WBMG-LP license deleted

Moody's WBMG-LP has had its license deleted by the FCC.  The station had broadcast on RF channel 38 with 30.9 kW, relaying The Dream Network.  It is unknown if the station is actually off the air or not.

If the calls sound familiar, it's because they once belonged to Birmingham's CBS 42, now known as WIAT.

WDVZ-CD Moundville to get big coverage boost

WDVZ-CA, an This TV affiliate that's part of the WVUA that's licensed to Moundville, has received a CP modification to boost its digital construction permit and relocate the transmitter site.

The original permit for 300 watts from the old WDBB-TV tower on Jug Factory Road in Tuscaloosa county, which would have covered most of Tuscaloosa County.  The new permit, for 3,000 watts, will be from the Tuscaloosa Tall Tower (currently used by WDBB-DT and some ham radio repeaters) and will cover a larger amount of west Alabama.

It's possible this move is due to Tuscaloosa's WUOA-DT failing to properly cover Tuscaloosa.  Broadcasting on analog channel 23 from the tall tower site, it covered a lot of territory, but after the digital switchover, it took on WBRC's old channel 6 allocation and transmit site atop Red Mountain.  So, despite being licensed to Tuscaloosa and mostly covering Tuscaloosa during newscasts, the off the air signal is almost impossible to receive in T-town itself.   The station is still watchable in Tuscaloosa thanks to WVUA-CA, but it's analog only.  WDVZ-CD's moving to the Tuscaloosa Tall Tower should alleviate some of the coverage issues WUOA-DT has, but being on VHF-lo like WUOA certainly won't help things.  VHF-lo is a bad place for digital TV.

WDVZ-CA is an analog allocation, also on RF channel 3, but has been off the air for some time.

Upgrade looming for Columbus, Georgia area translator

W299AX currently operates at 10 watts from a tower site in Ladonia, west of Phenix City, Alabama, on 107.7 MHz, relaying "Freedom Radio" WJEP from Cusseta, Georgia.  A recent construction permit was issued that made almost no changes to the licensed facility, but it has been superseded by a new permit, authorizing 250 watts from the existing tower site.  In addition, the translator will drop WJEP for WKCN, "Kissin' 99.3" country.  Since Kissin' is a local station, this almost certainly means the translator will be picking up another signal to relay, possibly an HD subchannel or local AM station.

It appears that Columbus has no commercial stations running HD, so it's likely any new format to debut here will come from a local AM station if WKCN isn't being upgraded to run IBOC digital.

Columbus currently has one AM on a translator, WRGC at 1420 kHz, which has a rock format as "106.9 Really Rocks".  It's put on by PMB Broadcasting, who also owns Kissin' 99.3.

Three Tennessee Valley translator deletions

Three Tennessee Valley area translators were deleted by the FCC the other day.

First, in Athens, W261CL was axed.  Running 178 watts on 100.1 MHz, it was relaying WHRP-FM's Adult Mix urban contemporary format.  The frequency has long been active in the area, at one time carrying Alabama Public Radio, and before that, Nashville's rocking 103KDF before it went countrified.

The other two are in Florence and belong to Urban Radio, who used W222AV to rebroadcast Shoals-music-lovin' AM'er WLAY.  The station had been on 92.3 MHz and ran a healthy 225 watts.  Gone with it is W266AU, running 125 watts on 101.1 MHz and relaying St. Joesph, Tennessee-licensed WMXV, which plays to the Florence market.

Most surprising to me is seeing the WLAY translator deleted.  The overwhelmingly popular trend in Alabama radio has been for AMs to get FM translators, so to see one not only shut down but have the license turned in is very usual.

Yet another LPFM license is turned in… this time in Auburn.

WACM-LP in Auburn is the latest to turn in its license to the FCC.  The station had previously run a Chinese language Christian ministry service from "Footprint FM" based in Rolla, Missouri.  It has been silent for months before turning in the license.

A few deleted facilities to mention

Three deleted facilities came across the FCC daily digest today.  First, on the television side, TBN has requested the deletion of W57BV, a former low power allocation in the Florence area.  This was one of many LPTV outlets the nation that TBN requested to be deleted.  It also claimed W24CK in Selma, which was never listed on this site for some reason.  I don't think it was ever built out at all.

Next, on FM, we have W255BN with a deletion request from the owner.  The station ran about 80 watts in the Florence area (Zip City being the actual city of license) and was last known to be relaying the eclectic non-commercial WOWL from Burnsville, Mississippi.  It's unknown if the station is still broadcasting or not.

Finally, a deleted LPFM.  WKOC-LP has been deleted per the owner's request.  It previously served the Ider area of far northeast Alabama (near Henagar) relaying the 3 Angels Broadcasting network.

WAFF completes move to channel 48

In case you woke up this morning to no picture on WAFF, you will need to rescan your digital tuner, because WAFF has given little fanfare to moving their RF channel from 49 to 48.  The station has apparently dropped any plans to significantly increase power, leaving them with a relatively small coverage area compared to most full power UHF digital stations. The new facility is 48 kW at 1,890 feet, a slight increase from their days on RF channel 49.

WDJR Enterprise reported to be changing formats after Christmas

Radio Insight is reporting that WDJR in Enterprise is to change formats after a stint of all Christmas music beginning on 5 December 2011.  Gulf South Communications recently acquired cross town rival WTVY from Magic Broadcasting and is planning to move most of the WDJR staff to 95.5, which will remain country.

In the mean time, WDJR is being heard on WTVY until Christmas music debuts on Monday.  No word on what the new format will be.

WQLS Camden struggling to get built out, seeks power reduction

Alabama Christian Radio currently has a construction permit for a new non-commercial station in Camden. It is set to expire in December and the facilities are not yet built.  The previous permit was for 40 kW at about 246 feet (see 60 dBu contour plot). A new modification of the permit has come through, relocating the transmitter site from the community of Vredenburgh to Camden itself.  The power will drop to just 400 watts from approximately 420 feet. This will allow a quicker build-out to get the station on the air before the permit lapses.

The FCC's contour map for the new facility is broken, but you can get an idea of the potential coverage from the coverage Exhibit (PDF) submitted to the FCC.

WTLS completes power/height boost for FM translator

Tallassee's longtime AM WTLS has completed construction of a new tower for the FM translator, which will now cover much more territory.  Besides a big height boost, the station will go from 80 to 250 watts.  The Montgomery Advertiser has the details.

Hallelujah 105-1 seeks move to 98.3

Hallelujah 105.1, operating as translator W286BK, is seeking to move to 98.3 MHz.  The new facility will be at the same height and antenna location they employ now, but with 170 watts.

Translators operate on a secondary status to full power stations, so when WALJ signed on in Northport, also on 105.1 MHz, it created some interference issues.  Clear Channel first moved the translator from the Magic 96 translator on Ishkooda Mountain to their Red Mountain site but this did not fix the interference issue to WALJ's satisfaction.

As such, Clear Channel (through WAY-FM Media, who actually owns the translator) is seeking a waiver of the Commission's 74.1233(A)(1) rules and asking to jump ship to 98.3 MHz.

98.3 MHz is not exactly a perfect choice, however.  It's second-adjacent to Kiss FM, which the rules are OK with, but also first-adjacent to WTXT in Tuscaloosa.  The application includes a null towards the west to compensate, but whenever WTXT returns to full power (they're on low power while their tower, which was felled by the April tornadoes, is rebuilt) it will put a very good signal into Birmingham again.  This may create unwanted interference issues, but since WTXT is also a Clear Channel property, there will be no one to ask the translator to shut down or move again.

WJWC-LP bites the dust

Or rather, bit the dust a while back.  It's been known to be off air or on a very limited schedule since at least this summer, and now it's official that the license has been cancelled.

WJWC-LP was licensed to Gallion, just east of Demopolis, and had played blues and urban oldies when it was actually on the air.

Mobile-Pensacola TV station WHBR dark due to technical issue

WHBR, affiliated with the CTN religious network, has gone dark for viewers in Mobile and Pensacola due to a failure in the transmitter system.  There is no date set for it to return to air.  WHBR also airs an international version of CTN on 33.2, and the Florida-centric BLAB TV infomercial channel on 33.4.

More information can be found at Alvin Williams' Mobile TV Examiner page.

Internet outage at Cumulus in Birmingham

An internet outage is affecting some of Cumulus' broadcasting operations in Birmingham.  Both WAPI and WUHT's websites are down, along with live streaming.  WJOX and WZZR's websites work, but no streaming there, either.  Internet access for show hosts at WAPI is also reported down.

The trouble appears to have started around 2 pm yesterday.  As of 2 pm today internal internet was reported to sporadically be on, but streaming and the two down websites remain inaccessible.

Cumulus' stations in Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Mobile and Huntsville are not affected.

W241AI on the move to downtown Birmingham

A long speculated move appears to be coming to fruition for the Gorgas-licensed W241AI (currently 10 watts, relaying WGIB in Birmingham).  The translator just received a permit for a 43-watt facility located atop Red Mountain overlooking downtown Birmingham.  Although it's lower powered than other translators it will be picking up a rumored HD3 subchannel for WERC.  It's not known yet what format this station will pick up.  The HD2 of WERC currently has gospel, and WMJJ's HD2 is urban and also being heard on an area translator.  Clear Channel also appears to be in the works to bring a translator to Tuscaloosa.  Someone unknown is working on bringing one from Calera to the Birmingham area as well.

The times, for translators around Birmingham, are interesting indeed.

Translator Rodeo Hoedown

Some notable translator changes have begun to stack up at ABMP World Headquarters. (What? You didn't know we had a world headquarters?)  Let's go down the list, in no particular order:

First, in Bay Minette, W262AL "signed on" to its new dial position at 101.1 MHz after vacating the noncomm band.  The parent station is listed as WMEZ in Pensacola.  I use quotation marks because the station, like most translators on the move, never actually signs on for more than a moment, if that… It's just part of the circus of moving to greener pastures.  The translator's final destination is still assumed to be Pensacola itself, for the new ESPN sports talker at 1450.  As it can only "hop" so far each time, and the FCC has put the brakes on these kinds of moves, expect this station to finally land in town sometime well into 2012.

Up on Sand Mountain, W259AP Albertville has received a CP to relocate from 99.7 to 99.3 and mosey on down the highway from Boaz to Mountainboro.  It is listed as relaying WAY-FM's WAYU, licensed to Steele.  It's worth noting that WAYU already sort of covers the area, so while it's reasonable to assume this is for fill-in service on the area, it's possible it's being moved to Gadsden to pick up an AM station's signal.  We'll have to wait and see what the plans are for this lucrative setup.

