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The next move for Rock 94.9

tomservo

tomservo

With the Pell City interference issue out of the way, it looks like iHeart Media has wasted little time in trying to boost the coverage of Rock 94.9. They've picked one weird as heck way to do it, though.

A CP that was published this week shows them increasing power to 250 watts from the current 70, but not from Red Mountain. Instead, the TX site will be across from Shades Valley High School on Old Leeds Road in Irondale. It'll employ a very directional antenna with a major lobe aimed at downtown.

I guess they're doing what they can to minimize interference towards the LPFM on 95.1 that has not come on air yet from the Center Point area, but seems like they could have gone with a less extreme setup by keeping the TX site as far away from Center Point as possible and using a lighter null.
 
I saw the new CP details on recnet, too, and was scratching my head as to the reasoning behind all of it. It appears they'll be covering just a fraction of what they are now.
 
passtheword said:
I saw the new CP details on recnet, too, and was scratching my head as to the reasoning behind all of it. It appears they'll be covering just a fraction of what they are now.
Click to expand...

It does appear with this move Rock 94.9 will be losing coverage, and they probably will. I wonder if just like they complained about the Pell City 94.9, one of the new LPFM's complained about their 94.9. or maybe this was to prevent that from happening. Unless it was for this reasoning I don't understand the move myself because you would think a radio station would want the most coverage possible.
 
I really don't get this move either. The only thing they are gaining is a signal on the east side around Irondale & Leeds, but the coverage they are losing with the move doesn't seem to be worth it to me. Do you think maybe they are planning a simulcast with another translator on the west side? Do they even have another translator on the west side at their disposal to do that with that they're not already using?
 
RollTide said:
I really don't get this move either. The only thing they are gaining is a signal on the east side around Irondale & Leeds, but the coverage they are losing with the move doesn't seem to be worth it to me. Do you think maybe they are planning a simulcast with another translator on the west side? Do they even have another translator on the west side at their disposal to do that with that they're not already using?
Click to expand...

I wonder if the 106.5 Translator will be a simulcast. It switched from the Possum to B 106.5. It still hasn't shown up on the I Heart Media website so B 106.5 may not be the permanent format either.
 
Hmm... I hadn't thought about a simulcast. I was thinking that 250 watts from Olds Leeds Road in Irondale would still have to make the hop over Red Mountain to reach north of the mountain listeners. Seems like that would be a major impediment to reception in places like Avondale and Southside.

I'm no engineer but I know directional antennas don't work as well on FM as they do on AM. I'd want to keep 94.9 as far away from the LPFM on 95.1 in Center Point as possible. It'll be interesting to see what the long term plan is here.
 
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