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.