1600 WULM trying to screw over 1610 Info AM of Kettering

[WCWalker]

I suspect that if the Catholic group takes over the station you will see virtually ALL of your locally originated programming vanish. A commercial Part 15 AM can at least offer some local programming to some or all the residents of Springfield depending upon the size of the operation. Competition is a good thing and it ultimately produces a better product for the consumer.

 

[nmoore6676]

Urban Light had applications in for a LPFM prior to the purchase of WBLY. They of course had to drop those once they had acquired the full power commercial AM station. There is no such thing as low power AM stations under the present rules. The minimum is 1KW, except for grandfathered lower power operations which are permitted to continue as originally licensed. Then there are the class D formerly daytimers which may operate with 100 watts or less nighttime.

Part 15 is for hobbyists who want to play radio broadcaster or just want to transmit stuff from a computer or other personal nonbroadcast source throughout their homes or the near neighborhood. Retransmitting any broadcast material or satellite programming is a violation. In order to cover a significant area you would need 100's of the tiny transmitters all synchronized which would be financially and logistically a nearly impossible undertaking. Also there might be regulations against it as the interference potential of the combined signals would be well out of the limits established for part 15 operation.

TIS station are not intended as broadcast stations and are to be information stations for highway information or travelers at airports. I believe they are also allowed for parks and those wild animal sanctuaries that have drive through tours. If the Kettering operation had been sending out high school games or other material they are not legal irrespective of their dial placement. They may have gotten the permission to use 1610 under the Ray Broadcasting ownership prior to Urban Light having become the owner. 1610 was formerly the top tunable position for AM radios before the band extended to 1710.

In any event if the AM-1600 station is to become a viable Dayton voice it will have to increase power and / or move which would mean the 1610 operation will have to move elsewhere. TIS is a secondary service, a full power AM station is dominant.

 

[WCWalker]

Huh? nmoore6676. Apparently you and the FCC disagree on what content can or cannot air on a part 15 station. I've had more than one individual at the FCC tell me they do not regulate content on a part 15 station. I can't find a single rule or regulation in the FCC rules that prohibits part 15 stations from airing broadcast material or syndicated programs from a satellite.

At one time part 15 was nothing more than a hobbyists toy. But now thanks to new technology and changes in the rules, it is possible to buy a professional quality AM transmitter that has been FCC approved and broadcast over a much wider area than previously thought. And since hundreds to perhaps a couple thousand of these transmitters are now in use all over the country and regularly pass FCC inspection, it would seem that your statements are in error.

 

[nmoore6676]

Huh? nmoore6676. Apparently you and the FCC disagree on what content can or cannot air on a part 15 station. I've had more than one individual at the FCC tell me they do not regulate content on a part 15 station. I can't find a single rule or regulation in the FCC rules that prohibits part 15 stations from airing broadcast material or syndicated programs from a satellite.

At one time part 15 was nothing more than a hobbyists toy. But now thanks to new technology and changes in the rules, it is possible to buy a professional quality AM transmitter that has been FCC approved and broadcast over a much wider area than previously thought. And since hundreds to perhaps a couple thousand of these transmitters are now in use all over the country and regularly pass FCC inspection, it would seem that your statements are in error.

The FCC does not in any case regulate or monitor programming, except for complaints of violation of decency. There are however fair use and copyrights laws which would regulate content. I doubt that any syndication service would for example consider licensing their programming to part-15 operations. If someone were to relay such programs on their own from say a nearby radio station or satellite service they could be held in violation of the copyright law.

I do not know for sure how the FCC would deal with massed transmissions on a single frequency using synchronization techniques as such a thing has never been done. The rules do cover radiation at specified distances and since such an operation would by its very existence violate those standards and the aggregate effect could generate interference to licensed operations they would be forced to deal with it. They are now being forced to deal with the mini FM transmitters meant to retransmit satellite to car radios. Some of these have been found to exceed the radiation limits and some people caught in traffic are being subjected to offensive material so there may be additional regulations which could also affect operations as proposed here.

My main point is that I do not believe any sort of part 15 operation could ever replace a full service radio service. It does appear the Springfield is one by one losing radio stations. WIZE is a repeater, WKSW may move to the Dayton area and now it looks as if WULM (formerly WBLY) will be lost as well. Of course there is WEEC which could be persuaded to extend their community service emphasis and add local news etc. Also with HD channels they could even add local high school and Wittenberg sports. I would say that might be more practical than placing mini transmitters all over. Community spirited individuals could also put money and advertising dollars to support that. How about a community group to purchase WULM or underwrite Urban Light to keep it in Springfield? Or how about buying WIZE and making it the local radio station it once was?

