A News FM Station Is Coming To Fort Walton Beach

[R.D.P.]

According to the other site, 106.9 is the frequency. Clay Holladay's Northwest Florida Media is the owner. News won't be the format. I meant to say New in the title. Forgive my head for making that mistake.

Dan <><

 

[davideduardo]

According to the other site, 106.9 is the frequency. Clay Holladay's Northwest Florida Media is the owner.

Nobody is the owner yet. The new allocation will be part of the next frequency auction by the FCC, and Holladay is likely to be a strong bidder.

 

[Kent]

David is correct. Holladay proposed the new allotment and downgraded one of its stations to make room for the allotment. The auction process, however, will ultimately determine who owns the station because it's a new station rather than a move-in of another one.

 

[Groove1670]

It will be awhile before the auction window opens. I don't see anything happening till 2018 (however... stranger things have happened). The AM translator process will need to be completed. So all of you who dream of owning a small market station, start saving now. There will be some deals, and don't expect and frequencies in Manhattan or Chicago LOL.This will probably be the last auction window (maybe one more). Opportunity knocks.

 

[Poledo]

I just got around to looking Holladay's proposal up. This 106.9A allocation isn't for some rimshot from Portland or Ebro, it will be from the Hollywood Blvd. tower in downtown FWB and should have similar coverage to WTKE 100.3A. Nice.

I wonder If a class A FM in FWB is worth more than a class A in PCB?
Did WKMX's move to Dothan open up any other space in SW Alabama? Maybe some new spectrum around Frisco City opened up?

 

[Groove1670]

Yes. Frisco City benefited from previous station swaps. T-minus sign on is soon.

 

[Poledo]

Congrats. Hopefully you can pump it up to a C2! After loosing WPPG, that area needs it.

 

[Tibbs4]

FWB/Destin needs a new radio station. The area is certainly growing. 77 listenable signals is not enough.

Seriously, I hope Clay gets a chance to get back in the market. Tines have changed since they sold out.

 

[Groove1670]

Congrats. Hopefully you can pump it up to a C2! After loosing WPPG, that area needs it.

A C2 would be a waste of signal and a large power bill. We would look at a C4 upgrade if the FCC approves it. The Power Pig is still around on 101.1 in Repton.

 

[Poledo]

FWB/Destin needs a new radio station. The area is certainly growing. 77 listenable signals is not enough.

Just one more station! I swear I'll stop after one more.

It's odd that Escambia Farms seems like the perfect location for a 100kw FM to cover a growing population betweeen Eglin, Rucker, Tyndal & Pensacola, isn't it? The Surf happened 30 years early.

Come back home Tibbs, the Emerald Coast needs you.

 

[Poledo]

A C2 would be a waste of signal and a large power bill. We would look at a C4 upgrade if the FCC approves it. The Power Pig is still around on 101.1 in Repton.

I was referring to the old 100kw 93.3 Power Pig.

C4 would blow up the southern BlackBelt!

I'd assume adding Evergreen, Atmore, Jackson and Thomasville to the Monroeville signal is the golden egg? Are you planning to stay hyper local to Monroeville and Uriah (Monroe County)?

 

[tomservo]

I was referring to the old 100kw 93.3 Power Pig.

C4 would blow up the southern BlackBelt!

I'd assume adding Evergreen, Atmore, Jackson and Thomasville to the Monroeville signal is the golden egg? Are you planning to stay hyper local to Monroeville and Uriah (Monroe County)?

The latest CP mod for the Frisco City station has it listed at just 300 watts at 48 meters HAAT. The 60 dBu won't reach any of those places. It will, however, reach Megargel and that's what really matters.

By the way, it's interesting that everyone is saying this will not go forward until the auction, yet there's already an application filed for the class A facility by Northwest Florida Media, LLC. How does that work if it hasn't even been bidden on yet?

 

[Poledo]

Groovy admitted earlier in this thread that the CP for the Frisco City facilities are temporary until he works out new engineering to take advantage of the Wiregrass Shuffle.

I believe NWF Media's 106.9A FWB application is for a new allocation, not an actual station. It ties up the spectrum to prevent upgrades and move ins until the next auction.

But what do I know?

 

[tomservo]

Groovy admitted earlier in this thread that the CP for the Frisco City facilities are temporary until he works out new engineering to take advantage of the Wiregrass Shuffle.

I believe NWF Media's 106.9A FWB application is for a new allocation, not an actual station. It ties up the spectrum to prevent upgrades and move ins until the next auction.

