94.5A Albany VT for sale in september...

[Ozman]

anyone know where I can find more info...
these are my thoughts...
Its has a great potential for a rock station in an area that is near where the home of the Oz was (WWLR)... close enough to the land of "the Oz to interest me in an area where there is no rock on the eastern slopes where 99.9 WBTZ does not come in or 105 WTOS and could make it over sheffield heights on I-91 into Lyndonville/st J...
I can get WJMN 94.5 from boston up at lyndon for now so I am sure the DB would more than likely be enough to go out into the Saint J where colleges and schools are located.
taken from http://Fybush,com
There's one Vermont frequency in the FCC's planned September FM auction - 94.5A in the Orleans County town of Albany, with a $30,000 minimum opening bid.
Message me if you would like thoughts or any help would be appreciated...

 

[djjim6629]

Albany is almost 30 miles away from St. J. That is too far away to even be relevant in St. J. They won't be able to sell it. If they are smart, they will build the transmitter north of Albany and target Newport, Newport is only 16 miles away from Newport. Build the tower about 8-10 miles north of Albany and they will have a great signal in Newport. I could see them doing classic rock. Newport gets VPR, AC on 92.9 and Hot AC on MOO. Classic rock would work, or country. I can't see a mainstream rock format in that part of Vermont. Actually, country would probably do real well.

 

[Ozman]

I put a request in that is due By March 20th.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-422A1.pdf
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-422A2.pdf

I am sure there are a few people looking into this. probably a religious organization as well as VPR which would up the price a lot probably in upwards of 100K.
There is enough A/C and classic rock already near here. There is no active rock.
how about adds etc... I would try, not intersted in Just money. it would be more about the people and listeners. see over time if you could build it up look for a little bit of advertising to keep the station alive.
I base the rock on a radio show I had up here on WWLR. you also have to remember you would have to put based on the nearby terrain and not HAAT. (height above average terrain). WWLR;s Legal operating range not too far away was 5mi . because of the surrounding terrain, in some place's you can get WWLR almost to Gorham NH... WWLR also makes it way past Franconia notch 30-50+ miles...
I am using this station as an example.

Issues however,
Finding the land for the tower and radio station
Keeping up on utility bills
Paying off the auction cost
Paying royalities Music, Taxes ETC
Many other unexpected bills

Albany is almost 30 miles away from St. J. That is too far away to even be relevant in St. J. They won't be able to sell it. If they are smart, they will build the transmitter north of Albany and target Newport, Newport is only 16 miles away from Newport. Build the tower about 8-10 miles north of Albany and they will have a great signal in Newport. I could see them doing classic rock. Newport gets VPR, AC on 92.9 and Hot AC on MOO. Classic rock would work, or country. I can't see a mainstream rock format in that part of Vermont. Actually, country would probably do real well.

 

[Gadon]

Jamie, how far is Albany to Burke Mountain or to Jay Peak ? You need a tall place to broadcast from there buddy, or the only ones who are going to hear your station is Bessie in the barn.. Plus you have high powered neighbors just down the dial at 94.3 in Montreal, and the most powerful of them all two channels up WHOM 94.9 Mount Washington, pretty close as the crow flies to the NEK...

WWLR is what it is, since the tower is on the side of a hill, and not from the top. That's why it goes east very nicely, OK to the north, there's a 91.7 in Sherbrooke.. and goes south very well. I have heard WWLR on the Woodstock and Lincoln side of the Notch..

Used to be always cool driving home that when I could start hearing ROCK 101 WGIR-FM on the south side of the Notch, I knew I was back in civlilization.. Used to be sad when Rock 101 turned to co channel CBF-FM10 French just as you rounded Cannon.. I know it's off topic, and I know you like this stuff..

 

[Ozman]

I don't think that Burke would work. It is 26 miles away. I think Jay peak would Be an awesome spot. however, I don;t think the FCC would allow it 94.5 W233BD (WOXR) would be in the way
as for burke, WDVT is more than likely an issue. plus with the top of Burke or Jay you have the classification of being over class A wouldn't you?
94.5 Is a DEAD and when I mean Dead frequency in lyndonville, It is. as I stated earlier Jamin 94.5 from Boston MA is heard Faintly in some areas like the parking Lot ot LSC and just south of coles corner I get it pretty good with a terk Fm-50.

