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1010 AM WTZA To Relaunch As A News/Talk Station

LegalTender said:
Wrong station IDs are not defensible.
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It's not good production values, but if it's only online it shouldn't be a legal issue.

As I recall both stations (the AM and the FM translator) were only going to be broadcasting until 7 PM each night for now. Of course, the AM powers down to flea power at sunset, which is at 6:15 through February. In March we go to 7:45 EDT after the time change.

They probably need to come up with a plan for when we move to DST and the days are longer. In June and July FCC sunset is 8:45 EDT.
 
jabba17 said:
It's not good production values, but if it's only online it shouldn't be a legal issue.

As I recall both stations (the AM and the FM translator) were only going to be broadcasting until 7 PM each night for now.
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They're airing Shannon repeats at 7p on 102.1 with WWWE IDs.
 
LegalTender said:
They're airing Shannon repeats at 7p on 102.1 with WWWE IDs.
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that's A WINNER of an idea.. another reason why this experiment on 1010 wont last long. unprepared amatuers
 
LegalTender said:
They're airing Shannon repeats at 7p on 102.1 with WWWE IDs.
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Yeah, I heard that tonight on the way home...were they also airing the TOH IDs (WWWE, Hapeville) and not just the mentions of WWWE 1100 throughout the rest of the hour?

102.1 signal was good up I-85 to Jimmy Carter, and then tolerable up to 120/Sugarloaf. Once I hit the ridge it was unlistenable. That seems to jibe with Radio-Locator.

https://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=W271CV&service=FX
 
Listened to 102.1 on my drive from Cheshire Bridge to Brookwood Friday afternoon. When I got it in stereo it was slightly left leaning (stereo positioning, not politically :)).

Amigo
 
They need to crank up the modulation on 102.1 but maybe that Ebay transmitter is doing all it can.
 
jabba17 said:
Why is WTZA IDing at the top of the hour as "WTZA, Decatur/Atlanta"? Their city of license is Atlanta. Why mention Decatur?

https://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?sr=Y&s=C&call=wtza&nav=
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Way back, I remember WGUN "identifying" itself with Decatur like WSBB "identifies" itself with Atlanta instead of Doraville. The 1950 Broadcasting Yearbook places WEAS under Decatur (page 122), and the ad for WEAS says "Atlanta/Decatur" (pages 118-119), even though, in the FCC records, the only mention of Decatur is the street address.

Big fish / small pond = WEAS / only station in Decatur
 
trusty said:


Way back, I remember WGUN "identifying" itself with Decatur like WSBB "identifies" itself with Atlanta instead of Doraville. The 1950 Broadcasting Yearbook places WEAS under Decatur (page 122), and the ad for WEAS says "Atlanta/Decatur" (pages 118-119), even though, in the FCC records, the only mention of Decatur is the street address.

Big fish / small pond = WEAS / only station in Decatur
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Except there are other stations licensed to Decatur--WJZA 1310 and WWSZ 1420. 1420 is the old WAVO, which IIRC got its callsign from its original city of license, Avondale Estates. WMLB 1690 is (was? is it still on the air?) licensed to Avondale Estates today. 94.9 was originally licensed to Decatur when it was WAVQ, sister to WAVO. I was down in Decatur yesterday, and the WJZA tower is still there, despite being surrounded by new condos.

And it's still illegal for WTZA to put Decatur first in the TOH ID. WSBB doesn't even mention Atlanta in their TOH ID, except as part of the adjacent WSB (AM) ID. It's just "95.5 WSBB-FM and HD-1, Doraville and 750 WSB Atlanta". The "and HD-1" part may not be legally correct but the FCC regs and guidance are horrid on the topic of how to indicate digital broadcasting.

And most of the suburban stations (101.5, 94.1, 100.5, etc.) would love to have an Atlanta CoL. WCNN tried to get their city of license changed from North Atlanta to Atlanta, and the FCC turned them down, despite the city of North Atlanta having been dissolved prior to 680 taking to the air. Now, of course, the FCC would probably go great--now your city of license is Brookhaven, and WCNN would lose the mention of Atlanta in their ID.

Which raises an interesting question (and I'm not going to get up early on Sunday to find out). What do the stations with nonexistent cities of license put on for their required community affairs programming? Would also apply to WPZE Mableton and WJTP Lithia Springs.
 
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Amigo981 said:
Listened to 102.1 on my drive from Cheshire Bridge to Brookwood Friday afternoon. When I got it in stereo it was slightly left leaning (stereo positioning, not politically :)).

Amigo
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If they're just going to do talk they need to turn off the stereo. That translator needs all the help it can get.
 
jabba17 said:
Except there are other stations licensed to Decatur--WJZA 1310 and WWSZ 1420. 1420 is the old WAVO, which IIRC got its callsign from its original city of license, Avondale Estates. WMLB 1690 is (was? is it still on the air?) licensed to Avondale Estates today. 94.9 was originally licensed to Decatur when it was WAVQ, sister to WAVO. I was down in Decatur yesterday, and the WJZA tower is still there, despite being surrounded by new condos.

And it's still illegal for WTZA to put Decatur first in the TOH ID. WSBB doesn't even mention Atlanta in their TOH ID, except as part of the adjacent WSB (AM) ID. It's just "95.5 WSBB-FM and HD-1, Doraville and 750 WSB Atlanta". The "and HD-1" part may not be legally correct but the FCC regs and guidance are horrid on the topic of how to indicate digital broadcasting.
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jabba17 said:
Except there are other stations licensed to Decatur--WJZA 1310 and WWSZ 1420. 1420 is the old WAVO, which IIRC got its callsign from its original city of license, Avondale Estates. WMLB 1690 is (was? is it still on the air?) licensed to Avondale Estates today. 94.9 was originally licensed to Decatur when it was WAVQ, sister to WAVO. I was down in Decatur yesterday, and the WJZA tower is still there, despite being surrounded by new condos.

