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Augusta FCC cancels Warrenton FM

S

SnottyNose799

Banned
"...The FCC cancelled the license of Beasley Media Group’s 93.1 WCHZ-FM Warrenton GA..."

radioinsight.com

FCC Report 6/8: Beasley Loses Augusta Area FM

FCC Actions The FCC's new rules for asymmetric operation of digital power levels by FMs took effect on Friday, May 23. The rulemaking, granted last September, allows FMs from 88.1 to 106.9 to notify the FCC of asymmetric operation indicating the digital ERP of of the upper and lower digital...
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
 
The original paperwork showed the station as a Class C3 at 25kw near Powelton, much further west than the last site. Except as a coverage extender for travelers along I-20 between Augusta and Atlanta, WCHZ 93.1 proved too far away to rimshot Augusta, even for the people associated with Fort Eisenhower (Fort Gordon). Warrenton, Thomson, and Washington were the only towns that landed inside the 60 dBu. Might as well pull the plug.

Let's see if Beasley is going to do the same thing officially for WGAC-AM 580. The TOH IDs still include the AM but I think it's gone.
 
What about Beasley's WGUS 102.7? Since they went silent after damage to the transmitter from Hurricane Helene, I wonder if they will pull the plug on that or go back on air eventually?
 
StormKlowdz said:
What about Beasley's WGUS 102.7? Since they went silent after damage to the transmitter from Hurricane Helene, I wonder if they will pull the plug on that or go back on air eventually?
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Wow! I did not know Beasley's Augusta cluster was in such bad shape. A lot of new FM signals were dropped into the CSRA during the last few decades. Now the peach tree needs to be pruned to keep bearing fruit. (I remember the days when WGUS dominated the country market on 1380/102.3 with a little Class A from North Augusta.)
 
Yeah, 102.7 had been AC as Sunny 102.7 until last September when their transmitter was destroyed by the hurricane. I believe they have until September until the license expires.
 
Great calls though. 95.1 Channel Z was a fine station in its time.

channelz95.com

Channel Z 95 WCHZ Harlem | Augusta | Aiken - Channel Z 95

Channel Z 95.1 WCHZ Augusta’s First Alternative Rock Radio Station Channel Z 95.1 Harlem/Augusta/Aiken WCHZ-FM arrived on Augusta’s airwaves in November 1992 as an alternative rock outlet named Channel Z 95.1. This revolutionary new station was the first to bring alternative rock, independent...
channelz95.com channelz95.com
 
Andy Travis said:
Great calls though. 95.1 Channel Z was a fine station in its time.

channelz95.com

Channel Z 95 WCHZ Harlem | Augusta | Aiken - Channel Z 95

Channel Z 95.1 WCHZ Augusta’s First Alternative Rock Radio Station Channel Z 95.1 Harlem/Augusta/Aiken WCHZ-FM arrived on Augusta’s airwaves in November 1992 as an alternative rock outlet named Channel Z 95.1. This revolutionary new station was the first to bring alternative rock, independent...
channelz95.com channelz95.com
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Then Super Frank took the concept to KC & did really well with it, but never dethroned Mix 93.3.
 
I toured the 95.1 transmitter site while they were building.. I just happened upon the technical crew as they were uncrating the transmitter at the site just north of I-20.

Yes, this was a refreshing format for the CSRA..This was the closest thing to college radio locally. Then- Augusta College's WACG was classical or a GPB relay...
 
Warrenton was always a signal without a home. Really never made any sense. Hard to believe Beasley paid $800,000 for Warrenton and the old WRDW-1480 in Augusta back in 2000. 1480 got an expanded band AM signal. The 1480 went dark first then the expanded band when the 5 kW day night three towers at night directional 1480 site was sold. That was about 2015. Beasley family owns most of the company's broadcast towers so while the radio business is in terrible shape financially, the family heirs financial future is pretty secure with the towers and site potential sale values.