I think the Best spot would be near Sheffield Heights.
I am sure that you could bribe someone for a tower there. There is no celliar communications of both CDMA and GSM within the highest point on I-91 at 1800ft. ( I even roam very weakly in some spots) between Lyndonville and Barton and currently no CDMA in Barton. if sheffield Heights worked, it would be able to make it up to Newport, albany (COL) Barton and since it would be on top of the hill go down into Lyndonville (pop 1000 + 10,000 tourists/college kids) and rimshot ST. Jay VT. (pop 7000+ boarding schools etc) the closer to Lyndonville the happer I would be on that.. Many old Listeners with a new place to listen

I would not worry about 94.9 WHOM too much with the digital age.

as for adjacent interference here;s the list within 90 miles curtesy of Radio-Locator.com
CKMF 94.3 FM 79.8 mi. Montreal, QC Top-40
W232AP (WMXR) 94.3 FM 74.5 mi. White River Junction, VT Talk
CITE-2 94.5 FM 51.5 mi. Sherbrooke, QC Unknown Format
W233BD (WOXR) 94.5 FM 49.8 mi. Burlington, VT Classical
WDVT 94.5 FM 83.6 mi. Rutland, VT Classic Hits
W234BD (WVPS) 94.7 FM 37.1 mi. Bolton, VT Public Radio
WHOM 94.9 FM 62.0 mi. Mount Washington, NH Adult Contemporary

 

[Gadon]

Wow Jamie, you did your homework.. Translators, I think, do not have the same protection standards as full power stations..No worries there. WDVT 94.5 in Rutland, transmits from a site about 250 feet below average terrain, it's way below the mountains, and on the west side of the Green Mountains... And very much far enough away.. No worries there..

Throwing a tower is not as easy as it sounds, better to rent space from one that's already in place.

 

[Oldbones]

Keep in mind that you still have to be able to put a city-grade signal over your community of license. For a Class A, that's not a very big radius.

 

[Ozman]

what is the the radius on a class A signal? 10 miles?
that could become an issue with the terrain near albany. is there a way to suggest a change in the COL to a nearby town like sheffield heights?
94.5 is DEAD on the whole stretch from Lyndonville to Jay. on the sideband, 94.7 is so weak I can;t tell what is in that channel. As for 94.3 CKMF from Montreal bleeds in very little on the north side of sheffield heights on 94.5. on the south side of sheffield CKMF will die out mainly and WCYY will come in from 125 miles away.
the other question... what about VPR? Albany VT is a complete dead spot for VPR classical. Can VPR look into this auction? I am not sure because this is an auction for a station for profit not for a not COM auction.

Keep in mind that you still have to be able to put a city-grade signal over your community of license. For a Class A, that's not a very big radius.

 

[Ozman]

Taken From http://Fybush.com
*In VERMONT, the FCC has granted construction permits for two FM station upgrades: in Rutland, "Drive" WDVT (94.5) has been granted a move up to Boardman Hill southwest of town, allowing the station to double power, from 3 kW to 6 kW, and to raise its antenna from 241' below average terrain to 322' above. WDVT's new facility will be directional, protecting adjacent-channel WBTN-FM (94.3 Bennington) and WBAR (94.7 Lake Luzerne NY).

I am sure This upgrade of 94.5 in rutland will definitely do no real damage but in . 97.1 Kiss FM makes it up to ST.J however the elevation of that tower is at the top of killington whereas Bordman hill is a lot lower.

thoughts?

 

[Thom Rounds]

what is the the radius on a class A signal? 10 miles?

That depends most on the transmit antenna's Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT), and your Effective Radiated Power (ERP).

Class A is defined in Part 73.211 of the FCC regs as being no less than 100 watts ERP @ 100 meters (328') HAAT, no more than 6000 watts ERP @ 240 meters (787') HAAT. With perfectly flat land, that figures to be 28 kilometers (17.3984 miles) for 100 W ERP @ 100 M HAAT, and 42 kilometers (26.0976 miles) for 6kW ERP @ 240 M HAAT. Of course, land is never perfectly flat, particularly in Vermont.

In addition, the higher your HAAT, the less power you are allowed. The FCC will pro-rate your ERP to keep you within the intended service contour.

This is why engineering insultants get the kind of money they do. They've got to figure all this crap out. It's loads of fun for the whole family.

 

[Gadon]

Don;t worry Jamie, your Albany VT 94.5 is still very safe from WDVT's move.. The move makes sense, probably the most cost effective to do, since the current WDVT signal is so limited being below the hilltops.. Boardman Hill is home to a WCAX translator that shoots a nice signal into Rutland. I thought the elevation there would be higher, than stated in the CP.. The new location should put about as strong of a signal into Rutland as the current site. WDVT is short spaced to WBAR-FM 94.7 by Lake George, NY which can be heard at the VT / NY border and WBTN-FM 94.3 in Bennington which can be heard in the car around Wallingford just south of Rutland..

