[AMRadio] Cheap and Not So Cheap AM BC Stations

[Mike Duke, K5XU]

At the risk of beating this almost dead horse at least one 
more good whack, here are my two cents.

First, If you really want an AM station, look around your 
area and determine how many are still showing as licensed, 
but are not currently transmitting. In most metro areas, you 
will find at least one, sometimes 2 or 3 within a given 
window of license inactivity.

Sometimes, an owner will almost give them away just to get 
out from under the liability of the tower and equipment. 
Note, however, that the property they sit on is often of 
much more value to the owner than the station hardware, so 
you may not get the dirt in the deal.

Second, the large conglomerates are notorious for shutting 
down an AM station, then bringing it back on the air just in 
time to keep the license from going inactive.

If you can catch them near their license renewal, and 
provide sufficient proof that a particular station has not 
been operating that minimum amount of time, you have a good 
chance of getting a license through such a challenge, or at 
the very least making some distant owner squirm, and call 
you names that can't be mentioned here.

If you do in fact end up with a license, that license by 
itself is often worth more than the equipment required to 
broadcast.








Mike Duke, K5XU
American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs