KELE-AM/Ripley, OH

contracteng · Post by **contracteng** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 1:39 pm

from radioandrecords.com

Ohio

KELE-AM/Ripley (Cincinnati)

PRICE: $150,000

TERMS: Asset sale for cash

BUYER: First Broadcasting Investment Partners, LLC, headed by President/CEO Gary Lawrence. Phone: 214-855-0002. It owns nine other stations, including WAOL-FM & WOXY-FM/Cincinnati.

SELLER: Quorum Radio Partners, headed by President/CEO Robert Barnett. Phone: 417-926-4650

FREQUENCY: 1180 kHz

POWER: 1kw

FORMAT: Country

COMMENT: Quorum Radio Partners' KELE-AM/Ripley, OH to First Broadcasting Investment Partners' First Broadcasting Capital Partners for $150K, secured by an irrevocable standby letter of credit. Buyer will deposit with an escrow agent this letter of credit, who will draw upon this letter of credit and wire the funds to the Seller at closing.

Hoosier Daddy · Post by **Hoosier Daddy** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 1:51 pm

KELE is in Mountain Grove, Missouri, according to the FCC ...

Tom Taggart · Post by **Tom Taggart** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 3:24 pm

They have a cp for 1 kw ( 668 critical hours) on 1180 at Ripley, Ohio. Was originally to be on 1200 with 10 kw., but they amended that because several other folks got the same idea.

Tower site is the WAOL-FM tower, which is probably 10 miles SSW of Ripley in Kentucky. That is going to cover real well........

Ace Purple · Post by **Ace Purple** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 3:00 pm

The KELE calls are odd considering that they already exist and that Ohio is strictly W-call letter territory. But radio-locator.com concurs:

KELE (CP) 1180 AM Ripley, OH Sports

There's already a WELE in Florida, so it's not like they just slapped the wrong first letter on there. Hmm.

Tom Taggart · Post by **Tom Taggart** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 4:06 pm

1. Am stations may file a major change application during a window to change city of license. There is no restriction on where, so long as the allocation fits.

2. KELE filled during the last AM window to change COL from Missouri to Ripley, Ohio. Missouri (for the most part) is west of the Mississippi, so KELE is a proper call. Since the station proposes to move to Ohio, presumably they may retain their original call sign.

3. Most "K" signed stations east of the Mississippi pre-dated the W-East/K west rule, e.g. KDKA, KYW (orignally Chicago, then Cleveland, then Philly) and KQV. See: http://www.oldradio.com/current/bc_k&w.htm

4. In the early '80's, the Commission tinkered with the call sign rule, inadvertently omitting the geographic rule. Spring Arbor College applied for--and got KTCG as the call for their new daytime AM station. The rule was quickly amended.

Dave Loudin · Post by **Dave Loudin** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 4:16 pm

The best discussion on the K/W call evolution is at Thomas White's site. KDKA is the only surviving call from a short time where the Commerce Dept. issued calls to both ship and shore stations from a block intended for ship stations only. Still no clue how KQV and KYW ended up with their calls.

genlock · Post by **genlock** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 4:27 pm

KYW was in a trade with somebody out west. Sneaked thru?

Dave Loudin · Post by **Dave Loudin** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 4:33 pm

I think that call was assigned in Chicago first. Yep. (scroll down a bit)

Ace Purple · Post by **Ace Purple** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 12:26 am

Wow, so you can move a COL that far under the new rules? Very interesting.

I've been to Thomas White's site before -- he has a fascinating breakdown of the whole process.

michael heath · Post by **michael heath** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:19 am

Is WLW Tower is still in that same spot near cox road?

Waveguide · Post by **Waveguide** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:03 pm

WLW's tower is at the intersection of Tylersville Road and U.S. 42.......

but Cox road is very close.....

Dr. Whiplash · Post by **Dr. Whiplash** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:05 pm

The WLW tower is on Tylersville Road just west of US 42 in Mason, Ohio.

Michael, it might be better to just read and follow along for now, rather than trying too hard to post something.

Dr. Whiplash · Post by **Dr. Whiplash** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:09 pm

What are the odds, Waveguide? Two simultaneous responses to an 11-hour-old post.
I'm past due for a pilgrimage to the WLW transmitter ranch.

michael heath · Post by **michael heath** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:37 pm

I agree with you. A least my spelling is better...

Waveguide · Post by **Waveguide** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 12:03 am

Dr. Whiplash wrote:What are the odds, Waveguide? Two simultaneous responses to an 11-hour-old post.
I'm past due for a pilgrimage to the WLW transmitter ranch.

Damn odd, I'd say........

I live apx 3 miles west of the big stick. Rarely a day goes by that I don't
drive past it. Still can't go past and not look at that landmark....

Been several years sense my last visit. I think there is a viewing availiable
in October. Not sure of the date.

michael heath · Post by **michael heath** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 12:29 am

I agree with Dr. Whiplash

on that topic...

Dave Loudin · Post by **Dave Loudin** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 9:27 am

Waveguide wrote:I live apx 3 miles west of the big stick. Rarely a day goes by that I don't drive past it. Still can't go past and not look at that landmark....

So you must be VERY close to the old VOA site. I tramped aroud that place a couple of times as part of a team drawing up plans for upgrading the old "switch"gear and antennas. It's a darn shame that we closed it, instead, as it had a great path for broadcasting to western Africa. Plus, back when VOA sites broadcast AFRTS, the mid-day frequency aimed at Greenland used to bomb into DC like a MW groundwave.

Waveguide · Post by **Waveguide** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:44 pm

Yep.... sure do. VOA.... Another piece of American History..... GONE!!!
Thanks to Bill Clinton.

That plot of ground has gone thru some big changes. Most of the property
west of the old Xmtr Bld has been sold off for commerical stuff.
Now called VOA Plaza...... At least they kept the name around.

West Chester Township now has ownership of the rest.
Property is totaly open. Several parks, baseball fields, a fishing lake other happy crap like that.
The building is on the History Register for stuff like that. But there this money problem....
lack of it, that is.

Still a nice place. The Cincinnati Gray Radio Museum is being moved there.
And on display is one of the dead Collins 250Kw RF Beast's. It is complete.
A local Ham Radio club also meets there. Some township offices in there too.

Dave, you must have had a great time going thru that place when you doing that work there.
I was thru Bethany several times when it was still running.
I was there when the 3 towers for the "Curtain Antenna's" ( I know, they really were NOT curtain's )

Anyway, the day they blew them up for de-commissioning.

I was just thru Greenville NC VOA several months ago. All 3 physical sites.
It made Bethany look small to compare. Impressive. Got lots of pictures!!

Dave Loudin · Post by **Dave Loudin** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:36 pm

I was in VOA Engineering for 10 years.

I got to see one of the old Crosley 100kW beasties (I think we could still get 25kW out of it) before it was replaced by those 250's. However, the oldest 100kW I got to lay my eyeballs on was at our Colombo, Sri Lanka, site (a beeb cast-off). Frequency-band changes required wheeling in the right inductors. Ah, memories!

I'm happy to hear the old building is being maintained. IIRC, Crosley ran the site under contract for many years. Once the site was completely under VOA control and the right station manager was in place, you could eat off the floor!

genlock · Post by **genlock** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:55 pm

My favorite part of the WLW site is the meter on the 500kw amplifier.
It has a scale reading "Plate Kiloamperes".