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Former J93.3 tower

H

historybuff

Guest
I was in Manchester on Sunday and discovered that most of the former J93.3 tower on the mountain above town had been removed. Doesn't surprise me as I've thought for years that it looked like the top 100 feet or so was leaning. I assume that J's parent company still owned/owns the stick and I've wondered why they left it up, at least at full height for so long after abandoning it in the late 90's. Of course Mountain Country 94.5 took up residence near the bottom several years back. I noticed their 2 bay antenna is still in place on what remains. Always figured that the Mountain Country folks could brag about their "tall" tower since the average person on the street doesn't know the height limitations of a class A station or even what that means. Was definately a landmark for Manchester. Does anyone know when it was built? I remember an old tower in the general vicinity from my childhood for then WFDR AM/FM. I know the AM was up there then because that tower had insulators on the guy wires. Of course WFDR AM is now just north of Manchester along HWY 85. I guess Provident built that AM facility when they built the big FM stick, I assume in the early 80's.
 
The old WVFJ tower now that is or was a huge tower. I remember living in Warm Springs and remember the tower in Manchester. I live in laurens county now. I remember some people from my church that used to get J93.3 pretty good until WKKZ 92.7 went 50,000 whatts. I can still get WVFJ sometimes in the eastern part of laurens county. I have a Radio Shack antenna VHF/UHF/FM I believe it's the VU 190. When I cannot get WVFJ I here feedback from 92.7 on 93.3 and I live 10 miles from WKKZ it's over modulated. But anyway I do remember the WVFJ tower. Is the 94.5 on Manchester still on the air? I saw it on radio-locator. I just was not sure if it was on the air. I guess it does not cover a wide area if the antenna is not on the top. As far as 94.5 braggin about being so strong. I am not sure if they would even reach Macon if the antenna was on top. Station in Baxley reaches Macon on 94.5 most mornings. How high was the tower anyway? How well into Alabama did it reach because of Pine Mountian? I believe Columbus had some issues getting it. I was in North Atlanta a few weeks ago. I was sitting in the car waiting on someone. Flipping the radio I picked up a country station on 94.5. It the DJ or whoever said something about 96.1 HD2 or something. It was a country station. At first I thought it was Manchester station but I don't think it was.
 
Yes Mountain Country 94.5 WFDR (Woodbury) is very much still on the air and from the sound of things are doing very well. I’m a big fan of their Saturday night oldies show. They also own WFDR AM 1370 (Manchester) and run a news talk format there. A translator recently went on the air in the eastern Atlanta area on 94.5 that you may have heard. It doesn’t affect my reception of Mountain Country with an antenna in Newnan but I can see where it could cause problems north of here. Don’t even get me started on the translator invasion as I’m an avid FM DXer and those pesky little signals certainly give me fits.

The WFDR AM/FM studios are located in a storefront in downtown Manchester. Their antenna is 150 feet or so up on what remains of the old J933 tower on the mountain. They are a class A and have decent coverage over several surrounding counties. Nothing like the old J signal but of course it was a class C at about 1000 ft. I was in Manchester yesterday as a matter of fact attending church. I rode up to the tower. It appears to be about 250 of steel now. They have added a strobe since I was last in town about 5 weeks ago.
 
Looks as though I may have been mistaken about the WFDR AM tower. I was told last night by a lifelong Manchester resident that the AM transmitter has been north of town along HWY 85 since it's begining in the 1950's. I was certain that the old FM site on the mountain had insulators on the guy wires but that was a long time ago (late 1970's) and at that time I did not fully understand the basics of an AM radiator. There may have indeed been some insulators on that tower up top near the FM antenna. I've seen this done at other sites to prevent the guy wires from creating a directional pattern.....Does anyone have any knowledge of WFDR's early history?
 
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