EASY MONEY

Evening Post, Volume 32, Issue 32, 6 August 1931, Page 22

EASY MONEY

One can still make", a'1 'fortune in America by selling a broadcasting station. According to the Washington correspondent of the "Wireless World". (London) the supply - o r available stations is so far behind the demand that churches and schools are disposing of .their broadcast transmitters at f abu- ' lous prices. The correspondent' men-' tions, among other examples, a 100-watt' station in New York which is now on' the market for the modest sum of I £17,000. The station's equipment orie-1 mally cost £180; ,to-da> it ia. one of' those "hay-wiie "broadcasters with au' obvious illusion about the'size of its i audience and the, value "of the onefourth time it is licensed to .remain on the air. There is another in the same vicinity, a 50(Kwatter, which' is now being "offered" for £32,000. A year I ago its owners wero tearfully beeeine' for £10,000. The management of still' another New York station; a 1000- < watter, is known to,have placed a "con-1 servative'value" of £50,000 on it. Station WOR, Newark, . with " 5000 I watts, is understood to have turned down a cool £600,000 for its plant and goodwill, presumably offered by a wellknown newspaper magnate. These prices, of i course,' do not tend to represent 'the value of the

plant; they aie mostly the "value" of the light to boadcast, in a countiy where eveiy available bioadcasting channel is occupied, and where bioadcasting, like virtue, is its own leward.