KWDZ--Dead?

[David]

FWIW, the April 30th deadline for iHeart to return KWDZ to broadcast air has come and gone without anything being heard on 910 AM. Since KWDZ last broadcast on April 29th, 2017, the one year silent period has passed and the license is subject to cancellation. There's no recent updates for the station in the FCC database, so it will interesting to see if the FCC actually cancels the license a la KXOL or allows iHeart to use its standard "administrative oversight" excuse again.

[CAwasinNJ]

It's worth remembering that iHeart filed for bankruptcy so there's a new sheriff in town. This could go either way. They could play the administrative mess card again and cite the bankruptcy filing, or they may have simply given up the station as being low on the priority list. They still have another AM station that is actually on the air and is being pretty much ignored in KNRS(AM). It's also worth noting that if they really wanted to I'm sure they could have diplexed KWDZ with KNRS(AM) by now.

[David]

Just curious . . . how does the bankruptcy filing affect silent iHeart stations like KWDZ? Since the "new sheriff in town" is now listed as Citicasters Licenses Inc. as debtor in possession, is that essentially the same as if the station (license, actually) had a new owner?

[CAwasinNJ]

Sortof. iHeart's board/CEO aren't in control right now. The bankruptcy court is. The court is the one making corporate decisions, not iHeart itself.

[CAwasinNJ]

In a somewhat related story, the FCC is reviewing the renewal case of KLSX in Rozet Wyoming.

apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-18-56A1.pdf

The basic gist of the inquiry is that this station was barely on the air from November 2010 until August 2017. They note that the station went back on the air shortly after a different station was put up for review for being silent too much, which we talked about at the time (see III A 10). That was apparently enough to make the Commission wonder whether they could have gone on the air sooner but simply chose not to. Going back on the air may not save KLSX. KWDZ may be different between the loss of the transmitter site and the current bankruptcy problems, but that is one possibility as to why they might have given up.

[David]

KWDZ is on the most recent revision of the FCC silent AM stations list (05/03/2018) and is still showing as licensed in the FCC database, so apparently iHeart's bankruptcy filing has extended the STA deadline to put the station back on the air.

www.fcc.gov/media/radio/silent-am-list

[CAwasinNJ]

May 21, 2018 20:35:01 GMT -6 David said:

KWDZ is on the most recent revision of the FCC silent AM stations list (05/03/2018) and is still showing as licensed in the FCC database, so apparently iHeart's bankruptcy filing has extended the STA deadline to put the station back on the air.

Assuming that is incorrect. I've never heard of anything done to a license automatically. As I recall it took several months for the FCC to actually revoke KXOL's license. The previous oops at KWDZ when they didn't file a new STA was also late and the license as far as I can tell never went to deleted status.

[David]

If the FCC plans on revoking the license for 910 AM, they're sure taking their own sweet time doing it: KWDZ is still showing as licensed as of today (June 5th). So much for the license "automatically expiring" at 12:01 AM on April 30th!

licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=81389

[CAwasinNJ]

The staff has not updated the records yet. There was just a case in another market where as far as the FCC knew the station license had expired several years ago but nobody had reviewed the records yet. I don't know about you but I wouldn't want the job of reviewing tens of thousands of records every few weeks to see if something needs to be updated.

[David]

I'm surprised that in 2018, the FCC still has to have someone manually review station records and delete the cancelled licenses. I thought all those mundane tasks were done by computers now. Thanks for the info!

[oldiesfunhouse]