 

[Flying-Dutchman]

This just doesn't look good guys! In fact, it's bad.
Getting the government and American people to understand the need for low power
broadcasting wasn't easy. It took 20 years of arguments and pleadings to get it
done. It's still a new thing.

The opponents of low power radio have been making this argument. Low cost low
power radio stations could finish off struggling mom and pop full power stations..

Now here we have a struggling AM radio station. It is one of the last and one of
the few minority owned stations in America. This just isn’t good. And to suggest
finishing them off with low power doesn’t help the low power cause. Bet the NAB
would love to see this.

WULM needs to file an STA with the Federal Communications Commission. They
should ask for an FM translator on 97.5 in Springfield Have your station engineer
Call Mr. Wilson or Mr. Bradshaw at the FCC ASAP. There is already a precedent
for this STA. Good luck!

 

[nmoore6676]

This just doesn't look good guys! In fact, it's bad.
Getting the government and American people to understand the need for low power
broadcasting wasn't easy. It took 20 years of arguments and pleadings to get it
done. It's still a new thing.

The opponents of low power radio have been making this argument. Low cost low
power radio stations could finish off struggling mom and pop full power stations..

Now here we have a struggling AM radio station. It is one of the last and one of
the few minority owned stations in America. This just isn’t good. And to suggest
finishing them off with low power doesn’t help the low power cause. Bet the NAB
would love to see this.

WULM needs to file an STA with the Federal Communications Commission. They
should ask for an FM translator on 97.5 in Springfield Have your station engineer
Call Mr. Wilson or Mr. Bradshaw at the FCC ASAP. There is already a precedent
for this STA. Good luck!

The broadcasters, meaning big corporate radio conglomerates, do not want low power operations. They will oppose it on interference grounds as they have been. The bottom line here is that there are two FM stations licensed to Springfield and one to Urbana which broadcasts from Springfield. There are two AM stations one which is merely a repeater of WONE/WCKY and one that is going down for the count. If the community is truly concerned why have they not supported WULM with their advertising dollars. Why could not a group of local businessmen buy one of the existing stations. That is what Robert Yontz and his partners did to keep WBLY in Springfield in the '50's. I used to live there and I have very fond memories of the local radio while I was.

Apparently if only a Catholic group has come forward as a purchaser then they see some value in it but only with Dayton coverage which is why this thread began. Maybe the Kettering people could get up some bucks with the Clark County interests and keep everything as it is as far as signal issues and the 1610 operation. Maybe even Wittenberg could help to have a broadcast base for their sports programs (perhaps a partnership with Urban Light Ministries?). It looks to me like a little community activism could go a long way to make a bad situation a whole lot better.

 

[Flying-Dutchman]

WULM is crippled by being a daytime AM in 2007. They need to get an STA for FM ASAP.
Try 97.5 for a translator. With an STA they don't need a filing window. As one of the
last minority owned stations in our country, I think they can pull it off.

I am a former Springfield person too.

 

[WCWalker]

Anyone that believes LPFM and LPAM (Part 15 AM) will finish off any full power stations is just lacking common sense. They reach a fraction of potential listeners that even the smallest licensed stations do (Class D FM and 100 watt non commercial being the exception) and the sponsors and advertisers they go after most often cannot afford to buy time on a full power station.

The NAB is losing some of its largest members. I believe two of the major TV networks, NBC included, dropped their memberships a few years ago.

Visit www.lpam.net to see just how many syndicators want their programs carried on Part 15 AM broadcast stations. Look under the programming links for details.

 

[nmoore6676]

WULM is crippled by being a daytime AM in 2007. They need to get an STA for FM ASAP.
Try 97.5 for a translator. With an STA they don't need a filing window. As one of the
last minority owned stations in our country, I think they can pull it off.

I am a former Springfield person too.

Good suggestion and succinct analysis, but it will still take serious community support to keep it afloat. How about some sort of co-operation between the folks at WEEC and Urban Light. For one thing WULM is paying rent to house their transmitter and have their antenna on the WDHT tower. A new transmitter and a folded dipole on the WEEC tower could help that. Leasing an HD channel from WEEC another possibility as well. Once they can see the light at the end of the tunnel then adding an FM would finish the revitalization. But it all takes $$$$ and that has to come from the community in either advertising or grant support or both.

 

[Flying-Dutchman]

Most of Springfield, OH turned AM radio off 25-30 years ago. Their best chance to recover and survive is to get FM. With the AM daytimer card they may be able to get an STA for an FM translator.

Being a not for profit they pay no fees to the FCC. I have built many stations and I think
they can get on FM for just a few thousand dollars in equipment. Maybe if some other stations would help out with some used stuff, even less.