In Birmingham, W281AB (104.1 The Beat, a relay of WMJJ-HD2) has received a permit to boost power from 125 to the full 250 watts, plus a rise in antenna height.  Expect a nice boost in coverage soon, if it hasn't already gone live.

In Madison, west of Huntsville, word is that W247AT (97.3) is now relaying 97.9 WQXD-LP in Athens, with their God's Country format.  This puts the tiny LPFM station on three translators in total, including a co-channel one in Huntsville and one on 101.7 in Priceville/Somerville.

Finally, in the south-B'ham suburb of Calera, W241BD (96.1, 8 watts, relaying WGIB) has received its permit to relocate to 106.7 MHz, with 50 watts from the same site off Highway 31 in Alabaster.  The parent station will change to WBPT, which is one click over at 106.9.  It is most curious that the translator will be on WBPT's first adjacent, but my theory is that this is just a temporary setup to wrangle around the translator rules a little.  A translator can make a "minor change" to its licensed facility and move up to 3 channels up or down from its licensed spot on the dial.  But it can also move 53 or 54 channels up or down.  This is a way for a noncomm translator to jump into the commercial band and vice-versa.  It also can allow a translator like this one, which is surrounded by occupied frequencies, to move to a clearer part of the band.  The translator will "sign on" at 106.7 briefly (in theory, anyway) then apply to move 1, 2 or 3 spaces away to a suitable dial position.  More than likely, this will mean moving to 106.5 or 106.3 MHz, neither of which has any active stations on it in the area.  Whether it stays in Alabaster or moves into Birmingham remains to be seen, but this one bares watching.  No other market has embraced translators relaying AM or HD2 signals like Birmingham and this one is set to move to one of the last frequencies available area-wide.

File under "T" for "Too Soon": Magic 96 first station in state to flip to Christmas music.

No, just… no.  It's too soon. Call me old fashioned, but the Christmas season officially kicks off the day after Thanksgiving and not a moment sooner.

So, who will be next?

New AM permit for Fayette relocated to Tuscaloosa metro

Fayette received a construction permit for a new AM signal at 1490 kHz in October of last year, granted to Great South Wireless (who owns The Peach in Clanton).  That facility has just been relicensed to the community of Coker, west of Tuscaloosa.  The power (1 kW day and night) remains the same.

Coker is too small to support its own AM station, and west Alabama has lost one already in the Pickens County town of Carrollton, so expect to see this permit either expire unbuilt or get moved into Tuscaloosa proper soon.

WKFK-LD Pascagoula upping power, moving to channel 13.

WKFK-LD (300 watts on RF channel 7 with a highly directional figure-8 pattern, carrying RTV and other programming) has updated their construction permit for RF channel 13.  They're boosting power from the current 300 watts to 3,000 watts.  This will increase coverage significantly along the I-10 corridor.

Hallelujah 105-1 to get a little boost in coverage

A construction permit has just been issued for W286BK, the 99-watt translator for WERC-HD2 that Clear Channel is branding as Hallelujah 105-1, with gospel music.  The current facility is at the Magic 96 tower on Ishkooda Mountain and is directional away from the south.  The new facility will still be 99 watts, but will be non-directional from a taller perch atop a tower on Red Mountain.  This will greatly increase coverage for areas east of downtown and the nearer over the mountain suburbs.

W277CC marches on towards Pensacola

Translator W277CC had a license to cover filed with the FCC according to today's digest.  The station started off in Atmore, Alabama as W278AR, a silent station authorized for 2 watts vertical-only on 103.5 MHz, relaying Faith Radio's WSTF in town.

The newest license is for 250 watts vertical-only from a site in northwest Escambia County, Florida, near the Walnut Hill community off FL-97.  This facility is shown to be relaying "Cat Country" WYCT of Pensacola.

Of interest is a yet-to-be-granted application for this translator, which will put it right on the WYCT tower off Old Pensacola Road in Baldwin County. That application lists 250 watts H/V, with WYCT still as the parent, but actually reaches some of the Pensacola metro area, as well as cows and trees in Baldwin County.  This strongly suggests something that locals have inferred: ADX is looking to bring a new FM signal to Pensacola proper.

It's been all but confirmed that ADX is going to put sports on FM.   They are in a LMA with the owners of 1450 WBSR, which dropped its long-time soft AC format for ESPN sports.  But word is that's going to be on a translator at 101.1 MHz, which is likely going to come from Bay Minette (eventually).  So what's this one for?  ADX was an early adopter of HD digital broadcasts, with both their 98.7 frequency and TK 101 jumping on the bandwagon.  Cat Country hasn't run HD in ages but the equipment might still be there.  TK 101's HD-2 is still active but is broadcasting only static HD signal has recently been shut off completely, the HD-2 having formerly been a more alternative flavor to TK's straight up rock format.  Maybe there's plans to do something with an HD-2 channel?  It's all the rage in other markets.

WALJ Northport and WFAZ Goodwater sign on

Alabama's newest FM signals have hit the airwaves.  First is WALJ Northport, owned by former market owner Apex Broadcasting.  It's being leased to Cox and is running their "Jamz" urban contemporary format to compliment 95-7 Jamz in Birmingham.  For years, Jamz broadcast from a tower site halfway between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham and enjoyed good ratings in both markets, but that ended when Jamz relicensed to Midfield from a site on Ishkooda Mountain closer to town (and the target demographics).  This sign on has been extensively covered already, so we'll move on to another property…

…and that is WFAZ in Goodwater, licensed to the First Assembly of God church in Ashland.  It transmits 6 kW from a site halfway between Ashland and Goodwater in east central Alabama, and appears to be at least partly locally-programmed.  Going by "Vision 90.9", the station is currently airing CCM, or Christian Contemporary Music.

Miscellaneous news: WSLV Ardmore airchecks, WASG Mobile sold, Eufala call sign change and more LDTV permits

It seems like only yesterday that a whole slew of new low power digital construction permits were issued through Alabama, including several in and around Montgomery.  Now, we're in round two and once again central Alabama is the region getting all the permits.

For Montgomery, there's: W21DK-D and W04DR-D
Opelika gets: W39DQ-D
Auburn snags: W38FE-D
Selma wins: W49DZ-D

The outlier is Pensacola, who nets W38FF-D.

Now, whether ANY of these, or any of the previously issued CPs will ever be built out is anyone's guess.  More than likely it's all spectrum squatting, hoping for a profitable payoff from a buyer or government "repacking" scheme.

In other news, Eufala's WULA, which has had the same calls since sign on in 1948, finally loses those historic calls after coming under ownership of Big Fish Broadcasting, who picks the curious WNRA calls.  The format is currently ESPN sports and runs 600 watts fulltime, although on last check the station was on the FCC silent list.

Tallassee's sports/classics hybrid WTLS has received a permit to boost the power of their translator, W293BK.  It currently runs 80 watts from a site just south of town.  The boost is to 250 watts from a site northwest of the community.

Moving to the coast, Daphne-licensed WASG 540 AM, which is been back on from the WIJD tower in Mobile after a lengthy absence, has been sold to Wilkins Communications, who on WIJD.  WASG is currently running a middle of the road religious music format, while WIJD is Christian teaching.

Finally, up on the state line with Tennessee, lies the tiny town of Ardmore and the country daytimer known as WSLV.  Thanks to my buddy and all around nice guy Paul Walker (website), we have a bevy of airchecks for this, erm, unique station.  By all acounts, they go most of the day with no commercials or legal IDs.  They appear to do neither a legal sign on nor a legal sign off of any kind, instead preferring just to turn the transmitter on or off during a song.  This is small town radio at its finest — or worst — depending on your perspective! 

W241AI Gorgas, AL

While updating some stuff on the site, I happened to search the FCC query for info on this station.  There's a pending application (which aren't normally discussed on ABMP) that caught my eye and is worth sharing.

W241AI is currently licensed for 10 watts on the eastern side of Birmingham, relaying Glen Iris' WGIB.  The application boosts power to 43 watts and relocates it to… wait for it… Red Mountain.  Where the parent station is to be changed to WERC-FM.  Which means, in reality, a WERC-FM HD signal.

WERC HD-2 is currently heard on a translator, relaying gospel "Hallelujah FM".  Could this be to bolster its signal, or is there an HD-3 planned with an entirely new format?

Two new Journey stations hit the road, other minor odds and ends

Note: I'm writing this via mobile phone today as the internet at ABMP World Headquarters (what, you didn't know we had a World HQ?) has been out all day.  The entire city's only high speed internet is delivered by CenturyLink, who generally sucks.  Special kudos today to the folks who make the AnyFTP Android app for allowing me to get my site updated despite the outage!

A Friday full of odds-n-ends today as both Huntsville and Mobile/Pensacola pick up new "Journey" formatted stations, featuring a variety of 80s and 90s pop hits.


First up in Huntsville, country Wolf WWFF was blown up to bring in Journey 93-3.  It's surprising that Cumulus chose this format as it overlaps with several existing stations locally.  Huntsville may be the most oversaturated AC/variety hits market in the US now.  This flip happened at 9:33am.

Later, Pensacola's WJLQ picked up the Journey format after dropping CHR as "i100" and a few days of stunting with a very short playlist of TV theme songs.  The RDS has been off since the flip, although the HD signal is still active and still 7 seconds behind the analog.


Both cities debuted with the EXACT same playlist, which was a direct copy of the one used for the launch of Journey in Atlanta a while back.  Just think, if Cumulus and Citadel merge, you'll have twice as many radio stations run this poorly and with so little thought given to them!

Staying on the coast for a moment, Pensacola's other pop music station, WRGV "The Groove" took this opportunity to finally shed their name, which had stuck around from the rhythmic AC days; they're now "107-3, Hit Music NOW".


Two AMs received minor construction permits today.  WJUS in Marion has one that changes almost nothing, just dropping nighttime power for 34 to 33 watts.  It will put the FCC record in compliance with the actual transmitter site, as ABMP has listed correctly for some time.