Probably a goofy idea but something I've been thinking a bit about lately. I know no one here wants another sports station and I don't blame you but this would replace AM 1230 and give Salt Lake a CBS Sports Radio outlet that could actually be heard.  What if Broadway Media acquired KWDZ and moved ESPN to it and called it "ESPN 910". Then CBS Sports Radio could move to KALL and they could call it "CBS Sports Radio 700." Then KLO could go back to all talk which I imagine there regular listeners would prefer because Jim Rome would then be on KALL. Then KALL could air Dan Patrick live from Fox instead of on a one hour tape delay like they do now because of how CBS's programming is. And when there are Utes or Real Salt Lake games at the same time as live ESPN Radio play-by play events like baseball or the NBA finals, those national games would just be on 910 and not have to be preempted as they are now. Bill Riley would have to move to 1 to 4 and Gunther and Ben from 4 to 7 on 700. I figured they could give everybody a week off before the flip and stunt as 700 K-Rome and just keep replaying that day's Jim Rome show over and over again till the following Monday.  Then 1230 could put something cool on like standards, oldies, or comedy. Remember "Laugh Radio 1230 KLAF" in the 80s?  All right. I'm probably dreaming but figured I'd throw it out there. But I also thought, if 1550 still has the KMRI call letters they could flip to standards and call themselves KMemories 1550, KMRI. "When you hear Sinatra in Salt Lake, Dean Martin in Draper, Anne Murry in Murray, or Rosemary Clooney in Rose Park, you know you're listening to KMemories 1550.  Okay, got carried away there and off topic.  Sorry

[David]

You've got some great ideas, but no one will be able to do anything with 910 if the FCC ends up deleting its license.
iHeart's bankruptcy remains the unknown factor in the equation. It may be that the FCC has kept the KWDZ license active because iHeart may be ordered by the bankruptcy court to sell off some of their radio stations. On a related note (since KWDZ is a former Radio Disney station), there's an article in today's edition of Inside Radio about Entercom not renewing the Radio Disney contract and dropping it from its FM HD sub-channels.

I've been advocating for an adult standards station or pre-1967 rock oldies AM station in the SLC market ever since KDYL dropped the format, but I doubt it will ever happen. The sad reality is that type of music appeals primarily to 50+ demos, which most advertisers aren't interested in. KMRI 1550 was for sale on the RadioTV Deals site for several months, but the listing has been pulled. The asking price was $825K, which no one in their right mind would pay for a 10 KW AM station without an FM translator thrown in.

[CAwasinNJ]

A few random thoughts.

Remember that 910 was where KALL started out as a regular talk station back years ago before the then Clear Channel (now iHeart) sold it to Disney/ABC and moved the intellectual property and format over to 700.

I'm not sure if Broadway could buy another station. They needed to sell 107.9 to pick 105.1 back up, but those were both FM's.

CBS Sports Radio is still on KRRF 1230 right? The sale there still hasn't happened and nothing is happening there until Vic Michaels takes over, so we have no idea where that will end up. Stay tuned.

KLO has a substantial vested interest in local sports outside of Jim Rome (specifically Weber State) so I don't think that's an all or nothing. In any case Rome will go where the money is. If there's more money elsewhere (either in terms of actual dollars or ratings) they'll go for it. Rome used to be on a bigger signal years ago, maybe two I forget, but he's gotten bumped down. National sports talk just really isn't a draw. And here's the kicker. If Cumulus wanted to give Rome a bigger platform they would have put him on 860 years ago. 860 has diddly there right now. I could go into a rant on why another sports station is very unlikely to happen but I'll spare all of you and we're far enough off topic already. If anyone wants to start another "what format do we need" thread, feel free.

David, if you really want someone at the Funny Cookie Company to review the KWDZ license so they can cancel it you could always file an informal objection. You might have some explaining to do though.

[David]

What I'd really like to see is iHeart do something with 910 besides turning on its transmitter once a year, but I think they've made it clear they don't intend to do diddly squat with it. They've probably just decided to throw in the towel with KWDZ, just like Cumulus did with 1320 and 1230. Given their current status, that's to be expected. I just thought that with Pai's silent station crackdown, the license would have been deleted by now. However, like many things with the FCC (and government entities in general), it takes far too long to get things done. Que sera sera!

[David]

iHeart has finally put an end to KWDZ by asking the FCC to cancel the station's license; so yes, "it's dead, Jim". I wonder if iHeart ever attempted to find a buyer for the KWDZ license, or they just threw in the towel after 3 years of filing FCC paperwork to keep the license active. I guess we'll never know. Time to update Wikipedia!

BTW, there's some interesting technical data about the now demolished 910 AM towers contained in the copy of the station's license for those who are interested.

licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=86217