You don't have to be a Hoosier to like Indiana Radio Watch. You just have to be an unreconstructed radio freak. Blaine Thompson probably knows as much as anyone about Indiana radio as it is now and as it was back in the 8-pot-Gates days.
The periodic email report always includes at least one thing I find interesting. This morning it notes that the little station WBZQ in Huntington, about 20 miles southwest of Fort Wayne, has been sold. So what? Little stations change hands like used Chevys.
Because the price was 75,000 Bernanke-inflated dollars.
So what if it was just one step up from a coffee-pot operation, putting out 500 watts until sunset, then 13 after dark -- yes, only about twice what your old Cobra CB exhaled before you wired in the illegal linear amplifier?
Only a generation ago a station like that would have grossed maybe $100,000 a year. (For perspective, that amount of 1970 money would have bought you about 20 new Corvettes, loaded. )
The rule of thumb held that an AM radio station was worth about two times its gross revenue. Real estate was extra.
So comes the end of my denial. AM radio IS dead. Bury it beside the Yankee dollar.
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(Blaine would be glad to put you on his mailing list, but I don't care to publish his email address. He's on Facebook.)
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