Christian Radio Translators

[BS1012]

I've noticed throughout the Triangle area that there are a ton of religious translators on the FM dial -- these tiny stations that seem to only service a couple miles here and there. Off the top of my head: 91.1, 95.3, 98.9, and what seems to be a couple around the 105.5 / 105.7 area.

I guess I'm wondering If many people actually listen to these translators? their coverage is so small and limited that I'm almost having a hard time figuring out what purpose they serve. I would think few people would actually know they exist, and often you can't go more than a couple miles away without losing the thing.

Most people I know who listen to this style of music always just tune to Klove on 106.7. Sure, the coverage isn't the greatest in Raleigh, but it least it's consistent (meaning you have "sort of decent" coverage throughout the entire city, not just good coverage for a mile or two), and of course it picks of great from Durham out to the Greensboro area. Besides, I've tuned in to 91.1 and the quality sounds pretty horrible.

Thoughts?

 

[quadraphonic]

I know plenty of people in Wake Forest who listen to KLove, not on 106.7, on the translator, or listen to one of the multitudes of HisRadio translators in other places. If you like the music, and you come across KLove, or hiphop, or sports talk, or bluegrass, whatever, on a translator frequency, you'll listen to it, because that's where it is, and that's where you are. If you're driving and run out, hit scan, you'll find something else, like most formats' listeners.

Most people listen for the content of the station, not the wattage or the technical info. Otherwise, BBN would be biggest, since they tend to own more fuller-powered stations than translators.

I don't get the proliferation, but I guess they gotta do what they gotta do.

 

[RadioDze]

I volunteered on the phone bank at His Radio (WRTP) several times and a great many calls were from translator listeners (we asked callers on which frequency they listened).

The Raleigh-Durham area proliferation of translators rebroadcasting ministry stations, specifically, comes from several factors....

1. The abundance of colleges and universities in the region holding licenses in the Non-Commercial Educational (NCE) Band (88-92 MHz), means little room here for new NCE stations, be they Christian-formatted or anything else.

2. A full slate of commercial FMs here and in neighboring markets such as Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point and Fayetteville, means no empty allotments to apply for a new station and prohibitive (to most ministries) costs to purchase one already on-air.

3. The market is fairly large and spread out, requiring a larger signal, or several smaller ones, to cover it. Several facilities, both AM and FM, commercial and non-commercial, cover only one city in the market. Again, to get a signal big enough to cover it all, you run into the same issues as in reasons 1 and 2.

4. FCC rules which allow non-commercial stations to have translators completely outside the coverage area of the station being rebroadcast (commercial translators can only fill in gray areas within the station's general coverage area). His Radio and, to a lesser extent, K-Love, have done this by buying a more-affordable rimshot signal and licensing translators to cover central parts of the market.

His Radio WRTP, which started on AM at Chapel Hill-licensed daytime-only frequency 1530 (now WLLQ), bought a small 90.1 FM in Roanoke Rapids (Think it was originally WPGT). This 90.1, which didn't come close to reaching Raleigh-Durham, allowed them still to build their translator network. A signal trade with another Roanoke Rapids station left them with a better facility on 88.5, which they've re-licensed to Franklinton. They eventually dropped their AMs, which was by then included three daytimers. WRTP at 88.5 reaches the area better, but translators are still needed in many places. Two years ago, the ministry was able to acquire Campbell UNiversity's radio station, WCCE 90.1, for coverage in southern portions of the market. The local K-Love signal, Semora-licensed WKVK 106.7 (until this year, WKVE) was a class A commercial station based in and targeting Danville, Virginia, when Educational Media bought it in 2000, took it non-commercial and boosted the station to a 50,000-watt Class C2 using beam tilt to maximize the signal in the fringes (which, in their case, included targeted cities such as Raleigh, Cary, etc.). Still, translators were needed to reach some areas.

 

[Ai4i]

A European FM radio with RDS would help with these anemic translators. The listener programs the desired station on a preset and when it gets weak, the radio scans untill it finds that same station somewhere else on the dial. This "state of the art" technology has existed in the EC, as well as throughout much of the old British Commonwealth, for well over a decade.

