I road down US 220 last week and there is a derrick on top of the candlelabra tower at Level Cross that channel 45's HD, channel 48's analog and HD, channel 61's HD and channel 20's analog is on. Looks like the light pole on top of the channel 20 antenna has been taken down and a red painted pole with mounts on it has been put on in place. I guess they will be HD soon.
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Channel20 HD antenna being installed
- Thread starter rf_chaser
- Start date
JUst a question here. I'm not familar with the currect FCC Regs on this, so maybe someone can claify. Channel 20 is and always has been licensed to Lexington. Except for a brief time in the 80's when it was owned by Bill Register ? they have never had anything in Lexington per se. Is it still not a reg that some kind of studio or something has to be in the city of license? How about local news or public affairs programning? Seems like to me this would be a good challenge for license renewal.
WCWG's DTV antenna replaced a Dummy Pole with Top Light that was installed when the tower was completed in 2000. (WMYV and WXLV antennae were added on the remaining arbors two years later.)
The station was originally located in Lexington. For some reason the paying rent was an issue and the landlord evicted them from his property after not receiving rent money for 18 months. They station operated from the previous transmitter site in Greensboro for nearly six months before they relocated behind the Harpers II Gentleman's Club and future home of the "Topless Carwash."
As with many stations (television and radio) that move main studios, they maintain the legally required presence in the city of license.
As for Public Service - nobody does public service like the "Good Old Days". The days of radio and television stations actually serving the public as they did 30 years ago pretty much disappeared when TV News Anchors and Radio Personalities started becoming millionaires.
The station was originally located in Lexington. For some reason the paying rent was an issue and the landlord evicted them from his property after not receiving rent money for 18 months. They station operated from the previous transmitter site in Greensboro for nearly six months before they relocated behind the Harpers II Gentleman's Club and future home of the "Topless Carwash."
As with many stations (television and radio) that move main studios, they maintain the legally required presence in the city of license.
As for Public Service - nobody does public service like the "Good Old Days". The days of radio and television stations actually serving the public as they did 30 years ago pretty much disappeared when TV News Anchors and Radio Personalities started becoming millionaires.
just curious.
before the new wfmy tower went up, out there. what tower was 99.5 WMAG on?
and another thing; before the American Tower went up that carries the HD antennas..where did tv 20 broadcast from? the only time before the year 2000, that i can remember heading out 220 south was back in 1997. and i only recall the current WVBZ and (old analog) WGHP towers out that way, visible from 220.
i dont know, maybe im just not digging up enough info. but where were these stations before ..say..2000?
excluding WFMY
before the new wfmy tower went up, out there. what tower was 99.5 WMAG on?
and another thing; before the American Tower went up that carries the HD antennas..where did tv 20 broadcast from? the only time before the year 2000, that i can remember heading out 220 south was back in 1997. and i only recall the current WVBZ and (old analog) WGHP towers out that way, visible from 220.
i dont know, maybe im just not digging up enough info. but where were these stations before ..say..2000?
excluding WFMY
hold up. the new WFMY tower. out there on davis country rd. (the one thats 1,900ft) was built in 1980?? umm. that can't be right, someone told me they transmitted from their 750ft tower off Phillips Ave, in Greensboro untill 2000/2001 when the one out in randolph county went up about 6 years ago.
so, the basic history behind the WVBZ tower is that 100.3 has been there for 20 or more years. WMAG was never on it. TV 20 was there at one time or another and 98.7 once was on there before the they moved out to Wall Rd. - talk about heavy use
so, the basic history behind the WVBZ tower is that 100.3 has been there for 20 or more years. WMAG was never on it. TV 20 was there at one time or another and 98.7 once was on there before the they moved out to Wall Rd. - talk about heavy use
M
MaskMan
Guest
WMAG is and has been on the WFMY tower in Sophia.
In the old days I remember Channel 20 having its studios on Business 85 North. Hege's Aquarium was almost directly across the street. I remember also that the building in the location burned, but I think that's before the TV station was there. I could be wrong.BIG APE said:
carlosswicegood said:
Starting at 85/220 going south, the first tower you go by is the WVBZ tower (also known as the old Bernie Mann tower, the tower was since sold to one of those vertical real estate companies). I have lived here in Triad since 1987 and it was here when I moved here with those three stations on it and a boat load of 2 way gear.
Slightly further down and to the west about 5 miles is the tower that 97.1 built in 1988.
Next tower down close to the road is the 3 arm tower that was built in 2000 for channel 20 and channel 48 moved their analog (from channel 2's tower) and then their HD along with channel 45's HD in 2002.