The other AM is WEBY in Milton, Florida, part of the Pensacola market.  As far as I can tell this is only a "cosmetic" update, with the same facilities at the same location with basically the same coverage.  WEBY is an unusual facility in that they use different night and day locations.  The day location with 3 towers is co-located with Pensacola's WPNN, south of I-10 near FL-281 on Garcon Point.  The night site is further north in the city of Milton, east of the river near downtown.  With this update I've fixed the entry for WEBY, which had listed the night site with 3 towers.  That was incorrect.  It's directional days and non-directional at night only.

Stunts ahoy!

A quick recap of stunts that have either occurred recently or are occurring that we know of:

WWFF in Huntsville is stunting with a variety of music formats, ditching country for an as-yet to be determined format.

WJLQ in Pensacola/Mobile is stunting with TV themes after dumping CHR.

WUMJ in Biloxi ditched "Hank" country for sports talk this week.

WNCB in Birmingham ditched "The Buck" country for sports talk this week as well.
 

Birmingham shakeup: Paul Finebaum leaving JOX for The Zone.

I don't talk about rumors, usually, but this one involves some pretty big changes in Birmingham radio. If true, it would be a pretty major media story.  There's talk that venerable* sports host Paul Finebaum is ready to jump ship off Citadel's WJOX (due to the upcoming merger with Cumulus?)

That part's confirmed. And as noted in that story, we can expect to see "97.3 The Zone" on Tuesday, August 30th when Cox blows up "The Buck" WNCB for their own FM sports station.  Although unspoken, it appears that Finebaum plans on landing with Cox, with the sports format pretty much being tailored around his syndicated afternoon show.

Getting into even wilder territory, speculation is that once Finebaum gets settled in at his new digs, Cox will flip-flop The Zone with 106.9 The Eagle, giving Finebaum and friends 100 kW to go toe to toe with JOX.  The Eagle's classic hits format will be shuffled to the weaker signal, which almost certainly spells the death of the format in the ratings (see: CHR, oldies and "new" country).  Lending some credence to this far fetched idea?  Listed on the Atlanta Falcons' website as an affiliate for Birmingham is "WZNN" on 106.9 in Birmingham.

* - “venerable” means “a Jerry Springer-like circus” right?

WQRX Valley Head gets FM translator

Valley Head's WQRX (870 kHz, 10 kW days, 4.7 kW critical hours) has picked up a translator, although it's nowhere near the actual town of Valley Head.  Station W265CE (100.9 MHz, 205 watts directional) is licensed to the non-town of Cedarburg, Alabama and its 60 dBu contour doesn't come close to Valley Head.  Instead, it mostly covers rural Cherokee County, including the town of Cedar Bluff on Weiss Lake.  It also has significant coverage in Chattooga and Floyd Counties, Georgia, almost reaching Rome.  This all falls within WQRX's 2 mV/m contour and is thus "legal".

The last known format of the AM daytimer was Spanish Christian, operating in a noncommercial fashion.  It picked up the translator while it was still in the noncommercial FM band, but it moved to the commercial section before going on air.  It is not yet known if WQRX has reemerged as a commercial operation, or what format they currently have.

Demopolis translator gets CP to move into Tuscaloosa

W267BF (101.3 MHz, 245 watts vertical, relaying non-comm WUAL) has received its next construction permit, and as suspected, it's plunking right down in a prime spot to cover Tuscaloosa.  The station will change to W265CGH as it drops down 2 notches to land at 100.9 MHz, with an even-Steven 200 watts of power.  WUAL is still being listed as the parent station, but as the translator is owned by Red Mountain Broadcasting, my money's on it relaying a Clear Channel station soon.  RMB is parent to a translator in Birmingham that relays "The Vulcan" active rock off a Clear Channel HD-2 feed.

Although CC does not operate any stations in HD in Tuscaloosa, they do run a few AM stations that could wind up on the FM dial.  And all the CC HD stations in Birmingham easily cover the market, making it possible but not probable that the Vulcan rock format could find a home in T-Town.  My bet's on them doing something with an AM: WACT's sports or a new format, or WTSK's gospel.

WKLF-AM translator W238BS receives power upgrade

W238BS (95.5, 19 watts previously, relaying WKLF-AM) has received a big boost in power, to 175 watts.  Coverage should now extend all the way out past Thorsby to the north and Lake Mitchell to the east.

W246BN Bay Minette

A license to cover for W246BN (97.1, 250 watts vertical, relaying WBHY-FM Mobile) just came through for this Bay Minette-area translator.  Of note is that it is now showing as owned by Omni Broadcasting of Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  Omni owns an AM talker and FM sports station in FWB and may still own an AM in De Funiak Springs.  The AM talker is already on an FM translator.

Birmingham News interview with Gary Richardson, owner of WJLD

On the Record: Gary Richardson, owner of WJLD-1400 AM Radio

Published: Sunday, August 07, 2011, 11:30 AM
By Roy L. Williams -- The Birmingham News

Birmingham's Gary Richardson is part of a dying breed -- black radio station owners.

 For the past 25 years, Richardson has operated WJLD-1400 AM, which is known for its classic soul and blues music. Last month, Richardson added WAYE-1220 AM to his holdings, buying the station from the Willis family, another black operator that has stations across the country. 

And with Clear Channel of Birmingham, Richardson entered into a five-year programming and sales agreement two weeks ago to lease the 104.1 FM spot for an urban hip-hop station now called 104.1 FM The Beat. Richardson previously simulcast his WJLD-AM on the spot and said Clear Channel is using 104.1 FM to counter Cox Radio's 95.7 Jamz on the FM dial. 

The whole article is worth a read.  Thanks to a contributor for sending it in.

Atmore translator making moves towards Pensacola

W278AR (103.5, 2 watts vertical) has received a construction permit for a pretty significant move towards Pensacola.  The permit has it moving from just west of downtown Atmore to a site near Walnut Hill in northern Escambia County, Florida.  The new facility will drop one notch to 103.3 MHz and run 250 watts vertical only.

Just as noteworthy is a change of parent station from religious WSTF in Andalusia to country WYCT in Pensacola.  This translator is almost certainly headed to Pensacola, the question now is what will it relay?  WYCT was the first station in Pensacola/Mobile to install HD digital broadcasting, but they turned it off years ago.  Could a return of the HD be in store, to feed this translator a new format for the area?  Or could it be a diversion until it's close enough to relay another ADX property, namely News Talk 1620 WNRP?  Either is a possibility.   ADX is the only major local FM broadcaster left in Pensacola.

Birmingham: WAYE 1220 sold to Richardson Broadcasting, WJLD's FM translator to Clear Channel

A couple of moves in Birmingham worth mentioning: Richardson Broadcasting, owner of WJLD 1400 (1 kW fulltime) in Birmingham, have bought WAYE 1220, the long-silent gospel station formerly owned by Bishop Willis.  Willis ran into IRS troubles and… well, that's all anyone seems to know.  Richardson plans to restart the station on 15 August 2011 as "Praise 1220".  The new website is up for the station (linked on the ABMP AM and Birmingham pages).  Oddly, there's an advert on the site for HD Radio.  Let's pray they're not adding HD to the puny 1 kW (days, 75 watts night) signal of 1220.  The HD has been off WJLD for some time.

Continuing with the WJLD news, they've given up their translator at 104.1 (W281AB, 125 watts) to Clear Channel, who is now programming it for WJLD.  The new format is hip hop and R&B as "104.1 The Beat", to compete with 95-7 Jamz.

W286AQ on the move again

W286AQ (105.1, 250 watts vertical) is creeping closer to whatever destination the owners have in mind.  The last licensed spot was near the Mineral Wells community of Chilton County, far from Northport and Tuscaloosa.  The latest CP, still relaying WZZK, has it moving to the neighborhood of Gold Branch, west of Weogufka in rural Coosa County.

Most translators being moved have a pretty clear path towards a metropolitan area or town, but not this one.  It's anyone's guess where it is ultimately destined.

Apex Broadcasting awarded new permit for station in Tuscaloosa

Apex Broadcasting, former owner of six stations in Tuscaloosa, has been awarded a construction permit for a new station in Tuscaloosa.  The station's details:  105.1 MHz, 2.6 kW, from a tower site on Romulus Road near Microwave Road in west Tuscaloosa County, at 506 feet HAAT.  See the 60 dBu protected contour map here.  This site was previously used by one of Apex's other stations, (then) WLXY (now WAPI-FM).

This station is short spaced to first-adjacent WACR-FM in the Columbus-West Point-Tupelo market.

An odd site effect of this permit is that it may spell the end of one of Tuscaloosa's newest FM outlets, the translator W286BV which relays AM 1230 WTBC, The River.  It's also on 105.1 MHz.

Come August, WQKS adds HD digital, Montgomery gets two stations out of it

WQKS in scheduled to add HD digital broadcasting to their signal this August, and with it comes two HD subchannels being fed to area translators.

The HD-2 is feeding W263BX (100.5, 80 watts) with soft adult contemporary as "Lite 100.5".

The HD-3 is feeding W296AI (107.1, 38 horizontal watts, but with a permit to rise to 99 watts) with classic hip-hop and R&B as "Yo! 107.1".

Although Montgomery will have only four local FMs broadcasting HD, it will have eight subchannels since each runs two extra stations.

The other HD stations in town, already on the air:

WTSU in Troy runs Classical 24 on their HD-2 and BBC World Service on HD-3.
WVAS runs a mix of classic R&B and other music and current affairs on their HD-2 and gospel and R&B on the HD-3.
WXFX relays two AMs: WMSP on HD-2 and WLWI on HD-3.

EDIT: This post has been updated from its original form to correct the mistaken assumption that these stations were already on.  They will come on sometime in August, according to industry sources.  My apologies for any confusion.

WMOB denied a permit to change facilities, again.

WMOB has been between a literal rock and a hard place now for nearly a year and a half, and a recent filing by the station's owners has just been denied by the FCC.

WMOB, owned by Buddy Tucker Associates (BTA) and carrying a religious format, is currently licensed to a site just east of the Alabama River, where I-10 dives underneath at the twin Wallace Tunnels.  Late in 2008, construction on an abutting industrial site commenced, and it soon became apparent that the construction was affecting the station's pattern.  By the time the construction was nearly finished, the metal buildings were coupling with the signal and greatly attenuating the pattern to the point that the station was no longer in compliance with its license.  In addition to this issue, the daytime power of 5 kW was enough to cause RF burns to people in the building coming into contact with any exposed metal of the structure.  This required the station to lower power to 3.3 kW during the day.

