Tuned into what I thought was WFAN 660 New York last night and was picking up a stations in Rural Retreat, Va. Radio-locator shows the station as a day time so I can only assume they failed to sign off the air at what should be 6pm for their location. Does this happen often and what are the complications for failing to sign off at the correct time.
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660 AM
- Thread starter nuffsaid
- Start date
Yes, unfortunately.
Sometimes it's unintentional -- the power reduction/sign off is handled by an automation that breaks down, or by a human who simply forgets.
Other times, it's done on purpose. Try listening on a Friday night around 7-9pm. Many stations make good money airing local high-school sports; they aren't going to risk that revenue by signing off or reducing power.
(now that the football season is over, that's less common)
The FCC issued this Public Notice yesterday:
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db0228/DA-12-277A1.txt
in which they fined a Florida station $4,000 for failing to reduce power at sunset as required. The Florida station is allowed to operate at night, but with reduced power and a directional antenna.
The FCC no longer conducts random inspections. Their Tampa agents didn't come in to work one day & say "we haven't been to Lake Wales in awhile, let's go up there & inspect a few stations". You can assume someone, somewhere complained about this station's unauthorized nighttime operation.
In other words, a station that does this kind of thing is VERY unlikely to get caught by the FCC. They will only get in trouble if someone complains. I would suggest complaints are unlikely for a one- or two-time inadvertent failure to sign off.
F
FreddyE1977
Guest
I once noticed a daytimer still running past sundown. Wanting to spare them any difficulties with the FCC,
I called the studio to advise them. The jock on duty (won't mention his name, somebody very well-known
in the market and beyond at the time) got belligerent with me, told me I was crazy and hung-up on me.
I waited for the evening shift guy to come on and called again. He was highly appreciative.
"Dude, thanks a bunch!"
I called the studio to advise them. The jock on duty (won't mention his name, somebody very well-known
in the market and beyond at the time) got belligerent with me, told me I was crazy and hung-up on me.
I waited for the evening shift guy to come on and called again. He was highly appreciative.
"Dude, thanks a bunch!"
One would presume that there can't be too much in the way of competition in a place called Rural Retreat Virginia, yet the Radio-Locator page shows 42 stations are audible there during the day. The place must be a pretty fierce battleground.
The page also says that a WXBX, on FM with Oldies, is pretty much off the same tower. It and WLOY 660 are listed as having different formats, however. So it can't be a matter of the jock forgetting to sign off the AM station. What was he using as a program log? Wouldn't a program log have, you know, like a last page?
* * * *
Re 660 :
It was still daylight here, a few months back, when I was listening to WFAN and it was getting chewed up pretty badly by the wound-up music of WAMO in Pittsburgh. That was on what was probably some mid-winter skip. The reception wasn't a matter of someone playing hide-and-seek, though.
Still, I can't see what the fuss possibly can be about here, on a DX forum. Isn't the goal of a DXer to hear previously unheard stations? Irrespective of restrictions?
The page also says that a WXBX, on FM with Oldies, is pretty much off the same tower. It and WLOY 660 are listed as having different formats, however. So it can't be a matter of the jock forgetting to sign off the AM station. What was he using as a program log? Wouldn't a program log have, you know, like a last page?
* * * *
Re 660 :
It was still daylight here, a few months back, when I was listening to WFAN and it was getting chewed up pretty badly by the wound-up music of WAMO in Pittsburgh. That was on what was probably some mid-winter skip. The reception wasn't a matter of someone playing hide-and-seek, though.
Still, I can't see what the fuss possibly can be about here, on a DX forum. Isn't the goal of a DXer to hear previously unheard stations? Irrespective of restrictions?
Nick said:
WKTY in La Crosse, WI routinely ran 5kw "football power" Friday nights rather than powering down to their (then) 1kw nighttime with a more severe pattern. A jock/engineer confirmed to me that those were his "marching orders". This was in the early 70s, so I wouldn't presume that this is still going on at "Katy 580."
Steve Green NEPA said:
I'm guessing that at that time of the day in a small market, there was no jock. The stations are likely using satellite formats or use something like RCS, Audio Vault, Wide Orbit or such to run off of a hard disk storage system. The music format will continue to run, even after sign-off in many cases.
While stations may print a program log, the computer runs independent of it.
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