Hello all,

I am new to the group but have a specific reason for joining. The
primary reason I joined, like many of you I am sure, is to get
information about short wave radio. My situation: I have the
appropriate parcel of land (110) acres that is free from any legal
impediments to building a short wave radio tower. The land is located
in West Central Alabama, in rural Fayette County.I also have the
necessary funding to build a short wave radio tower and transmitter.
The site has been evaluated as a perfect location that is virtually
free from any potential liability and from the perspective of reaching
millions of people in Mexico and Central America.

Questions for the group:

1. What are the potential financial rewards for owning and operating a
short wave radio transmitter/tower?

2. How does an owner go about establishing a revenue stream from
potential purchasers of air time.

3. Who would the primary customer base be?

Comments or suggestions?

Thank you,

DrJoe (newbie)

Well, I don't know the answers to all your questions, but the most
obvious question for you is: Do you have a license from the FCC yet?
Before you actually get a legal license to start broadcasting, all your
other questions are pretty much moot.

Hi Invader3K,

No, I do not have a license. I am really not at that point in my quest
yet. All I am really looking for at this point is whether or not it is
a viable economic opportunity. If so, where would the income stream
come from, and how to go about obtaining customers who want to lease
air time.

(DrJoe) wrote in
oups.com:

1. What are the potential financial rewards for owning and
operating a short wave radio transmitter/tower?

On the broadcast side, unless you hope to get paid by the government
for broadcasting propaganda or clandestine traffic, the only other
income source would be from advertisers or some other form of
sponsorship.

You might also be able to lease space on your antenna(s) to other
services like cellphone companies or operators of two-way radio
services.

2. How does an owner go about establishing a revenue stream from
potential purchasers of air time.

Presumably, you send them bills, and they pay them.

3. Who would the primary customer base be?

People with markets in your target areas.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

Hey Bert,

I appreciate your responses. Is there a specific group or entity (other
than FCC) to talk to other tower owners?

Thanks,

Joe

(DrJoe) wrote in
oups.com:

I appreciate your responses. Is there a specific group or entity
(other than FCC) to talk to other tower owners?

I have absolutely no idea.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

Another private short-wave station is WBCQ. You might find it useful
to listen to them ( 7.415, 5.110, 9.330, and 18.910). It seems to be a
labour of love combined with the perils of Pauline. The minimum power
requirement of 50,000 watts seems to be a heavy financial load and
money problems seem to be right up front. They have been in business
for 8 years . www.wbcq.com

"Brian O" wrote:


"DrJoe" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello all,

I am new to the group but have a specific reason for joining. The
primary reason I joined, like many of you I am sure, is to get
information about short wave radio. My situation: I have the
appropriate parcel of land (110) acres that is free from any legal
impediments to building a short wave radio tower. The land is located
in West Central Alabama, in rural Fayette County.I also have the
necessary funding to build a short wave radio tower and transmitter.
The site has been evaluated as a perfect location that is virtually
free from any potential liability and from the perspective of reaching
millions of people in Mexico and Central America.

Questions for the group:

1. What are the potential financial rewards for owning and operating a
short wave radio transmitter/tower?

2. How does an owner go about establishing a revenue stream from
potential purchasers of air time.

3. Who would the primary customer base be?

Comments or suggestions?

Thank you,

DrJoe (newbie)
Hi DrJoe,
Well, you have a lot of questions. This indicates that you probably don't
have much experience in the sw broadcast business. If you want answers, I
would think the best thing to do would be to try to talk to some managers at
various sw broadcast stations around the country. Most are government run
or managed by a certain church denomination. There aren't many strictly
commercial sw stations in the USA that I know of.. Some you might talk to
are WWCR, WHRI, VOA, etc. Send them an email and try to get a feel for the
business. If you're just looking for a revenue generator, you can get a
tower company to set up a tower and lease out space to cellular, two-way,
teleco microwave, local broadcaster microwave, etc. They usually pay
anywhere from $500 to several thousand per month to lease space on the
tower. Check with some of your local cellular providers. They may even
erect the tower and pad at no charge to you, just to be able to lease land
space from you.
B


There's also the issue of your target audience. By law, shortwave
broadcasters in the U.S. cannot target the U.S. as an audience. Of
course the private ones do so, but that's because they follow the
letter, if not the spirit of the law.

I think some more fundamental questions need to be asked: What is
your goal? Hobby/fulfillment of a dream? Making money? Spreading a
certain message to a certain area/demographic?

After you answer that question, the next question is, what is the best
way to fulfill that goal? (Note that I didn't say, "How can a
shortwave transmitting site help me reach that goal.")

Unless the shortwave transmitter is an end unto itself, you may find
yourself in way over your head. I can't imagine trying it.

(If I were trying to reach an american audience via shortwave, I'd set
up in a foreign country that allowed private ownership of a shortwave
transmitter.)

Good luck, whatever you do -- and if you do pursue this, keep us
posted. It will be an interesting story, and I know I'd like to hear
about it!



--
Eric F. Richards

"Nature abhors a vacuum tube." -- Myron Glass,
often attributed to J. R. Pierce, Bell Labs, c. 1940

"Invader3K" wrote in message
oups.com...
Going back to the original post, you said you want to target Mexico and
Central America. What kind of programming would you plan on providing?
Spanish language talk? Music? News coverage?

Keep in mind, also, that the average Latin American city has far more radio
stations than the Average US city. So many, that it is really absurd to
think many people would find anything on SW, from the US, that would be
better than the multitude of clean, local signals.

Argentina, with about 37 million population, has 8,300 radio stations. The
US, with nearly 300 million, has 13,500.

Why would anyone thing that there is anything that listeners in Latin
America would want to hear that a broadcaster who has to ask questions on
this board could provide.

Thanks to everyone who made a good faith effort to answer my questions.
It is true, I do not have much experience with tower/radio...I am a
clinical psychologist, not an expert in radio. I just had a person
interested in buying my land for the very purpose I state and wanted to
knw more about his reasons for wanting it.

Thank you!