In addition to this, FEMA has considered a plan to build a berm along the western part of the property, which would destroy a significant portion of the ground radials, further affecting the viability of the signal.  Due to all these problems, WMOB has sought and received ongoing STAs (special temporary authorities) to operate from a nearby site while the owners come up with a mitigation plan.  The latest STA was just granted this month for another 180 days and can be read here.

BTA has recently acquired the old WLVV 1410 AM (now WNGL) site, just a short jog down the causeway from the WMOB site.  WNGL (owned by Archangel Communications) abandoned this site in 2010 for one in the city of Mobile proper.  The STA for WMOB has used one of the two existing towers for 1 kW of daytime only operation.  BTA has also put in a few applications to move WMOB to this site permanently.  While it's barely two miles east of the old site, it has been an uphill battle for BTA to get licensed at this prospective location.  The latest denial is due to the proposed site's failure to cover an adequate amount of Mobile, the city of license.  Strangely, the proposal has WMOB boosting day power to 9 kW, but this is still not enough to meet the requirements set forth by the FCC.  Increasing power further may not be an option, as WMOB has to fit between WWWL in New Orleans, WCOA in Pensacola and WFFF in Columbia, MS.  (See the last application's coverage maps and more here.)

Section 73.24(i) of the Commission's rules stipulate that the 5 mV/m contour must cover 100% of the city of license, and the NIF (non-interfering contour) must cover at least 80%.  The FCC concluded that the latest application would reduce coverage of Mobile by 14.2% for the 5 mV/m contour and 2.3% for the NIF.  This has nothing to do with population, but everything to do with area.  So while BTA asserts that more Mobilians would be covered under the new proposal, the fact that it does not cover the entire city's area is enough to get the application denied.

Dothan to get a local NBC affiliate.

Some news from the television broadcasting world as it's announced that Dothan will be picking up its own NBC affiliate.  It's expected to debut this fall on analog low power translator WDON-LP.

Yes, that's right, a low power analog translator.  Those of you using OTA who were hoping for a local signal to catch NBC in glorious high definition are going to be out of luck for now.

The translator originally carried TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network), a religious network.  The translator, known then as W41BN, was donated along with hundreds of other TBN properties to the MMTC (Minority Media and Telecommunications Council), who turned around and sold this and a few other small market translators to a new company called New Moon Communications.  New Moon is planning on launching NBC in several small markets, detailed in the link, above.

As a translator the station will not have must carry rights on local cable outlets, so there's no guarantee they'll replace Dothan's current NBC outlets on cable, WSFA from Montgomery and WJHG from Panama City.  But if they do, Dothan cable viewers may lose their HDTV feeds of NBC unless New Moon applies for a digital permit.

W267BF Demopolis on the move again.

This time it nudges a little closer towards Tuscaloosa.  W267BF (101.3, 250 watts vertical, located near Greensboro) has been moving northward towards T-town for a while.  The station's construction permit is for a slightly lower 245 watts vertical, with a TX site nearer Moundville.  The station originally was listed as relaying Moody Bible's WMBV Dixons Mills but now is showing as WUAL Tuscaloosa.

I have no doubt the translator is ultimately destined to wind up in the Druid City at some point, the question now is, what will it carry?  WUAL has two HD subchannels of programming that could find their way to the analog FM dial through this translator, or more likely another local AM will make the hop to FM.  WTSK "101.3 The Truth" anyone?

W263BX Montgomery receives a CP Mod to boost power.

I don't think I've covered W263BX (100.5, 80 watts) yet on the blog.  I don't know much history on this station, it just sort of appeared out of nowhere as a construction permit this year.

When it showed up originally, it was authorized for 38 watts from the WQKS tower in Montgomery; now it's been granted 80 watts by a modification.  The station to be retransmitted was listed as WDJR out of Dothan, but has now changed to WQKS itself.  Could another AM-to-FM rebroadcast be in the works for the Capitol City?

Columbus' Rock 103 received construction permit for a little upgrade.

WVRK (102.9 MHz, 100 kW vertical only) has received a construction permit for a minor bit of upgrading.  The changes consist of a slight boost in height for the antenna position on the existing tower, and a change from the unusual vertical only polarization to H/V polarity with bean tilt.

It's never been explained by the station has used no horizontal power in recent years, but it seems to be one of the few "full power" commercial stations to broadcast this way.

WXAL Demopolis reported back on.

Long-silent WXAL (1400 kHz, 790 watts day and night) has reported hit the airwaves again, relaying sister station WINL's country format.  WINL, WZNJ and WXAL were all bought recently by Westburg Broadcasting from the struggling West Alabama Broadcasters.  The new owners have taken to upgrading some of the technical facilities of all three stations.  WXAL in particular was reported to be in dire need of an update.

It is unknown at this time if this is merely testing, or to keep the license active, or the repairs have already been made.  WINL's popular "WIN Country" format is expected to stay, but new formats for WZNJ and WXAL are rumored.

UPDATE: WXAL is confirmed to have had all repairs done and is running full authorized power now. (6/27/2011)

Two Mobile area translators receive licenses to cover, but probably are still off-air.

First up is W214BW (90.7, 250 watts, relaying WPAS Pascagoula) that's licensed to Citronelle.  This one's been creeping towards Mobile over the last few moves and this latest stop puts it near the newly-formed city of Semmes, west of Mobile.  The station was originally going to flip to 90.9 but instead seems to be remaining on 90.7 MHz, this time with just 80 watts.

Next up is one I've been watching closely, W278AP (103.5, 25 watts, relaying WBHY-AM Mobile) that's licensed to Daphne.  This one's moving to a one of the towers in Spanish Fort and will be employing a highly-directional antenna pointed towards downtown Mobile, employing 99 watts.  As far as I know, if this one is on the air, it'll be the first AM-to-translator move in the Mobile area.  And although the 60 dBu primary contour falls short of downtown, the favorable terrain (e.g. flat river basins) should allow it to perform better than expected, thanks in part to a height of about 650 feet.

UPDATE:  W278AP has been confirmed on air with reception in northern parts of Daphne and south Spanish Fort as being somewhat spotty, but it is on and relaying WBHY-AM.

“The Sound of Muscle Shoals” is back: WLAY 1450 returns to the air.

WLAY is being reported back on in the Shoals area.  They lost the lease to their transmitter site's land last year and have been looking for suitable tower space ever since.  The new signal appears to be originating from a temporary wire antenna at the WLAY studios in Sheffield, near the Helen Keller Public Library.  Although a Special Temporary Authority shows them using 1,000 watts, the temporary setup is producing a weaker than licensed signal so reception will likely be difficult for people outside the very-immediate area.  Still, a weak signal is better than no signal at all.

No word yet on whether the FM translator at 92.3 MHz has come back on as well, or is still off. It had been transmitting from the AM stick with 225 watts, but also received a STA in February of this year to broadcast from the same temporary location as the AM.

Fort Payne translator W211BW to get big power boost, move out of city.

W211BW (90.1, 10 watts) is currently licensed and serving Fort Payne as a relay for nearby Valley Head's WQRX, a non-commercial Spanish Christian-formatted AM radio station.  The translator has recently received a construction permit to relocate to an area near the Gaylesville, atop Bogan Mountain.  The new facility will be re-licensed to the community of Cedarburg, Alabama, which as far as I can tell does not exist on any map.  The new frequency is 100.9 and power will increase to 205 watts vertical only.  The facility will be highly directional and aimed towards Fort Payne, although the primary 60 dBu contour will fall short of the city limits.

WQRX went non-commercial after picking up the Spanish Christian format, which is how they were able to secure a non-comm band translator.  While it's possible this move was planned before WQRX took on the translator, I can't help but wonder if the move to the commercial band is part of a plan for WQRX to return to commercial broadcasting with a new format.

I don't have any viewers in that part of Alabama, so if you know what's going on, drop me a line at webmaster (at) almediapage (dot) info.

UA's takeover of WHIL will mean the end of the Alaprint radio reading service.

In March of this year, it was announced that Mobile's Spring Hill College would be selling its venerable public radio station, WHIL, to the University of Alabama for $1.1 million.  In June it was discovered that the station would be picking up the Alabama Public Radio network programming from Tuscaloosa, eliminating the need for the college's studios and staff.  With this change, an important but mostly unknown service will also be going away: Alaprint.

Alaprint is a non-profit organization that has, over the years, provided a spoken-word broadcast for the blind and print-impaired in Mobile.  The service has been carried on WHIL's SCA (subsidiary communications authority) channel, which is available to listeners with special radio equipment that's usually provided at no charge by the reading service.

With the elimination of the studios at Spring Hill College, the Alaprint service will no longer have a place to operate, meaning they will be unable to record or broadcast their programming.  This will displace approximately 500 blind and print-impaired listeners in the Mobile and Baldwin County areas.

Radio reading services have been around since the late 1960's, when the Minnesota Radio Talking Book Network was established using the Minnesota Public Radio Network's SCA channels.  Since then, various local and regional organizations have sprung up across the country to serve the needs of the nation's blind and print-impaired.  In 1982, New Orleans became the first city in the US to host a FM radio station dedicated to reading services.  Currently, there's just one other FM dedicated to radio reading, and that's WYPL in Memphis, owned by the Memphis library system.  The calls stand for "We're Your Public Library".  WYPL also lays claim to being the only 100,000 watt station in the US dedicated to radio reading and is the only library owned station in the country, too.

Although New Orleans' WRBH and Memphis' WYPL are going strong, print reading services in Alabama aren't faring so well due to lack of support and budget cutbacks.  The Alabama Public Radio network has operated a radio reading service, but it's slated for closure at some point in the future, and WBHM's Alabama Radio Reading Service is also going away on September 1st.

It's a shame that such a useful service is dying due to lack of monetary support, but with most markets supporting less than 1,000 listeners, the costs cannot be justified by many public radio stations.  While the internet has opened up new avenues for the blind and print-impaired, especially with specialist browsers like WebbIE, they can be cumbersome to use.  Most websites are not always optimized for screen readers, which can lead to readability problems or a total lack of access.  (While ABMP is not screen reader optimized, viewers can use the mobile home page which bypasses all scripting.)  Internet services also depend on a computer with reliable internet access, which some print-impaired people may not be able to afford or easily operate.  With broadcast radio reading services, program material is available to anyone with a compatible radio, often provided for free to qualified individuals.  The service is always available within the station's broadcast area, and some radios will even work on batteries when the power is out.  The readers are real live humans, not synthesized speech, which sounds unnatural and can be fatiguing to listeners.

