From: fybush@unixland.natick.ma.us (Scott Fybush)
Subject: Re: Query: upgrading from CC to AM
Organization: Unixland Public Access Unix  (508) 655-3848
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 00:07:12 GMT

fau@po.CWRU.Edu (Francis A. Uy) writes:


>WUMD is on carrier current in the Balt-Wash
> corridor.  We'd like to upgrade to full
> broadcast.  

>Considering the local saturation, we aren't
> even imagining going FM.  We've got lots of
> tech specs about the procedure, and there's
> no way we can do it.


At least you're realistic.  It's sad but true that in more or less the top
fifty markets, there's just no available FM space.  And it's filling up
damned fast everywhere else.

>Strangely, we know very little about the 
> requirements for AM broacasting.  How tough
> is it to file w/ the FCC, how saturated is
> the market, will be able to get a frequency,
> etc?

The market is pretty saturated.  And anyway, the FCC's long-standing freeze
on new AM licenses, although lifted, might as well still be in effect for 
all the good lifting it has done.  Starting a new AM today is nearly
impossible.  You need lots of land for towers (no sticking a directional
AM array on top of a tall dorm :-), lots of power for the transmitter,
and an open frequency.  You'll need one that you can use full-time,
since daytime-only AMs are no longer being newly licensed.  And those
frequencies just don't exist in Balt-Wash.

But having said that, let me also say that there's hope and plenty of
it.  There are a number of failing AMs in your market, and it's often
cheaper for the owner of such a station to donate it to a non-profit
organization such as a university and take a tax credit than it is to
keep running it, or to take the station dark.  The leading failing AM
in Baltimore-Washington is 1150 WMET Gaithersburg MD...they've been dark
on and off for a few months, and they're near eviction by their landlord.

I have no information about how you'd approach a dying AM, but here are
a few non-comms that used to be failing commercial AMs.  It couldn't
hurt to ask them how THEY did it (and be sure to let all of us know!)

WUTK-AM
University of Tennessee
P-103 Andy Holt Tower
Knoxville TN 37996
615-974-6897

(you could also talk to this station's former owners, WIVK-FM/AM, 6711
Kingston Pike, Knoxville 37919, 615-588-6511).

KBSU-AM
[not student operated, but nevertheless...]
Boise State University
1910 University Drive
Boise ID 83076
208-385-3663

(this is a really neat operation -- public radio in foreign languages
for the Spanish-speaking and other ethnic communities in Boise.  Their
FM is standard, NPR/APR public radio).

WGVU-AM
Grand Valley State University [again, not student-run]
3250 28th St. SE 
Grand Rapids MI 49508
616-957-0000

(they just went noncomm, and for now they're simulcasting public FM
WGVU-FM.  This may change).


Anyway, the precedent clearly exists for this to happen.  If you talk
to WUTK, KBSU, or WGVU, please let us all know what you find out.

One other option: Just buy an AM.  A full-time AM here in Waltham,
10 miles outside Boston, just sold for $10,000!  Such low-cost
deals are becoming common these days in the depressed AM market.
Talk to your local commercial-radio station managers and learn what
stations are up for sale or perhaps about to be sold.

In short, there's a LOT of future in AM for college radio.  Go for it!


>Any input would be helpful.
>-- 
>Francis A. Uy			now a Bawlmorean, hon.
>Program Director, WUMD		ISO part time job to pay the rent.

Hope this helps.

Scott Fybush -- fybush@unixland.natick.ma.us