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CP For 97.7 W249CB in Greenville - Another WLFJ Translator

KyleSmith1988

KyleSmith1988

Just noticed on fccinfo.com & radio-locator that there is a CP for a new 97.7 in Greenville (moving from Six Mile, SC).
250 watts atop Paris Mountain, with a null to the North, NW & NE. CP to re-transmit WLFJ.

Makes no sense to me.
WLFJ-FM is already at 89.3 - Class C signal
WLFJ-AM already transmits on 92.9 with a similar signal (97.7 is a little stronger, especially to the south)
and Hangar Radio Z (His Radio Z) is also already on FM translators in Greenville (94.9, 95.7, 96.3 [Another CP], 105.9).
and on WLFJ's HD-2.

There's a CP for 96.3 in Greenville, another supposed LFJ translator. That's another story that should be discussed.

It's hard keeping track of all these WLFJ/WHRZ translators, but I don't see any need for this.
It was wise for them to give up 97.1 W246BU in Cowpens and move it to Spartanburg under WSPG.

Also, 97.7 signal on paper is way too powerful for a translator. 250 watts, but it's signal is just a little weaker than 96.7.
Here's the the Radio-Locator map for 97.7 in Greenville.
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/7229/w249cb.gif
 
I agree. Why do they need all these signals? And they interfere with existing signals. 95.7 out of Hickory used to put a strong signal into Spartanburg and a decent one in Greenville. And isn't there an existing station on 96.3 that puts a signal into Greenville? You can scroll the dial and find the same programming on 4 or 5 frequencies. Is this legal or has the FCC looked the other way on this one?
 
This is one reason why a lot of these religious broadcasters irk me. I wonder how much of the $$ they beg for goes towards these things? Why do the religious broadcasters seem to be the worst with getting unnecessary translators to go in areas where the primary signal is fine? They used to have more WLFJ translators than they have now actually. Some have been sold, like the one in Laurens that was moved to Woodruff.
 
carolinaradio said:
This is one reason why a lot of these religious broadcasters irk me. I wonder how much of the $$ they beg for goes towards these things? Why do the religious broadcasters seem to be the worst with getting unnecessary translators to go in areas where the primary signal is fine?
Click to expand...

There were two (now three) reasons many religious stations have redundant translators:

1) They filed numerous applications for stations ALL around, since non-comms don't have to feed their translators with an OTA signal. Some got rejected, others didn't get approved until recently.
2) Coverage! If there are several small stations covering an area, when one is overcome by tropo or terrain shielding, there's the other frequency.
3) More Money! Of course, if the station gets more shut-ins listening on a clock radio, the wallets *should* open up. However, now one of the big money makers is to sell the translator or the CP to commercial media for AM or HD translation. This is surprisingly easy for non-comms to do and for $500 of fees and engineering work, a $10-100k sale is a HUGE profit!

Radio-X
 
Case in point: Just look at translator W213BD on 90.5 in Greenville. The parent station, Calvary Chapel owned KAWZ-FM in Twin Falls, Idaho currently has 377 translators listed nationwide.

http://www.radio-locator.com/info/KAWZ-FM

I must say I was surprised at the number. I wonder if this station has the most translators or is there another one out there with more?
 
There are a lot of companies/churches/groups that applied for way too many translators back during the translator window simply because they could and filled up the FM band with too many apps. pending there by messing up the plans and future plans of many other companies, trust me I know.
 
radiodxrichmond said:
There were two (now three) reasons many religious stations have redundant translators:
Click to expand...

I would suggest a #4: because any "extra" translators can be sold to commercial operators, for use relaying AM stations or HD2/HD3.

I suspect in many cases, groups ended up with more than one at the same site because they wanted to be sure at least one application would succeed, without being nixed by competing applications for the same frequency. If you file for three at Greenville, there's a fairly good chance one of them will be granted. If you're lucky & get more than one -- then you have the pleasant dilemma of having to figure out how to dispose of a spare translator.
 
Keep in mind that most of the WLFJ translators are owned by Ted McCall, a local engineer who works for WLFJ and other area stations. Some of his translators carry WLFJ-HD2 (Hangar/His Radio Z) and others are rented to other stations (WQUL, WZZQ, WFIS, WSPG, and WJMZ-HD2/WHZT). So there are a lot of possibilities for these new Paris Mountain translators. As others have noted, the coverage from Paris Mountain is pretty good on 92.9.

Also, the 96.3 translator frequency will open up when WGOG moves to 105.5 Powdersville and WRBN in Clayton, GA goes to 96.3.

I can't say I'm thrilled about the flood of applications in 2003, and the lack of forethought in the changes to the translator rules. But if I was the owner of an AM station, I would doing anything I could to get my hands on a translator so my programming was where the vast majority of listeners are.
 
w9wi said:
I suspect in many cases, groups ended up with more than one at the same site because they wanted to be sure at least one application would succeed, without being nixed by competing applications for the same frequency. If you file for three at Greenville, there's a fairly good chance one of them will be granted. If you're lucky & get more than one -- then you have the pleasant dilemma of having to figure out how to dispose of a spare translator.
Click to expand...

I thought the FCC has rules that prohibit any company or person (or organization/group) from filing
too many applications in one area at a time. Because naturally the intention would be to get one approved,
so I thought there'd be something on the books that restricts or prohibits those acts,
so that anyone who applies for an application has an equal chance of getting one approved.
If it's a "non-profit" organization, then how can that group "sell-for-profit" any extra translators...how ironic?!
 
"Gatekeeper" is right: there is no limit on how many applications one can file simultaneously, even for the same community. For full-power stations, presumably the FCC will dismiss any applications that would put the owners over the multiple-ownership limits. (I don't recall that situation ever coming up) There are no multiple-ownership limits for translators.

A limit of ten applications per applicant has been discussed. I believe that proceeding is still open. Obviously, that limit would not prevent W249CB.
 
The ten limit rule is a very good idea and should be added rules. If there is an exception to this somewhere in the country then that should be handled on a per case basis.
 
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