Until cheap and fast internet access becomes universal and these services can be provided online through streaming audio, there will always be a place and a need for radio reading services.   With the shutdown of these services, blind and print-impaired citizens of Alabama are literally being left in the dark.

Two Montgomery translators to get a lil' power boost.

Two Montgomery translators have recently been granted construction permits to increase power and coverage.

W285AJ (104.9, 80 watts vertical) is set to increase to 99 watts H/V.  This outlet is currently relaying rocker WACV.

W296AI (107.1, 38 watts horizontal) is set to increase to 99 watts H/V also.  This outlet is currently relaying classic country "Eagle" WQSI.

Both translators will blanket the entire Montgomery city and much of the surrounding suburbs with these upgrades.

WTZT-CD comes through the pipeline for Athens.

WTZT-CA, the Athens low power station with a mix of local and America One programming, has a license to cover come through the FCC today.  The station is to flash cut from analog to digital on RF channel 11.  Of course, this may have happened a long time ago, as I have recently found the FCC's TV updates to be lagging by a long time.  The digital coverage may reach as far as the Huntsville city limits, but being on VHF will certainly limit their reception in this otherwise all-UHF market.

B'ham's W286BK debuts gospel as "105-1 Hallelujah FM".

The smooth jazz was short lived: today gospel replaced the smooth jazz on 105.1 as Clear Channel regurgitates its old "Hallelujah" gospel format from the old 105.9 frequency of east Birmingham.

WTVM-DT in Columbus moves to channel 11.

WTVM, Columbus, Georgia's ABC affiliate, has moved off their RF 47 assignment and onto RF channel 11. This move bucks the trend of full power stations abandoning their VHF assignments for the UHF band.  The VHF band has proved problematic for digital television reception, with VHF-high channels suffering from electrical noise and lightning-related dropouts, and VHF-low being all but impossible to use in most markets.

Edit: Looks like they actually switched in June 2009 and the license to cover just came through.  Wish someone had told me!  Guess no one watches OTA in Columbus.

W286BK is on in Birmingham with smooth jazz.

Translator W286BK (105.1, 10 watts vertical) is reported to be on the air in the Birmingham area, relaying WERC-FM's HD-2 smooth jazz subchannel.  The station also has a construction permit for 99 watts from the Magic 96 tower, which will blanket most of the western and central suburbs, but fall short of the areas from Hoover south, and from downtown Birmingham east.

It is not yet known if the station is on from the licensed or new facilities, or if it will keep the "Lite Jazz" format from the HD subchannel.

WZDX now running higher power.

WZDX has just had a license to cover come through the FCC showing they are now running 700 kW, versus the old 200 kW.  The RF channel, antenna location and height have not changed.

W50CF applies to move to channel 6

Applications aren't normally something I deal with or talk about when it comes to broadcast stations, but this is one that's worth noting.  W50CF has, until recently, been a low power analog broadcaster of religious programming with a transmitter site in downtown Mobile.  WFGX recently boosted its coverage and power, relocating to one of the tall towers in Baldwin County, and as it is also on channel 50 in digital, the little LPTV station had to sign off.  (There was a period where the analog low power signal and the high power digital signal were on at the same time, it was a mess.)

Rather than turn in the license and give up, translator owner Franklin Media has applied to move the station to channel 6, in analog.

What makes this sort of application special is the possibility that this will be built out not as another TV repeater, but as a radio station.  As most of you know, channel 6's audio happens to fall right at the beginning of the FM band, at 87.75 MHz.  Many FM radios will tune this — or close enough to it — to make it possible to listen to the audio on these radios.

While it's a technical gray-area as far as FCC rules go, LPTV broadcasters have wholeheartedly taken advantage of this to start up new radio stations in cities with crowded FM dials.  One in Los Angeles broadcasts Christian programming in Spanish; one in Memphis hosts Flinn Broadcasting's unique "Pig" format; one in Jackson is just getting up and running at this time; one in Chicago picked up the smooth jazz format cast aside by one of the big broadcasters; the grand-daddy of them all is New York's Pulse 87, which has had stints with brokered ethnic programming and dance music.

With this in mind, it's a distinct possibility the area could get a new radio station at the very top of the dial.  The application's 62 dBu contour map shows it skirting the edges of both Mobile and Pensacola.  In real-word experience, the audio portion of the broadcast usually exceeds that line, meaning this station could be competitive in both markets if it's built out.  For that reason, this application is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Big station sale in Meridian affects one Alabama station.

Six stations are swapping hands in the Meridian, Mississippi market, and one of those stations is licensed to Butler, Alabama.  WMLV (93.5 Mhz, 32 kW @ 610 feet with a hot AC format) is being spun off to Educational Media Foundation, who puts on the K-Love and Air 1 religious music formats.  More than likely, V 93.5 will go non-commercial and carry one of those EMF formats at some point in the future.

Site fixes and additions.

All the TV and FM "protected contour" maps should now be fixed.  After the Tiger mapping service was shut down, the FCC only had the images it had cached on its own servers.  After they rolled out the Google overlays I figured they'd keep the old images around for a while — I was wrong.  The TV maps disappeared immediately and the FM maps disappeared earlier this year.

Some of the early Google map links were broken directly from the FCC.  I got some of them during this updating session but there's no doubt some slipped through the cracks.  Otherwise, everything should be working again.   If you find a bad link, mistake or whatnot let me know and I'll get it fixed.

I've also standardized and added auxiliary information to those FM stations that have such facilities.   There are only 15 FMs in the state that have filed for auxiliary backup transmitters, and a few others scattered in New Orleans and Pensacola.  I don't know much about them but it appears that having a licensed backup site allows a station to switch to the backup without notifying the FCC immediately, versus having to apply for an emergency Special Temporary Authority.

Tuscaloosa station WTXT no doubt is glad they paid to get the aux license, as their main tower was felled by winds or a tornado during the recently outbreak.   Their auxiliary facility is located on the old WACT-AM/FM stick between Greensboro Avenue and I-359.   That site was just a few hundred feet from being in the middle of the tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa! 

New - tower and studio photographs

Since my current host has unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage space, I've decided to start hosting tower and studio pictures.

Right now, these are the the stations with pictures:

AM: WCKA, WGBZ, WJRD, WPID
FM: WBEI, WDGM, WTUG, WFFN, WTXT
TV: WAIQ, WHNT


They aren't necessarily great photos and they were all taken years ago, but they're a start.  If you have a tower or studio picture you'd like to share, e-mail them to me at webmaster at almediapage dot info and I'll put them online.

W267BF (Demopolis) sold to Red Mountain Broadcasting. What's next?

It's not often that I bring up station sales, but this one is worth mentioning since it's gotten some press in radio circles.  W267BF (101.5 MHz, 250 watts, Demopolis) was recently sold to Red Mountain Broadcasting.  RMB owns the translator that currently runs Clear Channel's The Vulcan rock format in Birmingham, so there's some speculation as to what the plans are with this translator.

There's currently an application to move the station from its current spot near Greensboro north towards Tuscaloosa.  It's entirely possible that Clear Channel will re-purpose the translator for WACT, the AM companion to WRTR's news and talk format.  A spin to sports to compete with The Deuce, perhaps?  Who knows.  Another AM in T-Town, WMXB, was listed as the one-time source for a translator in town that's now hosting WWPG out of Eutaw.  Maybe they are seeking another translator to get on FM?  The format is gospel but the calls scream "Mix" and whatever middle of the road AC format the city is lacking.

Clear Channel doesn't operate any HD stations in Tuscaloosa, but there's also the long-shot proposition that they may try to expand The Vulcan rock format to the area.  The HD signal is weak but definitely not out of reach for a properly-equipped receiver.  It's not likely, but it's possible.

A whole mess of new LDTV permits for Montgomery.

The FCC just released the floodgates on low power digital permits today, with a daily digest that stretched a whopping 82 pages long.  Buried in that mass of new authorizations were several for the Montgomery market.  They all belong to "Luckland Corp" and are: W15DI-D, W19DS-D, W26EC-D, W35DC-D and W38FC-D.  All have between 100 and 15,000 watts and almost all are directional to one part of the city.

Montgomery already has several other construction permits for new LDTV outlets, belonging to Mako Communications and EICB-TV, among others.  These include W14DT-D, W30DJ-D, W26EF-D, W45DS-D and W50EK-D.  These were all issued at earlier dates.

This makes for a total of TEN new low power digital permits for the Montgomery area.  I'll be surprised if even one is ever built out and put on the air.  More than likely these are resellers looking to make a profit by selling them on to someone else.

TV contour maps now fixed.

After the government shut down the Tiger map browser service, the FCC had to find alternative maps to project protected contours for FM and TV stations.  The majority of FM stations' maps were saved, meaning there is a mix of the old Tiger images and new Google Maps overlays.  The TV section, however, lost all maps.  So until now, the TV contour maps have all been broken links, except for a few that have been edited in the last week or two.

That is now fixed.  All DTV, LDTV and LPTV should be fixed.  If you come across a wrong or broken link, be sure to e-mail me at the address on the pages and I'll get it corrected.

FM construction permit for WJAU in Lincoln disappears.

A construction permit awarded to a religious outlet for a new station at 89.5 MHz (1 kW @ 125 feet) has been deleted.  The facility got as far as acquiring a call sign, WJAU, but was never built out.  The station was awarded to "Wilbur Gospel Communications & Foundation" but was sold along with WKRE in Argo for $1.00 to Alabama Christian Radio.  ACR put WKRE on earlier in 2011.

How a translator can move a hundred miles without a major modification to its license.

I often write about translators that are endlessly creeping from one destination to the other.  It's a game to figure out their ultimate final resting place.  Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I get it wrong.  But how do these translators manage to move so far when it can take years from other stations to make major changes to their licensed facilities?  The answer lies in what constitutes a "minor change" to a translator license.

The FCC determines the coverage of all FM and TV stations by a protected contour.  For FM, this is the theoretical 60 dBu contour line.  It takes into effect antenna height, transmitting power, directional antenna patterns if necessary but not terrain.  For a translator to make a minor modification to its license to move elsewhere, the 60 dBu contour must overlap the current contour.  In other words, there has to be a small area of overlapping coverage for the move to still be considered "minor".  This leads translators, which are limited to 250 watts of power, to little leaps from permit to permit.

