Respected media consultant and reporter
Tom Taylor [link] has been providing excellent coverage of the sale of KPLU to
KUOW. He brought up an important question about the sale: What is the fate of
KLPU’s 7 FM translators and 11 repeaters?
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| KUOW FREQUENCIES |
KUOW has three translators and
repeaters itself but it will likely take advantage of the superior coverage
provided by some of KPLU’s signals. KUOW GM Caryn Mathes told
the Seattle weekly paper The Stranger:
“We'll put the content that was on
KUOW-FM/94.9…we'll now spread that out and put it on some of those 11
frequencies that KPLU has. We'll take their 11, our three, and look at the map
and reapportion what content goes on which of those fifteen, and try to get
full service to everybody in the area.”
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| KPLU FREQUENCIES |
KUOW’s new excess of FM translators creates
the possibility that some signals may be leased or sold to commercial
broadcasters for considerable financial gain. FM translators can repeat either
commercial and noncom stations. This might create a windfall for KUOW.
TRANSLATOR VALUE CASE STUDY: K-BUD IN DENVER
We have been reporting on Denver’s pot-rock
station K-BUD FM/AM and the recent sale of FM signal, an FM translator at 94.1
to iHeartMedia for $950,000. Marco Broadcasting, owners of K-BUD held the
license for only six months. They are
walking away with over $100,000 in cash.
Noncommercial broadcasters should be
aware that 94.1 began as a noncom repeater.
Along the way speculators changed it to a commercial repeater. Because
the demand for FM signals is so great, and sale prices are so high, it is
tempting for other noncom translator owners to cash in now while demand is hot. Here is the timeline of translator K231BQ.
•
MARCH 2004
FCC grants a Construction
Permit to Douglas Johnson from Colorado Springs for K231BQ
to repeat noncommercial KTLF-FM on 92.1 FM serving Estes Park, Colorado.
•
2004 – 2014
Operated as a noncommercial translator
for KTLF.
• FEBRUARY 2014
Sold to for-profit
broadcaster Victor Michael for $550,000. Michael also owns KDCO-AM, Golden.
• MARCH 2014
Victor Michael granted change of city of license to Golden, Colorado with a new
frequency (94.1) and new coverage area including metro Denver.
• APRIL 2015
Victor Michael sells 94.1 (K231BQ) and 1550
AM to Marc Paskin d/b/a Marco Broadcasting for $850,000. Then, K-BUD debuts as
Denver’s first pot-rock station.
OCTOBER & NOVEMBER 2015
• Marco
Broadcasting sells 94.1 to iHeartMedia for $950,000. 94.1 now repeats KOA-FM.
• Marco Broadcasting sells 1550 AM to Chuck Lontine, a retired Denver investment
banker and broadcasting entrepreneur, for $25,000. Lontine will repeat 1550 AM
programming on FM translator K245AD which will become 96.9 The Cloud [link] in early 2016.
I find a lot of these FM translators for AM stuff to be incredibly confusing (and I'm not alone) but I've been told that non-comm signals are not eligible for the process. HOWEVER, if a NCE translator can be moved into the commercial band via minor change (first, second or third adjacent channel...or 10.6/10.8MHz IF hop) BEFOREHEAD, then it can be used for an AM station.
ReplyDeleteSo on the face of it, only four of the seven translators are available to be sold for profit as part of the Great FM Translators of AM Gold Rush. I dunno about the remaining three being moved into the commercial band...maybe they could; they're all pretty far outside of Seattle but the dial's pretty full in that market, too.
HOWEVER, one of those translators is 92.1 with 250 watts (DA) and on the western side of Puget Sound, aimed squarely at downtown Seattle. THAT sucker *could* be worth a fair amount of cash. Although I've been warned by several knowledgable folks that this isn't going to be the gold rush some have predicted. A lot of AM stations are already in such sad financial shape they can't afford to throw away a lot of cash just to get an FM translator, no matter how handy it might be.
There's also the very real issue that western Washington's mountainous terrain is absolutely murderous on FM signals. The multipath is severe, as is the terrain shadowing, and the market is very spread out with lots of little enclaves in different valleys and mountains between them, so it's damn hard to serve them all with a single signal.
There's more than a few signals that look good on paper that stink in reality out there. Now I'm told KPLU is one of them ones that's good on paper AND in reality, but that doesn't change the fact that they probably depend on these translators to either reach pockets of devoted listeners and/or fill in significant holes in coverage. The former might change if the format of KPLU goes all-jazz, but the latter is what it is.
Lotta variables in play here, but it's an excellent question to raise.