Due west about 2 miles is the channel 2 tower with WMAG on it and channel 48 used to be on it and was built in either 1979 or 1980 and was standing in 1987 when I moved here. Channel 2 still has the old tower behind the studios on Phillips Ave in Greensboro that they did use in 2001 (they talked about it on air having reduced area and why) when they changed out the channel 2 antenna and put a new channel 2 analog and HD antenna. That is probably what you are thinking of.
Next tower down is 92.3 which was built in 1985 when it came on the air. I was living in Fayetteville at the time and I could receive 92.3 there when it came on.
Next is channel 8's old and new tower. The old tower was built in the early 60's when it signed on and the new tower was just completed last year. When I lived in Fayetteville, I could receive it and channel 2.
ok. please be patient here for just a minute. i have just 2 questions that i still dont have answered/or are still blurry.
#1) 97.1 - that tower is shared by 98.7 as well. but what i want to know, is when did they acutally stop using, the now nonexistant to on Meadewview Rd. 'IN" greenseboro. -and another good question is when they dismantled it..where did it go and who's using it now?? (ps. im surprised that the News and Record didn't have something on that) i about ran off the road last summer headiing on 85 south, i had to take a double take and think...what the heck?
#2)"Due west about 2 miles is the channel 2 tower with WMAG on it and channel 48 used to be on it and was built in either 1979 or 1980 and was standing in 1987 when I moved here. Channel 2 still has the old tower behind the studios on Phillips Ave in Greensboro that they did use in 2001 (they talked about it on air having reduced area and why) when they changed out the channel 2 antenna and put a new channel 2 analog and HD antenna. That is probably what you are thinking of."
i follow you there. but if there was already a 1,500 footer out in randolph county from 1979/1980, why did they have to go back to transmitting from the one behind the studio? simply for the fact up upgrading to HD? or did they BUILD a new one?
thanks a ton. since right now, im confusing myself.
#1) 97.1 - that tower is shared by 98.7 as well. but what i want to know, is when did they acutally stop using, the now nonexistant to on Meadewview Rd. 'IN" greenseboro. -and another good question is when they dismantled it..where did it go and who's using it now?? (ps. im surprised that the News and Record didn't have something on that) i about ran off the road last summer headiing on 85 south, i had to take a double take and think...what the heck?
#2)"Due west about 2 miles is the channel 2 tower with WMAG on it and channel 48 used to be on it and was built in either 1979 or 1980 and was standing in 1987 when I moved here. Channel 2 still has the old tower behind the studios on Phillips Ave in Greensboro that they did use in 2001 (they talked about it on air having reduced area and why) when they changed out the channel 2 antenna and put a new channel 2 analog and HD antenna. That is probably what you are thinking of."
i follow you there. but if there was already a 1,500 footer out in randolph county from 1979/1980, why did they have to go back to transmitting from the one behind the studio? simply for the fact up upgrading to HD? or did they BUILD a new one?
thanks a ton. since right now, im confusing myself.
carlosswicegood said:
When I moved here in 1987, 98.7 had either just gone on it or was just going on the Bernie Mann tower. I had the pleasure of touring that site in 1988 or 1989 and you had 100.3, 98.7, using the same antenna, and channel 20 had built a VERY small control room in front of the transmitter.
I think only 97.1 is the only station on their tower. (could be wrong though)
They said on air that they had switched from their main tower at Level Cross to their back up tower in the "back yard" while they took down their old channel 2 antenna and installed a new channel 2 antenna and a new HD antenna on their main tower.
I was just checking the FCC data base and it looks like the 2000 ft tower at Level Cross went on line in 1981.
A
audiomusiclover
Guest
Great information about the clusters as one drives Hwy 220 RF_Chaser. That hwy has always been fun to drive down observing those tall transmitters one after another as you drive south for 20 miles. This caused me to think about the 98.7 move from their Meadowview transmitter out to the Bernie Mann tower about 15 or 20 years ago. If I recall, the Meadowview Rd Greensboro transmitter was about 812 ft tall, verses the Bernie Mann transmitter which is just a couple of hundred feet higher, approx 1000ft. I really don't see the worth of moving their transmitter to it and paying lease fees for it when they already had the tower that was already 80 percent as high. I would think this only grabbed an additional mile or so of 60dbu signal distance at the time. Anyone know what caused 98.7 to jump south to add this expense? Just curious as to why if moving to pay an additional cost for leasing twr space, not apply for taller transmitter to get more bang for the buck..
audiomusiclover said:
Check out this site in Austria that has info of our area. Some of the info is wrong, but it is still interesting. It is in German so I have posted the google translate version of it.
