103.9 tower move completed

[bwilliam614]

Driving up 1-71 north to 70 west the station came in crystal clear, normally at the 71/70 split its unlistenable. Glad they finally got the move done.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

That's good news, especially given what a bad spot that typically is. Would be interested in hearing any other feedback re how they sound in other traditional trouble spots, especially since I'm out of town for awhile. Downtown arterials? Freeways east side of downtown? Short North? Campus? 315 or 71 a little north of downtown?

 

[Buckeyes2001]

I'll be coming down to see the OSU opening game on the 31st and I'll have to check it out then. Before I would have some trouble with 103.9 in the OSU campus area (and south to downtown)

 

[xmusicmatt]

That's good news, especially given what a bad spot that typically is. Would be interested in hearing any other feedback re how they sound in other traditional trouble spots, especially since I'm out of town for awhile. Downtown arterials? Freeways east side of downtown? Short North? Campus? 315 or 71 a little north of downtown?

I will check on the way home from the west side in a few hours -- I work about 10 mins from the new tower site.. and I usually drive home thru campus etc up to NE Columbus.

 

[RickF]

I was very happy to have Jack-Fm return. With the tower move I now have no signal here in Marion. Use to come in perfect. NABCO, please put Jack on 99.7

 

[xmusicmatt]

That's good news, especially given what a bad spot that typically is. Would be interested in hearing any other feedback re how they sound in other traditional trouble spots, especially since I'm out of town for awhile. Downtown arterials? Freeways east side of downtown? Short North? Campus? 315 or 71 a little north of downtown?

They are on the new tower site for sure (even though their legal ID still says WJKR Westerville).

Drove Rome Hilliard Rd
Fisher Rd (past the tower site flipped to 103.7 when I was within the site of the tower and heard hash type sound on 103.7 and 104.1 does anyone know if 103.9's running IBOC?)
turned onto Wilson Rd
went East on Broad St into downtown Columbus
turned North onto 4th st
Turned West on Spring St..
North on High St.. stopped at red light within site of 1 Nationwide.. no static at all.. clear...
North on High St thru Short North towards campus..
Drove thru Ohio State campus on high st into Clintonville.. into Worthington ..

Didn't seem to notice any static in the car..

Will be interesting to see how the station does in the PPMs with the move.. I also noticed they are now doing artist-title on the RDS now.. last time I listened a few weeks ago I hadn't seen that.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

That's good news, especially given what a bad spot that typically is.  Would be interested in hearing any other feedback re how they sound in other traditional trouble spots, especially since I'm out of town for awhile.  Downtown arterials?  Freeways east side of downtown?  Short North?  Campus?  315 or 71 a little north of downtown?

They are on the new tower site for sure (even though their legal ID still says WJKR Westerville).

Drove Rome Hilliard Rd
Fisher Rd (past the tower site flipped to 103.7 when I was within the site of the tower and heard hash type sound on 103.7 and 104.1 does anyone know if 103.9's running IBOC?)
turned onto Wilson Rd
went East on Broad St into downtown Columbus
turned North onto 4th st
Turned West on Spring St..
North on High St.. stopped at red light within site of 1 Nationwide.. no static at all.. clear...
North on High St thru Short North towards campus..
Drove thru Ohio State campus on high st into Clintonville.. into Worthington ..

Didn't seem to notice any static in the car..

Will be interesting to see how the station does in the PPMs with the move.. I also noticed they are now doing artist-title on the RDS now.. last time I listened a few weeks ago I hadn't seen that.

Thanks for that detailed "play-by-play"!  Sounds promising.  Maybe this will be the first time 103.9 sounds consistently clean around its studios (can I still call it that?) on Dublin Rd south of 5th Ave.  Of course that's not going to help far-north station fans like RickF...

 

[xmusicmatt]

Thanks for that detailed "play-by-play"! Sounds promising. Maybe this will be the first time 103.9 sounds consistently clean around its studios (can I still call it that?) on Dublin Rd south of 5th Ave. Of course that's not going to help far-north station fans like RickF...

Considering the Dublin Rd studios are not more than a few miles away --- I would hope they could hear it on the crappiest of radios at the Dublin Rd studios =)

 

[gabigley1]

I hear this may happen as soon as early next week. Maybe this explains the poor audio at the present WJKR tower site north of town. Maybe are in the process of moving some equipment
from the present tower site to the new tower site. Expect much improved audio when they
move WJKR 103.9 Jack-FM to this new tower site.

It looks like my source was correct!

Hadn't seen this thread until just now but also noticed the 103.9 tower move early last night.
As expected, in Eastern German Village, 103.9 now has the strongest and most constant signal of all stations in Columbus except the stations on the WBNS tower, Ch 6 tower and 106.3.

Any other signal reports?

