Interesting piece on WEQX

I found this video on YouTube about WEQX, Manchester, Vermont.  WEQX is a class B FM station with its tower located on Mount Equinox.  This gives the station a huge signal with a HAAT of 759 meters and 1,250 watts of power.  It comes in well south of Albany and while I am in the Albany area, I enjoy listening to it.

This piece is by CGTN, and one wonders how they ended up in Manchester, VT of all places.

The information below the video is also an interesting read. In part it goes into corporate ownership of radio in the US, stating:

In 1983, 90 percent of U.S. media was controlled by 50 corporations. Today, just six corporations control that 90 percent… Among the 10% (of radio stations) currently not controlled by those six corporations is an alternative rock station in the Green Mountains of Vermont.

That is misleading.  The “six corporations” they are referring to date back to an article published several years ago.  They are; Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, News Corp, CBS, and NBC/Universal.  As of this writing, none of those companies listed owns any radio stations.  Further, the media scene in general has become much more fragmented with the advent and greater acceptance of things like Pod Casting, YouTube, and other social media.

There are three big radio station owners, which together own 1,613 radio stations. That represents approximately 14% of the licensed commercial AM and FM stations in the US. There are several medium-sized owners; Entercom (237), Salem (118), Saga (108), Midwest (75), Forever (69), Beasley (63), and so on.  While iHeart (851), Cumulus (442),  and Townsquare (320) influence the way other station owners operate, by and large, the majority of radio stations in this country are still owned by small business owners.  Stations that are keeping it local continue to be noticed and hopefully rewarded with a successful business.

WEQX is certainly a unique station and it always has been.  In the late ’90s and early ’00s, I did some work for them at various times.  It was always fun and I enjoyed it.