City of Grand Haven evicts WGHN-FM from tower due to lease violations

[Colonel Flagg]

This is some brouhaha...

https://m.soundcloud.com/jesse-bruce-26 ... 15xW3l68Uw

https://www.woodtv.com/news/ottawa-coun ... r-dispute/

https://www.grandhaventribune.com/news/ ... user-share

Long story short, the city manager refused to renew WGHN's tower lease because of a perceived breach of lease covenants regarding maintaining local programming. The tower lease expired over the weekend evidently.

Will Tieman believes the current city manager might be upset regarding the lease-out / possible sale of WMPA to Strong Tower Radio (which runs Seventh Day Adventist network programming via satellite), although that hasn't been confirmed.

So, 92.1 WGHN-FM is now off the air indefinitely. The station's usual programming has moved to 1370 / 94.9.

It is unclear if 93.1 WMPA is also affected.

After listening to that, I would file this under "play stupid games, win stupid prizes"

What station owner with any sanity would first consult the local "overlords" on a format change, or station sale? Frankly, it's none of their business. Why don't they have, at a minimum, Aux FM facilities at the AM site? Why bother to go to all of the trouble of building WMPA, only to spin it off to a Jesus-caster for a pittance, and not even be able to lease tower space to the buyer? I don't know Will Tieman personally, but he may be better off sticking to sports.

By the way, is the GM, Mike Toth, the same guy who worked at Michigan Spot Sales years ago?

[TC Talks]

When WLRD lost their tower to taxes, the county was a week from eviction. Government owes nothing to out of town owners who aren't invested in the community.

I am betting the city got snubbed by the ownership group. Too many dicks like Colonel Flagg in radio still.

[originalzzmfmjock]

I tried 93.1 while out in the car this afternoon. It too is off the air.

[Robert Faygo]

According to this (horribly written) article from Ch 13s web site, Tieman stopped paying the electric bill in August to the tune of over $84k that's past due.

Not so sure the city is screwing over WGHN. Seems like ownership is screwing over WGHN by screwing over the city.

https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/inv ... 86ec44b35d

[Trophyhead]

It seems to me that any journalist worth their salt who had the opportunity would have at least pressed Tieman to the point of saying, regarding the funds to meet the obligations expressed, "HE (doesn't) GOT IT!!"

[radionut]

The two station share an antenna out of the same facility so if the power was cut to the building then both would be off.

Those two station are fairly low power. An Electrical bill of $84k? That would take years to accumulate. I don't think we're not hearing the full story from both sides.

Even if the City gave official notice on Nov 17th that isn't enough for an eviction.

[radionut]

City says the initial notice of violation went out four months ago.

Notice of violation and eviction are different. The question is did the violation notice include an eviction notice?

[Colonel Flagg]

Sounds like Will Tieman wasn't telling the full story, to say the least. I should've known better.

I've amended the subject line of this thread accordingly.

By the way, I've never liked his play by play work.

Good catch by Faygo, and none of this is a surprise. If WGHN can't pay the freight on a lousy municipal tower, then how in the hell are they going to afford Crown Castle's rates? Bad things can happen, when you don't own your towers, and the ground underneath them.

As to the local yokel/chamber of commerce/government officials picking formats, I can't imagine Chuck Hedstrom, Ross Biederman, Frazier Reams, Bob Liggett or even Rod Krol "asking permission" to change formats on any station they owned. That's preposterous. Signing a lease with that in it could call into question who's truly in control of the station.

From all that's been revealed here, they probably had no choice but to sell WMPA, to raise cash.

As for TC Talks, very amusing, as always. Down with "the man" but then ask "the man" if it's okay to change formats, or sell the business. Fascinating.

[Robert Faygo]

It seems to me that any journalist worth their salt who had the opportunity would have at least pressed Tieman to the point of saying, regarding the funds to meet the obligations expressed, "HE (doesn't) GOT IT!!"

LMAO! Well done.

[Thunderstorm]

Back in 2021
WGHN has been honored as a 2021 Michigan Association of Broadcasters Station of the Year.
Also Jesse Bruce won a couple of awards.