[IRCA] WVAB and WBVA off air due to vandalism

["John Cereghin" <jcereghin@xxxxxxxxx>]

WVAB-AM and sister Beach station off air after tower felled **
<http://hamptonroads.com/category/virginia-beach>

Listenership of two financially troubled Virginia Beach radio stations took
a tumble Sunday after someone felled the stations' 200-foot tower.

The stations, WVAB-AM (1550), which had carried local gospel programming,
and WBVA-AM (1450), are both off the air and there's no word on when or if
they will return.

Ray H. Rosenblum, a court-appointed broker who has been negotiating the
bankruptcy sale of the stations, said he was told of the vandalism by police
Sunday and that it happened shortly after midnight.

Police confirmed they are investigating a "destruction of property" case.

"The tower is down," said Wayne Gilbert, a police spokesman. He estimated
damage late Sunday as being about $20,000 with "significant damage."

Gilbert said several of the guy-wires used to hold the tower erect had been
cut. There are no suspects, he said, but the the investigation is ongoing.

The tower stood in the 500 block of de Laura Lane, just off North Witchduck
Road and north of Virginia Beach Boulevard.

Several months ago, a federal bankruptcy court approved the sale of the
stations to Birach Broadcasting Co., based in Southfield, Mich., outside
Detroit.

That action is awaiting agreement of the FCC.

The sale price was $345,000, Rosenblum said, a bargain compared to an
earlier sales agreement with Chesapeake-Portsmouth Broadcasting Corp., which
had offered $750,000. That sale fell through.

Prior to that, the stations had been valued at as much as $1 million.

Before the bankruptcy in 2004, the stations had been owned and operated by
Ronald W. Cowan Jr., with WVAB airing CNN Headline News Radio and WBVA
carried Sporting News Radio.

Cowan, a First Colonial High School graduate with a background in real
estate marketing, bought WVAB in 1991 after it had been off the air 4½ years
from a prior bankruptcy.

It had multiple owners and formats before that.

Birach Broadcasting, established in 1969, owns several AM stations, many
carrying ethnic programming. The company is owned by Sima Birach.

According to its Web site, www.birach.com, the company has 18 stations, in
Detroit; Chicago; Toronto; Pittsburgh; Pocomoke City, Md.; St. Louis;
Washington; Tampa; Detroit; Grand Rapids; Claremont, N.C.; Fenton, Mich.;
Des Moines, Iowa.; Palm Springs; San Spring, Okla.; and Little Rock, Ark.

It has two stations in some of those cities. It also owns one low-power
television station, in Lucerne Valley, Calif.

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call Crime Solvers at
1-888-LOCK-U-UP (562-5887).


-- 
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