104.3 Mono

[Nu_Roo_2]

I notice 104.3 has been mono today. I haven't listened for awhile until today, so AFAIK it's possible it's been going on for up to a week. Any reason to believe they could be doing this on purpose?

 

[radiogeek07]

May be to get further into Columbus?

 

[C414B]

Maybe they're going talk?

 

[chad43358]

I was actually going to bring this up a few months ago. It's been mono for a long time now. I'd go as far as saying it's been mono since they ditched the Jazz format. My guess for such gesture is to get a clearer signal into Columbus and beyond. I live 5 miles from the tower and it sounds like I'm listening to an old tape player all the time. I do remember them doing mono sometimes during the Jazz format as well, but it wasn't all the time like it is now.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Well mono really does sound inferior. Stereo separation goes a long way in keeping older tunes from sounding tired. I heard a couple of the same songs today on 104.3 as on 103.9, and they sounded so much fresher and better on the latter. No comparison.

 

[xiradiodotcom]

Been mono since the switch from Smooth Jazz.

 

[CatFM]

If you look back at some earlier postings, I mentioned them being mono many months ago. They have been since at least June or July 2009. As I said then, if the station's signal is so weak it has to be in mono, the station isn't even worth owning. I still have trouble hearing them even in mono in the Northwest side of town every time I pull up to an intersection. My earlier posting also mentioned that is Saga wants to give this market mono Oldies, they might as well have kept WVKO and put it on there. One reply said even mono FM sounds better than AM, but not in my car. At least WVKO is a Columbus station with a transmitter site in the same county and area code, so their signal can be heard decently. I'll take a clear AM signal over a weak distant FM, especially when they're both mono anyway.

 

[Florentino]

May be to get further into Columbus?

No more calls, we have a winner! That's exactly why they're mono.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

OK, so we know the reason, which was the suspected one.  Thanks for the confirmation Florentino.  But CatFM (re-)raises some good points.

Can anyone cite a single example of a rimshot music FM anywhere that increased its ratings performance after going to mono to reach further (while everything else remained pretty constant with the station and the rest of the market)?  Or any kind of research demonstrating that such a move can actually pay off, i.e., something that goes beyond a "well, uh, it *seems* like it should help" assumption that could actually be wrong?

 

[chad43358]

In my opinion, 104.3 would be a perfect candidate for housing a "Marysville" based, community radio station. We have 1270 which really doesn't have much local programming, and then there's WMHO, which you can't hear far from the fairgrounds. There's still plenty of stations out there like 94.3 in Marion and WTGR 97.5 which serves Greenville, 95.3 WKTN in Kenton and etc. Marysville has decent school sports teams and a community that is tired of hearing about the big hype from the big city. Choose a format that almost anyone can listen to, don't worry about competing for ratings, just serve the community. I know those days are nearly close to being over, but somebody has to make the rebound. Get radio back to the way it used to be. A station where people in the area can turn on in the winter and listen for school delays, local news... anything. Bellfontaine has a station, Kenton has a station, Urbana has a station (for now), London has a station. 104.3's signal doesn't carry too far out of Union county anyway, so why not focus on where the signal is good?

I know it sounds like I'm dreaming. I just hope Saga is listening. Haha. I mean hell they do it with their WQEL 92.7 in Bucyrus, and it's not much less powerful than 104.3 is. And actually, that brings up something I just found. WQEL 92.7 has applied to move from Bucyrus to a COL of Richwood, even though it's tower will be halfway in between Richwood and Marion. Wonder what the deal is there? The service contour doesn't quite hit Delaware. Wonder if they'll interfere with WCOL at all?

 

[CatFM]

The people who owned WUCO at the time the 105.7 allocation was granted to Marysville made a serious mistake by not applying for it. Of course, there is no guarantee that it wouldn't have eventually migrated into Columbus even if they had, but at least it might have had a better chance of remaining in Union County and actually serving it.

As for the possibility of 104.3 being changed back to a local operation serving Union County, it would be pretty slim because most potential buyers would be looking at the $$$ of trying to serve at least part of the Columbus market. The only chance I see of it becoming a local service for Union County again would be if Saga bought one of the new move-ins (101.7 or 102.5) and sold 104.3 to a local owner in Marysville.

The only reason Saga has held on to WQEL was to move it to Marion, which they are currently working on.

Going back to the question of any other rural FMs going mono to squeeze their signal farther into a metro market, I can't think of any, but there is an interesting bit of related trivia I can add to this particular situation. When Hot 105 (WWHT) operated in the early 90s from the tower that 104.3 is currently using, the frequency response was limited to either 12,000 or 13,000 Hz as I remember. The reason for that was that Delco and some other car radios then were set up to limit the high frequency response to one of those figures on weaker FM signals in order to avoid a noisy signal. Since that limiting effect could be heard as the signal became stronger or weaker, Hot 105 attempted to alleviate it by just limiting the high end so most listeners would not hear the shift when the high frequency response limiting kicked in and out. It's not as drastic as just going mono, but it was a similar move to deal with the weaker and more distant signal.

 

[xmusicmatt]

As for the possibility of 104.3 being changed back to a local operation serving Union County, it would be pretty slim because most potential buyers would be looking at the $$$ of trying to serve at least part of the Columbus market. The only chance I see of it becoming a local service for Union County again would be if Saga bought one of the new move-ins (101.7 or 102.5) and sold 104.3 to a local owner in Marysville.

The only reason Saga has held on to WQEL was to move it to Marion, which they are currently working on.

104.3 has never served Union County.. When it signed on many years ago as Smooth Jazz 104.3 it broadcasted from studios located in Dublin (off 33/161 at the Metro Place) prior to the sell to SAGA they have never targeted Richwood/Union County.

