Eric Kurhi of The Daily Review in Hayward reports that city has rejected $5 million in cash and $60,000 a year from Salem Communications to put up four 199-foot radio towers on an old landfill.

Salem Communications, licensee of KDOW-AM 1220, wants to move that station’s transmitter from a single stick in East Palo Alto (south east of the intersection of University Avenue and the Dumbarton Bridge) to the far end of West Winton Avenue, close to the San Mateo Bridge. Five radio towers were built nearby in 1987, according to The Review.

The FCC previously approved the move, which have let the station to go from 5,000 watts to 50,000 watts (day and night), making it a major player in the Bay Area media market.

Salem operates mostly Christian or conservative talk stations, but KDOW airs Bloomberg business news and talkers such as CNN’s Lou Dobbs. The station was previously known as KNTS, which aired conservative talk stations. It hit the air in 1949 as KIBE with a mere 250 watts, and it simulcast the classical music programming of KDFC-FM.