Sears owns KMart, and the company has been bleeding money in recent years. Walmart came in and made KMart irrelevant. Sears appears to be plain, old tired. It's really surprising because Kenmore and Craftsman are outstanding brands.
Locally, Schuylkill and Columbia malls have limped along for years. Both have tons of vacancies.
As for Columbia, I never understood how a mall in a college town, with no other malls for miles, struggles.
I'm old enough to remember a time when Schuylkill did well. Then, for various reasons, the bottom fell out and it never recovered.
Our second item today deals with WARM 590. WARM has been off the air for more than a month. The company told the Federal Communications Commission that it has massive transmitter and transmission system issues. Those issues are so large, they haven't figured them out yet, and there's no timetable for getting back on the air. The company has a year to fix it. If that doesn't happen, 590 is gone for ever and ever. A former engineer listed all the problems on an industry message board. Yikes! It looks like it will cost more to fix than the station is worth.
Some will remember I got my start at WARM, and I treasure my time there. I just have a bad feeling that WARM will be relegated to the radio history books.
