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The other shoe drops...1690 WMLB shutting down

J

jabba17

The article says the station started in 1997. Is that when (now deleted) WMLB Cumming "Mountain Lake Broadcasting" started or ended their Americana format?
 
seedless said:
The article says the station started in 1997. Is that when (now deleted) WMLB Cumming "Mountain Lake Broadcasting" started or ended their Americana format?
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No. The station at 1170 in Cumming went silent so that 1160 here (East Point) could increase to 50,000 watts.
 
Its hard to believe that an AM in a major market (and #10 at that) CAN'T survive. Tells me that the owner doesn't know what he's doing.
 
kf4rca said:
Tells me that the owner doesn't know what he's doing.
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Did you read the article about the format?

“It was never about appealing to a certain demographic or target audience,” said Mike Rose, who worked for a time with Weber in its first iteration at 1190. “This was just stuff he liked and his friends liked. He wanted a venue for it. He didn’t want to lose money but money wasn’t the primary motivator.”
 
kf4rca said:
Its hard to believe that an AM in a major market (and #10 at that) CAN'T survive. Tells me that the owner doesn't know what he's doing.
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We are talking about a station on 1690 that barely covers a third of Fulton and Dekalb counties in a metro with 20 counties and about the worst ground conductivity of any of the major metros. They put a 5 mV/M over 730,000 people in a market of nearly 6 million... and the ITU says that 15 mV/M is now the minimum for covering noisy metros.

At night, when it goes to 1 kw, it pretty much does not cover anything.

10 kw on 1690 will get less coverage than 100 watts at 550. It's just a horrible frequency.

The only option is to lease it to a religious or ethnic group.
 
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Voice of the Arts is a terrible format. I can see it being successful in Boston or Philly, but not Atlanta. In the song named for an Atlanta suburb, "rednecks drink wine on Sunday."
So what ethnic group will it be brokered out too? There's Russian, Japanese, French, maybe Islam? Allah Akbah Radio coming to Atlanta.
Wasn't 1160/1170 simulcasting at one time and known as "The Twins?"
 
kf4rca said:
Voice of the Arts is a terrible format. I can see it being successful in Boston or Philly, but not Atlanta. In the song named for an Atlanta suburb, "rednecks drink wine on Sunday."
So what ethnic group will it be brokered out too? There's Russian, Japanese, French, maybe Islam? Allah Akbah Radio coming to Atlanta.
Wasn't 1160/1170 simulcasting at one time and known as "The Twins?"
Click to expand...

It was never meant to be successful in a commercial sense. It was a toy for Joe Weber.
 
TheBigA said:
That's OK, but for Weber to then turn around and bring up the "buggy whip" comparison is a bit disingenuous. He lost money because he ran it as a toy.
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I think that what Weber said was that he knew that he would not make much from the station, ever. But, in retrospect, he had not counted on the rapid impairment of AM station values and the general decline in all terrestrial radio listening. His statement was sort of a "I'm kicking myself for not being more of a realist."

From the fact that he moved from Atlanta to Beverly Hills says that he may have taken a loss, but one that he could afford.
 
DavidEduardo said:
From the fact that he moved from Atlanta to Beverly Hills says that he may have taken a loss, but one that he could afford.
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I agree. The article says he made his fortune in the bakery supply business. Not sure that's a growth area either, given the decline of small local bakeries. All of the ones I used to frequent are long gone.

The article also says he bought the station for $12 million, and I'd figure he'll be lucky to make 1/10th of that on the sale. He only got $750K for WCFO. Apparently he also owns a tower that others rent, so that may help the sales price.
 
TheBigA said:
I agree. The article says he made his fortune in the bakery supply business. Not sure that's a growth area either, given the decline of small local bakeries. All of the ones I used to frequent are long gone.

The article also says he bought the station for $12 million, and I'd figure he'll be lucky to make 1/10th of that on the sale. He only got $750K for WCFO. Apparently he also owns a tower that others rent, so that may help the sales price.
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He sold the bakery business in 2003 and is quite wealthy. His losses on the stations account for a small percentage of his assets. It also should be noted that he bought his first station, WGKA-AM, for $2 million and sold it to Salem for $8 million.
 
kf4rca said:
Voice of the Arts is a terrible format. I can see it being successful in Boston or Philly, but not Atlanta. In the song named for an Atlanta suburb, "rednecks drink wine on Sunday."
So what ethnic group will it be brokered out too? There's Russian, Japanese, French, maybe Islam? Allah Akbah Radio coming to Atlanta.
Wasn't 1160/1170 simulcasting at one time and known as "The Twins?"
Click to expand...

I used to live near that station and never even tried to hear it.

Given the poor footprint and coverage area, there's a limit to the ethnic groups who would even be served by that signal. They aren't going to reach the areas with Korean or Japanese or even Hispanic listeners. Islam is big around the station and may well be the only one viable.
 
kf4rca said:
So what ethnic group will it be brokered out too? There's Russian, Japanese, French, maybe Islam? Allah Akbah Radio coming to Atlanta.
Click to expand...

First, the Muslim expression in Arabic is "Allahu Akbar" or "God is the greatest".

Second, I believe this would be an inappropriate name for a radio station as the Muslim faith has strict guidance on the use of God's name. I was tutored in the finer points of this subject when asked to consult a station in Karachi some years ago. In some nations, it is prohibited for a non-Muslim to use the word "Allah".

Nightmanager makes good points about the different populations living where the signal is acceptable; Arabic programming may be a viable option. There may be as many as 60,000 persons of Arab (not Persian) heritage in that signal area.
 
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kf4rca said:
Wasn't 1160/1170 simulcasting at one time and known as "The Twins?"
Click to expand...

They were, before Corey shut 1170 down to up 1160 to 50kW.
 
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