It's these "overlapping hops" that have allowed translators like W286AQ to move to so far from home.  The station started off near Northport in Tuscaloosa County, but moved, one overlapping hop at a time, all the way to Lay Lake in Chilton County.  If I remember correctly, it's been four or five "hops" from Northport to Chilton County.

Along the way, sometimes these translators will bump up into a licensed full power station's coverage area.  They can't be granted a license if they are interfering with a full power station, as they take higher priority than translators (or LPFM stations).  The solution is to change frequencies. But only certain frequency changes can be made for it to be considered a minor modification to a license by the FCC.  These are 1, 2, 3, 53 and 54 channels up or down.  This equates to moving to a first-, second- or third-adjacent from the current frequency, or moving 10.6 or 10.8 MHz over.

Using W286AQ on 105.1 MHz again as an example, here are the alternate channels the station could move to without requiring a major modification to it's license:

• 104.5 (3rd adjacent)
• 104.7 (2nd adjacent)
• 104.9 (1st adjacent)
• ** 105.1 **
• 105.3 (1st adjacent)
• 105.5 (2nd adjacent)
• 105.7 (3rd adjacent) 
• 94.5 (down 53 channels)
• 94.3 (down 54 channels)

That's not to say that W286AQ could move to any of these channels, but it's an idea of what the FCC would consider.

So the next time you see a translator making what seems like inconsequentially small moves in frequency or transmit location, you'll know why — they're gaming the rules to move to a more lucrative area.

Lots of RDS updates for central and west Alabama, plus AM and translator stuff.

I won't go through all the trivial changes to RDS text fields, but one thing that's worth noting is that Clear Channel in Birmingham has completely abandoned scrolling text in the PS field. This is the eight-character display that's supposed to show the station name. It's supposed to be static (not changing) but most stations "fake scroll" or flash messages up on the display, which can be distracting to drivers.

For whatever reason, WMJJ, WERC, WDXB and WQEN went back to station call sign displays. Well, except WMJJ which is saying "MAGIC96". Even the Vulcan FM translator just says "Vulcan" and nothing else. Scrolling data and song/artist titles seem to be reserved for the R-Text field, which is what it's meant for.

In AM news, I've discovered WENN (AM) is off the air again. The translator is going strong, however. It's unknown if this is more technical trouble on the AM side, or something tornado-related. The FM has also added RDS advertising "Birmingham's Neo Soul" station.

Translator W295AP has received a license to cover from the Feds, but I am 99% certain it's still not on the air. This station is licensed to Bay Minette (106.9 MHz, 99 watts) and seem to be headed down towards Pensacola with each change.

In Pascagoula, long silent translator W205AP (88.9 MHz, 38 watts) has been deleted from the FCC records by request of the licensee. The last time I heard it, it was relaying Family Radio (CSN), but that was years ago.

In TV news, WMPV received a big boost to its power this month. The Mobile market TBN affiliate is now pumping out 700 kW of Godly message-spreading.

W286BV Tuscaloosa receives CP to boost power.

W286BV (105.1 MHz, 200 watts, Tuscaloosa) has received a construction permit to boost power to 250 watts from the same site it uses now.

The translator is owned by Edgewater Broadcasting but is currently listed as relaying WTBC AM 1230.

WMXB Tuscaloosa receives construction permit.

WMXB (1280 kHz, 5 kW days, 500 watts directional nights, Tuscaloosa) has received a construction permit to move to a site near Kaulton Field, east of I-359.  This is south of the existing TX site in Northport near Wintzell's Oyster House.  The new site will feature just one tower, with the same day power but just 35 watts of non-directional nighttime power.

It's interesting to note that WMXB has apparently been operating with just one tower for years now, despite their night authorization requiring 3 towers.  It's unknown if they have been broadcasting from the original site or moved, because they have never told the FCC anything about a change in facilities.

The station is also listed as being rebroadcast on an area translator (W245BR, 96.1 MHz, 80 watts) but I've yet to hear from anyone in the area that can confirm they're on air.  It's never been on when I've been through there in years past.

W286AQ has another CP (everyone act surprised).

W286AQ (105.1 MHz, 218 vertical watts, Northport) has another CP.  As you may remember from previous posts, the actual site is now near Jemison in Chilton County.  The latest CP has it moving east again towards Lay Lake, near the Mineral Springs community.  This time it'll have the full 250 watts, vertical.

Huntsville-Athens area storm outages.

Again from the Radio-Info thread (scroll down to see the link), more off-air reports are coming in.  The Huntsville area translators W251AC (98.1, Capshaw), W258AU (99.5, Chase) and W264AI (100.7, Maysville) are all off.

In nearby Pulaski, Tennessee, WKSR AM and FM are off. WZYP, which stayed on through the storms, was reported off this afternoon.

More storm-related outages.

WJLX Jasper is reported off due to loss of power and equipment.  WFMH-FM is also off; their transmitter site is near Hackleburg, which was hard hit.

W241BD reports on-air to FCC.

W241BD (96.1 MHz, 8 watts, relaying WGIB) has filed a license to cover with the FCC.  The station, licensed to Calera, actually broadcasts to the Alabaster area from a cell phone tower across US-31 from the Colonial shopping center, south of I-65.

WGIB doesn't need any help filling in coverage in the area, since they are heard on WQEM, which transmits from just over the next hill.  Could an relay deal with a Birmingham-area AM be far behind?  Spanish-language WQCR broadcasts from just down the highway.

More storm damage reports coming in from Radio-Info…

WVNN-FM (92.5, Trinity) in the Huntsville market is reported off, either via storm damage or just lack of power.

In the same area, WAFF (48, Huntsville) lost their doppler radar unit to one of the tornadoes.

Another tower loss from the tornadoes.

This time it's WATV (900, Birmingham).  Their tower was in Pratt City.

WJIK Fulton, Alabama files license to cover with FCC.

WJIK (89.3 MHz, 2.1 kW) licensed to Fulton, Alabama has filed a license to cover, which means they are likely on air now with a religious format.  The station transmits from the Thomasville area.  It is unknown exactly what kind of religious programming is on offer, who it is syndicated by or if it is originated locally.

WUOA back on air.

WUOA (RF 6, Birmingham) is reported back on the air.  The WVUA/WUOA multicast was reported to be either off air or just a blank screen due to the tornado damage and power outages in Tuscaloosa.  No word yet on whether the other stations are back on, or if it's just the big stick in Birmingham.

WCQT-LP's tower brought down by tornado, caught on camera

Cullman's WCQT-LP was one of the many victims of the tornado that struck the area a few days ago.  Check out this video, where about 1:45 into it the tornado topples the station's tower while tearing through the city.

Pascagoula's WPMP is now WPMO. Again.

Just down the pike is a call sign change for Pascagoula's WPMP 1580.  It's now WPMO for the second time in its history.  It's also showing as licensed to "Pascagoula-Moss Point" for some reason.

The station currently airs a talk format and is simulcasting on WVGG (1440) in Lucedale, Mississippi.

Storms take their toll on Alabama broadcasters.

I'm hearing that there's been some damage to some central Alabama broadcasting properties due to the historic tornado outbreak on April 27th.

Folks on Radio-Info are covering the outages.

All the WVUA properties are off the air as of this evening.  This includes WVUA-CA in Tuscaloosa, WUOA in Birmingham, WDVZ-CA Moundville and WJMY-LP Demopolis.

One of WAGG's two towers is down at the Birmingham Fair Park.

The WTXT tower northwest of Tuscaloosa is reported to have collapsed.  The station is running 500 watts from an alternate site.

Check that link above to see if anything else pops up.

W295AP Bay Minette is headed down the highway.

Translator W295AP (106.9 MHz, 99 watts vertical) has never been on the air as far I know, but it's received yet another construction permit, moving it down Old Pensacola Road (CR-112) into the absolute middle of nowhere, near the Gateswood community.  The frequency and power remain the same, so it will cover literally nothing, but this is likely just a "stopover" en route to Pensacola or some other populated destination.

W271BN (WENN-AM) translator to decrease power, increase height.

W271BN, better known as neo soul-formatted WENN-FM in Birmingham, is getting a big drop in power, from 228 watts to just 85 watts vertical.  The coverage will remain about the same, though, as they're moving up in height considerably.  Still, with Birmingham being such a large metro and with the ever-present threat of tropospheric ducting to destroy weaker signals, it's odd to see them take such a big power cut.

W244CN Enterprise on the move again

Translator W244CN, license to Enterprise, is on the move again.  The current (likely unbuilt) facility is actually in the Snowdoun community south of Montgomery, and is licensed for 250 watts vertical on 96.7 MHz.  The new construction permit just issued will throw the translator clear over Montgomery, to a spot between Elmore and Wetumpka.  The power will be 250 watts and it'll move down a click to 96.5 MHz, which is sure to anger the few listeners of Birmingham's Magic 96 down that way.

Also of interest is the station being relayed is changing, from American Family Radio station WAQG out of Ozark to Troy University's pubcaster WTBF.  It's not unusual to see a translator list a public outlet like this before being transferred to relay a local AM signal, but it's also possible that WTBF could use this, as their signal begins to degrade once you get north of Montgomery.  Another possibility is relaying one of the station's HD subchannels (HD-2 is Classical 24 and HD-3 is BBC World Service, but that could always change.)

Still, the prospect of them relaying another AM signal is most likely.  Stay tuned!

103.1 The Vulcan moving transmitter

If you're a fan of the new Vulcan's music and live north or east of downtown, better get your tape recorder handy because your signal is about to take a nose-dive.

Translator W276BQ that relays The Vulcan rock format on 103.1 MHz is moving off the devil-pronged master antenna atop Red Mountain and onto the short Magic 96 tower on Ishkooda Mountain west of downtown.  The station had been authorized 130 watts but was running the full 250 watts thanks to a STA that let them run higher power while seeking a permanent home for the signal.  Although the facility at the WMJJ tower is still for 250 watts, it's at a considerably lower 990 feet versus the current 1305 feet over downtown.  This will lower the signal strength considerably in places like Gardendale, Center Point, Irondale  and Trussville.

New FM auction details released; 3 Alabama allocations up for grabs.

The FCC is getting ready to auction off a bundle of new FM allocations, and Alabama has three up for grabs.

The first allocation is for Coosada, in the Montgomery market, for a class A at 93.1 MHz.

The second allocation is for Livingston in west central Alabama, for a class A at 96.3 MHz.

