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Miami/Fort Lauderdale WINZ 940 to flea power at night

NoMoreLurking

NoMoreLurking

WINZ 940, 50kw days and 10kw nights (though they've supposedly been using 25kw nights on a STA), has applied to downgrade significantly. Their daytime power stays at 50000 watts, but after sunset they'll be putting out a whopping 16 (sixteen) watts non directional from one tower. Right now WINZ uses six towers, which must be on valuable land. If this FCC application goes through, apparently iHeart gets to bulldoze all but one tower and sell the real estate reclaimed.

The power bill will be less, undoubtedly. But how far will that 16-watt nighttime signal go?
 
They don't have a translator? I can't find one listed, although they are on an HD2.
 
NoMoreLurking said:
The power bill will be less, undoubtedly. But how far will that 16-watt nighttime signal go?
Click to expand...

Who cares? It's all nationally syndicated Fox Sports Net. If you can't pick up 940AM, just spin the dial and someone else is carrying the same shows.

Better yet, listen via the FoxSportsRadio app, which is another product of iHeart.

foxsportsradio.iheart.com

FOX Sports Radio - The Premiere Sports Lineup in the Nation!

FOX Sports Radio. The Premiere Sports Lineup in the Nation!
foxsportsradio.iheart.com foxsportsradio.iheart.com
 
NoMoreLurking said:
WINZ 940, 50kw days and 10kw nights (though they've supposedly been using 25kw nights on a STA), has applied to downgrade significantly. Their daytime power stays at 50000 watts, but after sunset they'll be putting out a whopping 16 (sixteen) watts non directional from one tower. Right now WINZ uses six towers, which must be on valuable land. If this FCC application goes through, apparently iHeart gets to bulldoze all but one tower and sell the real estate reclaimed.

The power bill will be less, undoubtedly. But how far will that 16-watt nighttime signal go?
Click to expand...
Keep in mind that iHeart owns very little tower real estate these days.

They sold nearly all of their portfolio to Vertical Bridge a few years ago for some quick cash, and have been tenants ever since.

So it's Vertical, not iHeart, that ends up profiting from these deals.
 
lanceventa said:
WINZ is the flagship for the Miami Marlins. Although not sure that audience impact matters either...
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Speaking from experience, WINZ vanishes after dark here in west Broward and I can't even get a clear signal on my car radio driving on Nob Hill Rd. Since a majority of their games take place at night the Marlins and/or iHeart will need to do a bigger push for app listening for anyone who lives outside of Carol City.
 
strangelove said:
Speaking from experience, WINZ vanishes after dark here in west Broward and I can't even get a clear signal on my car radio driving on Nob Hill Rd. Since a majority of their games take place at night the Marlins and/or iHeart will need to do a bigger push for app listening for anyone who lives outside of Carol City.
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One of the benefits of signing with iHeart is all the digital content they provide, including access via the iHeart app.

But the team has every right to complain, and one solution might be to simulcast night games on WIOD.
 
TheBigA said:
One of the benefits of signing with iHeart is all the digital content they provide, including access via the iHeart app.

But the team has every right to complain, and one solution might be to simulcast night games on WIOD.
Click to expand...
I'm too lazy to look into who WIOD runs at night, but that would mean preempting them 5-6 nights a week from April through September. At that rate, they may as well move the rights to WIOD entirely.
I think they'll push digital listening in lieu of a viable night signal, however I've been wrong before.

Then there's the matter of interference from Cuba. If 25kw was barely drowning out the station in Cuba, how much more than 16 watts omni will it take?
 
It occurs to me that this move may have been a longtime coming. When WIOD was slated to move from 79th St., it went to an entirely new site rather than diplexing with the existing WINZ array in Carol City. I can't say how that would have impacted the cost of the new WIOD facility, but it certainly would have made downsizing the WINZ site much more difficult.
 
Don't know how this would playout with the FCC, but now that the new WIOD facility is built, could WINZ restore meaningful nighttime service by moving to the new WIOD site?
 
bigdonho said:
Don't know how this would playout with the FCC, but now that the new WIOD facility is built, could WINZ restore meaningful nighttime service by moving to the new WIOD site?
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I'm sure it's technically feasible, but quite likely it's financially unfeasible. Although I've never seen their balance sheet, I doubt iHeart would be able to recoup the expense of diplexing WINZ at the new WIOD site.
 
Voicetrack of Reason said:
There's a loaded monopole cell tower behind the old abandoned studios at Carol City, and I don't think that's going anywhere. Remnants of the site will likely remain.
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I was always curious about what was done to shield that building from RF when the WINZ/WZTA studios were there.

The transmitter shack can be replaced with anything from a shipping container to a small cell site building when the place gets razed.
 
940 is a Mexican and Canadian clear channel frequency. One Class A station is XEQ Mexico City. At one time it was 150,000 watts days/50,000 watts nights, non-directional. But it has downgraded to 30,000 watts day and night. And in Montreal, CBM used to be 50,000 watts day and night. Montreal is so far from Mexico City that CBM had a very slight null to the southwest. But now it's CFNV, supposedly with 50,000 watts but I can't believe that. It just plays automated music.

WINZ has been 50,000 watts non-directional by day. But as a Class B outlet, it has to run directional at night to protect Mexico and Canada. So I guess, if it doesn't want to have a multi-tower directional signal at night, it has to cut its power. But really, it will interfere with other stations after sunset unless it slashes power to a mere 16 watts?
 
On a related note, WINZ has been moved from 94.9 WZTU-HD2 to 103.5 WMIB-HD2. I don't know if it's the sample rate or the originating audio source, but it sounds awful. The AM signal actually sounds better than the HD.
 
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