One of the biggest overhead items in the radio broadcast world is the antenna tower. Every year someone needs to cut the grass, kill the weeds, fix the fence, relamp the beacons, plow the snow… not to mention the occasional tower painting and other tasks. It sure would help the bottom line if these expenses were gone. It would be almost like adding additional revenue.
Well, if you are a radio broadcaster chances are you own a broadcast tower or two. You may not have thought about it but….your tower is an asset with value. In the past decade we have seen the start up of many tower leasing companies. These companies lease antenna space on their towers to cell services, 2 way radio, civil service, and others who need and use telecommunications. Often a broadcast tower is a very appealing property to the leasing companies, so they are willing to offer a nice sum of cash to purchase your tower.
You could try to your hand at leasing space on your broadcast tower, but the process can often be awkward and less than profitable. Selling your tower to a tower leasing company brings the quickest reward and removes a great maintenance burden.
FM broadcast towers are well suited for this arrangement. Little has to be done to turn the tower into cash quickly. Negotiating a long term arrangement to keep your FM antenna on the tower is common place as well. This is the ideal situation, for a broadcaster.
AM broadcast towers are a bit different in that the whole tower is the antenna. But fear not, the antenna tower can easily be converted into a grounded base, folded unipole AM antenna. This will allow you to continue your AM broadcast from the same tower with little effect to the radiated signal.
Today’s tower leasing companies are well versed in the needs of AM and FM broadcasters, as well as the FCC Rules and Regulations as they apply to those stations.
Here is a brief list of some of the tower leasing companies:
- American Tower Corporation
- Crown Castle
- SBA Communications
- TowerCom
- Vertical Bridge
- CTI Towers (Comcast)
- Tarpon Towers
- Vertical Revenue for AM Stations - November 15, 2015
- Your #Broadcast Tower is a Gold Mine! - October 15, 2015