The final allocation is for Northport in the Tuscaloosa market, for a class A at 105.1 MHz.

There's no guarantee that any of these will be won at this auction, and no guarantee that whoever wins them will even built them out.  But I thought it'd be interesting to share the new "possible future stations" that may one day come on the air.  Anyone who has browsed the master FM list and seen all the purple-hued construction permits in the noncommercial band know that a permit to built doesn't necessarily mean a station will be on the air quickly, or at all.  But, as two of these are in rated markets and near bigger cities, chances are the Coosada and Northport allocations will sell.

Also worth noting is that the allocation for Northport is currently occupied by a translator relaying AM station WTBC and their hybrid talk-AC music format The River.  Should the Northport station be auctioned off and a station built, it would bump this translator off the air.

New feature added to select TV station info pages: mDTV

The data listings for TV stations will now include a new feature under "other information": mDTV.  This is Mobile Digital Television, a separate broadcast that stations can use to target mobile video devices.  Instead of the unreliable (for moving targets) 8-VSB used for our current digital multicasting, the signal for mobile viewers is encoded in a standard called ATSC-M/H.

The stations currently broadcasting the mDTV signal are WSFA and WAIQ in Montgomery and WBIQ in Birmingham.  Other stations with a target 2011 launch date include WBRC, WBXA-LD, WVTM, WIAT in Birmingham, and WEAR, WFGX & WFNA in Mobile-Pensacola.  There is no information on whether any TV stations in Huntsville, Columbus, Dothan or Biloxi are planning any roll outs.

WTNI Biloxi to get new, shorter tower

In a construction permit recently issued by the FCC, WTNI will be allowed to replace the existing 350 foot antenna (most likely dating back to when the station was on 570 kHz as WVMI) with a shorter tower.  The shorter tower, being only 195 feet tall, will not need to be lit.  Upon completion of the new tower, WTMI should return to using 10 kW day power.  Since November, they have been operating under a special temporary authority to use just 2.5 kW days from a shortened version of the existing corroded tower.

Whoops - WHNT

Just a quite note to say I corrected the incorrect information that appeared on WHNT's data page this morning.  A license to cover came across last night and I mistakenly attributed it to the current construction permit that's listed on the FCC's site.  Instead, it was for the previous build out.  Or at least that's what today's digest says.  The current facility is 53 kW at 1,742 feet.  The current CP that may not be built yet is for 250 kW at 1,742 feet.

WAY-FM's W286BK, Birmingham

Speaking of the fruit basket turnover on 105.1 MHz, WAY-FM's translator on that frequency in Birmingham just received a construction permit to move from Hoover to Red Mountain.  The old facility off Farley Road in the Patton Chapel area of Hoover had just 10 vertical watts.  The new facility will still have just 10 watts, but V/H polarization, and will be about 300 feet higher up, on the "devil's pitchfork" behind WTTO and WIAT's studios.

Whether it ever gets built out or not remains to be seen.

W286AQ (Northport, sorta)

A license to cover has been issued for translator W286AQ (105.1 MHz, 218 watts vertical only).  Licensed to Northport, it is actually physically closer to Jemison in Chilton County.  Although I'm skeptical it's actually on the air, it is supposed to be relaying WZZK out of Birmingham.  It appears to be temporary, though, as there's already a pending application in the pipeline to shift the station further to the east, towards Lay Lake.

This is one of a handful of translators on the 105.1 MHz frequency around central Alabama that have been in a fruit basket turnover, moving every which-a-way.  Before the Jemison facility, it has allegedly been in Wilton in Shelby County, West Blocton of Bibb County and Vance and Northport in Tuscaloosa County.  Its ultimate destination is still anyone's guess.

WANI translator in Auburn to get a boost

W234BQ (94.7 MHz, 250 watts vertical only) is currently relaying AM talker WANI in Auburn, by way of the HD-2 subchannel on WGZZ "Wings FM".  The translator is currently highly directional towards the rural southeast and doesn't put much of a signal over all of Auburn, and nearly none of Opelika.  A new construction permit just issued should help to rectify that situation some.  The station will be dropping the directional antenna and lower height a smidgen.  Although it still won't do much for Opelika reception, it should greatly improve reception all over the city of Auburn and at the university.

Mobile translator move

A quick post about a translator move going on down in Mobile.  W278AP is currently licensed to Daphne, with 25 vertical-only watts of non-directional power on 103.7 MHz.  The parent station is listed as WSTF out of Andalusia.  It just received a construction permit for a move to the WKRG-TV tower, with a change of city to Spanish Fort.  The power will increase to 99 watts both H&V, with a highly directional antenna towards downtown Mobile.  The height will increase from a paltry 26 feet above ground level to nearly 650 feet, giving the translator a great line of sight into downtown Mobile across the bay.  

The parent station is changing to WBHY-AM.  This is WBHY's second FM translator, after W295BB 106.9 MHz in Fairhope.  That translator is not currently on the air and hasn't been on the air for months.  The existing W278AP license has never been on the air either as far as I know.  The location is on the grounds of Daphne Middle School, and there is no tower or other outward appearance that any facility was ever built there.

WGBZ "The Beat" debuts in Anniston

Anniston has lost an adult contemporary format this week to music that hasn't had much presence in the city before: hip hop.  AM 1490, WSYA has been heard on a translators at 104.3 in the Anniston and 99.1 MHz in Oxford.  The trimulcast is the first hip hop/urban station targeting Anniston directly on FM.

That's not to say it's the only urban signal in town, though.  WHOG, licensed to Hobson City has been blasting away with 500 watts of monaural power for a while now with rap music, but it's just a small AM daytimer.  It'll be interesting to see if WHOG tries to battle it out against the FM competition or go off in a different direction.  Previously, Annistoners have had to DX V-103 from Atlanta, 95-7 Jamz or Hot 107.7 from Birmingham.

Auburn transator update

A move-in from Union, Georgia has finally made its way to Auburn.  Station W234BQ on 94.7 MHz is said to be relaying WGZZ (Wings FM), although it's probably actually carrying Wings' HD-2 feed of AM talker WANI.   This puts the number of FM translators carrying WANI at three.  There's also one on 98.7 and one on 106.5 MHz.

The W234BQ translator was formerly W238BZ, licensed to Union, Georgia and on 95.5 MHz.  After it migrated to Alabama, it was located in the Hatchechubbee community, but may not have ever air from that location.

Tuscaloosa translator update

The license to cover has come through for the move-in from Demopolis on 105.1 MHz.  W286BV has 200 watts and is said to be rebroadcasting AM station WTBC.  WTBC recently dropped talk for classic hits as "The River" to coincide with being rebroadcast on FM.

WKRE Argo is on the air.

The license to cover permit just came through last week.  WKRE is owned by "Taking Back The Airwaves Ministries" based in Irondale, who also run the online Revolution Radio format.  WKRE seems to have come on for testing back around the 17th of March.  The 4 kW signal (vertical, with a whoppin' 1 watt horizontal) appears to be something of a disappointment to people who have been keeping up with the station's progress.

The station's going to have a tough road to hoe if it wants to be heard in Birmingham.  Although silent, Bessemer is home to the construction permit of WSJL, the more-off-than-on religious barker for western Jefferson County's population of armadillos and the occasional miner at Jim Walter.  6 kW from Bessemer will certainly preclude the signal from moving closer in or being heard at all in Birmingham or points west.

University of Alabama to buy Spring Hill College's WHIL in Mobile

Mobile's Fox 10 news is reporting the pending sale of Jesuit-run Spring Hill College's public radio station, WHIL, to the University of Alabama.  Terms have not been disclosed.

The University of Alabama currently owns and programs stations in Tuscaloosa, Florence and Selma, and is heard on translators in Decatur and Huntsville.

It is unknown if WHIL's programming will change to mirror the APR network.  WHIL carries more classical and NPR news programming than APR, which has more jazz, blues and PRI/APR news/entertainment programs.

Mobile is a fairly well saturated market for public radio.  Besides WHIL, most residents can hear the Mississippi Public Broadcasting station from Biloxi, plus the University of West Florida's WUWF in Pensacola.

W25DR Jasper's license deleted by FCC

W25DR, LPTV outlet for Trinity Broadcasting Network in Jasper, has had their license deleted by the FCC.  It is unknown if the station is still broadcasting or has ceased operation.  The listing has been deleted from the LPTV listings.

Oldies and classic hits switch places in Columbus, Georgia

Longtime contributor Travis has alerted me to a change on the radio dial in Columbus, a market we don't normally hear much from.  WRLD 95.3 has been running classic hits as "The Drive" for a while, but has apparently dropped the format to return to its previous one as "Boomer 95.3" with oldies music.  The name and classic hits format are now on WRGC AM & FM, as "106.9 The Drive".  WRGC had picked up the oldies format from WRLD when it changed a while back.  I'm fuzzy on when WRLD dropped Boomer for Drive, and the exact date for the switcharoo is unclear, too.  It goes back at least to January this year.

WAYH translator in Cullman on the move.

Cullman translator W249BI has been licensed for 250 watts on 97.3 MHz to serve Hartselle, and for a long time had a construction permit to move the facility north of town, about halfway to Decatur, covering much of the small town of Flint City.  That permit seems to have disappeared now, replaced with a new CP for W250BM, on 97.9 MHz, with 100 watts.  That facility is shown to be southwest of Hartselle, a little closer to Falkville but really in the middle of cow country.

It'll be interesting to see where this one migrates to now that it's on a different frequency.  It seems an odd choice, because there's not a lot of wiggle room that I can see.  Winfield and Huntsville have full power stations on 97.7 MHz, and Huntsville even has an active translator on that frequency, too.  Huntsville has a translator on 98.1 MHz, and the west Alabama country giant WTXT is also on that frequency.  About the only direction this thing can go is south.

Columbus-area W299AX on the move.

Ten watt translator W299AX is currently licensed to the community of Laconia, Alabama, and transmits from a facility north of Phenix City.  It also covers part of Columbus, Georgia.  The translator has just received a permit to move to a site just west of Phenix City, much closer to the community of Laconia.  But with this move comes a city of license change across the state line to Columbus.   So when it was closer to Columbus, it was licensed to Laconia.  Now it's closer to Laconia and licensed to Columbus.  Such is the wacky world of translators.

