Auburn's WANI gets an FM outlet?

[tomservo]

I see that Auburn-area WGZZ, "Wings FM" is doing HD, and has put AM sister station WANI on the HD-2.

I also see that an Auburn translator on 98.7 has been sold to Jimmy Jarrell Communications Foundation, who lists WGZZ's HD-2 as the signal to be retransmitted... Which will put WANI on a regular FM signal.

This isn't the first time an AM outlet has gotten on an HD-2, or the first time an AM's gotten on an FM translator... But it may be the first time someone's put an AM on and HD-2, then sought to rebroadcast that on a translator!

Is this setup currently on the air?

 

[Poledo]

Didn't someone just put a simulcast of an HD-2 on a translator in Asheville, North Carolina last month? I think it was the first one in the country and has already had a few other stations steal the idea.

The only stranger setup that I've read about is an LPFM on Long Island, New York, using a 250 watt translator (or two or three) to extend their coverage.

Does the FCC have to approve what you put on a translator before you start rebroadcasting a station or are these people just doing it and waiting for the FCC to decide if they will allow it later?

Is anyone using a translator to rebroadcast a part 15 or carrier current station yet?

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

Didn't someone just put a simulcast of an HD-2 on a translator in Asheville, North Carolina last month? I think it was the first one in the country and has already had a few other stations steal the idea.

The only stranger setup that I've read about is an LPFM on Long Island, New York, using a 250 watt translator (or two or three) to extend their coverage.

Does the FCC have to approve what you put on a translator before you start rebroadcasting a station or are these people just doing it and waiting for the FCC to decide if they will allow it later?

Is anyone using a translator to rebroadcast a part 15 or carrier current station yet?

Saga put the HD-2 signal of WOXL 96.5 on 98.1 a translator in Asheville, NC.

It isn't the first or second time it's been down.

It was done in Pennsylvania when an AM switched formats from gospel to talk. They threw the gospel on an HD 2 signal and tosse dit out to the translator.

It's being done in Ithaca, NY by... Saga! They have an HD-2 signal on a translator!

 

[Nate Wesley]

The immediate example I thought of (noted by R-I posters and "Taylor on Radio-Info") was the former WTCY 1400 in Harrisburg, PA.

This Cumulus station had "The Touch" Urban AC format and rights to W237DE 95.3. Cumulus moved the station to WMMK 104.1 HD-2, and simulcast it on 95.3 FM, and it's now "The Touch 95.3". That freed up 1400AM to become an ESPN Radio affiliate (with WHGB calls).

 

[Poledo]

So now translators can be paired with a worthless HD-2 signal to essentially create a commercial LPFM without all the adjacent channel requirements. Don't you just love the way rules can be twisted to mean whatever you want them to mean? I guess Calvary will start leasing HD-2 or HD-3 space to feed translators in the commercial band soon... or are they already doing this? Why not just change the rules and allow a class A station to operate with 100 watts on a short tower and base spacing requirements on actual height and power rather than class. That would really mess up the FM band.
The sad thing is, these translators carrying HD-2 or AM signals probably have the best programming in town.