It depends on how the translator was originally constructed/licensed. If it was bound to the AM, under current regulations, no. If the AM dies, the translator goes with it. If it was not "bound" to an AM during its original license, then yes, it can re-broadcast any station. There was also a class of translators that were bound for a specific time period, but most, if not all, of those are now able to be re-assigned to any station. @fybush, correct or did I miss something?
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Cumulus shutdown tracker
- Thread starter Mediafrog+
- Start date
Yes, assuming the translator wasn’t “tied” to the AM under FCC regulations.
It seems to me the issue would be how the station obtained the translator. If it was part of the AM rejuvenation plan, and it was attached to an AM, then I don't think it can be split off.
Aren't most of those lock-ins to the AM expired, or expiring soon by now?
The wording is just vague enough that they can say they were simply using KMOX as an example of what they were talking about, without actually (mistakenly) claiming it's owned by Cumulus.
But in that case, writing it as "That played out Monday in St. Louis as the Audacy-owned legacy AM powerhouse 'News Radio 1120' KMOX..." would've been a well-needed clarification.
The article doesn't mention that the station in question is owned by Cumulus. But they are now syndicating its programming to other co-owned stations in the region:
www.insideradio.com
This is part of the same strategy that is affecting a number of Cumulus AMs. In these cases, they're not shutting the stations down, but replacing the local programming with that from a nearby station.
Allentown’s ‘Cat Country’ Added To A Pair Of Northeast Pennsylvania Signals.
The borders of “Cat Country 96” WCTO Allentown-Bethlehem, PA expand to the Wilkes Barre-Scranton, PA market via a simulcast on co-owned WSJR, formerly “Nash 93.7,” and WBHD (95.7), which was
This is part of the same strategy that is affecting a number of Cumulus AMs. In these cases, they're not shutting the stations down, but replacing the local programming with that from a nearby station.
Depends...
Some AMs were granted FM translators as part of the AM revitalization program and the FM translator is bound to the AM for a period of time (4 years??? I don't remember exactly).
In cases where an owner simply acquired or had a FM translator in the cluster that they happened to use to relay an AM station, they can change the originating station to another station or HD subchannel.
To bring this back around to the original purpose of the thread, I think you can argue that the station whose plug was pulled on March 3 was actually KGO…KZAC was a placeholder on 560 while KSFO swallowed up the old KGO when it moved to 810. It was pretty obvious that KZAC wasn’t a long-term proposition. Strictly speaking, yes, it was KZAC 560 that was shut down but the real corpse was KGO.
Must have gotten that information from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
(which has been defunct for more than 35 years)
Strictly speaking, all four AMs are corpses, along with iHeart's 960. The entire band is dead in SF.
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I’m keeping an eye on a couple of Missouri Cumulus stations as candidates for the radio boneyard.
1130????
KGO's been a corpse since 2011. And then there was the defiling of the corpse (the sports betting format) in 2022.
Screw semantics. Cumulus is keeping 810 on the air and has pulled the plug on 560. Period.
But it was still on the air, as KGO, even if unrecognizable in the sports-betting format. The all-news format, and the successor talk format were clearly branded as KGO.
The term “zombie” would be more appropriate, in my opinion.
If you view it strictly as a matter of frequencies, yes. When you bring actual programming into the picture, it’s more nuanced.
It happened at the end of 2024 in the VT/NH Upper Valley. WTSL Hanover, NH, was running an adult contemporary format on 1400 AM along with a couple of translators. In late December, 1400 went dark, along with one of the translators (97.5). The format was continued on an HD subchannel of WHDQ Claremont, and the 106.7 translator previously used to carry the oldies format that WHDQ had been running on the HD subchannel started carrying the AC programming that replaced the oldies. Interestingly, 600-watt 96.3 WFYX Walpole also had been carrying the oldies format and flipped to AC as well. (Radio-Locator, as is its habit, still thinks it's an oldies station.)
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In most cases, yes.
There is an exception, for certain stations which received an FM translator during a special filing window, where the licenses for the AM and the translator are permanently tied together.
I think this was the window which closed February 2018, but the FCC's Third Report & Order which established it has vanished from the Commission's web site so I can't check the details.
In Erie, Pennsylvania Cumulus has applied to change the primary station of 96.3 W242CU from 1260 WRIE to 97.9 WXTA.
Perhaps WRIE is going silent as well.
enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov
Perhaps WRIE is going silent as well.
Draft Copy « Licensing and Management System « FCC
Licensing and Management System
Programming is intellectual property, Mark. It can be and has been transferred, along with call letters from frequency to frequency, for decades, in markets across the country.
The signal on a frequency is what's gone dark, in the case of 560.
Did I say otherwise?
What, then, would you call the extinguishing of intellectual property?
By the way, until the 560 license is surrendered, I don’t think it should be called a corpse. Comatose, or perhaps hibernating.