FCC visits WLLL 930AM

[Deeman1710]

WLLL in Lynchburg was fined for a non working EAS unit and no EAS logs and No Public File, plus night power.

 

[The Beave]

tell us more... Details???

 

[Deeman1710]

Day power is 9KW ND night 49w ND. The station's transmitter will not work with any power lower then 100w. so they were running 100w. Big Deal on that right, the power is so low anyway 49 or 100w. I believe someone complained or tipped the FCC off. EAS, Public file, TX readings yes should be in order for every station, So many owners overlook all this.

 

[The Beave]

I guess those who are counting the beans got thrown in the pot and burned.

The one thing... Tell me this how many staff did they let go over this lack of due care on the management's part?

 

[Dale H. Cook]

Tell me this how many staff did they let go over this lack of due care on the management's part?

Probably nobody. This is a standalone AM, the owner is in-house all the time, and one of the principal staffers is his son.

Dale H. Cook, Chief Engineer, Centennial Broadcasting, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA - WZZU / WZZI / WLNI / WVMP
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/starcity.html

 

[Deeman1710]

It's family owned. I installed WLLL's Nautel which replaced his old Continental with a friend. We had that thing working perfect. But the owner Fletcher Hubbard always fooled with things at the transmitter and at times would turn the wrong things when he wasn't happy with the sound or signal. After the Nautel was installed a year after the TX shack took a direct lighting hit causing a fire and destroying every module in the TX. Since then it never worked right again so the power level at night would not go down below 200 watts. It would just shut off. Nautel came out to repair it after the hit.

The problem with these small stations is that there are no engineers out there to fix them anymore and make sure they have a working EAS and are in FCC compliance etc. Public files are overlooked by so many stations today. I work for Clear Channel inn NJ and co-own a small 1KW in Brookneal WODI.

How many owners even have a NRSC done every 14 months?? Not too many even know what it is.

www.tonydeeradio.com

 

[tripinva]

I work for Clear Channel inn NJ and co-own a small 1KW in Brookneal WODI.

Awesome, I live in Charlotte County just 15-20 minutes away when I'm not at college. How's WODI doing?

- Trip

 

[Dale H. Cook]

I installed WLLL's Nautel which replaced his old Continental with a friend.

I don't think the old transmitter was a Continental - it was a CSI or CCA. I remember wisiting Vic at the site when Vic was building it - at the time I was working up the bypass a bit, getting WLVA's 5 kw day pattern running. Some years later I worked with Vic installing five Nautels in the region in the course of a few years.

We had that thing working perfect. But the owner Fletcher Hubbard always fooled with things at the transmitter and at times would turn the wrong things when he wasn't happy with the sound or signal.

That's one of the greatest problems with contract engineering - I have often had to deal with owners who think their "tweaking" is better than what my 40+ years of engineering experience lets me do.

The problem with these small stations is that there are no engineers out there to fix them anymore and make sure they have a working EAS and are in FCC compliance etc.

That's the downside of deregulation. A lot of folks who might have gone into broadcast engineering are now in IT and related fields. The upside to that is that I can charge a hefty hourly fee to clean up their messes.

How many owners even have a NRSC done every 14 months?? Not too many even know what it is.

Precious few know and fewer have it done.

 

[Deeman1710]

Yes it was a Brown CCA as you walk in the dirt dusty shack.

 

[Dale H. Cook]

The Commission has released the Notice of Apparent Liability resulting from last fall's inspection of WLLL. The fine is $22,000.00.

http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-783A1.pdf

 

[Deeman1710]

I feel bad for them, I put that new Nautel XL-60 transmitter in with my friend and the power levels were all set perfectly. However 49 watts is ridiculis and the Nautel would not go below 100. 1 month after that it took a serious lightning hit which blew every module in it and Nautel came out to fix it and it never worked the same. I can't explian the high power at night but I told them that he needed a Sage EAS unit not a Gorman piece of junk and he bought one with good intentions but never could find a local engineer to hook it up. As far as the public fille well that we know must be in order for the FCC.

WKMB 1070 in NJ was hit with the same violations when inspected last week except for transmitter power.

 

[Dale H. Cook]

The station's transmitter will not work with any power lower then 100w

The main transmitter is a Nautel XL-12, and the Nautels of the ND and XL series are not guaranteed to meet emission limits below 10% of rated output, which would be 1200W for WLLL.

 

[HadYourPhil]

That's about the only thing I don't like about Nautels
The old CCA... Wasn't that the one they installed when they went 5 kw in 1968? I'm pretty sure it's the one that was there when I worked at Triple-L in 1969.

 

[Dale H. Cook]

The old CCA... Wasn't that the one they installed when they went 5 kw in 1968?

No, that was a Gates BC-5B (I have the manual for that transmitter, but would have to dig it out to tell you when the BC-5B was installed and what the serial number was). The CCA was a used transmitter purchased by Fletcher Hubbard when he built the current transmitter site at the end of Chapel Ln. I remember visiting Vic Bosiger at the WLLL site when he was installing the CCA. I was working just up US 501 at the time, building the WLVA 5kW day array and rebuilding their 1kW night array.

 

[HadYourPhil]

Those were the days... Lynchburg had two full-time AM's, one with a killer signal.
No more...

Thanks. That transmitter room was such a mess when I was there, it's no wonder I got the brand wrong!
Wish I had some pictures of that cool WLVA transmitter building.

 

[TarlekInSales]

Wish I had some pictures of that cool WLVA transmitter building.

I have some transmitter building photos. Email me if you'd like to have copies.

 

[Deeman1710]

Yes it was a XL-12. Having that shack so close to the tower on that dry ground is very bad for lightning with the ground underneathe the building moist with the electric and ground radials underneath. Not good that's why it always gets hit. My frien d John is going down next month to fix him up for night power and install to seperate base current meters for Day/night and retune the ATU

 

[elkayess]

I'd love to see pics of the old WLVA site off Boonsboro Road. Used to work there in the 70's. Even did an air shift there one night in '75 when lightning hit the building on Langhorne Road and we fired up the old console out there for the mike; used a Sparta remote board for music.

Good times!

 

[notalkallstatic]

In the "Notice of Apparent Liability," in section 2, paragraph 3, last line: "Hubbard's owner admitted that he did maintain a public inspection file, and he did not know what documents are required to be in the file." I'm sorry, that ticks me off (for some reason.) You OWN a radio station, and you don't know what to put in your public file? Come On! I know I don't own a radio station (yet,) but I have an idea on what needs to be in your public file. Come on guys get with it!

Sorry, wanted to vent that...

 

[Dale H. Cook]

I know I don't own a radio station (yet,) but I have an idea on what needs to be in your public file.

The first thing that needs to be in a public file (and it should be at the front of the file) is a copy of "The Public and Broadcasting," and it lists everything else that needs to be in the file.