WBCQ

[ChrisSmolinski]

Per the WOR mailing list:

The National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters posted this on Facebook:

"WBCQ is a commercial shortwave radio station in Maine, USA. The station is selling its 500-kilowatt Continental transmitter, its 360-degree rotatable antenna, a 2-megawatt generator, 3000 square foot transmitter and studio building, and 100 acres of land near Monticello, Maine -- all for US$2 million. The price includes these assets, but if the buyer would like to operate the station in this location, he/she would have to obtain a new license from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. Or the buyer could take the equipment and move it to another location. WBCQ will continue to operate an adjacent lower-power shortwave facility under its license, and that portion of the station is not for sale. Inquiries may be made to Alan Weiner at [email protected]."

[Ct Yankee]

Allan mentioned this on his program in the 0000 utc hour on 10 OCT.  He emphasized that the entire station was not for sale, he thought VOA could be a good fit.  The transmitter for sale was underwritten by, and broadcasted for, World's Last Chance (WLC).
WLC stopped broadcasting on WBCQ this past January.

[ChrisSmolinski]

For those wondering why WLC stopped broadcasting in January:

On January 11, 2026, the online religious ministry World’s Last Chance (WLC) suffered a catastrophic cyberattack that completely liquidated its operational treasury. Because the ministry held virtually all of its primary operating assets and accumulated global funds in cryptocurrency, the hack triggered an immediate cessation of its major international media operations, silencing its shortwave radio station and terminating global advertising contracts.

• The Breach: Anonymous cybercriminals executed a highly sophisticated digital exploit targeting WLC’s primary cryptocurrency wallets, emptying decades of accumulated operational capital in a matter of hours.

• The Obfuscation: To permanently break the blockchain ledger trail, the thieves routed the stolen digital assets into secondary wallets and transferred them into Monero. Because Monero utilizes advanced privacy protocols that mask transaction amounts, sender addresses, and receiver identities, the trail became entirely opaque to standard blockchain analytics.

[Ct Yankee]

Wow, thanks for sharing, did not know.

[BoomboxDX]

Wow, that's interesting. It just shows how one should have their assets divided into different accounts, types of investments, etc.

"Decades of accumulated capital..." being stolen. That hurts just reading it.

[n2avh]

This reminds me of the AM station in Alabama a couple of years ago, when they said the antenna was stolen but there was suspicion that the whole thing was staged, to give them an excuse to keep broadcasting on FM without the AM simulcasting requirement. This might be more straightforward--maybe they took the money and blamed a bitcoin robbery.

[BoomboxDX]

This reminds me of the AM station in Alabama a couple of years ago, when they said the antenna was stolen but there was suspicion that the whole thing was staged, to give them an excuse to keep broadcasting on FM without the AM simulcasting requirement. This might be more straightforward--maybe they took the money and blamed a bitcoin robbery.

Until there is any actual evidence otherwise, I doubt that, because religious broadcast organizations are all about promoting the religious beliefs and doctrines. WLC was barely, if ever known before they put the broadcasts on SW via WBCQ, and although they may not have gotten a lot of converts, they definitely were propagating their belief system and the broadcasts got their name out fairly well. This is how religious broadcasters view broadcasting -- it's a way to get the message out.

They didn't need to abscond the money or hide it through deceit to just pull the plug on the operation. And if the WBCQ operation was funded through creditors, WLC's creditors will undoubtedly be looking into the finances and the theft. I'm not aware that they borrowed money to build the station out.

As for the station in Alabama, I don't know about what happened there, but copper theft is a thing, and there have been towers that collapsed because of theft of guy wires and the like. A local AM station is off the air because the ground system was dug up and the copper stolen. These thefts of equipment do happen. In the case of the local station, there is no FM translator to keep the station on the air.