92.7 is being sold to Bible Broadcasting Network last I heard once it moves it's tower site to Richwood.

If I remember part of the reason they (SAGA) wanted to move 92.7 to Richwood is so that they could move 104.3's COL to West Jeff and avoid Richwood from loosing it's "radio station" making such a move (104.3 to Columbus) more favorable with the FCC.

 

[CatFM]

I didn't mean it to sound like 104.3 ever did serve Union County, only that "changing it back" was in reference to their City of License and the county in which it is located.

It's pretty doubtful that the FCC cares at all about any of the cities or counties that have had stations removed from. Moving WQEL to replace 104.3 wouldn't be likely to earn Saga any brownie points. The whole thing is a sham when it comes to moving stations and the FCC just rubber stamps them.

Saga seems to get a lot of mileage out of their Public Service programming. I heard the same PS program on 103.5 and 107.5 (or maybe it was 104.3) as I was leaving town early Sunday morning. If it truly was a local program intended to be a public service for the City of License of one station, it would be interesting to know how they claim it for another station licensed to a different city.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

My understanding, based on earlier posts to this board, is that the 104.3 move to West Jeff is dead anyway.  As I recall it was somehow dependent on where WCVO relocated its tower, which in turn was dependent on some other move that fell through...or something like that 

 

[alans613]

The people who owned WUCO at the time the 105.7 allocation was granted to Marysville made a serious mistake by not applying for it. Of course, there is no guarantee that it wouldn't have eventually migrated into Columbus even if they had, but at least it might have had a better chance of remaining in Union County and actually serving it.

As for the possibility of 104.3 being changed back to a local operation serving Union County, it would be pretty slim because most potential buyers would be looking at the $$$ of trying to serve at least part of the Columbus market. The only chance I see of it becoming a local service for Union County again would be if Saga bought one of the new move-ins (101.7 or 102.5) and sold 104.3 to a local owner in Marysville.

The only reason Saga has held on to WQEL was to move it to Marion, which they are currently working on.

Going back to the question of any other rural FMs going mono to squeeze their signal farther into a metro market, I can't think of any, but there is an interesting bit of related trivia I can add to this particular situation. When Hot 105 (WWHT) operated in the early 90s from the tower that 104.3 is currently using, the frequency response was limited to either 12,000 or 13,000 Hz as I remember. The reason for that was that Delco and some other car radios then were set up to limit the high frequency response to one of those figures on weaker FM signals in order to avoid a noisy signal. Since that limiting effect could be heard as the signal became stronger or weaker, Hot 105 attempted to alleviate it by just limiting the high end so most listeners would not hear the shift when the high frequency response limiting kicked in and out. It's not as drastic as just going mono, but it was a similar move to deal with the weaker and more distant signal.

Thanks for that info on WWHT/WAKS CatFM! I absolutely LOVED those stations.
104.3 went Mono after the flip in January 2009. I do recall picking up the station in Stereo when it was Smooth Jazz though.

 

[chad43358]

I doubt 104.3 will ever move to West Jeff. Part of that move was to downgrade 104.1 WPAY to a class C1 at 35,000 watts. They just installed a new transmitter featuring a 12 bay antenna and 1,168 foot tower in 2006. I highly doubt they'd come off their 100,000 watt class C license.

And as far as the 105.7 Marysville site, I do not believe they used the same tower as 104.3 does now. I know at least one time 105.7 was using a tower in between Marysville and Columbus off of 33, close to the curve where 42 intersects. It's not there anymore though. Maybe they moved from there to the current 104.3 site?

I'm curious to know why 104.3 is planted just north of Marysville as a Columbus rimshot anyway? Why didn't they move closer to town to begin with?

 

[xiradiodotcom]

And as far as the 105.7 Marysville site, I do not believe they used the same tower as 104.3 does now. I know at least one time 105.7 was using a tower in between Marysville and Columbus off of 33, close to the curve where 42 intersects. It's not there anymore though. Maybe they moved from there to the current 104.3 site?

I'm curious to know why 104.3 is planted just north of Marysville as a Columbus rimshot anyway? Why didn't they move closer to town to begin with?

He is talking about the first 105.7 tower off route 4. The second one, before they moved downtown, was just north of the US 42 exit on 33 on the southwest side of the freeway. That one was torn down a few years ago. 104.3 is out that far because of WPAY and probably the CP 103.9 held for much of the 90s.

 

[CatFM]

You are correct that the tower now in use by 104.3 was originally built for 105.7 and was used by them until they moved to the newer tower they built at US 33 & 42 in 1994.

 

[SonoSational18]

My understanding, based on earlier posts to this board, is that the 104.3 move to West Jeff is dead anyway. As I recall it was somehow dependent on where WCVO relocated its tower, which in turn was dependent on some other move that fell through...or something like that
According to the FCC website it's still pending. Among other things it may depend on WPAY's planned re-classification from Class C to C-0. It has a 3rd adjacent issue with 104.9 and a 2nd adjacent issue with 103.9 which also restricts where the stick can be moved to. If the West Jeff application is granted it will have decent coverage over Columbus, but will be lacking in the east suburbs. That's why the old simulcase with 103.5 made sense

***

I stand corrected... Apparently the app was dismissed a couple of weeks ago but still showing active on the FCC site.

 

[xmusicmatt]

My understanding, based on earlier posts to this board, is that the 104.3 move to West Jeff is dead anyway. As I recall it was somehow dependent on where WCVO relocated its tower, which in turn was dependent on some other move that fell through...or something like that

WCVO had tower moving issues due to NIMBY folks.They finally were able to move to off Hamliton Rd to a current tower already there.