KDJQ up for sale on craigslist
Don Day | October 4, 2007Update: Boise Engineer has a great post that was stuck in my spam bin for two weeks on this topic. It’s a must read.
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Update: Boise Engineer has a great post that was stuck in my spam bin for two weeks on this topic. It’s a must read.
Anyone have 800k I can borrow?
The piece didn’t mention that the “50,000 watt radio station” drops power to something like 25 watts at night. Not exactly a strong selling point.
I’ll buy that for a dollar!
The night power is 250 watts, directional from south of Meridian and barely covers boise. It has virtually NO building penetration at this power. Yes, conveniently not mentioned in the ad. In today’s radio enviornment it will be tough to ever make money with it as a stand-alone station. Not impossible, just not easy. Donating it to the Boise radio project (suggested in another thread) would make some sense, but I don’t think they could afford the overhead to keep it afloat. 50,000 watts of AM has a hefty power bill, just for starters. I have my own opinion of what the outcome will be, but don’t feel it appropriate at this time to make that opinion public.
yeh, but Rocky, it would make a hell of a bang if we were to pack enough explo…..oh….can anybody else see this?….
nevermind.
Unfortunately, I doubt that the BCRP people would be able to afford the power to keep the tower lights on, let alone power up that 50kw transmitter. Nice thought, though.
Didn’t mention either that the directional night transmitter site near Meridian has an expensive lease payment. Without it KDJQ will become a daytimer. For the power it could run non-directional at night I think 25 watts isn’t far off the mark.
New owner should get rid of the day transmitter site & move that to towers near Meridian. Then drop the day power to maybe 10 kw. Don’t need 50 KW.
Hey RDS, Can you give us laymen (and women too, I suppose) some idea of just what the power bill is on an AM station and then on an FM? Say what is the cost per Kw on the AM side and FM….maybe you could give us some perspective just for fun. And maybe you could also enlighten us to how much its costing to keep the TV station we watch on…. Thanks.
PS- Damn, I wish I could win one of those big Lotto drawings prizes…oh, hell the fun we could have running a radio station…. with no thought to having a profit/loss factor!
“The piece didn’t mention that the “50,000 watt radio station” drops power to something like 25 watts at night. Not exactly a strong selling point.”
Hey, the hamsters get tired by 6 PM. That wheel is pretty hard to turn after several hours of running.
Boise Engineer has a valid point. If it was not directional, it would be much less than 250 watts.
Now, for Radio Active’s question ….
Ok, but first the disclaimer. These are approximate numbers, and many factors come into play that may make these off by as much as 25%.
First, the FM question. FM power that is TRANSMITTED can be greater than that put out by the transmitter, since the FM antenna can focus power that would otherwise be wasted (straight up, for example) in the area where it useful. So, an FM can have what is called Effective Radiated Power (ERP) of 50,000 watts with a transmitter that puts out somewhere between 15,000 and 35,000 watts, depending on the antenna. A typical 50,000 watt FM, with about 20,000 watts of transmitter power, running 24/7 will cost about $1000 per month for power.
OK, the AM station. It does not benefit from antenna “gain”. A 50,000 watt AM has a 50,000 watt transmitter. And, older AM transmitters like KDJQ’s, are not as efficient as the newer ones, and AM, in general, is not as efficient as FM when it comes to power consumed vs. power transmitted. (Another disclaimer — KDJQ’s is not real old, just not fully state of the art. It is somewhere in between, from what I understand). So, not knowing ALL of the parameters, a full-time, 50,000 watt AM could easily have a power bill well in excess of $3500 per month. Now, in the case of KDJQ, they only run the 50K in the daytime, so over the course of a year, the average would be about half that. Their night-time power bill will probabaly be less than $100/month.
Now, another factor — A low power FM (250 watts or less) will not have a huge bill. Again, probably around $100 or so per month.
The TV question I’m going to dodge. I’m a radio guy, this is a radio forum, and there are a lot of additional factors, all that cost power $$ for TV. A wild guess would be about 2 times the FM cost.
None of these numbers include extra power for tower lights, air conditioning, etc…. so that needs to be factored in as well.
Final disclaimer — If this is a long and boring posting, remember, I was asked !!!
I find it interesting and valuable… and I’m the only one who can delete your comment ;)
boise engineer Says,
“Didn’t mention either that the directional night transmitter site near Meridian has an expensive lease payment.”
And how expensive would that be?
Are there any updates on KDJQ? Any bites?
$ 2K /month
Is this station for sale? Does anyone know. If so how much are tehya sking for?
Last I saw it was for $750,000.00 But it comes with catches
Stand by for news!
What are the catches?
you should contact Rob Combs and talk to him, I am sure he would be anxious to talk with you !
what time at night does it go down in power?
If the station had a newer x-mtr and a better night-time wattage, it might be worth it. It’s not even billing now. Nevertheless, there are some new options for moving the night-time site using less-expensive antennae from Canadian manufacturer Valcom and also a power pole style step up from Kintronics in TN. Still, would the return be great enough for the investment? I do have to say, despite the shortcomings, it used to pump a hell of a signal into the Magic Valley, almost rivaling KBOI in modulation.
Valcom antennas are not FCC aproved below 1200 kHz. Don’t meet minimum effeciency.
Anyone has the contact for this station? Please send it to Angolano@aol.com. Thank you in advance.
Engineer types…Could this be beam tilted. Also w/ a new Valcom above 1200kHz new tranny..plus a new stick? Best way to petition for better evening penetration? Is it elusive?
Wow Byl…..you multi tasking as an apprentice engineer now?
Naw, it’s just Byl being Byl. We like him that way…
Little known fact is Byl once tried climbing towers, too!
…then when Rosenthal found out…
but it was a bit&^ riding his bike to the tower site…. love ya byl!
Always trying to give radio credit to the real folks in charge I’m a mitter geek! Yeah I have climbed towers and had coax looped to my belt. I can twist a signal faster than an FCC boss can urinate. Then do a kick ass morning show on top! Well not really kick ass.. I would take some calls and stuff. My favorite person at a radio station is the janitor. He feel’s enamered by an employee of the company whenever he see’s one. May he represent all radio fans. Be nice to the guy who cleans the toilet.
The guys who clean our toilets only speak Bosnian…
Learn to speak Bosnian and terrets. Love you Ian!!
I’m wondering if this radio station is currently on the air? if it is, does anyone know if the owners would be intrested in leasing a few hours for an independent radio producer with a Portuguese Radio Program?
Anyone with info please email jmdias@yahoo.com
Thank you in advance.
any idea what was the final outcome?
It went into receivership. No new takers at the moment.
is this station still for sale?
No takers that I know of, yet. I think the asking price to satisfy the debt is around a million dollars. It would take at least another three million to put the station on the air, but there is lots of competition, so the new owner would have to be liquid for about two or three years.