April 27th, 2011 
joel Could a new era of local-owned commercial radio in Erie begin today?
At monitor screens and conference rooms across the U.S. today, investors are pulling out their wallets to bid on 144 permits to operate in what’s supposed to be a dead medium: radio. According to an extensive article by Ed Palattella in Sunday’s Erie Times-News, one of those investors is Rick Rambaldo, who made a fortune doing great, locally-responsive radio and then selling at the peak of the broadcast consolidation frenzy.
Rambaldo’s First Channel Communications put up $100,000 in advance money; the minimum bid for the Erie market signal, at 92.7 for the community of Lawrence Park. According to the article, he couldn’t resist:
“When I saw the opportunity to bid on the incoming frequency, the thought of creating yet another new radio station within the Erie market was a challenge I couldn’t resist.”
The partner of the very busy Rambaldo Gonda Media ad agency won’t be alone at the virtual auction block, 117 bidders have qualified to participate in any of the competitive channels for Auction 91.
We will soon find out just how much a new FM in Erie is worth in this diversified media market.
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Please, pleases, please let’s have a Sports/Talk (non biased) FM Format.
Rick Rambaldo had his time in the sun. I hope someone new gets this broadcast license. Nothing against Mr Rambaldo personally, but Erie needs new and fresh thinking – not more cookie cutter radio.
Since Mini-Me did not bid in the 2nd round of the 92.7 Lawrence Park auction, it looks like Rambaldo’s First Channel won the auction for $216,000! That’s a cheap date for a full 6 Kw FM station in Erie!
Not so fast, my friend! Mini-Me bid $309,000… First Channel is up to $333,000 in round three. I would hope it somehow makes seven figures.
Thanks, Lee. I guess I’m not fully aquainted with the arcane procedures of this commercial license auction.
Latest in the 92.7 auction: First Channel/Rambaldo is the high bid in round 4-$512,000…by far the highest bid in the entire auction nationwide!
I agree, Joel. The process is unusual… it might go weeks! Just put it on eBay and call it a day. I wish it were that easy.
$760,000 is the high bid for Round 5 of the 92.7 Lawrence Park auction, by Mini-Me/Connoissour Media. We are starting to get into serious money at this point..don’t forget that these operators have to build out a physical plant and hire a staff!
We will soon find out who has the biggest ****
Hey, thre are some vacant storefronts on Main Street in Lawrence Park…perfect for studios…AND you have the Park Dinor for those client lunches. What more could you want??
Any gut feelings on what type of format this new station could be?
Knocking on the door of 7 figures for 92.7 Lawrence Park PA: Round 7 bid $920,000 is won by Mini-Me. Bidders must go 10% higher each round.
As far as a format for the new FM 92.7, I say let’s bring Oldies closer to Erie. Let’s make it a 24/7 sound with some jazzy jingles and a great set of call letters, instead of a tired slogan and, above all, let’s get some human bodies with human minds involved.
At the end of two days of bidding, First Channel/Rambaldo is leading with a Provisionally Winning Bid of $1,012,000 for 92.7/Lawrence Park. From here on out, each bid will be at least $100,000 higher than the last, as each step must be at least 10% higher than the previous total.
Tom Lavery tells us that there are major concerns with this allotment, as it will receive ducting interfearence from CJBX/London, ON. Then again, if you can hold a clean city grade from Fairview to Harborcreek along the lakeshore, the station should be successful.
Please bring 60′s/70′s oldies (not classic hits format) to the new f.m. frequency. A good example of an oldies format to copy would be that of Ashtabula’s Magic Oldies 102.5, just with more oldies songs. In addition, an oldies station should also provide top-of-the-hour national news feed from ABC, CBS, CNN, or AP. Aside from WQLN, no Erie f.m. station provides news updates past a.m. drive. Do news events from around America/world stop occurring after 9a.m.? There are adults out there not near a t.v. or who are unable to personally access internet news sites while at work or in the car. We don’t need another trashy conservative right-wing talk station in town (Talk radio doesn’t even garner good ratings in Erie) nor do we need another all-sports station. Isn’t there plenty of sports on t.v anyways? Western PA from Erie to Pittsburgh has some of the oldest demographics in the country and Froggy’s ratings before its demise weren’t even that bad. Now, I’m aware that some will point to the fact that there is WYNE; however, it’s a joke– low wattage, not based in Erie, not 24 hrs./day, and terrible sounding a.m. radio. It’s curious that small nearby towns such as Ashtabula, Linesville, Jamestown NY can all have oldies but not Erie with all of its duplicate formats. Satellite radio is too expensive for some and four hours of oldies/classic hits on Sunday mornings simply just does not cut it. Classy 100 won’t even put on one or two oldies songs (a la 60′s souvenir or 70′s flashback) per hour nor will Classy air a national oldies show on Saturday nights. I was really hoping that Mercyhurst NE/Dan Geary would have been able to buy the new frequency. Personally, I would name the new oldies station Kool 92.7 or Kool 93 and have Kool Kat (a takeoff on Chester Cheetah) as its mascot. The station would have a mix of local music personalities and weekend syndicated fare such as Dick Clark’s Rock Roll & Remember, The 70′s with Steve Goddard, Machine Gun Kelly’s American Hit List, The Beatle Years, and Rock & Roll’s Greatest Hits with Dick Bartley. I wouldn’t even mind if the station carried Scott Shannon’s True Oldies Channel. (24/7 syndicated oldies is better than no oldies at all). Weather forecasts could be provided at least twice an hour by Accu-Weather or Weather Channel meteorologists. (The local Erie tv stations don’t update their forecasts very often, partially due to the fact that they only employ one person on the weekends and only two on weekdays.) The macho sports-obsessed, conservative, and gravelly-voiced guitar rock/country male attitude that seems to permeate local radio needs to be changed. I’m pleased to see that we now have Jazz-FM and still have WQLN, but I miss oldies, soft/lite rock, and even adult standards.
The latest: First Channel/Rambaldo has the high bid after 10 rounds of $1,224,000 for 92.7 Lawrence Park.
Meanwhile P&T is trying to confirm with the FCC that indeed this is a full 6 Kw station over Erie. Research so far shows that the channel is short-spaced to CJBX and might be limited to 225 watts ERP at 100 meters HAAT.
Again that is a big “might”. This may have totally changed in the 5 years since the last entry on the FCC’s sorry website. I have a call into the Audio Division’s Engineering Dept.
No activity on Round 11 from either side of the 92.7/Lawrence Park auction. MiniMe/Connoissour took an automatic waiver for the round. First Channel/Rambaldo still holds the high bid of $1,224,000
This station has to be directional with the 225watts in the direction of CJBX. It will have 6kw in all other directions. It will be located north of w.26th St
and West of Pittsburg Ave. They will cheat it as far west as possible while still maintaining a city grade signal over LP. You would not put it on the I90 ridge, because then you would only have 225watts on the North side facing Erie.
Thank you for the explanation Big John…I knew you would know the lowdown.
Meanwhile at the FCC, the feds cash in on Erie Radio as both Mini-Me and First Channel placed bids in Round 12, the last for the week. Mini-Me/Connoissour bid $1,346,000 and First Channel/Rambaldo beat it with an high bid of $1,413,000.
Remember, the last time a station was auctioned in the Erie market it went for under $400K. We are now talking a new level of market value for a radio station in an advertising context that has been brutal to soft in the past several years.
Format idea…
Adult comtemp/classic hits mid 70s-mid 80′s/AOR – all with a lean towards rock.
I know we have multi rock stations but this is a rock town!
What we need is a new Top 40 format.