WJOI 1230 Norfolk tower problems

[stevations]

Someone said to me that WJOI 1230 Norfolk is announcing on air that their tower is rusting and they will be going off the air. The station may go to a HD frequency on FM....probably WNOR 98.7 None of this is confirmed. They have Americas Best Music format of easy listening of the past.

 

[Gregg.]

Sorry to hear this. Stations on the AM dial running music formats for adults are getting fewer and fewer. It seems every year, the "America's Best Music" format loses a chunk of its affiliates.

WJOI is a single tower non-directional station on 1230, running not 1,000 watts but 627 watts. Maybe that's because of its tower problems. But with only a single tower, it should be easy to diplex the station on another AM's tower. You don't need a complicated directional pattern. You just need one tower.

Chances are slim it will relocate to an FM station's HD subchannel and go on a translator. And if a translator can be put on the air, my guess is management would rather put a more youthful format on that translator, not a station playing The Carpenters and Barry Manilow.

 

[stevations]

Looks like WNOR FM 98.7 may be involved also

https://www.pilotonline.com/enterta...tory.html?outputType=amp&fbclid=IwAR3mCBwBSVn

 

[seattlesarchiebunker]

Based on the Pilot article, it appears FM99 will be running 50kW from 350’. That will probably only cause issues in places like the Outer Banks or Williamsburg (places they tend to be less concerned about). WJOI will be Broadcasting on 1230 still at an unknown power/tx site, and “may” be listenable in parts of Hampton Roads.

I’d be curious about some of the other sites out there by the water, like WROX. That tower has been in the town of Cape Charles for almost 30 years. I can’t imagine it’s in better shape (or Saga never bothered to do any preventative maintenance on the tower they’re replacing).

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Based on the Pilot article, it appears FM99 will be running 50kW from 350’. That will probably only cause issues in places like the Outer Banks or Williamsburg (places they tend to be less concerned about). WJOI will be Broadcasting on 1230 still at an unknown power/tx site, and “may” be listenable in parts of Hampton Roads.

I’d be curious about some of the other sites out there by the water, like WROX. That tower has been in the town of Cape Charles for almost 30 years. I can’t imagine it’s in better shape (or Saga never bothered to do any preventative maintenance on the tower they’re replacing).

Why not look up the data in the FCC CDBS Database that specifies what WJOI will be doing?

Theyre going to be using a 30 some odd foot tall TEMPORARY HPR.0990 AM ANTENNA (CENTER-LOADED, BOTTOM FED, VERTICAL WHIP ANTENNA). It'll be on the roof of the 1230 transmitter site building with 157 watts

 

[seattlesarchiebunker]

Why not look up the data in the FCC CDBS Database that specifies what WJOI will be doing?

Theyre going to be using a 30 some odd foot tall TEMPORARY HPR.0990 AM ANTENNA (CENTER-LOADED, BOTTOM FED, VERTICAL WHIP ANTENNA). It'll be on the roof of the 1230 transmitter site building with 157 watts

Honestly, I’m a stinking, lazy bum and didn’t look it up on the AM Query. Just read the article through the Pilot.

Regardless, 157 watts from a single temporary antenna will do just as the article said, cover some parts of Hampton Roads with a signal that *may* be able to be received.

At least they’re not closing up shop and turning in the license. If FM99 was not their stablemate, I doubt anything would’ve been rebuilt and they’d need to find a tower that’d let them diplex.