Broadcast Silence of WLEA and correction on
misunderstanding of Decision
WLEA and WCKR in Hornell will go silent on November 11th. It
might not be a big deal for you...but it is for me. Here is the updated local
statement:
Correction on Silencing of our broadcasts.
A Terrible misunderstanding afoot.
WLEA and WCKR are going silent as we can no longer continue
as a business in this economy.
The New Owners have for the record been supporting us for
over two years at no interest.
They are at the limit.
They have been extremely generous and patient.
Please do not malign these wonderful people.
We the Doran Family, I Brendan Doran VP and General Manager
are not succeeding as a business for some time. We have been supporting the
shortfalls in sales from pocket for some years.
We can no longer continue.
At no point has the incoming owners been anything but
generous.
Nor do I or the family blame the community or our sponsors.
The business just has been unprofitable too long. Simply put the economy has
been buffeted and disrupted past the ability of many including us to weather
the downturn any longer. Remember we as well are energy intensive as
transmitters and board equipment eat a lot of electricity. The price of power
rising definitely has eaten all improvements we saw in sales as the recovery
from COVID began. We are not alone in this situation.
We blame no one. The community has been extremely
supportive. Something was badly written
last night without anger to suggest the community wasn’t supportive, nothing
could be further from the truth.
I’m sorry but the money just isn’t there now, I think it
will come back, perhaps so will we.
I admit to my own misjudgments of the business although they
were honest mistakes.
We will be keeping a web presence on our wlea.net web page. wlea.net
We hope to resume operations soon. I close with a personal
apology to the new owners and to any who thought that post written badly but
not in anger who were upset. Again, this is a misunderstanding, and the direct
opposite of the truth as regards the community and the new owners, who only got
involved to help our community and family.
Let’s see what good we can do in the future. We don’t get anywhere blaming others in
particular extraordinarily decent people who have helped us all so long.
Thank you all
Brendan Doran
WLEA WCKR
THIS was the first statement:
From WLEA on Facebook,
This post is very hard to make. I just wanted to say Thank
You to all of our listeners and sponsors throughout the years. As you already
know the economy has been rough the past couple years and owning a radio
station has its own set of challenges. Due to lack of sponsors and support our
new owners have decided to shut the station down. As of Monday Nov.11th our
stations will go silent. We appreciate the support and most importantly our
sponsors. Please support whatever local media there is left.
Thanks, The Doran’s
I’m
a radio guy…always have and will be. In or around 2012…I launched Regional News
which OFTEN had more than 250,000 views per week. I did battle with a TV
network near New York City that took offense to me and filed a copyright
lawsuit again me. I agreed to change the name to WELLSVILLE Regional News. Life
was good again. For those reading, I AM a trusted source of local news…long
before it was cool. Often, I was the only radio guy at public meetings (drove
them crazy). Also, I always shoved a mic in front of the newsmaker…ya know, to
keep him/her honest!
I enjoyed the experience of being
interviewed on the WLEA NEWSMAKER show. Their news team often used my material
(with credit). For the record…there are THREE commercial radio stations licensed
to Allegany County. They are WLSV-AM (still scoring in the ratings), WQRW -owned
by a former Allegany County Legislator and yes, my baby – WJQZ, which I founded
in my early 20’s.
This Sunday, in the Village of
Wellsville, there will be a total power outage. Enjoy the radio (on battery)!
