All quiet in Jax?

[John FL]

Even if WBOB simulcast on a more powerful FM signal, I don’t believe this would result in a significantly improved ratings situation. WBOB has never benefited from even the slightest ratings dip @ WOKV. A logical conclusion could be news/talk listeners don’t care much for the WBOB product and a sizable number may not even be aware of WBOB’s existence. But I believe something else is at play.

Jacksonville radio tends to lag behind the market because they continue to make assumptions about the community at large. For starters, this market is not as conservative as once was. In the last presidential election, Obama barely lost. Since that time, we have elected a Democratic mayor – African American to boot – and in the recent Republican primary, moderate Mitt Romney held on to a narrow win here while virtually all of North Florida went with Newt.

In our past discussions of WBOB, I suggested a morning show where a neutral host could solicit opinions of listeners in a call-in type morning show. It would have been realistic as well to have contributors such as trail lawyers to represent the liberal view and business owners to represent the conservative view. Then let the folks sort through it. To me, that would have a far better draw that to hear a national host who sounds as if he is in a coma.

I believe there is an underserved market for independent and even moderate voters. Jax is probably not that different from the rest of the country as I believe we are probably right of center and we are tending to vote more along candidate rather than party lines. If WBOB had a different ownership, things could have been a lot more interesting.

1010XL has a home on FM now and that’s already a prediction come true. I’ll go one step further. One day sports programming will be carried on a big FM stick here. I still don’t believe Jax is a huge sports town but sports talk is a great alternative to the daily pounding of partisan politics. For all the politically independent thinkers out who look for a little radio companionship, sports looks like it could be that very ticket.

As far as Rock 104.5 goes, I’m getting tired of all this flip talk to urban. Another huge problem with Jax radio is there are too many stations doing the same thing. Gees, there’s at least 6 stations playing “Don’t Stop Believing.” If change comes to Rock 104.5 or any other station for that matter, I can only hope it doesn’t result in even more fragmentation.

 

[nfladxer]

HDRadio.com used to list WFXJ as HD... it no longer does, and as of three days ago, there was no HD signal from any AM on my radio. . BUT thanks to your kind and attentive update, I'm going to my car right now to hear for myself.

Good to see another DXer here!

WRKO, Thanks! Note: AM 930 WFXJ was broadcasting in HD again today, but does not seem to have the HD signal active on their night pattern. They're non-directional during daylight hours, and employ a 2-tower directional pattern at night. This is not an unusual practice. I believe a couple stations do this in Tampa, for example AM 620 WDAE, and AM 970 WFLA, are HD during the day, but NOT at night. Although the Radio Disney station at AM 990 in Orlando seems to be HD around the clock. Some of the heritage 50kw stations in the Northeast and Midwest, like 880 WCBS and 1120 KMOX, keep their HD signals active 24/7. Especially true of the CBS O & O's.

 

[nfladxer]

Even if WBOB simulcast on a more powerful FM signal, I don’t believe this would result in a significantly improved ratings situation. WBOB has never benefited from even the slightest ratings dip @ WOKV. A logical conclusion could be news/talk listeners don’t care much for the WBOB product and a sizable number may not even be aware of WBOB’s existence. But I believe something else is at play.

Jacksonville radio tends to lag behind the market because they continue to make assumptions about the community at large. For starters, this market is not as conservative as once was. In the last presidential election, Obama barely lost. Since that time, we have elected a Democratic mayor – African American to boot – and in the recent Republican primary, moderate Mitt Romney held on to a narrow win here while virtually all of North Florida went with Newt.

In our past discussions of WBOB, I suggested a morning show where a neutral host could solicit opinions of listeners in a call-in type morning show. It would have been realistic as well to have contributors such as trail lawyers to represent the liberal view and business owners to represent the conservative view. Then let the folks sort through it. To me, that would have a far better draw that to hear a national host who sounds as if he is in a coma.

JohnJax, my point was, if WBOB WAS on a full power FM, it COULD have the "possibility" of being more competitive. With all respect, the current ownership doesn't "get it". While WBOB has some credible syndicated national programs, like Ingraham, Beck, Levin, and Savage, they seem to be satisfied with mostly "time brokered" local programming. Plus, they keep changing things around, and lack consistency. I'm guessing since the owner is a big gun at Salem, they recently just dropped ABC Radio News at the top of the hour in favor of SRN News. Huh? It would take a seriously professional, well financed group to come in and even think about dislodging WOKV. Most likely, the ad dollars in a market the size of Jax aren't big enough to justify such a move. But, as I've said before, WBOB could be a decent Conservative Talk runner-up, and that would require them to get their act together locally.

 

[shel777]

Thanks for the added info. I checked WFXJ last night and was disappointed that it was in fact not on HD but am happy to know they may be on during the day in HD. I'l be checking that out soon.

WOKV with its 50/25kW would do well going HD, which would make it sound like FM on the AM as its Ponte Vedra FM is only 3kW. 24/7 Obama-bashing in HD!!

I find it so strange that a market such as ours being far more un-affluent than affluent, would be so heavily conservative. Even Carrol O'Connor (Archie Bunker) was, in real life, a Democrat, and has been quoted as saying that the Democrats are "the party of the poor." I grew tired of the constant Obama and liberal-bashing of WBOB and WOKV (and their endless commercials, often promoting scams) that I switched to WJCT 2 years ago and have heard opinions all over the spectrum there - and the nice thing is, it's commercial-free so there's more time for in-depth content, and the hosts don't scream at their callers. Oh and I'm a moderate; I try to learn all sides of an issue whether I agree or not. It's the only way to learn and to grow, in my opinion.

To bad WOKV won't bring back my friend and ex-colleague, Mike Miller, who is definitely a moderate-leaning talk host. We worked together in West Palm Beach.

WJCT has 3 HD units; HD1 is a 24/7 simulcast of the main WJCT programming, while HD2 is 24/7 Classical music, and HD3 is 24/7 NOAH weather (telephone-call quality; you'd think our government could afford better).

 

[nfladxer]

Thanks for the added info. I checked WFXJ last night and was disappointed that it was in fact not on HD but am happy to know they may be on during the day in HD. I'l be checking that out soon.

WOKV with its 50/25kW would do well going HD, which would make it sound like FM on the AM as its Ponte Vedra FM is only 3kW. 24/7 Obama-bashing in HD!!

Cox Radio Jacksonville constructed all digital studios several years ago, and, IMHO, as a group, their FM audio processing, both analogue and HD, is among the best in Jax. However, I don't think they're going to crank up HD on WOKV-AM. Cox doesn't have it on WSB in Atlanta, and that's their flagship News/Talk station. Too bad Cox doesn't have some HD-2 sub channels here, but in light of HD's slow adoption, they probably view it as an uneccessary expense. 89.9 WJCT-FM has a consistent HD-2 classical music channel, which is good. The audio feed from the National Weather Service, on WJCT HD-3, is what it is, a re-broadcast of non high fidelity audio, so there's really no way I know of, to make it better. Also, at one time, ALL of Clear Channel Jacksonville's FM's were HD, and had companion HD-2's. Apparently, a major lightning strike last May to their Southside antenna caused some serious damage, and took out 97.9 Now FM, 99.1 WQIK, and 107.3 WJGH, and for a short time, they all had to operate from their auxillary sites. Their Urban stations on 93.3 and 101.5 are on different antennas, and apparently, weren't affected. Eventually 97.9 and 107.3 returned to higher power and restored HD service. But, for some unknown reason, WQIK never restored their HD-1 and HD-2 service.

To bad WOKV won't bring back my friend and ex-colleague, Mike Miller, who is definitely a moderate-leaning talk host. We worked together in West Palm Beach.

Mike Miller was very good on WOKV, he had a great Talk Radio background in South Florida, but the sad reality is, except for local Sports Talk Radio, Jacksonville, Florida, does not have a local professional talk show host airing on a daily basis on either of the two commercial Conservative Talk stations. Kind of strange for a market this size.

 

[MicroPhoney]

It ain't all quiet in JAX anymore

 

[nfladxer]

It ain't all quiet in JAX anymore

That would appear to be the case, and, from all indications, we're not talking about an April Fool's prank. Apparently Clear Channel has initiated another RIF in several markets, including Jacksonville. The two live and local drive time personalities at Magic 107-3 suddenly vanished from their website today. Is the Magic wand about to make more than that disappear?!

 

[olmjax]

As of this morning, the programming of 1010 XL is also on 92.5. The gospel format and programming that was formally on 92.5 is moving to 1320AM (WJNJ) and 103.7 FM (FM translator W279AG Atlantic Beach, FL), which is a station owned by New Covenant Ministries, a local church in Jacksonville. However, there are some problems with the signal of 103.7 FM, especially on the southwest side of Duval County and the Orange Park area. The problem is primarily caused by a huge null in the station's coverage pattern, which cannot be fixed because of WRUF 103.7 FM in Gainesville. According to the FCC rule, a translator (W279AG) cannot cause interference to a full power station's (WRUF) primary coverage area. As a result of this, the engineers had to design a coverage pattern so they won't cause prohibited interference to WRUF. The only way to fix this problem is to move to another frequency that is "free and clear" of existing stations, stations that are under construction permits, or stations that have pending applications, which is almost impossible to find in the Jacksonville area. However, I have a plan to address this situation, which involves FM translators W279AG Atlantic Beach, FL (103.7 FM) and W271AP Jacksonville, FL (102.1), which is one of the translators owned by Christian non-commercial Reach Communications and rebroadcasts programming on WREH (90.5 FM/Cyprus Quarters, FL, a city located near Lake Okeechobee in south Florida). The plan will take place after the signal of W271AP moves to the adjacent frequency 102.3 and is upgraded from 7 watts (935 feet HAAT) to 99 watts from the same height. The station will still broadcast from its current radio tower, which is the one near the Channel 12 studios and EverBank Field in downtown Jacksonville. After the upgrade and move, the station will have decent coverage throughout most of metro Jacksonville and it will not have the null on the Westside of Jacksonville that W279AG (103.7 FM) currenly has. This move is necessary because the majority of the listeners of urban gospel are African-Americans and most of them live on the Northside and Westside of town as well as the Arlington area and the older parts of the Southside area, which will be covered adequetely after the move and upgrade of W271AP. (Coverage map of W271AP 102.3 Construction Permit is available here: http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=W271AP&service=FX&status=C&hours=U_). On the other hand, it is difficult to find an accurate coverage map of W279AG (103.7 FM) Atlantic Beach because the map that is available on the FCC website is not even accurate. After the upgrade and move of W271AP is complete, there should a frequency swap between Reach Communications and New Covenant Ministries, which means that New Covenant Ministries will take over the ownership of the new 102.3 and Reach Communications will take over the ownership of 103.7 FM. The new 102.3 will rebroadcast the programming of 1320 AM just like 103.7 does currently and it will provide better signal coverage in Jacksonville's African-American community, which will ensure the success of FM black gospel in Jacksonville in the long term.

My Proposal for WJNJ In Order to Improve FM Signal Coverage on the Westside of Jacksonville, FL and the suburb of Orange Park, FL (Plan B)(April 15, 2012):

Primary Objective: To purchase FM translator W270AK (101.9 FM/FM Channel 270) Cambon (a neighborhood near the Whitehouse area on the Westside of Jacksonville, FL) and move the station to 98.3 FM Orange Park, FL and upgrade the signal from 19 watts to 250 watts in order to improve the FM signal coverage of WJNJ on the Westside of Jacksonville and the Orange Park area and to compliment FM translator W279AG (103.7 FM/FM Channel 279) Atlantic Beach, FL.
Background of W270AK 101.9FM (Cambon, FL) and FCC’s Rules Regarding the Upgrade of FM Translators:
If the agreement between Reach Media and Covenant Media is unsuccessful, then there is another plan to improve FM coverage of WJNJ’s FM translator on the Westside and Orange Park. In fact, this plan has the higher chance of succeeding because it involves the purchase of an existing translator in a small, relatively rural part of Duval County that is currently rebroadcasting programming from Top 40/Contemporary Hits Radio station WAPE (95.1 FM), which broadcasts from a tower located near EverBank Field near downtown Jacksonville with a ERP (Effective Radiated Power) of 100kW. Since this station has a very powerful signal within Duval County and surrounding areas, the translator is not really needed for WAPE. Furthermore, the FM translator (W270AK 101.9 FM), which is owned by the Calvary Chapel Church in Twin Falls, ID and was originally intended to rebroadcast religious programming from non-commercial station KAWZ in Twin Falls, ID, which is the main station for the Calvary Satellite Network. Moreover, this small FM translator would be rather inexpensive to purchase because of its extremely low power (19 watts) and the fact that the translator is located in a very rural area in Duval County. The primary reason why Covenant Media needs to buy a FM translator in order to move it to Orange Park, FL because the FCC will not accept any applications for any new translators until the next filing window, which is unknown to the public beforehand. In order to make any changes to a translator before the next filing window for new FM translator applications, the applicant MUST use an existing translator to make any necessary upgrades, which means Covenant Media needs to purchase an existing translator in order to make the changes necessary to improve FM signal coverage in the Jacksonville area.

How Will the Move of the Station from Cambon, FL to Orange Park, FL Take Place?

The first step in this plan is to purchase the FM translator from Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls, ID and wait to the deal closes on the sale and FCC approval of the transaction. After that, Covenant Media will immediately apply for a modification of an existing construction permit in order to move the station from St. Mary’s, GA to Orange Park, FL, which will also include a change of frequency from 101.9 FM to 98.3 FM (FM Channel 252) and a signal increase from 19 watts to 250 watts. The proposed 98.3 FM translator will share a broadcast tower with W300AS 107.9 FM (Channel 300) Orange Park, a FM translator also owned by the Calvary Chapel Church in Twin Falls, ID but broadcasts with a power of only 27 watts from a tower that is located just south of the Duval County/Clay County line and current repeats programming from the main station KAWZ. The proposed 98.3 FM, which will broadcast at an effective radiated power of 250 watts, will fill in the big coverage hole that is as a result of the deep null in the southwestern portion of the coverage pattern of current FM translator W279AG (103.7 FM) Atlantic Beach, FL, which is also 250 watts but a much higher antenna height than the proposed 98.3 FM. In fact, W279AG 103.7 FM would have had adequate coverage of the Westside and Orange Part if the translator didn’t have to protect 100,000 watt, full-power WRUF (103.7 FM). In order to be within FCC regulations regarding full-power FM stations and lower power FM translators, however, the engineers had to adjust the coverage pattern of W279AG (103.7 FM) accordingly so that the translator won’t cause prohibited interference with WRUF. As a consequence, the signal reception of 103.7 FM is poor to very poor on the Westside of Jacksonville and Orange Park and it is very susceptible to inference from WRUF in these areas of the city. In contrast to the FM translator 103.7 FM, AM 1320, which broadcasts at a power of 50,000 watts and has one of the most powerful daytime AM signals in the country, has a very powerful signal on the Westside and Orange Park because the transmitter is located in this area but it would be nice to have a decent FM signal on this side of town like they have on the Southside, Northside, and the Beaches, which have an excellent to fair signal of 103.7 FM.
Unlike W279AG (103.7 FM), the proposed 98.3 FM will have a non-directional antenna pattern but the range will be smaller than 103.7 FM because the new station will broadcast from a much lower tower height of the shorter Orange Park broadcast tower in comparison to the much taller antenna of the one 103.7 FM broadcasts from, which is located on one of the many taller broadcast towers located near Hogan Road on the Southside of Jacksonville. Once completed, the proposed FM translator at 98.3 FM, which will use the FM translator call letters W252AG, will provide excellent to decent signal coverage in the southwest portion of Duval County and the northern portion of Clay County. Finally, WJNJ will benefit by having this new translator because the new station will compliment 103.7 FM.

 

[olmjax]