 

[triadradionewsman]

These translators are a waste of spectrum. I wonder how many real stations, meaning those originating programing, we could have if it weren't for these translators? WBFJ has a translator on the 100.3 tower on Highway 220 S of Greensboro licensed to Sedalia which is due east of Greensboro. According to the map on radio locator this translator's signal doesn't get anywhere close to the col (city of license). Not only is the religious community at fault here, but so is NPR. WFDD has a translator on the tower of WNAA (NC A&T) which is inside WFDD's primary coverage. They don't need a translator within their primary coverage! We don't need translators rebroadcasting religious stations from the midwest! Its a waste of spectrum, and think of the amount of energy that's being used/wasted (and I don't claim to be an environmentalist). These repeater or electronic sandboxes, are also hindering the development of low power fm. A service required to have a certain percentage of local programming and owned by local groups (I do realize some will be religious).

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

These translators are a waste of spectrum. I wonder how many real stations, meaning those originating programing, we could have if it weren't for these translators?

This is a scenario repeated over and over again nationwide.

It is a scenario driven by emotion, politics, and zealous thinking.

Those who are fans of religious programming content tune across the dial and express their own view that commercial broadcasting with it's obsession for music that is seen as not compatible with religious thinking is, as you have called it, "a waste of spectrum". We each have our own idea of what is valuable, valid and worthwhile program content.

I can't prove it, but being an old hand at watching what goes on in church circles, there is an "arms race" between some of the religious groups that have dozens, maybe hundreds of these translators linked together as they rush to grab frequencies in a manner like the Oklahoma Land Rush a century ago... nailing down every frequency they can before those "hated liberals" nail them down for NPR. There is a "starve your enemy" drive going on here.

Tell me what part of radio operates today in a logical, sensible fashion.

There is another issue here that is seldom identified. People who do not eat, sleep and live their every waking moment proclaiming the Gospel have a feeling that too much spectrum has been "land grabbed" by religion. They do not recognize the turmoil within the religious community: Almost all of the religious broadcasters come from the Conservative-Evangelical wing of the church world. A lot of church folks have decided that there are more pressing, more productive things to do with time and budget than a radio station, and they are miffed to see their interpretation of religion getting NO AIRTIME.

But "Wait, There's More!" as they say in the commercials. You may have begun to notice the turmoil in city zoning issues lately as groups that have not been part of our culture for the last 200 years are now here and wanting to build "houses of worship".... worship and/or meditation as Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others. They, too, may want airtime soon. This whole topic will get rather lively before it all settles down.

 

[Ai4i]

...there is an "arms race" between some of the religious groups that have...maybe hundreds of these translators linked together as they rush to grab frequencies.
But...Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others may will want airtime soon. This whole topic will get rather lively before it all settles down.

And quietly, not so slowly, rising above the horizon and onto the radar screen is wireless internet streaming with its limitless bandwidth, as even The Shack goes for a makeover.

 

[tripinva]

WFDD has a translator on the tower of WNAA (NC A&T) which is inside WFDD's primary coverage. They don't need a translator within their primary coverage!

Why not? There are plenty of stations which have translators inside their coverage contour because of terrain blockages or building blockages. Who's to say WFDD did not have the same problem?

- Trip

 

[quadraphonic]

These translators are a waste of spectrum. I wonder how many real stations, meaning those originating programing, we could have if it weren't for these translators?

We don't have enough "real stations" now, just counting the fullpower stations.

 

[Matt]

Seems like a late trend for the religious companies that applied for so many translators in communities and never built them out is to sell the unbuilt CP's to daytimer AM's, since they can now simulcast the AM programming on them and program them separately after the AM's sign off at night.

No doubt that possibility figured prominently in WBFJ, His Radio and RTN's push to apply for the frequencies and sit on the less-useful ones until the laws changed and AMers were willing to pay.

Later . . . .

 

[vchimpanzee]

Not only is the religious community at fault here, but so is NPR. WFDD has a translator on the tower of WNAA (NC A&T) which is inside WFDD's primary coverage. They don't need a translator within their primary coverage!

WFDD should use that for the classical HD-2 channel. An Asheville station is doing the same thing with AAA, so it's legal.

 

[triadradionewsman]

I believe a translator can not originate programming. They can only relay the programming of another station. The beauty of LPFM is that they can originate programming and provide local a voice, something that is missing in Greensboro, NC in the early part of the 21st century.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I believe a translator can not originate programming. They can only relay the programming of another station. The beauty of LPFM is that they can originate programming and provide local a voice, something that is missing in Greensboro, NC in the early part of the 21st century.

Nevertheless, a translator for WISE-AM in Asheville switched to the HD-2 programming of the co-owned FM.