Cumulus' 99.3 in Jefferson City Goes Silent

[eacalhoun1]

According to this morning's "Tom Taylor NOW", the 99.3 portion of the "Sports Animal" goes dark. After recent filings to improve the facility, Cumulus has filed an STA to keep WNRX silent.

I don't live in the area, so has this signal been silent for more than just the last few days? This would be a great station to "move" to the Pigeon Forge area or pair it up with WNPC to simulcast their now-weaker FM translator signal - compared to what they had on 92.9.

Eric

 

[SuperQ]

That station is pinned in tightly in every direction and is now little more than a good translator as they have reduced it to the minimum Class A power level with a very tight directional pattern.
It already has a 12 km overlap with 99.3 Elizabethton so it can't move east. It has an overlap with both 98.7 and 99.1 in the Knoxville area. It has a small overlap to Corbin, Ky. and has about 3-4 miles it could move South before it bumps into Cornelia, Ga. As it is now, they reduced the power so much it took a special Longley-Rice showing to prove that they even cover the city of license of Jefferson City.


I doubt Cumulus will ever put it back on. Someone might buy it if they want a Jefferson County station. But the Jefferson City AM now has a translator.

This thing may never return to the air. They basically killed it to upgrade 99.1.

 

[eacalhoun1]

What's the history of this station? Was it EVER a "local" station with a studio in Jefferson City or Dandridge? And did it ever simulcast co-channel US 99 - the long-forgotten Elizabethton country station in the 80s?

 

[Tennessee Cowboy]

What's the history of this station? Was it EVER a "local" station with a studio in Jefferson City or Dandridge? And did it ever simulcast co-channel US 99 - the long-forgotten Elizabethton country station in the 80s?

It was signed on by an insurance man in Jefferson City when he became irritated with the AM in town. A Carson-Newman student friend worked there in the late 70's or thereabouts. Original studios adjacent to the college. Sometime in the early 80's they moved to an old funeral home building on the main drag across from the Wal Mart IIRC.

 

[SuperQ]

<<<What's the history of this station? Was it EVER a "local" station with a studio in Jefferson City or Dandridge? And did it ever simulcast co-channel US 99 - the long-forgotten Elizabethton country station in the 80s?>>>

Yes and yes. Later bought by an old public radio guy who once told me...we're doing pretty good. Only costs us about 12,000 to operate and we're billing close to 6,000. Simulcast Elizabethton for a while which is when the agreement was made for all the overlap. Made for interesting artifacts near Morristown.

Then Chuck Ketron had it for a while sort of targeting Knoxville. Paul Fink owned it for a bit as part of his Sevierville operation. Then Citadel paid him 1.6+ million for it. Thank you Jesus and goodnight.

 

[knoxbob]

I talked to a design engineer and he told me it is what it is, it is so squeezed in by the tri cities 99.3, Crossville 99.3, Madisonville 99.5, Friendsville 99.1, Jonesville, Va. 99.1, Corbin, Ky. 99.5, you can't move it anywhere and whats really bad is it doesn't even have a city grade signal over it's COL.

 

[secondchoice]

Does the "allocation" "stay alive"? There is an AM (WJFC) with the Jefferson City TN COL, so could this allocation be moved somewhere else where it would work?

 

[K-Town Listener]

If our ears don't deceive us (and they could because the signal is weak up here) but it sounds like 99.3 could be rebroadcasting the current 100.3 signal.  But then again, it could be some sort of band "bleed down" as the 100.3 tower site is on one of (if not) the highest peak along the Anderson - Campbell County border.  Can anyone verify this?  Thanks.

 

[secondchoice]

I am not too sure which ridge you are talking about but according to the FCC site 100.3's tower is almost due east of Lake City.

The FCC site has a nice goggle map of the area:

http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=49923


just click on the "service contour on goggle map" link.

I always thought 100.3's tower was farther north. I use to carry them on my car radio almost to Lexington KY before 100.1 Winchester KY upgraded in the mid 1990's.

 

[SuperQ]

Someone could buy it and change the COL. But as I understand it, there has to be a theoretical allocation point at which there is no overlap to existing signals, even if you're going to license it to a site with overlap as it is now.

There is no community anywhere nearby that has a theoretical allocation point that would work. Plus the new site would have to be mutually exclusive with the existing site. Since they have cut the signal down so far, you'd have to be much closer than normal to to have mutual exclusivity.

Even if they wanted to stay exactly where they are and change the COL to New Market, they couldn't because there is no allocation point that would clear everything. In fact, I'm pretty sure it couldn't be licensed to Jefferson City anymore.

