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Louisville How 97.5 WAMZ Got 100,000 Watts

G

Gregg.

All other FMs in Louisville are 50,000 watts or less. Several are Class A, maximum 6,000 watts. So how did WAMZ become a Class C station with a 100,000 watt signal?

It was originally WHAS-FM, co-owned with Louisville's AM powerhouse, WHAS 840, and dominant daily newspaper, the "Louisville Courier-Journal." It signed on in 1966, after rules about FM power had been established. So it's not like it was grandfathered at the high power it now enjoys.

The key is where Louisville placed its TV towers. It was cheaper to locate those towers on the other side of the Ohio River in Indiana, towers which could also be used for FM radio. The land was undeveloped and elevated, putting a good signal over Louisville and its suburbs. But for FM stations, there was a big difference between Indiana and Kentucky, something that TV stations didn't have to worry about.

Kentucky is in Class C territory but Indiana is Class B. So if a broadcaster put its FM transmitter on a TV tower in Indiana, the maximum power is 50,000 watts. Most broadcasters did it anyway but not WHAS. It put WHAS-FM's tower in Kentucky, allowing it to run 100,000 watts. Just for the record, the class of an FM station is determined by where the transmitter is, not the city of license.
 
Good question. No clue.

We have a couple of those in Lexington too. Several 100,000. WMXL was downgraded to 85,000 about 10+ years ago.
 
KY is a "borderline" state when dealing with FM Class B. It depends on how close your station's tower location was to class B "territory" plus age of allocation "grandfathering" can come into play. Another factor that no one wants to admit is "political". However it really doesn't matter that much except for bigger electric bills (or the number of bays on the antenna for extra gain) considering the relatively small size of the cities in Kentucky.
 
Gregg. said:
The key is where Louisville placed its TV towers. It was cheaper to locate those towers on the other side of the Ohio River in Indiana, towers which could also be used for FM radio. The land was undeveloped and elevated, putting a good signal over Louisville and its suburbs. But for FM stations, there was a big difference between Indiana and Kentucky, something that TV stations didn't have to worry about.
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Absolutely. Unless it has changed in the last 10 years or so, the only Class C licensed to Ohio is 104.1 in Portsmouth because its tower is across the river in Kentucky. Illinois is Class B territory and has a handful of Class C’s because they have towers in Missouri or Iowa.
 
Kent said:
Absolutely. Unless it has changed in the last 10 years or so, the only Class C licensed to Ohio is 104.1 in Portsmouth because its tower is across the river in Kentucky. Illinois is Class B territory and has a handful of Class C’s because they have towers in Missouri or Iowa.
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A similar situation is in Portland and Bangor, Maine. The cities are in Class B territory and most of the FM stations have their towers near those cities. But if you put the tower 10 or 15 miles north of those cities, that's Class C territory.

In Portland, 107.5 WFNK and 102.9 WBLM are 100,000 watts, while everyone else is 50,000 watts or less..

In Bangor, 106.5 WQCB is 100,000 watts and 103.9 WVOM is 90,000 watts, while everyone else is less than 50,000 watts.
 
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