Posts Tagged ‘Rick Rambaldo’

Why Lawrence Park FM wants to go to Zuck Park

Ed Palattella has the lead story on the City & Region section of Tuesday’s Erie Times-News about the tower location for the new 92.7 Lawrence Park, owned by First Channel Communications. First Channel’s application was accepted for filing last Thursday, and in the technical section of the application, shows that a 91 meter (298.6 foot) tower is called for in the southwestern corner of Zuck Park, owned by Millcreek Township.

Palattella quotes First Channel principal Rick Rambaldo as to the appropriateness of the site:

“Zuck Park is an excellent location to put a city-grade signal to serve the entire market,” Rambaldo said.

The following map that accompanies the application shows us why:

Lawrence Park 224A Contour Map

The “bow tie” contour of the directional signal will cover the population areas surrounding the city of Erie, provide a 70 dBu signal over the community of license of Lawrence Park, from a tower partially hidden by woods, paying rent to a township where every dollar counts. Meanwhile, as we covered before, because of the directional nature of the license, the antenna farm up on Peach Street won’t work for 92.7.

See the tower location and 60 dBu contour on Google Maps.

First Channel wins 92.7 auction

UPDATED: It took 17 rounds, but it is confirmed that First Channel Communications of Erie has won the license for the new FM station for Lawrence Park at 92.7. The winning bid was $2,068,000. First Channel’s competition, Mini Me had to participate in Round 19 and did not do so, and had no waivers remaining, thus bowing out of the competition.

First Channel Communications’ principal Rick Rambaldo issued the following statement Tuesday afternoon, and there’s no doubt that he is excited to be reentering the broadcasting business:

Musically speaking, “Happy Days are here again!” This day couldn’t be happier for First Channel Communications!

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Lawrence Park FM goes on the block today

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.

Star 104 goes super nova in Erie Spring radio ratings

WRTS/Star 104

It’s got to be one of the biggest Top 40 stations in the country.

According to the recently released Spring 2010 Arbitron ratings for Erie, the nearly 18 percent share of the Erie radio audience that WRTS/Star 104 enjoys at any given part of the day means that if you were to pile all those people into one place it would be the equivalent of the population of a decent sized city all jumping up and down to The Black Eyed Peas. Star definitely benefited from the sheer depth of great Top 40 songs currently in rotation. Erie has gone GaGa for the Lady, the glam of Adam Lambert, and the Gurls of California.

In fact, market watchers tell me that Star 104 has reached audience Nirvana with its “skew graph.” Connoisseur Media’s WRTS scored nearly the same percentage of adult listeners in each demographic slice, meaning that it’s the station that Grandma, Mom, and Sissy can agree on. Most Erieites listen to Star and another station; from Bob to Z.

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