Did 93.5 WFDZ Perry Florida turn up a notch?

[Louis_009]

Lately I been hearing and getting WFDZ 93.5 out of Perry Florida here in Crawfordville maybe into Tallahassee area as well. Did they upgrade thier singal?

 

[jmtillery]

Lately I been hearing and getting WFDZ 93.5 out of Perry Florida here in Crawfordville maybe into Tallahassee area as well. Did they upgrade thier singal?

WFDZ was, infact, upgraded from a class "A" to a class "C3" although I don't know how recent.

 

[MN Maniac]

Looks like the current license was granted on October 16, 2012.

Is this the reason WOGK was bumped down to C0 status?

 

[jmtillery]

Looks like the current license was granted on October 16, 2012.

Is this the reason WOGK was bumped down to C0 status?

No... WOGK was dowgraded to a C0 due to a new co-channel C3 allottment in Saint Simons Island, Georgia.

 

[MN Maniac]

Personally, I think the FCC royally shafted stations with this C0 business. Especially the stations that already upgraded to 300+ meters under the 1986 "use it or lose it" rule, so as to maintain their full Class C status. If I remember correctly, 93.7/Ocala was one of these stations.

So, these stations do as the FCC says. They spend the money to construct a 1,000+ foot tower, new transmitter, etc., and upgrade their facilities. Most of the stations in smaller markets really struggled with that decision and the additional expense it created. Then, a few decades later, the FCC comes back and raises the bar again. So now, these same operations are supposed to shell out MORE money for a nearly 1,500 foot tower or face encroachment from new stations on or directly adjacent to their channel? How is THAT fair?

 

[Louis_009]

I check radio locator to see if WFDZ-FM do any upgrade didnt said but they are running at 25,000 watts.

 

[jmtillery]

I check radio locator to see if WFDZ-FM do any upgrade didnt said but they are running at 25,000 watts.

That is an upgrade from its original class "A" allottment. Any power levels between 6,001 Watts and 25,000 watts on FM is the Zone III, which Florida is a part of, is a class "C3" FM. If WFDZ were in Zone I or Zone II with the same 25kw, it is a class "B1" FM.

 

[Kmagrill]

Personally, I think the FCC royally shafted stations with this C0 business. Especially the stations that already upgraded to 300+ meters under the 1986 "use it or lose it" rule, so as to maintain their full Class C status. If I remember correctly, 93.7/Ocala was one of these stations.

So, these stations do as the FCC says. They spend the money to construct a 1,000+ foot tower, new transmitter, etc., and upgrade their facilities. Most of the stations in smaller markets really struggled with that decision and the additional expense it created. Then, a few decades later, the FCC comes back and raises the bar again. So now, these same operations are supposed to shell out MORE money for a nearly 1,500 foot tower or face encroachment from new stations on or directly adjacent to their channel? How is THAT fair?

The FCC spacing rings are based on protected contours and prohibited overlap. A station that is built out to its class maximum will have spacing rings that very closely match its contours. A class C station that is only 300M tall has contours that are considerably smaller than the spacing rings for that class. So, the 300m C0 broadcaster chose not to serve a substantial outlying area and the FCC decided that the 300 meter difference between a C1 and a C was too wasteful of the public spectrum. Class C0 stations that don't want to upgrade are not losing anything. They will continue to serve the same areas that they had before. The only difference is that they won't be protected as if they served a bigger area than they do.

The C0 vs C discussion is really just about the granularity of the classes. When the FCC instituted the 300 meter rule, there was no such thing as a class C0. Many stations chose to upgrade to the absolute minimum required faciltities to remain a C instead of trying to maximize their coverage. This may have been a mistake for some, but it makes perfect sense for others that had no desire to serve outlying communities. In many cases, the build-outs appear to have had more to do with the desire to retain market value as a C rather than be a C1, so a lot of these stations built out the minimum facilities required to keep their status. Fast forward a few years and, as the spectrum became more crowded, the logical move was to reclassify stations not broadcasting to their permissable extent. Put another way, it's a waste of spectrum to protect a station to the fullest extent when they are broadcasting to a smaller area than their class permits. By reclassifying those stations, the FCC allows other stations to fill in the unused spaces by upgrading or with new stations, thus providing service to areas that were not served when the C0 stations chose to build 300 meter towers instead of 451+ meter towers.