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Birmingham Something afoot at Birmingham's WENN-AM and 92.3 W222BK?

passtheword

passtheword

I was listening to 92.3 W222BK, WENN-AM's FM translator, driving around this morning in Montevallo and I heard an ID given with an HD3 channel.

I assumed this was WBHJ HD3 since the station is owned by Summit Media, but I checked and 95.7 HD3 was still airing AIR-1, as of 8:30 am. So I was wondering if maybe I misheard the ID and it was actually WBHK HD3. I didn't think WBHK currently had HD functionality with its signal (and the FCC designates they don't) but I did note the HD icon when tuning into 98.7 this morning.

So I went back to W222BK to listen to the ID. It was given as WBHM HD3 (along with WENN-AM and W222BK). Listening to HD in south Shelby county is kinda iffy, although I have heard WBHM's HD2 channel at times in my area. Today, I wasn't receiving anything digital on 90.3. If WENN's is indeed on WBHM HD3 now, I'm wondering if the 1320/92.3 combo is about to be repurposed, leaving WBHM HD3 as the remaining broadcast for what is now Beautiful 1320? WBHM does have that FM translator in Birmingham at 106.1 (W291DC) they use to rebroadcast WBHM. Possibly the beautiful music on WBHM HD3 winds up feeding 106.1 at some point? AS of this morning, there's nothing on the FCC site concerning a change of W222BK's originating station from WENN to WBHM,
 
Over the past week or so, WBRC / Fox6 has been doing some comprehensive maintenance work on their tower, which requires WBHM to go to their aux antenna and transmitter when the crew is up near the main antenna. The aux is the former main transmitter, which does not have HD.
 
I'm interested to see if you can get WBHK in HD a little better at some point to see if there's something on the HD2, too. It's not totally uncommon for a station to have a blank HD channel at startup but eventually I'd expect something to be there if WENN is on the HD3 now.
 
tomservo said:
I'm interested to see if you can get WBHK in HD a little better at some point to see if there's something on the HD2, too. It's not totally uncommon for a station to have a blank HD channel at startup but eventually I'd expect something to be there if WENN is on the HD3 now.
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I will check and see sometime. One of the board members may be closer to Bham who can hear the WBHK HD channels.

92.3 is supposedly being fed by WBHM HD3, not WBHK HD3, at least according to the TOH ID.
 
tomservo said:
I'm interested to see if you can get WBHK in HD a little better at some point to see if there's something on the HD2, too. It's not totally uncommon for a station to have a blank HD channel at startup but eventually I'd expect something to be there if WENN is on the HD3 now.
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Since someone mentioned previously that a commercial station cannot air on a noncommercial station's HD channel...and accordingly, WENN could not be legally broadcast on WBHM HD3...possibly the TOH ID is incorrect and should actually be WBHK HD3, not WBHM HD3.

I checked tonight and all I receive for WBHK is their primary HD1 channel
 
passtheword said:
Since someone mentioned previously that a commercial station cannot air on a noncommercial station's HD channel...
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I'm pretty confident that is not the case. There's a counter-example in Birmingham: WZZK has aired Air 1 on their HD-2 for some time, in order to feed W271BN 102.1.

The opposite is true, however: K-Love could not air WZZK on one of their subchannels because non-commercial rules apply even on subchannels.
 
IIRC translators can be "legally" on an HD2, 3 or whatever but a lot use a regular STL. Of course they are supposed to stop broadcasting if the HD goes down but that sometimes doesn't happen. I seriously doubt the FCC will get all hot and bothered about a screwed up OTA ID on a translator if the frequency shift box is correct. Are they using one?

If it really is an annoyance politely contact the station, they probably are not listening if it's part of a cluster or a remote for a national programmer.
 
@tomservo I checked WBHK while in Alabaster this morning to see if I could hear any other HD channels. I am still only receiving the HD1 channel on 98.7.

I did, however, check WBHM while in Calera. I received three HD channels on 90.3. The HD3 does lock in on the car stereo but there is no audio with it as of 9 am this morning. The HD2 channel is airing classical music. So it could very well be that the TOH ID for WENN and W222BK stating WBHM HD3 is correct. How this would work with a commercial station airing on a noncommercial station (if such a rebroadcast is not permissible by the FCC)?
 
I seriously doubt WENN would go to expense of leasing and HD channel from someone else when they have the same ownership as WBHK.

And I really doubt The University of Alabama woulg illegally lease an HD channel to another broadcaster unless it was non profit or they were LMAing it on their way to buying it. Have you heard the WBHM HD 3? I bet it's not WENN's programming, then do the polite thing and call or email WENN and let them know there is an error on their ID.
 
@secondchoice I messaged you through the private message feature on here so please check your messages in regards to your last reply to me. Thanks!
 
Ok, here's the latest update. It appears Birmingham now has TWO beautiful music outlets (a total of three stations including W222BK), at least for the time being. WBHM HD3 is now airing beautiful music but they are airing separate programming than what is being broadcast on WENN and W222BK. Some of the liners from WENN are on 90.3 HD3 (minus the WENN and 1320 references). The TOH ID on 90.3 HD3 states they are "Alabama's Beautiful Music Station".

So the question is...what, if anything, happens to WENN and W222BK? Will Summit Media assume control of the stations and repurpose them for a new format, leaving WBHM HD3 as the remnant of the original "Beautiful 1320"?
 
tomservo said:
Well dang, that's quite a head-scratcher. I guess it's safe to assume that the WBHM HD3 Beautiful Music format is without commercials, while WENN and translator have them? If it's not the same as 1320 it makes no sense to lease that noncomm subchannel at all.
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WENN hasn't been airing commercials, or at least that I've heard, anyway. I'm thinking maybe 90.3 HD3 is the "lifeboat" for the beautiful music format and WENN and W222BK will eventually air another format, as it makes no sense to run both sets of programming on 1320/92.3/90.3. How all that fits in the puzzle, if at all, with WBHK recently adding HD...
 
tomservo said:
Now I've heard that WBHM's HD is off completely… That wasn't much of a debut for the HD3 sorta-simulcast, ha ha.
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Intermittently. Yesterday afternoon, I wasn't receiving any of the HD channels on WBHM. However, at 6:30 last night, the HD channels were active. However, as of this morning around 8 am, they have disappeared once again.
 
tomservo said:
Now I've heard that WBHM's HD is off completely… That wasn't much of a debut for the HD3 sorta-simulcast, ha ha.
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Fox6 was having some major tower work done the last few weeks. That required WBHM to switch to their backup transmitter and antenna, which is not in HD. I believe work was completed earlier this week. I've been hearing the HD3 fine throughout Shelby County when its on.
 


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