What would you do with KMRI?

[gingerale]

A tower collapse, unstable ownership, until very recently. Really solid citywide signal that goes as far south as Provo during daytime hours. You just bought it (well a gentleman named Barry Wood did) so what are you going to do with it?

[dspete]

Oldies 50 60's

[CAwasinNJ]

Right now I wouldn't do a darn thing with it except put on a placeholder format to get the signal back on the air and see whether the station exists in a few months. NOAA WeatherRadio would be a good choice.

Last year the FCC renewed the station license for only 1 year because they were unhappy at the amount of time the station had been off the air over the previous two years. Since then, AFAIK it's only been on the air for one day (March 3). The new license renewal was filed Feb 22 and is still pending. They FINALLY applied for a construction permit for the replacement tower on June 22. (The proposed tower is a little taller and would have slightly more power at night. It remains to be seen how close to the previous coverage this one would be.)

The real issue is just how tolerant the FCC is going to be about a station that was already on thin ice over silence issues. Being on the air one day a year to keep the license alive does nothing to alleviate those concerns. I'd give the odds at no better than 50/50 that the renewal is granted and they're only that good because the FCC seems to tolerate almost anything these days.

[gingerale]

I would think the FCC is going to grant the license if as you say a construction permit for the tower has been put into motion and the new owner has to know this otherwise why purchase the station out of auction? This is a situation to keep eyes on.

[gingerale]

Jul 10, 2023 21:07:48 GMT -6 gingerale said:

I would think the FCC is going to grant the license if as you say a construction permit for the tower has been put into motion and the new owner has to know this otherwise why purchase the station out of auction? This is a situation to keep eyes on.

Update: The FCC has granted a broadcast license to new owner Barry Wood.

[CAwasinNJ]

The transfer to Barry Wood originally happened back in 2020. There was an objection to that transfer but it was unsuccessful and the assignment was granted 4/21/22. The most recent license renewal was also granted 4/21/22 and expired 4/21/23. An application for another license renewal was filed 2/22/23 and is still pending.

Please make sure your facts are correct before posting them.

[amanuensis]

What I would put on KMRI, at least as a stunt/placeholder, is the oldest of the oldies. Music recorded from 1860 to 1929.

I am a professional genealogist so I would make sure to have this 1910 song in heavy rotation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO9JF4JPttQ

[gingerale]

Jul 11, 2023 2:28:51 GMT -6 CAwasinNJ said:

The transfer to Barry Wood originally happened back in 2020. There was an objection to that transfer but it was unsuccessful and the assignment was granted 4/21/22. The most recent license renewal was also granted 4/21/22 and expired 4/21/23. An application for another license renewal was filed 2/22/23 and is still pending.

Please make sure your facts are correct before posting them.

I meant no disrespect. To confirm, I was told again earlier today that a license was applied for and granted by the FCC for KRMI Radio in the name of Mr. Barry Wood, of Arlington, Virginia.

[CAwasinNJ]

Jul 11, 2023 17:39:14 GMT -6 gingerale said:

I meant no disrespect. To confirm, I was told again earlier today that a license was applied for and granted by the FCC for KRMI Radio in the name of Mr. Barry Wood, of Arlington, Virginia.

The license was assigned and renewed last year, but that's irrelevant to any current discussion. The only relevant question is whether this year's renewal is granted. As of now that question is not showing in the FCC records as being resolved. I've never checked to see how long it takes for the online databases to update, but I'd be surprised if it was more than a day or two at most. What was the source of your information?

[CAwasinNJ]

Jul 11, 2023 12:12:44 GMT -6 amanuensis said:

What I would put on KMRI, at least as a stunt/placeholder, is the oldest of the oldies. Music recorded from 1860 to 1929.

Now that's a format I never considered.

I could contribute music from the original 1927 Broadway cast of Showboat if you like.

[kenglish]

I think Barry Wood is a Communications Attorney and a station broker, so he may not be interested in owning and operating a station full time. He probably wants to keep the license alive, until he can find a qualified buyer. That's hard to do without a tower. And, AM1010 isn't putting out a good nighttime signal under the STA.
Not sure who owns what physical property out there....last I checked, the land was all owned by Godfrey (Family) Trucking. So, now I wonder who is paying rent to who.
I wonder if an arrangement might be made to put the tower and phasor back together, and get both stations back to full operational status. Maybe Godfrey Trucking would be interested in creating an all-trucker channel on 1550, working an LMA with Bonneville and their well-established Traffic Team.
Run some Country music a bit, keep the truckers updated on area traffic and road conditions, run commercials for trucking and transportation -related businesses and services. The KRGO call sign might be available ("Cargo").
Does KMRI broadcast at all, except maybe streaming? And, where is their studio?

[gingerale]

Sell it? Sell what? What could a station with no tower and no broadcast facilities fetch?

[kenglish]

The license is all that is really valuable. There is a transmitter and some sort of building involved out there, but who knows what belongs to who.

[CAwasinNJ]

As I mentioned, a construction permit has been filed for the new tower. As I understand it (and for reasons I don't understand), the FCC gets very cranky when a broadcaster starts building before the construction permit is issued. So that needs to be approved before the new tower can go up. Assuming all goes well, there will be a tower for the station. As far as 1010 goes, the licensed power is 194 watts nights and the STA is for 48 watts. A difference for sure, but it's still not covering a huge amount of land either way.

The KRGO calls were available when all this craziness started but were taken by a non-comm in west Texas last year. The entity that now owns KMRI is still (as far as I know) KRGO LLC, so I think it's safe to assume that those were intended new calls for the station. Maybe a deal could be worked out with the current user of those calls, but I'd put that way down the list of priorities.

We might be able to get a sense of what 1550 could be worth by looking at relatively recent history. KNIT 1320 was sold (as a rebuilt station) for $200,000 at the end of 2020. KJJC 1230 was sold (as a rebuilt station) for $90,000 at the end of 2019. KMRI has a much bigger day signal than either of those.


gingerale, my question about what the source of your information is was not rhetorical.

[David]

I thought AM & FM stations could have the same call letters as long as they're available, but maybe I'm mistaken on that point. Aren't FM stations legally required to use the "FM" suffix during their TOH ID? Maybe the same call letters rule only applies if the stations are co-owned, e.g. KSL AM & FM, and KNRS AM & FM. If I'm correct, maybe KRGO is still theoretically available for KMRI.

As far as a format is concerned, I'd suggest either 1950's to 1970's oldies similar to KDYL's "Real Oldies", or the "America's Best Music" adult standards/soft AC format that KLO 1430 aired until the station was sold to El Sembrador in 2020. I'd imagine it's a fairly inexpensive format to run on an AM station, since it comes from a satellite feed & the station "studio" can be a computer tucked in a closet somewhere. 🙂 KMRI is going to be hampered by the lack of an FM translator in 2023, but IMO the best choice would be to find an AM format "hole" and fill it. I really don't think we need any more Spanish language, all sports, or news/talk stations on AM in Salt Lake City.

I also think it would be a good idea for Mr. Wood to invest in a semi-permanent longwire antenna and pay the power bill to run KMRI's transmitter at minimum wattage with a placeholder format until the station is sold, simply to keep the FCC happy and the station on the air. I know from reading the information in the FCC database that the station's transmitter was damaged in the 2020 SLC earthquake, and repaired by an engineer before KMRI did one of its one day broadcasts just before the license was due to expire. I'm assuming that means the transmitter is still functioning well enough for a placeholder format to be broadcast on 1550 at 20-100 watts until Barry Wood finds a buyer for KMRI.