The Warrenton tower was sold off a couple years ago for bigger money than many might suspect. They removed the radio equipment on the tower which had a cellular tenant or two. The same tower company bought many of the other Beasley towers in the Augusta market including the one which held 102.7 near Aiken and the 99.5 tower, too. Hurricane Helene knocked the 102.7 tower down. I suspect 102.7 will never go back on the air unless Beasley sells the license to another operator. WAAW tower is nearby and it could easily be located there. I know an established operator who tried to buy the Warrenton permit to be used as a repeater station but Beasley execs didn't want to mess with a relatively low dollar transaction. The tower business is a much more lucrative business now selling for 20 times annual cash flow from rentals. The market for radio stations is pretty much non-existant unless a local buyer can be developed or one of the major religious operators needs to fill in one of the few areas they don't already cover.
 
Speaking of WACG-FM now owned by GPB Radio. Their transmitter site is actually on one of the Augusta TV towers across the river in SC so at least half the signal is over SC. Back in 2009, WACG moved to the GPB TV tower near Wrens. While it placed most of the signal inside the state of Georgia and despite maps showing city grade coverage across Augusta, they got so many signal complaints in Augusta, the signal was moved back to the TV tower. A lot of the upper income residential and commercial office areas of Augusta where GPB probably has its listener base sit down in the Savannah River valley and a FM signal tends to "ride over" the city if it is coming in from the west.

Recently GPB filed to move back to the Wrens TV tower. This time the signal will be directional to protect a FM permit near Vidalia and another permit at Lincolnton filed the same day to move closer to Augusta making both moves mutually exclusive to each other so for either to be built, the two parties will have to reach some sort of settlement or find a technical flaw in the applications to have it dismisssed.

GPB has made an effort in recent years to fill holes in their coverage area in rural areas of the state, mostly in South Georgia, recently building out new FM signals at Kingsland in extreme SE Georgia and at Bainbridge in extreme SW Georgia. They have a permit for a new station to go on their TV tower at Pelham, Once built, the largest towns in Georgia without primary signal GPB radio coverage will be Americus, Vidalia, Swainsboro and Thomasville. My guess is the Pelham signal may be further developed in the future to put more signal toward Thomasville leaving just Americus, Vidalia and Swainsboro as the key rural population areas where there is difficulty picking up GPB radio on most automobile radios and pretty much zero signal inside structures.
 
I liked the 93.1 / 95.5 Augusta GA Simulcast / Setup. But I Guess it's too close to the 93.1 near Columbia SC (WZMJ - Rimshot) with a decent signal that reaches past Aiken, and fringes almost into Augusta as well.
 
WGUS 102.7 has always been a bit of a stray signal for Beasley, used primarily to clear Braves baseball games. Before they flipped to soft AC, it was southern gospel for many years. I remember when it was Standards in the 90s as "Joy 102.7" WAJY before it was briefly oldies. It makes for a good Aiken County signal, but I'm not sure if the population is there to really support it. It was never going to be an Augusta station, although it's in a much better position location-wise than 93.1.

I predict 102.7 will ride off in to the sunset (bad pun intended) as considering Beasley's current financial state, there isn't a lot for them to gain by re-building it. The only scenario I could see would be some kind of religious broadcaster that has more money being interested, but even that's a stretch when the ones with the big pockets are already in the market, unless K-Love would be interested in it for Air 1 since WQAI doesn't really hit Aiken county. Still a stretch IMO.
 
MediaMan said:
Speaking of WACG-FM now owned by GPB Radio. Their transmitter site is actually on one of the Augusta TV towers across the river in SC so at least half the signal is over SC. Back in 2009, WACG moved to the GPB TV tower near Wrens. While it placed most of the signal inside the state of Georgia and despite maps showing city grade coverage across Augusta, they got so many signal complaints in Augusta, the signal was moved back to the TV tower. A lot of the upper income residential and commercial office areas of Augusta where GPB probably has its listener base sit down in the Savannah River valley and a FM signal tends to "ride over" the city if it is coming in from the west.