My Plan to Upgrade the Signal of the FM Translator W279AG (103.7FM) Atlantic Beach, FL and Move It to the Adjacent Frequency of 103.9 FM (The Proposed W280AG) (Plan C) (April 11, 2012):
Primary Objective: To move W279AG (103.7 FM) Atlantic Beach, FL to 103.9 FM so that the station can use a non-directional transmitter in order to provide better coverage of the southwest side of Duval County and the northern part of Clay County and to lessen the inference with co-channel (a station on the same frequency as another station) WRUF 103.7 FM, a 100kW, Class C1, full-power station in Gainesville, FL.
My Proposal In Order to Make This Happen:
In a nutshell, we will move the current FM translator 103.7 FM to the next adjacent frequency of 103.9 so that we can utilize a non-directional antenna so we can have better signal coverage in the southwestern portion of the Jacksonville metro area and the suburb of Orange Park, FL. Basically, the technical specifications of the current translator at 103.7 FM will remain the same but without the significant directional null that current exists in the southwestern portion of Duval County and northern Clay County. Furthermore, the station will cause less interference with full-power WRUF (103.7 FM) in Gainesville, FL so, therefore, we will be able to use a non-directional antenna to address the fore-mentioned signal deficits in this part of the metro area. Moreover, 103.9 FM is a relatively vacant channel in the Jacksonville, FL area and it doesn’t have any other FM translator applications anywhere near Jacksonville. The nearest station on this frequency is full-power FM station WTYB in Bluffton, SC, which is near Savannah, GA. In addition, there are two full-power stations on the adjacent frequency 104.1 FM that are relatively close to Jacksonville, which are WRJY, a FCC FM Class A station in Brunswick, GA broadcasting with a power of 4.2 kW at 394 ft. HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain), and WTKS-FM (Cocoa Beach/Orlando, FL), a station that broadcasts with a power of 94 kW at 1,640 ft HAAT. However, the new translator will not cause prohibited interference with either WRJY or WTKS because they are located too far from the coverage range of the proposed 103.9 translator. On the other hand, there is no other nearby full-power stations on 103.7 FM other than WRUF. However, there are two applications for two FM translators on 104.1 FM that have been on file since the last Federal Communication Commission (FCC) FM translator filing window, which was in 2003. The two applications, which are for new FM translators in Orange Park, FL and Jacksonville Beach, FL, must be protected just like any other station that is licensed or have been granted a construction permit to make changes to their broadcast facility that were outlined in their application. In order to make these changes, we must show that our station will not cause any inference to a station currently licensed or a proposed station whether or not a construction permit has been granted to build a station or make any changes to their current licensed operation. As it stands currently, we will cause prohibited interference with both of the proposed stations on 104.1 FM, which were filed by Edgewater Broadcasting (Jacksonville Beach, FL facility) and Educational Media Foundation (Orange Park, FL facility) nearly a decade ago. However, these two companies can come together with New Covenant Ministries so that they can agree to cancel their applications, which were filed in 2003 and have not been granted a construction permit by the FCC since then. Since these applications were filed nine years ago during the last FM translator filing window in 2003, they have only a slender chance of being approved by the FCC anytime soon. In addition, there is a lack of available frequencies in the Jacksonville market so this agreement is necessary in order to ensure that we are in compliance with FCC rules and that New Covenant Ministries can upgrade and move W279AG, which will become W280AG after the move, which will provide better FM coverage for all citizens in the Jacksonville metro area.

NOTE: The technical specifications will remain the same for the proposed 103.9 translator FM but the new transmitter will utilize a non-directional antenna pattern instead of a directional antenna pattern.

 

[shel777]

AM stations, with their quirky power requirements; sundown, critical hours and sunset, added to their expensive to maintain directional patterns and loss of audiences with every power change and directional pattern... need o be shut down and relocated to an FM frequency, somehow.

The Canadians don't reserve 88.1 to 91.9 (or any other portion of the dial) for religious or student-run stations. So why do we? There are at least a few spots in that are where we could pop in place losing AM stations, that might make them competitive. Or relegate religious and student-run stations to AM, since so few listen to them, anyway.

 

[nfladxer]

AM stations, with their quirky power requirements; sundown, critical hours and sunset, added to their expensive to maintain directional patterns and loss of audiences with every power change and directional pattern... need o be shut down and relocated to an FM frequency, somehow.

The Canadians don't reserve 88.1 to 91.9 (or any other portion of the dial) for religious or student-run stations. So why do we? There are at least a few spots in that are where we could pop in place losing AM stations, that might make them competitive. Or relegate religious and student-run stations to AM, since so few listen to them, anyway.

While I'm enjoying reading some of WRKO's and otharadioman's ideas, upgrade proposals, etc., you can't make these things happen overnight, the FCC can move pretty slow. Listening to distant AM stations (nighttime AM DX'ing), which was, at one time, very enjoyable, has become problematic, for a variety of reasons. I'm not sure why you even want to hear WJNJ, I assume you enjoy their programming. I think it would have made more sense for WBOB to have stayed on 1320, and upgraded their FM translator at 103.7 (which happened after they sold it), and upgraded WBOB's Orange Park translator at 100.3 (which they did after they moved to AM 600). From an audience continuity standpoint, that would have been a stronger move for building on what WBOB had, rather than roaming around the AM dial. When WBOB sold their 1320 frequency to the local Church group, they HAD to include their 103.7 translator, to make the deal happen - big mistake. While I personally still have a passion for listening to AM radio, as has been previously stated, FM is the future, not AM, especially here in Florida! Why do you think WOKV, and now 1010XL, both have FM simulcasts in this market?!