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106.3 FM WYMK (Family Radio) Issues

B

Barry

This station in Mt. Kisco NY, which rebroadcasts Family Radio programming, has been transmitting an open carrier for about a week. And this has happened several times in the past few months. Evidently their transmitting equipment is OK, as there is a steady signal, but no audio.
Could it be that difficult for them to maintain a link to their national programming feed?
 
Here's something odd. I was driving on I-287 in Westchester County on Sunday. I tried tuning both 106.3 Mt. Kisco and 92.7 Garden City, unaware that someone had posted 106.3 had been silent. I noticed 106.3 and 92.7 were broadcasting something different. It was still soft Christian music and each did its legal I.D. identifying call letters, city of license and that they're Family Radio stations. (I heard both because 106.3 IDed a little ahead of the hour.) I'm no expert on Christian music but each station was playing different songs.

I wonder if 106.3 is not getting its signal directly from the network? It had to rely on a recording maybe? I'm pretty sure Family Radio doesn't have different feeds for its two NYC-area FM outlets.

When I came into Westchester County, over the Tappan Zee Bridge, I was able to pick up 1560 WFME and 950 WKDN briefly. But that was before I noticed 106.3 and 92.7 were broadcasting different feeds. So all I noticed on AM was that 1560 and 950 were running the same programming. Once I realized 106.3 and 92.7 were playing different music, I could no longer get 1560 and 950.

(WFME 1560, formerly a Class A 50,000 watt station, is running only 1,000 watts from a wire in West Orange as it seeks a new transmitter site. WKDN is 25,000 watts days from Philadelphia. The Tappan Zee Bridge is a good place to pick up hard-to-get signals.)
 
I'm pretty sure the programming is the same, it just seems that 92.7 is delayed behind 106.3 by a minute or two.
However, given that the Family Radio stations are not attended, perhaps there is some alternate locally based programming that is triggered if the network feed is lost. Maybe that's what you heard?
 
Checked earlier today. Seems like 106.3 is about 2 minutes behind 92.7 and106.3 is running 10 seconds of dead air instead of its legal ID at the top of the hour.
 
I heard it again today, Wednesday. I was listening to all four Family Radio stations as I crossed the Tappan Zee Bridge, 92.7, 106.3, 1560 and 950. But now I realize it's 92.7 WFME-FM that is running programming different from the other three.

Around 10 a.m., I heard "Amazing Grace" by a solo male singer on 1560, 950 and 106.3. But 92.7 was running something else. It was a song by a group, almost a power ballad, an uptempo Christian Contemporary song. I listened for several minutes. The songs on 1560, 950 and 106.3 were the same but 92.7 had something different.

However, around 1 pm as I was going the other way, there was a male preacher doing a teaching show. In this case, all four stations were running his program. So I'm not sure what's going on. Why is 92.7 different? Did Family Radio decide to make 92.7 more contemporary, more youthful, but still run the same teaching shows?

I'll listen again to see if I find luperm's theory is correct. Is 106.3 two minutes behind 92.7 or is 92.7 running different music?
 
In addition to the stations mentioned above, Family Radio is also operating a 2 watt translator in New Rochelle, NY. It is also on 106.3 FM, and is rebroadcasting WFME 1560 AM.
The only reason I can think of that a broadcaster would bother with such a tiny signal is that maybe they hope to get authorization for a power boost, and possibly a move into some part of New York City. But that could lead to a challenge from 106.3 Thunder Country, from the Jersey Shore.
Paging Mr. Fybush :)
 
When Family Radio had two AM signals in Baltimore (860 WFSI and 750 WBMD) they ran two different feeds, presumably east coast and west coast.
 
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