They’ve been losing money for years and now with an owner nobody can find, and bills left unpaid, five Sarnac Lake radio stations will be auctioned off in two weeks. The Saranac Lake Radio Company, which celebrated 90 years in September, and was the voice of the community, is a shell of the radio company it once was and is hardly broadcasting today.
According to The Adirondack Daily Enterprise only one of five frequencies owned by Ted Morgan is broadcasting, and that’s an automated playlist. Morgan bought the stations from James Rogers in 1998. Now, the building where the radio stations were housed is empty, the windows left open to the weather, and there’s a rotting station can in the parking lot.
Former engineer Chris Brescia told the paper, “The first thing he (Morgan) did was he automated it. He eliminated all his staff. He eliminated sports. He also dropped the AP wire. Those radio stations were going strong until Ted got them, then he totally ran them into the ground. When Jim Rogers had it, it was the center of community life in Saranac Lake. The last I heard, he was in the Bahamas or something. I think he’s trying to hide because he owes so many people money.” The list of creditors includes Lake Placid Electric, the Federal Communications Commission, and the owners of towers on Mount Pisgah and Lyon Mountain who rented space for Morgan’s transmitters.