 

[techie2]

This just doesn't look good guys! In fact, it's bad.
Getting the government and American people to understand the need for low power
broadcasting wasn't easy. It took 20 years of arguments and pleadings to get it
done. It's still a new thing.

The opponents of low power radio have been making this argument. Low cost low
power radio stations could finish off struggling mom and pop full power stations..

Now here we have a struggling AM radio station. It is one of the last and one of
the few minority owned stations in America. This just isn’t good. And to suggest
finishing them off with low power doesn’t help the low power cause. Bet the NAB
would love to see this.

WULM needs to file an STA with the Federal Communications Commission. They
should ask for an FM translator on 97.5 in Springfield Have your station engineer
Call Mr. Wilson or Mr. Bradshaw at the FCC ASAP. There is already a precedent
for this STA. Good luck!

The broadcasters, meaning big corporate radio conglomerates, do not want low power operations. They will oppose it on interference grounds as they have been. The bottom line here is that there are two FM stations licensed to Springfield and one to Urbana which broadcasts from Springfield. There are two AM stations one which is merely a repeater of WONE/WCKY and one that is going down for the count. If the community is truly concerned why have they not supported WULM with their advertising dollars. Why could not a group of local businessmen buy one of the existing stations. That is what Robert Yontz and his partners did to keep WBLY in Springfield in the '50's. I used to live there and I have very fond memories of the local radio while I was.

Apparently if only a Catholic group has come forward as a purchaser then they see some value in it but only with Dayton coverage which is why this thread began. Maybe the Kettering people could get up some bucks with the Clark County interests and keep everything as it is as far as signal issues and the 1610 operation. Maybe even Wittenberg could help to have a broadcast base for their sports programs (perhaps a partnership with Urban Light Ministries?). It looks to me like a little community activism could go a long way to make a bad situation a whole lot better.

Wittenberg broadcasts all of their sports on their own non-comm station (WUSO 89.1 FM). It's a former Class D that was upgraded to 100 watts.

 

[gr8oldies]

The local community is mostly tuned to Dayton statons. Whoever the poster was who mentioned that Springfield is just another part of exurban Dayton is right. The community has no real confidence in itself or pride in being a separate city. They shop at Fairfield Commons in Beavercreek while the Upper Valley Mall suffers, and go elsewhere for most of their entertainment. Large parts of the city are run-down looking, and the economy just plain sucks!

 

[Flying-Dutchman]

Springfied was once a grand city where some of the brightest in the world set up their
businesses. Unfortunately, it has been on the decline for about 80 years.
Bradley Kincaid the father of county music and Gus Sun an early movie producer once
owned radio stations there. One of them became 1210 in Dayton. It was moved.

I recall WUSO almost lost their frequency as they were a second class service. But
they were able to save it with an upgrade.

 

[nmoore6676]

The local community is mostly tuned to Dayton statons. Whoever the poster was who mentioned that Springfield is just another part of exurban Dayton is right. The community has no real confidence in itself or pride in being a separate city. They shop at Fairfield Commons in Beavercreek while the Upper Valley Mall suffers, and go elsewhere for most of their entertainment. Large parts of the city are run-down looking, and the economy just plain sucks!

This might just say it all. Nobody cares. So WKSW will drift to the southwest and WULM will cease to be. WIZE will continue to relay WONE and WDHT for all intents and purposes defected to Dayton years ago with only the tower still in Clark County. Still as a former resident it makes me sad, but then the fact that I am a former resident speaks to the issue just as eloquently. All things must end and maybe this is it.

 

[Flying-Dutchman]

I left Springfied because there were no opertunities to start radio stations there under the FCC
rules in the 1980's. I owned radio stations near Lafayette and Indianapolis, Indiana.

I belive that next year the FCC will open an LPFM filing window and there will be channels in
Springfield. WULM should get an STA for 97.5 first, if they want to survive.

 

[nmoore6676]

Bradley Kincaid the father of county music

Might be a slight exaggeration, although he was influential and a pioneer, I would defer to Chubby Howard on that. However Mr. Kincaid did give Grandpa Jones the grandpa moniker and my parents bought my Clarinet at Kincaid Music, downtown. I believe his station was WSWO or WSSO, something like that. Was Mr. Sun's station WJEL? Just a personal question, I was very young (maybe 5 or 6) then an do not recall all of the details.

 

[Flying-Dutchman]

WSWO was the Springfield TV station CH 26. It went off the air in the early 70's when the licensee was arrested for stealing equipment from several other TV stations. That's what I recall.

 

[nmoore6676]

WSWO was the Springfield TV station CH 26. It went off the air in the early 70's when the licensee was arrested for stealing equipment from several other TV stations. That's what I recall.

