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.