Recently GPB filed to move back to the Wrens TV tower. This time the signal will be directional to protect a FM permit near Vidalia and another permit at Lincolnton filed the same day to move closer to Augusta making both moves mutually exclusive to each other so for either to be built, the two parties will have to reach some sort of settlement or find a technical flaw in the applications to have it dismisssed.

GPB has made an effort in recent years to fill holes in their coverage area in rural areas of the state, mostly in South Georgia, recently building out new FM signals at Kingsland in extreme SE Georgia and at Bainbridge in extreme SW Georgia. They have a permit for a new station to go on their TV tower at Pelham, Once built, the largest towns in Georgia without primary signal GPB radio coverage will be Americus, Vidalia, Swainsboro and Thomasville. My guess is the Pelham signal may be further developed in the future to put more signal toward Thomasville leaving just Americus, Vidalia and Swainsboro as the key rural population areas where there is difficulty picking up GPB radio on most automobile radios and pretty much zero signal inside structures.
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The Cochran signal, theoretically, should reach Vidalia better than it does. Probably geographical reasons but the 100K watt flame throwers really don’t get out as far as the N Ga signals.
 
Austin Rhodes briefly mentioned the demise of WCHZ 93.1 Warrenton - he said it was a business decision in a tough market. The caller prompting the brief topic mentioned the 94.7 sports outlet ; Austin noted Augusta is a tough sports market that lacks a major college team. (Augusta is only a national-level sports city one week a year during the Masters.)
 
I think the Warrenton allocation would still stand. Perhaps under de-regulation the allocation can be moved or combined. Someone would have to demonstrate this is in the public interest.
 
MediaMan said:
Speaking of WACG-FM now owned by GPB Radio. Their transmitter site is actually on one of the Augusta TV towers across the river in SC so at least half the signal is over SC. Back in 2009, WACG moved to the GPB TV tower near Wrens. While it placed most of the signal inside the state of Georgia and despite maps showing city grade coverage across Augusta, they got so many signal complaints in Augusta, the signal was moved back to the TV tower. A lot of the upper income residential and commercial office areas of Augusta where GPB probably has its listener base sit down in the Savannah River valley and a FM signal tends to "ride over" the city if it is coming in from the west.

Recently GPB filed to move back to the Wrens TV tower. This time the signal will be directional to protect a FM permit near Vidalia and another permit at Lincolnton filed the same day to move closer to Augusta making both moves mutually exclusive to each other so for either to be built, the two parties will have to reach some sort of settlement or find a technical flaw in the applications to have it dismisssed.
Click to expand...

Surprise! Surprise! WILH Lincolnton 90.3 just filed a contingency application behind WACG's move to the Wrens GPB-TV tower. WILH would build a directional facility at a cell tower just east of Thomson on I-20.


Per WILH's paperwork:
"This amendment is filed to request a “Raleigh waiver” to receive 2nd adjacent contour overlap with WACG-FM, Augusta, Georgia (Facility ID 23922) and to request that this application be treated as contingent on grant of WACG-FM’s amended minor modification application, LMS File No. 269945, to resolve mutual exclusivity between the two applications."


My thought - GPB should not move WACG to Wrens. I remember trying to watch analog TV20 - even in South Augusta the Wrens tower struggled despite its height. (Possible trivia - I am told that one of the earliest uses of a Klystrode (C) tube on a UHF TV transmitter was at Wrens.)
 
I think maybe the owners of WZMJ (Lexington SC area) can consolidate that channel for a bigger signal around the area that reaches both Columbia & Augusta. Right now WZMJ rimshots Columbia as a small Class A Station from the west. Neighboring stations on 92.9 such as WZLA & WYBO might prevent that IDK... 🤷‍♂️
 
On Austin Rhodes show yesterday he hinted mentioned that WGAC 580 is alive and stronger..(Perhaps there was an earlier fault.) Can anyone confirm this?
 


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