Citing unanswered questions and citizen concerns, the James City County Board of Supervisors deferred a decision on leasing county property to Davis Media for a radio tower.
At Tuesday’s meeting the board heard a presentation from county staff about the radio tower, engaged in discussion with Tom Davis, president and CEO of Davis Media, and heard from five public speakers before deferring the decision.
Roberts Supervisor John McGlennon pushed the board to make a decision Tuesday evening, saying the land where the tower would be located will not easily generate revenue for the county, but Davis proposed to pay $250 per month to rent land for the tower. Davis also offered the opportunity for other businesses –like cell phone carriers– to use the same tower for their services.
Davis Media LLC is the parent company of The Tide and Bach FM, two radio stations, and WYDaily. The company has submitted a request for a special use permit to build a 104-foot monopole microwave tower on county-owned land at 5249 Olde Towne Road. The tower would not be visible from surrounding homes or Longhill Road.
Davis gave a presentation on his plans to build a radio tower, prefacing it by saying he heard comments from citizens that were not accurate. He said he wanted to provide accurate information to the board in advance of its decision.
The Tide and Bach FM use a T1 data line to transmit information to a radio tower in Barhamsville. The T1 line is partially underground and partially strung on telephone lines, so in times of inclement weather, the T1 line has been known to fail. The proposed radio tower would keep the radio station on air despite weather conditions because it would transmit data using a non-wired microwave signal.
An agreement currently exists between James City County and Davis Media regarding emergency information. The two radio stations broadcast emergency information free of charge for the county. If the radio stations are unmanned during an emergency, the county has the ability to tap into the radio transmission to broadcast its own message. If the T1 line goes down, citizens do not hear that information.
Davis pushed the need for the tower saying it’s a life safety issue: if the power is out and people can’t watch TV, all they need is a battery-operated radio to listen to broadcasts. The county currently promotes the only area radio stations as sources for emergency information. In addition to The Tide and Bach FM, the county also promotes listening to WMBG AM.
The problem with WMBG, Davis said, is it’s nighttime radio signal maxes out at 7 watts, which doesn’t reach very much of the county. He said Kingsmill residents can try to tune into WMBG during non-weather events and not be able to pick up the signal at night. The Tide and Bach FM have 6,000 watts, giving them full coverage of the entire county, Davis said.
“It’s a win for the county, it’s a win for us to be able to provide these services,” Davis said. “On the merit of safety alone we see it to be very incontrovertible.”
Aside from the radio stations, Davis said WYDaily updates its site with information during emergencies. That was something Powhatan Supervisor Michael Hipple questioned.
Davis said the service is a way of keeping a hard record during weather events. As information is updated about closings, so is WYDaily, he said. Aside from WYDaily, the two radio stations are the only stations serving James City County 24 hours per day, Davis explained.
Responding to a question from Hipple, Davis said about 65 percent of James City County residents listen to the stations according to an external survey.
Berkeley Supervisor Mary Jones said she thinks Davis’ desire to provide exceptional community service is wonderful, but she is concerned about advertising a specific news outlet. The Tide and Bach FM broadcast news reports from WYDaily reporters.
Davis said he understood Jones’ point, but The Tide and Bach FM will continue under the same practices they use now whether the tower is approved or not.
Switching tracks to the negotiated lease for the tower land, Jones said she wanted more time to get an idea of the market for radio towers. She also said it would be helpful to get Stonehouse Supervisor Jim Kennedy’s input; Kennedy was unable to attend Tuesday’s meeting due to a death in his family.
Prior to deferring the vote, the board heard from residents who turned out to voice their opinions.
Carol Anderson said the microwave could be damaging to people; she said microwaves cause red blood cell counts to decrease and white blood cell counts to increase. Anderson said she wanted to see a study looking into it. She also wanted to know whether the radio waves would knock out cell phone service.
Sue Sadler said the agreement seemed to be “far beyond crony capitalism” and she saw the opportunity for more media bias and possible corruption. She suggested Davis purchase land to build the tower on.
Joe Swanenburg also said the project “stinks of crony capitalism” and he said WYDaily and Davis Media are the same company. He said citizens were not able to comment on the previous WYDaily story about the proposed radio tower and asked if WYDaily is afraid of the truth. Swanenburg said he had a lot of questions about the project and would probably be more comfortable with James City County building and owning the tower.
Additionally, Walker Ware was opposed to the concept of public-private partnerships, including the proposed partnership between James City County and Davis Media for the tower land. He said Communist Russia and China have public-private partnerships.
Bobby Hornsby spoke in support of the tower, saying, “My father was a big proponent of working and cooperating with James City County,” and it was never called “crony capitalism.”
Hornsby’s father gave the land at 5249 Olde Towne Road to James City County in the 1980s as a trade for linking the land near the intersection of Olde Towne and Longhill Roads to the county’s sewer service.
“We just want the good for everybody, and that’s the business as usual that will go on,” Hornsby said.
Ultimately, the radio tower discussion was deferred to the board’s Jan. 14 meeting.
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