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://members.aon.at/wabweb/frames/usf.htm
;Dthanks to everyone for all the info. i think this thread has plenty of info on the transmitters and towers south of G'Boro now
a few other things though and I have finally figured alot out. the Wall Road tower is used by BOTH 98.7 and 97.1 Simon's up top, then 'QMG below- (Was just out there when they were putting up a new fence (right before they closed it off, I got to walk right under the feed lines and structure itself that day) Entercom owns the tower (from what I was told a while back) and from my own knowledge I can throw in that 97.1 way back in the 50's-60's used to be WFMY-FM and used a tower a mile or so south of the WFMY "back yard" aux. tower in G'boro. (5 FM Bays are still up there too) In 1988 'QMG moved to Wall Rd and then 98.7 followed.
100.3 - Has always used the tower right off of 220 south the whole time. and still does. Only FM that uses it to this day.
a few other things though and I have finally figured alot out. the Wall Road tower is used by BOTH 98.7 and 97.1 Simon's up top, then 'QMG below- (Was just out there when they were putting up a new fence (right before they closed it off, I got to walk right under the feed lines and structure itself that day) Entercom owns the tower (from what I was told a while back) and from my own knowledge I can throw in that 97.1 way back in the 50's-60's used to be WFMY-FM and used a tower a mile or so south of the WFMY "back yard" aux. tower in G'boro. (5 FM Bays are still up there too) In 1988 'QMG moved to Wall Rd and then 98.7 followed.
100.3 - Has always used the tower right off of 220 south the whole time. and still does. Only FM that uses it to this day.
WFMY signed on on 97.3, now licensed to N. Wilkesboro. The frequency was also used on Mt. Mitchell for a while.
same frequency. totally different affiliations. sorry. i meant they used the same tower that 'QMG used when they signed on.
B
boboradio
Guest
carlosswicegood said:;Dthanks to everyone for all the info. i think this thread has plenty of info on the transmitters and towers south of G'Boro now
I can throw in that 97.1 way back in the 50's-60's used to be WFMY-FM and used a tower a mile or so south of the WFMY "back yard" aux. tower in G'boro. (5 FM Bays are still up there too) In 1988 'QMG moved to Wall Rd and then 98.7 followed.
I don't believe WFMY-FM or TV has ever shared a tower with WQMG.
WFMY-FM had their original tower on Davie Street in downtown Greensboro beside the old location of the Greensboro Daily News which was the licensee. They signed on on channel 2 in September 1949 the day after WBTV signed on on channel 3 in Charlotte. WFMY moved to their new studio and transmitter location around 1957. They then moved to the 2000' stick in Randolph County in the early eighties.
I believe the tower you are refering to with the 5 FM bays is on Gatewood Ave which is located about a mile from WFMY's studio on Phillips Ave. That tower was constructed in the late 60's or early 70's and WQMG used it until moving to their current location. (I have heard the rumor that the Gatewood Ave tower was originally the old WTOB-TV tower from Winston-Salem which was dismantled and eventually moved to Greensboro.) WQMG signed on around 1962 with studios in the Guilford Building in downtown Greensboro and the transmitter was in the Jefferson Standard building with the antenna on one section of tower on the Jefferson building. The station was licensed to Murryhill Broadcasting and I think the largest stockholder was Ralph Price, son of Julian Price the former president of Jefferson Standard.
Sorry this so long, I didn't mean to write a book.
well, thanks for the clear-up as best you can.
im getting two mixed bits of info on some things. who to believe....hmmm : jk. but yea, it's confusing when you hear one thing. believe that for so long, then hear something else. grrrr
if youre right, youre right. no changing that, still. it's confusing and irritating
ps. i'll go on a tower hunt one day, bring my cam and try to cover southern g'boro/randoplh county. the one out at the 68/220 split ('KZL,'JMH,'PAW) and maybe Sauratown Mtn for 'TQR and 'MKS.
Let's get this s.h.i.t.e. straight people!
im getting two mixed bits of info on some things. who to believe....hmmm :
jk. but yea, it's confusing when you hear one thing. believe that for so long, then hear something else. grrrrif youre right, youre right. no changing that, still. it's confusing and irritating
ps. i'll go on a tower hunt one day, bring my cam and try to cover southern g'boro/randoplh county. the one out at the 68/220 split ('KZL,'JMH,'PAW) and maybe Sauratown Mtn for 'TQR and 'MKS.
Let's get this s.h.i.t.e. straight people!
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