That's a fair point. If that is one of the big money areas they might want to reach, perhaps there is something else in the works. An earlier comment from you about 99.1 seems to put that translator out of play for now. I don't think they're going to flip any other full power stations other than 97.3 in the near future. So that leaves translators and AM/HD originators.
I took a look at the FCC 60 dBu contour maps for all of Summit's translators: 92.3, 99.1, 100.1, 102.1 106.3 and 107.3.
We can probably rule out the ones associated with WAY-FM — 92.3 and 106.3. Neither are full market signals, and there's probably some type of long term lease in effect with them. BMR? I could see that go either way. There's
probably an agreement that prohibits them from getting bumped to a lesser signal, but if not it'd be fair game. I have a feeling BMR would do alright with a smaller signal, but maybe not. I dunno where their demo is in the metro.
That leaves 99.1, 100.1 and 102.1.
Of those three, 99.1's current CP has the biggest coverage area of all of the Summit translators, including the ones for WAY-FM and BMR. 102.1's current signal is a very, very close second, while 100.1's is the most severely hampered. Places like Pleasant Grove, Gardendale and Indian Springs Village are completely outside the 60 dBu line.
Would they really consider upending all of WAGG's FM listeners on 102.1 and shuffle them off to a lesser signal to give it up for Sleepy Soft AC? I keep hearing from "radio pros" that black formats are harder to sell than white or multi-ethnic formats like AC. But then I believe Birmingham has a very sizeable black middle class in the suburbs that 100.1 would not reach as well, which could only hurt their bottom line as everyone avoids music on AM like the plague.
This is why I keep wondering about 99.1's ultimate fate. If they could get it back on the air, Soft AC could go to that frequency and have a massive audience as far as the coverage maps go. 102.1 would be a nice consolation prize, at the loss of suburban black gospel listeners who'd be SOL with 100.1. Of course, those same listeners spent decades loyally listening to WAGG on 1320 and later on 610, which has a great signal day and night in the metro. So maybe they'll stick with the format no matter where it goes.
And here I said I hate to speculate.
Ugh, and now I'm thinking they'd have to buy new URLs for
three stations now,
and change up all their Facebook pages (assuming WENN even has one, which I don't think it does.) It doesn't seem very sensible, but then I've never said radio companies always act sensibly.