This facility is screwed unless some church in Jefferson County wants an LPFM they can run commercials on. Citadel killed any hope of 99.1 as a community station by way overpaying for it. Cumulus has thrown the dirt on the grave.

 

[baseballmvp1]

I still remember in the days of this station where it and WTZR 99.3 (now WEXX) had tremendous CO-Channel interference all over east Morristown and Greene County it was a total mess

 

[rtetro]

When I was working for Bristol Broadcasting, we owned both Elizabethton's and Jefferson City's 99.3 signals. Baseballmvp1 is right. The co-channel interference was horrendous, particularly in Greene County. I remember traveling from Bristol down to Greystone Mountain to the WAEZ site listening to 99.3 along the way. As soon as I got east of Jonesboro on 11E the signals began to fight one another. Originally the Elizabethton transmitter had an antenna that was side mounted on a ten-foot face self supporting tower which really screwed with the signal. Although technically non-directional, the tower through all kinds of spurs and nulls across the coverage area. We replaced that antenna (which became the auxiliary antenna) with a new antenna mounted on a pole atop that tower. That improved things tremendously. It also really played havoc with Jefferson City. The new antenna increased the coverage enough, so that it was what it should have been all along, had it not been for the massive tower and face mounted antenna.

When the new antenna was in place, WTZR's signal was not bothered as it was in Greene County, except to the far west and north. If my memory serves me correctly, either we downgraded Jefferson City to protect WTZR, or it was downgraded by the new owners as part of the sale.

 

[94 Country DJ]

I saw the station when the insurance guy (Hugh Cate) owned it in the early 80s. Studios were on the second floor of a building in downtown Jefferson City. I immediately had reservations about the place when I walked into Cates's office and he was listening to WIMZ!!

 

[94 Country DJ]

While he owned it, Chuck Ketron also acquired 99.1 Loudon and simulcast on the two stations calling them "Double D" with a smooth jazz format. Didn't have much of an audience, so he unloaded the operation. It then paired with 99.3 Elizabethan to try and serve Greeneville, then went to Paul Fink who tried multiple formats before Citadel took it off his hands. I don't think ANYBODY has really cared about this station.

 

[MChase2017]

It was signed on by an insurance man in Jefferson City when he became irritated with the AM in town. A Carson-Newman student friend worked there in the late 70's or thereabouts. Original studios adjacent to the college. Sometime in the early 80's they moved to an old funeral home building on the main drag across from the Wal Mart IIRC.

I worked there myself circa 82-83. I was hired on as the 7p-12a air talent when they flipped the signal from country to ac (which coincided with the move to the refurbished/remodeled funeral home and the call letter change to WKJQ Q99). I actually started a week early when the afternoon guy quit after hearing about the format change. It was quite the transition from the old run down building downtown to the "newer" facility out by the highway. Those were some interesting days. And some interesting stories came out of that first year in the "funeral home." As for the format, I guess you would call it a full service ac with heavy emphasis on local news and sports. Primarily Jefferson County Patriots and Carson Newman Eagles football. There were some interesting personalities in the building too. All relative unknowns but a blast to work with none the less. Two that immediately come to mind are afternoon guy Jeff Buckley and the news/sports (and play by play) guy Phil Peak. Interesting times indeed.

 

[secondchoice]

Someone could buy it and change the COL. But as I understand it, there has to be a theoretical allocation point at which there is no overlap to existing signals, even if you're going to license it to a site with overlap as it is now.

There is no community anywhere nearby that has a theoretical allocation point that would work. Plus the new site would have to be mutually exclusive with the existing site. Since they have cut the signal down so far, you'd have to be much closer than normal to to have mutual exclusivity.

Even if they wanted to stay exactly where they are and change the COL to New Market, they couldn't because there is no allocation point that would clear everything. In fact, I'm pretty sure it couldn't be licensed to Jefferson City anymore.
.

How "far" could you move the allocation. Since there is a commercial AM covering that COL could someone find a "unserved" city any move it out of the area?

 

[gr8oldies]

Moot point because the station is operating and has been for awhile. Even though translators are being "moved" up to 250 miles; there's no similar provision for "real"FM stations.

How "far" could you move the allocation. Since there is a commercial AM covering that COL could someone find a "unserved" city any move it out of the area?

 

[ftballfan]

Moot point because the station is operating and has been for awhile. Even though translators are being "moved" up to 250 miles; there's no similar provision for "real"FM stations.

Glad to see this one back on under new ownership! Cumulus/Citadel has turned in licenses without even attempting to sell them (including the Dickey brothers' original AM in Toledo and a couple of FMs in Texas)