97.3 Albany Ga /Tallahassee Florida

[Louis_009]

I notice that 97.3 Albany Ga singal been getting weaker and weaker in Tallahassee area doesnt sounds like a powerfull 100,000 watts station anymore. What happen here?

97.3 Albany Ga is a clear channel station.

 

[Poledo]

Didn't 97.3 in Gainesville recently upgrade or move? Any new translators nearby on 97.1, 97.3, or 97.5?

It also Could just be Summer Tropo. It's that time of year again where I never know what radio stations are available until I turn on the radio. 100kw stations located over 20 miles away can't overpower atmospheric conditions. I think, in the case of tropo, shorter towers are actually better. WMGR/WJAD/WGEX (whatever the call letters are now) is on a rather tall tower about 60 miles north of Tally.

 

[Louis_009]

The call letters are still WEGX-FM and maybe you right Poledo like u said during the summertime could be a tropo and weather.

 

[jmtillery]

Didn't 97.3 in Gainesville recently upgrade or move? Any new translators nearby on 97.1, 97.3, or 97.5?

It also Could just be Summer Tropo. It's that time of year again where I never know what radio stations are available until I turn on the radio. 100kw stations located over 20 miles away can't overpower atmospheric conditions. I think, in the case of tropo, shorter towers are actually better. WMGR/WJAD/WGEX (whatever the call letters are now) is on a rather tall tower about 60 miles north of Tally.

WSKY 97.3 Gainesville, Florida is still a class C2 FM operating with the equivalent and 50kw @ 492 Feet, so, no further upgrade since it was original upgraded in 1998 from a class A FM. The signal issue with WGEX is most likely, as you said, Summer trop conditions. Strange things tend to happen during the Summer and sometimes during the winter.

 

[Jeff2]

One morning a week or so ago, 99.5 from Tampa was completely blocking out Party 995 in Gainesville. It sounded like a local station.

 

[jmtillery]

Here's one for you. During the summer of 1989, a co-channel beautiful music station in Michigan (the COL and call letters escape me) completely blocked WKTK's signal in the WKTK parking lot at the main studio location on NE Waldo Road in Gainesville. For a moment I thought WKTK had suddenly changed its format to beautiful music until I heard the station legal ID. I looked up the call letters and found its COL. That was a serious trop that summer.

On one other trop story, two years earlier in 1987, right after WMMZ 93.7 Ocala (Now WOGK) began broadcasting from its current 1,347 foot tower, it was reportedly heard very briefly in Guam, and yet another time on Long Island. I heard a promo on WMMZ that said "Coast-to-Coast is kid's stuff. We're Ocean-to-Ocean, Z 93" in reference to WMMZ being briefly heard in the far Pacific. The slogan "Coast-to-Coast" was WKTK's former imaging when 98.5 could be heard from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic ocean, prior to WKTK's downgrade to a C1.

 

[ThatGuyOnTheRadio]

Here's one for you. During the summer of 1989, a co-channel beautiful music station in Michigan (the COL and call letters escape me) completely blocked WKTK's signal in the WKTK parking lot at the main studio location on NE Waldo Road in Gainesville. For a moment I thought WKTK had suddenly changed its format to beautiful music until I heard the station legal ID. I looked up the call letters and found its COL. That was a serious trop that summer.

On one other trop story, two years earlier in 1987, right after WMMZ 93.7 Ocala (Now WOGK) began broadcasting from its current 1,347 foot tower, it was reportedly heard very briefly in Guam, and yet another time on Long Island. I heard a promo on WMMZ that said "Coast-to-Coast is kid's stuff. We're Ocean-to-Ocean, Z 93" in reference to WMMZ being briefly heard in the far Pacific. The slogan "Coast-to-Coast" was WKTK's former imaging when 98.5 could be heard from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic ocean, prior to WKTK's downgrade to a C1.

Mark, do you have a copy of the old WKTK coverage map before the downgrade?

 

[jmtillery]

Here's one for you. During the summer of 1989, a co-channel beautiful music station in Michigan (the COL and call letters escape me) completely blocked WKTK's signal in the WKTK parking lot at the main studio location on NE Waldo Road in Gainesville. For a moment I thought WKTK had suddenly changed its format to beautiful music until I heard the station legal ID. I looked up the call letters and found its COL. That was a serious trop that summer.

On one other trop story, two years earlier in 1987, right after WMMZ 93.7 Ocala (Now WOGK) began broadcasting from its current 1,347 foot tower, it was reportedly heard very briefly in Guam, and yet another time on Long Island. I heard a promo on WMMZ that said "Coast-to-Coast is kid's stuff. We're Ocean-to-Ocean, Z 93" in reference to WMMZ being briefly heard in the far Pacific. The slogan "Coast-to-Coast" was WKTK's former imaging when 98.5 could be heard from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic ocean, prior to WKTK's downgrade to a C1.

Mark, do you have a copy of the old WKTK coverage map before the downgrade?

I'm sorry, I do not have a copy; However, I know someone who may have one, or may be able to get one. If you look at the existing C1 coverage on Radio-Locator, extend the outer lines, found on the radio-locator map, past Saint Augustine to the East into the Atlantic and the red line to Stark (or fairly close) and that should give you a reasonable idea of WKTK's previous full C coverage. WKTK provided virtually a full city grade contour over Gainesville before the downgrade. The signal isn't bad now, but it was much better before any changes.

 

[Diamondtwo]

When I was at WFSY (Sunny 98.5)/Panama City from 1987-1989, just about anytime a rogue thunderstorm would knock us off the air during the summer -- and that always seemed to happen around the time I started my show (PM Drive) -- our air monitor would pick up WKTK like a local. A lot of car radios I checked would do the same thing. Great signal before they downgraded.

TDO

David Nolin
Ops Mgr/PM Drive
WBPC/Beach 95.1
Panama City, FL

 

[jmtillery]

When I was at WFSY (Sunny 98.5)/Panama City from 1987-1989, just about anytime a rogue thunderstorm would knock us off the air during the summer -- and that always seemed to happen around the time I started my show (PM Drive) -- our air monitor would pick up WKTK like a local. A lot of car radios I checked would do the same thing. Great signal before they downgraded.

TDO

David Nolin
Ops Mgr/PM Drive
WBPC/Beach 95.1
Panama City, FL

The very same thing would happen at WKTK whenever it was off the air, WFSY would boom in as a local. I've heard WFSY many times over the WKTK air monitors inside the WKTK control studio during those times.

 

[Kmagrill]

Tropo bending affects all stations, big or small, though small certainly ones tend to get it worse. I've heard WNDT 92.5 getting hammered by Tampa and I've heard the 98.5 from the panhandle swamp KTK many times.

When I was chief engineer at WNFI, I got a frantic call one morning from the morning jock. He was hearing country music coming from the studio monitor. The station's moniker was Kiss FM, which I recognized immediately as being from West Palm Beach. I turned on the TV and saw Miami stations like they were locals. I told the jock it was a weather phenomenon that would fade away in a few hours. Sure enough, when I went to work that morning the jock told me he'd been getting calls from people in Miami. They could hear WNFI, but not Kiss.

I've often heard stations FM from Mexico, Puerto Rico, New England states and occasionally from the midwest. One afternoon an urban format was swamping one of the local low power stations less than a mile from the transmitter. The station turned out to be in St Louis, MO. I e-mailed them and the chief engineer, whom I knew, replied back that it was funny that I was hearing them because the station had a cruddy signal in St. Louis.