You can;t compare the WDVT's new 6000 watt signal to Z 97's equivalent of 50,000 watts off of 4200 foot Killington Peak. Z 97 used to have a sweeper that said, "From North Adams to North Troy, yeah right only on a good day !!"

 

[Ozman]

Troy let alone north Troy is one crazy radio spot. Jay peak for those of you that have been up there, is very high up. you can get many distant signals however many good ones all fight each other. Chom 97.7 fights magic WGMT 97.7 (funny that you can get CHOM over magic right under their transmitter on Burke Mountain road if any of you are ever up there during the summer.) 102.3 Kiss fight Pure rock 102. pure rock wins out a lot more though on their new signal Kool 105.1 fights WTOS-FM 105.1 (TOS used to be my favorite station to listen to in the glades up at JAY bouncing off the mountain facing Maine) 99.9 WBTZ the buzz fights some country station however, the Buzz wins out a lot more. WWLR 91.5 the station I DJ'ed for fights 91.5 WGLY (they both fight 91.7 CBMB) however, I did get many requests over time from the lift operators on the Stateside of Jay Peak for my radio show. this frequency's is just to name a few within the area of troy that fight each other.

as for 94.5A what do you suppose the HAAT for Sheffield heights is? I am sure for a tower location there would be Major local opposition, however in the interest of safety, there is no cell service up there now. I roam very weakly on in parts on the northern side on CDMA with Verizon! How about a fine looking pine tree cellphone tower? the only other thing thats an issue is how far apart does the 900/1800 mhtz band celluar communication have to be away from an 94mhtz Fm transmitter height wise?

 

[Gadon]

There's a sign on I-91 when you get to the top if the heights, since it's the highest elevation point on the highway. How could you forget Q106 duking it out with "CIMO" from Magog ? Though CIMO blasts once you head into Barton ? Or WNCS 104.7 slugging it out with the CBC ? WGMT is directional towards the Montreal.

 

[Thom Rounds]

as for 94.5A what do you suppose the HAAT for Sheffield heights is?

That depends on the exact spot you're talking about, within about 10 feet or so (or is it 10 meters? I forget).

the only other thing thats an issue is how far apart does the 900/1800 mhtz band celluar communication have to be away from an 94mhtz Fm transmitter height wise?

There's no regulatory limit on that, but from an engineering standpoint you would want to stay as far away from a cell array as you can get. Cell arrays too close to your transmit antenna will distort your radiation pattern. RF issues between the two are less of an issue (not a non-issue, but less of an issue).

We recently put a six-bay, half-wave spaced Shively up for WFMX. The bottom of the ant is about 15' above the cell array. That's the best we could do. At that spacing, the pattern distortion is slight.

Look up "Fresnel zone" for some idea of pattern distortion caused by foreign objects. Once you've cleared the Fresnel zone, you're in pretty good shape for the most part.

 

[Gadon]

I would suspect that whoever if anyone winds up with this CP, they would want to get a signal into Lyndonville, St. J, Barton / Orleans etc..
There's probably not a lot of advertising dollars or listeners in Albany, Craftsbury, and Hardwick.. Isn't there a unbuilt CP licensed to Hardwick ? 105.9 FM.. Just guessing without looking it up ??

 

[Ozman]

a q-106 repeater translator maybe? that would be pretty cool... the NEK needs more active rock like AC/DC or Led Zep

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=164220

According to the FCC website,
Nassau Broadcasting owns the application for it

 

[Lester Young]

a q-106 repeater translator maybe? that would be pretty cool... the NEK needs more active rock like AC/DC or Led Zep

You're so right.

"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" and "Stairway to Heaven" just don't get enough airplay.

LOL!

 

[Gadon]

I suspect that if this thing ever gets built, it would be used to re-broadcast on of their Barre signals.. Maybe Moo 92 ??

 

[Ozman]

Unfortunately, I did not win poweball yet so I cannot buy my own station
I noticed that there about 10 bidders for Auction 79.
anybody you guys know
http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm?job=auction_summary&id=79

 

[Oldbones]

WGMT is directional towards the Montreal.

Isn't there a classic rock station on 97.7 in Montreal? Why would they be directional toward it?

a q-106 repeater translator maybe? that would be pretty cool... the NEK needs more active rock like AC/DC or Led Zep

Isn't the NEK mostly farm country? Doesn't sound like fertile ground (so to speak) for hard rock, country seems more likely. A handful of college kids who are only in town 8 months a year (and probably listen to mp3 players more than radio anyway) aren't gonna pay the bills.
And since when are Led Zep & AC/DC "active rock"? I thought active rock was current-based.