But what do I know?

I know, I'm just giving Grove a hard time. Plus, I like saying 'Megargel' ha ha.

The application for an allocation makes sense I guess. New allocations come along so rarely that I don't recall ever tracking one since I started my website. It's kind of uncharted territory.

I'm pretty sure 98.7 in Pensacola came along after I started doing my website, but that was years ago. Mostly I've just begun following facilities once the permit was granted, but I'm trying to at least be aware of things happening in early stages now. Not that it has made much difference - a new translator just came on in Montgomery and it was missing completely from my site despite the fact it dated back to 2013!

 

[Poledo]

Since the internet came around, WYCT, WRRX and WYLB were all new allocations. 104.3 in PCB was new. 106.1 in Tallahassee Um, I'm having trouble thinking of others, but there must be several more within 200 miles of Mobiile.

 

[Groove1670]

I'm pretty sure 98.7 in Pensacola came along after I started doing my website, but that was years ago.

98.7 was originally a Lillian COL. This was way before the 80-90 docket and auctions. The allocation was opened and many parties applied. I thing it was finally settle after 15 years or so.

 

[Poledo]

So how much wiggle room do you think 106.9A FWB has? Could it end up in Pensacola after the auction? Or up power to 50kw+?

 

[tomservo]

Since the internet came around, WYCT, WRRX and WYLB were all new allocations. 104.3 in PCB was new. 106.1 in Tallahassee Um, I'm having trouble thinking of others, but there must be several more within 200 miles of Mobiile.

Stuff like this gets my curiosity piqued and makes me wish I had kept a copy of the site as it existed back in the very early days, circa 1996. I honestly don't remember if WRRX would have been a station I had to add, or if I'd not actually had a Mobile/Pensacola/Biloxi spanning metro page back then. The stuff archived on the Internet Wayback Machine is sparse prior to the year 2000.

98.7 was originally a Lillian COL. This was way before the 80-90 docket and auctions. The allocation was opened and many parties applied. I thing it was finally settle after 15 years or so.

Oh that's interesting, I never knew that about it originally being a Lillian COL. Makes sense, though, it's one of the few actual towns with nothing licensed to it yet between the AL-59 corridor and the city of Pensacola.

Now that I think about it, 98.7 wasn't the only addition to the Mobile-Pensacola page I made, 105.7 came along after my site got online, too, although it predates 98.7 by several years.

Stuff like this invokes a bit of nostalgia for me because back when all this was happening, I was not a resident of this area, just a stupid teenager vacationing with his parents… so updates to the stations south of Montgomery were very much "few and far between" in those days. I can barely remember the dial back then, when the only thing one was liable to hear on 105.7 was the station out of Troy, and 98.7 was strictly for DXing. Seems like once I may have heard the soft rock station out of Jackson, MS… Or something with "Love" in the station slogan. It's been quite a while and that's quite a fuzzy memory. There's also my recollection of hearing the overnight Rick & Bubba Show replay on WQEN out of Gadsden (back when it was still a Gadsden station) in the Walmart parking lot in Foley.

Come to think of it, those summer week long vacations were quite productive for me as a budding website author and DX'er, because at least one night of the week I'd hike over to one of the taller condos in Gulf Shores, lugging my best FM radio and a little portable color TV, climb to the topmost floor of a stairwell, and DX everything that came in. I got a lot of Dothan and south-central Alabama data that way!

So how much wiggle room do you think 106.9A FWB has? Could it end up in Pensacola after the auction? Or up power to 50kw+?

I don't think it could move to Pensacola at all due to the 2nd adjacent issues with 107.3. The minimum distance between it and something on 106.9 is like 53 miles IIRC and that would put it no closer than east of Navarre. Even if they could move the allocation to 106.7, it'd still need to meet that same distance requirement, and would also be restricted to 106.5 to the point it still couldn't be closer than Avalon Point.

Of course there are probably waivers that could be invoked, but I dunno nuthin' 'bout birthin' no waivers.

 

[Poledo]

Digging back into the old brain... I kinda want to remember the 98.7 allotment being the FM companion issued to 790 WPNN. But it never made it on air.

WZNS 96.5 also came on after the Internet arrived. I have no idea how old the allotment was. 105.9 in Atmore is rather new as is WSBZ.

And learn local geography, ABMP. It's Avalon Blvd. on Garcon Point which is part of Santa Rosa county extending into Escambia Bay.

 

[tomservo]

Garcon Point! That's right, I'm sorry. That's what just get from going by memory.