And it's still illegal for WTZA to put Decatur first in the TOH ID. WSBB doesn't even mention Atlanta in their TOH ID, except as part of the adjacent WSB (AM) ID. It's just "95.5 WSBB-FM and HD-1, Doraville and 750 WSB Atlanta". The "and HD-1" part may not be legally correct but the FCC regs and guidance are horrid on the topic of how to indicate digital broadcasting.
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Were there any other stations located in Decatur when 1010 was WEAS?
Does WSBB identify itself with Doraville at any time other than TOH?

If "identifying" is in quotes, it doesn't mean TOH; it means "to be associated with". Geesh.

(To add to the confusion, Broadcasting has 1010/WEAS-WGUN-WTZA/Decatur signing on in 1947. The yearbook changed 1010's city to Atlanta in 1970. Also, it has 970/WGLS-WTAM-WIIN-WKLS-WEOA-WNIV/Decatur signing on in 1948 while changing its city to Atlanta in 1954. 1310/WLKB-WOMN-WQAK-WXLL-WPBC-WJZA/Decatur didn't sign on until 1964.)
 
RoddyFreeman said:
Don't they transmit from American Tower's Chester Avenue site? I was on the Connector in midtown today, and they were shaky.
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Yes, the 102.1 FM W271CV translator transmitter does broadcast from that site. That’s the famed candelabra at I-20 & Hwy. 154 Conn./Bill Kennedy Way. between Boulevard & US 23/Hwy. 42/Moreland Ave. I mentioned earlier in this thread that it’s part of East Atlanta Village. It’s actually considered part of Reynoldstown. East Atlanta Village is south of I-20.
 
I was listening to a very strange broadcast from 1010/102.1 today...

Two guys were on the air asking for listeners to send money to "fix the transmitter." They went on for some time about how they and were "defrauded" by the previous owners.

This is so sad...It sounded like a Glenn Beck production...

WTZA was saddled with a cellular array a couple of years back after the Rivers family sold the transmitter site. Doing cellular on high power AMs can be done but it can be tricky to make everything work. (The cellular antennae must be electrically isolated from the AM tower. Various techniques are used to do this.) WTZA is 50,000 watts and transmits using a high impedance tower. This causes the RF voltages to be very, very high. The station is unable to fully modulate and used to VSWR trip every second or two when it rained. I have not noticed that issue since they went talk but it is not nearly as loud (!010 khz) as the other AM stations. I doubt they run anything close to 50KW when it is raining.

So no one thought to do due diligence BEFORE they bought the station?
 
I have a facebook friend who works at 1010 and psoted a picture of himself in the studio and a friend of his replied "up and coming station in atlanta, 1010 finally has a format that will work"

It took all I had not to post a laughing comment and tell them what I really think

an am that covers nothing half of morning drive in winter.. has a piddly translator.. and thinks it can do what bigger companies with better signals and more money cant do (106.7) or al already doing?
 
wavo said:
I was listening to a very strange broadcast from 1010/102.1 today...

Two guys were on the air asking for listeners to send money to "fix the transmitter." They went on for some time about how they and were "defrauded" by the previous owners.

This is so sad...It sounded like a Glenn Beck production...

WTZA was saddled with a cellular array a couple of years back after the Rivers family sold the transmitter site. Doing cellular on high power AMs can be done but it can be tricky to make everything work. (The cellular antennae must be electrically isolated from the AM tower. Various techniques are used to do this.) WTZA is 50,000 watts and transmits using a high impedance tower. This causes the RF voltages to be very, very high. The station is unable to fully modulate and used to VSWR trip every second or two when it rained. I have not noticed that issue since they went talk but it is not nearly as loud (!010 khz) as the other AM stations. I doubt they run anything close to 50KW when it is raining.

So no one thought to do due diligence BEFORE they bought the station?
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Are you saying they are no longer at the Panthersville/Battle Forrest Rd site, and that they haven't been for 2 years? The FCC database is still showing them at that site.
 
They are still there. They hung cell antennae on the tower a few years ago.

The transmitter is a DX50. Which is a great AM transmitter....if you have all of the modules running etc.

102.1 is highly directional. So, it does not have great coverage either.

That 1010 signal has never been a "great" signal, due to its location, ground conductivity <or lack thereof>. The channel always gets jacked up by co-channel late in the day.

At the very least, this is an up-hill struggle for the new owners.
 
WTZA should consider going HD only on 1010. There are a surprising number of HD radios out there although most people don't know how to tune in a HD signal, AM or FM.

I'm guessing most of their listening is from the translator, 102.1.

So the new peeps have paid $352,000 for this setup. No real estate or intangibles...simple stick price. I'm guessing the NUT is $60-70K monthly, maybe higher with some of the "talent" they're using. Does anyone think this station can collect $100K average per month? I have yet to hear a commercial on the station (although I admit I don't listen very often.)
 
wavo said:
So the new peeps have paid $352,000 for this setup. No real estate or intangibles...simple stick price. I'm guessing the NUT is $60-70K monthly, maybe higher with some of the "talent" they're using.
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I'm guessing they paid cash.

Unclear what happened to the signal "Vida Atlanta" [K & Z BROADCASTING, LLC] had.
 
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