That is correct, the radio station was WWSO. I dredged up a mental picture of the neon sign on the corner of the building at Spring and High in downtown Springfield. It was later changed to WBLY. There was also another radio station WJEL, which had an FM WJEM. I knew one of the engineers who worked there but he has passed and I am not sure which of the original AMs was at 1600 or 1210. The 1210 did become WAVI and moved to Dayton which I recall along with Springfield having WBLY and Smilin' Bob at 1600. Later the 103.9 FM (maybe in '54 or '55) went back on as WBLY-FM, it stayed dark for a couple of years after all of the AM shifting and moving.

 

[kirkiefan]

WWSO was at 1210 AM before moving to Dayton to become WAVI(now the AM incanation of WDAO) WJEL was the forerunner of WBLY-AM which was then licensed to Dayton. Both stations swapped locattions. WWSO went broke and went silent in the early 1950s before Bud Crowl purchased it and moved it to Dayton.


The early 70s owner of the former WSWO-TV was Lester White before going dark again in late 1972 to 1980 after he was found and arrested for ripping off equipment. WSWO-TV was owned originally by Joseph Sheridan's company Southwestern Ohio Broadcasting when it went silent from 1970 to 1972. Channel 26 returned to the air as Christian station WTJC in 1980 which is now WBDT. John Hall used to voice station IDs for WTJC in the early 80s while still at WIZE and voicing commercials for Warehouse Records heard on WTUE and the former WAZU-FM.

It almost makes me wish the people who bought WAZU would have also bought WBLY-AM as well after moving WAZU to Dayton. This,along with the decline of WIZE after George Wymer's failed attempts to save it (on account of Joe Taylor's mismanagement) was the beginning of the end for local Springfield radio.

I still must applaud Urban Light Ministries for trying to keep WULM local....but where were the sponsors when they were needed so dearly???
Bob Roberts,Michelle Phillips,Dale Grimm,Marco Simmons,Joe Madigan and Brad Lovett put in so many hours to keep it going..the oldies format was their catylist and passion to keep it going. However, when Bob was let go in the spring of 2006,it was all downhill from that point on...for letting Bob go was Urban Light's worst mistake along with not putting some much needed upkeep and promotion money into the station....a car won't run on water..neither can a radio station.

I was rootin' and prayin' for this station to keep on keepin' on...and that things would get better.

Radio Maria may be the niche to keep AM-1600 on the air. At first as a repeater of originating station KJMJ in Alexandria,LA but hopefully some locally originating things down the road by Springfield and Dayton's Catholic community so the rented WIZE studio may still be of local use or better yet its own Springfield studio. WHJM opened a studio in Minster just west of the Anna C.O.L.this past April and is slowly beginning to do some local things...but still needs studio equipment donations,a permanent transmitter site (so it can move out of the old leaky Botkins relay tower building)and a volunteer base to make it locally originating and eventually be less dependant on KJMJ to provide programming. Fran Franchina does several local programs from U.D. over a phone line. The old WIZE studio can be a local base for her and other local program presenters.
Radio Maria has the potential to grow as a family in this area. It has also applied for new FM frequencies in Pennsylvania,Wisconsin,Alabama and Indiana so the potential is there. The World Family (its intenational division) can help get it started but after that it relies on local participation and support. Archbishop Pilarcyk of Cincinnati knows about RM...he also does a program for Radio Maria as well. So does the Franciscan community. Its PD down in Alexandria is a Franciscan preist.

 

[nmoore6676]

Thanks kirkiefan: I still can't jibe all of this with my recollections, but I was in first or second grade at the time. I remember WWSO being at Spring and High and that WBLY went in there. The WIZE studios with the antenna tower on the roof was further west near the center of town also on High Street in the Salvation Army Building. We lived near Lawrenceville and usually came into town on Troy Road and went up Bechtel. I recall a radio tower there on Bechtel which I always thought was WJEL. It had a section like a tube several feet high at the top which I later learned from a family friend who had been an engineer there that it was a slotted cylinder antenna used for FM broadcasting. There is an entry in a 1948 FM station listing for WJEM at 103.9 licensed to Springfield.

When I first remember WBLY there was a tower in the river valley by the tracks on Troy Road (West 1st st.) which had WBLY in large plastic letters on the side facing the road. I also recall another transmitter site on Arthur road but that may have been a Western Union relay. The Springfield paper used to have radio program listings and I recall WAVI for a while being in there along with WIZE and WBLY. I do not actually recall any WWSO listing but I did remember the sign on the second floor corner of the Chamber of Commerce Building across from the old Warder Library.

This has now become a mild obsession to sort out my memories and reconcile them with other's knowledge and recollections.