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Dial changes coming to Bowling Green

When I was starting out at WDBL Springfield TN (1971) the station Secretary, whose husband was one of the former owners, told me that when they were getting their FM (early to mid 1960's) they "swapped" with Russelville to get 94.3 (1 KW transmitter into a 4 bay antenna verses the 5 or 10 KW transmitter and 6+ bays required for 101.1) so they would have smaller light bill. So moving 101.1 into the Nashville market (early 1980's) was not hard from an engineering angle. IIRC in the early 1980's all the existing stations were allowed to "build out" their facilities if possible. A lot of FM's at that time were not running the maximum wattage to save on electric bills. Then FCC started maxing out the FM band.
 
It wasn't as much that the FCC *allowed* stations to "build out", as it was that the FCC told them if they didn't build out *now*, new stations (and/or technical upgrades to existing stations) would be licensed which might make it impossible to build out in the future.

Technically, before Docket 80-90, WDBL-FM could have used 101.1 at 3,100 watts into their shorter tower. It wouldn't have been significantly more expensive than what they did on 94.3. However, at the time using more than 3,000 watts on 94.3 wasn't permitted. I'm betting Russellville offered WDBL some cash to swap frequencies, so WRUS could increase power past 3kw.
 
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