KNRY-AM is one of those really unique AM radio stations with a long heritage. The station is located in Monterey California – location of “Cannery Row”. The station has devolved into carrying 3rd tier network programming like Business Talk Radio and Salem Talk.
Monterey realized at some point that there was more money to be made from tourists buying trinkets than in packing Pacific Salmon. Monterey is now a yuppie tourist destination. (Has “yuppie” jumped the shark?)
Today, the catch is tourists, not salmon
The station is located in the Bear Flag Building, in space over retail stores that sell socks, chocolates, hats – and a restaurant/bar.
Pope John Paul II in 1997 started to encourage Catholic Lay groups (not the church itself) to go out and start or buy radio stations as a cost effective method to spread the Gospel according to Rome. But around 2008, word came out from Pope Benedict XVI that he really wanted lay groups to acquire radio stations, and the flock have listened to the shepherd. My current count shows 88 AM stations and 66 FM stations that identify themselves as carrying Catholic programming 24 hrs/day.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholic_radio_receives_boost_from_pope_benedict/
Over the past couple years, Catholic lay groups have been buying up failing AM radio stations and paying overly inflated prices compared to what commercial operators have been paying. They legally convert the stations to a non-profit status (AM radio does not have a special area set aside for non-commercial stations like FM). Almost without exception, they put on a 24 hr/day simulcast of the radio service of EWTN, the global Catholic Television Network. It’s a reasonable guess that once the stations are acquired for this purpose, they will never revert to being a commercial station. All of the deals I remember are “cash up front”. Here is a check and you’re free of your old radio station – no notes or loans that get paid over time.
KNRY-AM is being sold for $400,000 in cash [Contract], a pretty good price for a 1000 watt AM station. Sister station KVA-AM is not being sold. The antenna (included in the sale – but not the land under it) is right across the street, about 25 feet away from the ocean.