1400 WPAY: one year of silence

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Ace Purple
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1400 WPAY: one year of silence

Post by Ace Purple »

If what I've read online is correct, 1400 WPAY/Portsmouth, OH went silent on 6/3/2011 -- one year ago today. If the station stays silent through the end of today, what happens? At that point is the license automatically deleted and 1400 removed from the FCC database?

Perhaps there is work that would need to be done on the facilities that would make firing it back up cost-prohibitive, but I'm somewhat surprised that there wasn't a move made by a Huntington radio cluster to obtain it to add coverage to an existing AM station (or simulcast of stations).

Usually: when in doubt, follow the money, and I suppose any financial gains that could be made by the 1400 WPAY coverage zone and additional advertising (be it from Portsmouth businesses or national ad buys knowing they are covering a larger area) would likely be outweighed by the cost involved with purchase of the license and facilities, necessary upgrades, etc. And I know that Clear Channel is already over the Huntington ownership limit as far as pending divestitures go, but I'm not sure that 1400 WPAY would have counted against it's Huntington market holdings. Maybe I'm wrong, though. But even a station like 1080 WYHY/Cannonsburg, KY would have benefited from adding a 1400 WPAY simulcast, or at least I would have thought so.

I understand that a stand-alone 800 watt AM in Portsmouth isn't financially viable in 2012, but I would have thought the ability to extend the coverage area of an existing AM in the region might allow for more advertisers and/or brokered time being sold. Apparently not, at least not for the money necessary to set it up.
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Re: 1400 WPAY: one year of silence

Post by RADIOBOY »

I was under the understanding that WLGC was trying to go after 1400 and let 1520 go dark
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Re: 1400 WPAY: one year of silence

Post by Tom Taggart »

No license renewal filed, either. Due by June 1.
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Re: 1400 WPAY: one year of silence

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

Bye bye, WPAY.

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Re: 1400 WPAY: one year of silence

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

Here's your answer:

posted June 13, 2012


AM STATION APPLICATIONS FOR LICENSE TO COVER LICENSE CANCELLED
--------------------------------------------------------------

OH BL-20050121ALS
DWPAY
54835
RADIO STATIONS WPAY/WPFB, INC.
License to cover
P 1400 KHZ PORTSMOUTH, OH
License cancelled and callsign deleted 6/8/2012 per Section 312(g) of the Communications Act - station has been silent since 6/3/2011.


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Re: 1400 WPAY: one year of silence

Post by sportsvoice »

I didn't figure it would be revived. Portsmouth is circling the drain so the only way it would ever work would be to combo it with something else. I have no idea how WIOI continues to stay alive.

Does the audio on 104.1 sound like crap? The Middletown station sounds like they are feeding it from a low bit rate Internet feed.
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Re: 1400 WPAY: one year of silence

Post by Big Media »

I listened for a few minutes a while back and the audio sounded adequate, but you could tell the STL was a lower bit-rate than typical for a radio station.
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Re: 1400 WPAY: one year of silence

Post by the jive talkin one »

sportsvoice wrote:I didn't figure it would be revived. Portsmouth is circling the drain so the only way it would ever work would be to combo it with something else. I have no idea how WIOI continues to stay alive.

Does the audio on 104.1 sound like crap? The Middletown station sounds like they are feeding it from a low bit rate Internet feed.
No, the 104.1 audio is excellent. They had some low end issues for a month or two after they started feeding the programming on satellite, but that has long since been resolved.
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Re: 1400 WPAY: one year of silence

Post by Mike »

Sad to see WPAY as dead. REALLY sad, that was the only continuous in use call sign as old as WCMI, also going back to the 1930's. It's absurd that noncom taxwastes are allowed to pollute the commercial band and take over 100,000 watt stations and turn them into translators for stations 120 miles away that no one listens to. 104.1 serves NO ONE in it's city of license or region. Much like the NPR taxwastes that translate the same satellite programming from OU public radio and WV public radio, we have multiple 50,000 watt NPR "translators" in the Tri-state. No citizens of the Tri-State need apply to do anything there but sweep floors.

That said, I'd love to have the 1400 frequency. Though no one would listen to it.
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Re: 1400 WPAY: one year of silence

Post by the jive talkin one »

Mike wrote:Sad to see WPAY as dead. REALLY sad, that was the only continuous in use call sign as old as WCMI, also going back to the 1930's. It's absurd that noncom taxwastes are allowed to pollute the commercial band and take over 100,000 watt stations and turn them into translators for stations 120 miles away that no one listens to. 104.1 serves NO ONE in it's city of license or region. Much like the NPR taxwastes that translate the same satellite programming from OU public radio and WV public radio, we have multiple 50,000 watt NPR "translators" in the Tri-state. No citizens of the Tri-State need apply to do anything there but sweep floors.

That said, I'd love to have the 1400 frequency. Though no one would listen to it.
I DEEPLY disagree, Mike. WNKU is making the very best use of the public airwaves, by exposing our region to a brand of culture that is not commercially viable in our area. If you make all radio stations compete in the commercial arena, you'll get the same old country and pop music, warmed over with a supposed local twist (like "Power Country 104" used to do).

For once, it's good to read about emerging artists in Rolling Stone, already having knowledge of them from hearing them on the utterly diverse WNKU. Knowing your fondness for classic rock, Mike, I challenge you to listen to Mary Peale on Saturday afternoons...and hear the WEBN of the 70's recreated...before Burkhart and Abrams formulized the AOR format and ruined it for we "progressive rock" fans. They do what Sirius XM TRIES to do with the "Spectrum" and "Deep Tracks" channels.
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