The facility has been previously listed as relaying Georgia's Peach State Public Radio station WJSP, licensed to nearby Warm Springs, Georgia.  With the construction permit, the station is now being shown to relay WJEP out of Cusseta, Georgia.  The owner is Edgewater Broadcasting but it's unclear which religious network the parent station is carrying.

Baldwin County's W279AT making the move up highway 59.

W279AT (103.7 MHz) is currently licensed to Robertsdale and listed as relaying WSTF out of Andalusia.  As far as I have sampled, the facility has never been built or put on the air.  It's now receiving a construction permit to move up Alabama highway 59 to the next town, Loxley.   The new site will be less than 30 feet of the ground, with 10 vertical watts of power, located behind the big Loxley Church of God just south of town.

Will this be another dead facility or does it stand a chance of getting put on?  It's certainly plausible that it may wind up being operated by the church since the antenna site is on church property, and the short height means it can be attached to a light pole or other non-tower support.  We'll see what happens.

Mobile TV: The Country Channel moves from WFGX to WEAR

All country-music videos channel “The Country Channel” has moved from WFGX-DT's .3 subchannel to WEAR-DT's .2 subchannel.  This leaves CW network's WFNA-DT as the only broadcast network in the market left on a station with no subchannels.  It also means ABC HD will likely take a picture quality hit to make room for the extra bits needed to carry the music channel.

A whole mess of LDTV CPs issued for Montgomery, Columbus. Dothan just gets one.

A very quick rundown of several new permits issued for low power digital television stations.  These are all being issued to what I call “spectrum squatters” who will most likely never build anything out, instead opting to resell the permits to interested buyers for a profit.  My proclamation here is the same as the new AM station permits:  I'll be shocked if ANY of these ever get put on the air.

First in Columbus, where new permits are issued for channels 14, 22, 27 and 47.  They are all directional facilities, with either 6 or 15 kW.  They join an existing unbuilt permit on channel 43, also owned by one of the squatters.

Next to Dothan, which picks up one more permit for channel 43.  This appears to be the first spectrum squatter foray into the market.

Finally, Montgomery, which sees a total of five new allocations: channels 14, 30, 36, 45 and 50. All but channel 14 are directional.  Powers range from 1 to 5 to 15 kW. This is a big jump in allocations for Montgomery, which has just one low power digital station in the area, and two analog low power stations.  

WASG files license to cover, goes silent moments later

It appears that troubled south Alabama AM facility WASG may have had a brief appearance from its new facilities in Mobile earlier this year.  A program test authority was filed in late January 2011 and a license to cover in late February.  It just showed up yesterday in the daily digest, but a cursory check of the AM dial from the area shows the station is still off the air.  It's possible the station signed on just long enough to earn the license to cover, then shut off again.

WASG dates back to the early 80's when it was one of the few stations owned by Native Americans.  At the time, it was on 1140 kHz and ran C-QUAM AM stereo.  The station later moved to 550 kHz, and fell silent after new owners acquired an FM companion.  Pensacola Christian Radio later bought the station, moved it to Escambia County, Florida, but it didn't last long on air there, despite getting 10 kW days.  The station got a CP to move to Mobile in 2009.

Last translator move of the day: W234BB Madison

W234BB was erroneously listed on my site as 94.7 MHz for some reason, but the FCC is still saying 94.5 MHz, with 10 watts from atop Monte Santo Mountain.  The permit that has just been issued changes all that, with a move to 94.7 MHz, a drop to 10 watts vertical only.  The site moves off the big mountain and down to Winchester Road in Moores Mill.  WAWI Larewnceburg (WAY-FM) is still listed as the station being repeated.

The typical move for translators is to get them as high and with as much power as possible, this one seems to be moving in the opposite direction.

Northport's W286AQ - still headed east.

W286AQ (105.1 MHz) is our next translator-on-the-go.  I kinda figured this would be headed into Birmingham, but it appears to be going the wrong direction — this time to just north of Jemison.  The site's off CR-146, between US-31 and I-65 and will put 60 dBu into Jemison and almost into Calera.

I have my doubts that this is a final resting place, although there's an existing tower at the site.  Clanton's only AM, WKLF, already has a translator to its name, so I don't know what else this could relay besides religious programming.  My bet is it isn't through moving yet.

W244CN creeps towards Montgomery again.

W244CN (96.7 MHz) has another CP, moving it ever closer towards Montgomery.  This time the 250 watts of vertical power will be “broadcasting” from near Snowdoun, off Butler Mill Road.  I put broadcasting in quotes because the chance of this actually being built out here is slim.  Most of these translator moves seem to be on paper only and the FCC never bats an eye.

Anywho, this will put the 60 dBu contour into the Montgomery city limits for the first time, although it still isn't close enough to be competitive.

Another hopelessly complicated directional AM that'll never be built gets green lighted from the FCC

This newest one is right in Birmingham, licensed to the northern suburb of Fultondale. Here are the stats: 6 kW days, 250 watts nights and six towers full time.  The actual coordinates put the facility in the middle of a forest between US-31 and Quail Ridge Golf Course in Gardendale.

I went ahead and added this to the AM list. I've kind of broken my longstanding rule against listing brand new construction permits because the majority of them never come to fruition, and the few that do, do so with vastly different facilities.  At this point, these entries just add some color to the pages. :)

If you're wondering why I'm so pessimistic about this ever getting built, consider the obstacles: AM radio is being abandoned in droves by anyone whose age is below room temperature.  A six tower array is expensive to built and even more expensive to maintain.  The few established AM powerhouses in Birmingham have already migrated to FM simulcasts or translators.  The market is already fairly saturated with choice.  And not least, this is a highly directional signal both day and night that will in all likelihood miss a lot of population to the east and west of downtown and north of Gadendale.  The city is spread out along the poles, north-south and east-west.  This signal is aimed almost due south from Forestdale.

This CP joins others on AM in Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Fayette, Excel and Opp, and I'll be shocked if any of them get put on the air before the CPs expire.

Silent York translator on the move again

W212CB York (90.3) has received another construction permit, this time while on the FCC silent list.  The new facility moves it on down I-20/59 to Cuba, near the Mississippi state line.  The power increases to 80 watts and frequency moves to 100.9.  Once it moves the calls will change to W265BO.

Perhaps it's headed to Meridian to relay another AM station?

WERC is no more, and some translator updates

It's official, WERC is no more.  Well, on AM, at least.  Today the call sign changed to WVVB, to reflect the new musical outlook of 960's FM translator cousin, “The Vulcan”.  The WERC calls on 960 dated back to the early 70's.

In translator news, a facility licensed to Calera popped up today that I had never seen before, despite the fact the construction permit dates back to about 2008.  Somehow it has slipped through the cracks.  W241BD is on 96.1 MHz, owned by Educational Media Foundation and is listed to be relaying Glen Iris' WGIB.  The actual transmitter site is nowhere near Calera, but just south of the I-65/US-31 interchange in Alabaster, across from the Best Buy and JCPenny shopping center.

The 105.1 MHz frequency in central Alabama continues to be aflutter with movements, this time a Demopolis-licensed translator known as W286BV.  At one time it really was near Demopolis, but had moved to a site north of Moundville, although it's doubtful it was ever actually on the air.  And even if it was, few would hear the measly 10 vertical watts of power from the middle of nowhere.  That's changing, as the latest permit moves it right up to Jug Factory Road in Tuscaloosa, where a few other translators are now.  The power also gets a boost to 200 watts.  The FCC shows non-comm WUAL as the station being relayed, but look for that to change if the facility ever gets built out.

This is the latest in a series of odd movements all centered on 105.1 MHz in the central Alabama region.  Tuscaloosa already had a translator allocated to the frequency, licensed to Northport.  But that translator moved from northwest of town to Vance, then to Wilton in Shelby County.  Meanwhile, Shelby County already had a translator in nearby Alabaster on the frequency, but it moved to Hoover.  Finally Demopolis' translator on this frequency is on its second hop to Tuscaloosa.   *whew*

W286BK Birmingham on air?

The daily digest came down the pipeline this morning with word that WAY-FM has filed a license to cover for W286BK in Birmingham.  The station, at 105.1 MHz, was previously licensed to Alabaster with just 10 watts.  The site was actually in Pelham, at US-31 and AL-119 but as far I know, was never operational.

So while this license to cover would imply they're broadcasting from the new site in Hoover's Patton Chapel area, I am skeptical that it's actually on the air.

In other religious radio news, Columbus, Georgia's WFRC is showing as having built out a construction permit.  They have previously been listed as silent, so it can be guessed that they are back on the air now.  It's possible they're still off, as religious organizations are bad about bending the FCC rules on licenses to cover, but as it's a full power station I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Birmingham's 103.1 unsurprisingly flips to active rock as "The Vulcan"

Told ya.

The previous post was actually made in haste, as the station was stunting with a rotating cadre of musical formats with a pitch to vote online for the final format.  But we all knew it'd be rock, right?  

"The Vulcan" reappears on Birmingham radio after all. In three spots!

The speculation appears to be true, at least for now, that the old "Vulcan" rock format is back in Birmingham.  And it's on three different frequencies!

First up is the translator, W276BQ, running 250 watts with an STA (Special Temporary Authority) from the same tower as WQEN and WERC-FM.  It's on 103.1 and is the main focus of the marketing, as "103.1 The Vulcan".  It's being fed by WQEN-HD2, but the rock format is also being heard on WERC-AM, too.

No idea what Clear Channel's ultimate plans are with the HD2 or AM station, as they only need one or the other to feed the translator.

Birmingham to get another "Vulcan"?

W276BQ is the call sign for a translator in Birmingham on 103.1 MHz.  It's currently under and STA to run from the same tower site as WQEN and other Clear Channel stations on Red Mountain.  In recent times, it's had trouble staying on the air, relaying Citadel's WJOX-AM, but a few days ago, it came back on in fits and spurts with music.  AAA, AC and who knows what else.

Turns out, it's basically stunting for a new format.  Clear Channel has thrown up a website asking visitors to vote on what the new station should play.  It may be a ruse, though, as www.1031thevulcan.com has already been registered by agents for Clear Channel.  If you remember, the Vulcan was the name of the ill-fated mainstream rocker that was bumped for a WERC simulcast.  Thoughts abound that the website is hype and the format will be rock no matter what.

Birmingham hasn't embraced rock since The X was on 107.7, but that was before rock took a turn for the worse and pop music began climbing the charts.  Either way, will Birmingham support what is likely to be a computer in a closet, with no real hosts?

We shall see.