had the resources to do whatever they wanted, and enough pull at the FCC to do it, yet they decided to go dark and turn the license in rather than put any money into relocating the antenna after the previous site became unavailable due to construction

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WMMC (90.5, Merrimack College), while not having the same resources as Philips Academy, could have certainly kept the pilot light on...but student apathy let the station go dark.

Apathy about all kinds of radio is at an all time high. I can't think of any form of radio that is maintaining a level of interest (Including, AM, FM, HD, SiriusXM, scanners, SWL, Amateur, etc.)

Now that I am thinking about it.....Emerson College had a carrier current station WECB that was their "Top 40" training ground for student who wanted to be jocks....does it even exists anymore? Does anyone care about being on "carrier current" anymore?

Wimmmex said:

Now that I am thinking about it.....Emerson College had a carrier current station WECB that was their "Top 40" training ground for student who wanted to be jocks....does it even exists anymore? Does anyone care about being on "carrier current" anymore?

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WECB still exists and appears to have healthy student involvement, but it's now also online only. They gave up on carrier current AM and briefly "leaky cable" FM years ago. http://beta.wecb.fm/

MRBIboredop said:

at 7 watts it is going to get zero protection from the FCC, WMFO could file to open their pattern up to the west, Curry College WMLN on co-channel could make a move... forget any power increase.... not going to happen then here are problems with first adjacent stations.....

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As a grandfathered "Class D" and therefore unprotected, WZLY has not been a limiting factor for WMFO or WMLN for decades. There are various other co-channel and adjacent channel stations limiting WMFO and/or WMLN signal expansion, but WZLY has not been one of them since the FCC deregulated protection for Class D's over 30 years ago, so WZLY leaving the air would theoretically not make any difference to WMFO or WMLN.

MRBIboredop said:

. even the mighty WJIB s not a 501-C3 so we can pretty much rule out any "for profit" use..... "Underwriting" perhaps?

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WJIB might as well be a 501(c)3. It has no commercial income ,and has had none for 10 years. 740-license could also be changed to non-commercial, but doesn't have to be if I were interested in acquiring WZLY.

JIBGUY said:

WJIB might as well be a 501(c)3. It has no commercial income ,and has had none for 10 years. 740-license could also be changed to non-commercial, but doesn't have to be if I were interested in acquiring WZLY.

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LOL

I was thinking that when I was typing my post in, I wanted to put something in that reflected it was a non profit..not by design but by economics, but I didn't want to offend you, as I have the highest respect for you and your work.

"As a grandfathered "Class D" and therefore unprotected, WZLY has not been a limiting factor for WMFO or WMLN for decades. There are various other co-channel and adjacent channel stations limiting WMFO and/or WMLN signal expansion, but WZLY has not been one of them since the FCC deregulated protection for Class D's over 30 years ago, so WZLY leaving the air would theoretically not make any difference to WMFO or WMLN."


There was less RF noise back then. Ten watts on 87.9 would work too bad it is so close to WMBR. 87.9 is a refuge for Class D stations. There are two stations using it what a waste of spectrum.