 

[majorlobe]

Since it's a directional FM (a cardioid pattern facing east), they're probably operating at half power right now. Although a new non-DA station may operate at full power under automatic program test authority, until a directional FM receives FCC approval (usually a "license to cover") it must decrease power by 50%... 3KW for 1039. Expect the signal to improve further when they go to 6KW (although doubling power sounds larger than it really is in terms of field strength voltage). This may also explain why they've not changed their legal ID's, yet, as they may not be "officially" moved to Worthington per the FCC until the license is posted. NABCO's FCC attorney is one of the best in the business (Marissa Repp) so you can be sure they are "to-the-letter" legal.

 

[AnalyticalMonkey]

Since it's a directional FM (a cardioid pattern facing east), they're probably operating at half power right now. Although a new non-DA station may operate at full power under automatic program test authority, until a directional FM receives FCC approval (usually a "license to cover") it must decrease power by 50%... 3KW for 1039. Expect the signal to improve further when they go to 6KW (although doubling power sounds larger than it really is in terms of field strength voltage). This may also explain why they've not changed their legal ID's, yet, as they may not be "officially" moved to Worthington per the FCC until the license is posted. NABCO's FCC attorney is one of the best in the business (Marissa Repp) so you can be sure they are "to-the-letter" legal.

Sounded good out on East Broad near the Licking County line this afternoon ... they still need to tweak their processing a bit. Sounds a little too "flat" for my tastes. Sound quality is still way better than the Westerville feed.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Since it's a directional FM (a cardioid pattern facing east), they're probably operating at half power right now.  Although a new non-DA station may operate at full power under automatic program test authority, until a directional FM receives FCC approval (usually a "license to cover") it must decrease power by 50%...  3KW for 1039.  Expect the signal to improve further when they go to 6KW (although doubling power sounds larger than it really is in terms of field strength voltage).

What kind of time frame do you think is likely for the approval needed to move to 6KW?  Are we talking days, weeks, or months?

 

[Allfirdup]

I was driving up from Athens today on 33 and just east of Logan i was scanning the FM dial and was suprised it landed on 103.9 and had a fairly solid signal with some static that far away. once i reached Lancaster it was a good solid signal with full separation. not a bad upgrade. I listened to them all the way back to Reynoldsburg and had no break up or problems at all. even within sight of 103.5's tower which i can see from my house.

 

[schmave]

That 103.5 tower right along I-70 is one place I've always lost 103.9 for maybe a mile, maybe a little less driving to and from the east of town. Probably will be out that way in a few days. Curious to see how it holds up.

 

[cbussteeler]

Not surprising - the northern metro area is worse off with this move - in the Linworth area there was some static - also loss of stereo briefly north of Bethel near The Refectory.

 

[majorlobe]

What kind of time frame do you think is likely for the approval needed to move to 6KW?

Just a few days. They've already applied for both full-power program test authority and a license to cover the CP.

 

[xmusicmatt]

Not surprising - the northern metro area is worse off with this move - in the Linworth area there was some static - also loss of stereo briefly north of Bethel near The Refectory.

This may because they are still testing due to directional and not at FP ... Let's see how it is in a few days/week after the License to cover is granted..

Looking at coverage maps (I know their not accurate in terms of real life outcomes) but WJKR should be for the most part the same quality as WCKX, WBWR, WTOH in most parts of Columbus in terms of signal quality.

With the right production / programming / formatting.. There is no reason this station can't pull a 3 + share with it's signal being in town and not north of Westerville on tOSU's tower.

(If NABCO stays below 1.0 with this signal it's not the signals fault but the programming).

 

[jakej]

(If NABCO stays below 1.0 with this signal it's not the signals fault but the programming).

Thank you for that point-blank statement. I was getting tired of reading all of the signal-related excuses that were being made in advance in case this Ted-offshoot didn't succeed. (But now what I'll probably be reading instead if the first few months' numbers aren't good is that there aren't any billboards around that publicize the format change. Or that you can't tell anything after just a few months have passed; let's see how it's doing a year from now. Or something else that the die-hard classic hits defenders will come up with.)

 

[Allfirdup]

What kind of time frame do you think is likely for the approval needed to move to 6KW?

Just a few days. They've already applied for both full-power program test authority and a license to cover the CP.

License to cover issued today. so they should be at full power now.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Thank you for that point-blank statement. I was getting tired of reading all of the signal-related excuses that were being made in advance in case this Ted-offshoot didn't succeed. (But now what I'll probably be reading instead if the first few months' numbers aren't good is that there aren't any billboards around that publicize the format change. Or that you can't tell anything after just a few months have passed; let's see how it's doing a year from now. Or something else that the die-hard classic hits defenders will come up with.)

Give me a break. So advertising, promotion, competition, execution, build-time, etc. have nothing to do with success, huh? What planet are you on? If this were all true, Seinfeld should have been cancelled within the first two months. And that's just one of a zillion examples. Get real and give it a rest.