Oldies Monday, indeed. My favorite podcast is on vacation this week so I've actually listened to the radio again today. I'm enjoying the wide range of 50s and 60s music they're playing but several songs are glitchy. They play the intro and skip to the outro and the rest of the time is silence, until the next song plays. And sometimes before the top of the hour it's either jazz or reggae music for a few minutes.
I honestly think there are enough HD radios out there now that putting WGOK on someone's HD2 would be a worthwhile move. Historically both WBLX and WDLT have had pretty robust HD signals, although BLX has been off HD for ages and WDLT won't decode on two of my three HD radios for some reason.
WRGV is limited in where it can go and what power it can use due to spacing issues. Obviously Clear Channel wanted it to put more signal into Mobile so they moved from the Molino tower site to Baldwin County. At the Molino site they ran 100 kW, but the 70 dBu fell short of Mobile. The slight jog west and drop to 50 kW now puts Mobile in the main coverage area and more of the western suburbs get a better signal, too. I'm sure despite it "officially" being a Pensacola station the hope is it bleeds a little from WABD. And it helps CC's bottom line that some of their facilities are co-located now on the same tower.
It can't increase power or move any further west, most likely, due to 107.1 The Monkey in Gulfport. I suppose they might could go back to Molino at 100 kW but they would only gain trees and cows from that move, as well as a higher power bill. Adding a directional antenna to restrict power towards Mobile might net them more power but again it'd be wasted as Pensacola already gets a great signal (HD excepted).
BTW, I've often wondered why Mobile & Pensacola aren't one radio market to match the TV DMA but I've been told it has to do with not wanting to further dilute the ratings of the AMs, which cannot reach both markets. I think there was something about hurting ad revenues, too because the current setup allows them to charge twice for ads airing in both markets — once on a Mobile signal and once on a Pensacola signal, although that is only likely true for formats with duplication, which there aren't many.