HOT 102.9 now saying COL as Urbana-Springfield-Dayton

[alans613]

Heard it last night at the top of the 7 PM hour just as the Hot 7@7 was starting. I wonder if this means that 101.7 will be moving to 101.5 soon?

 

[nmoore6676]

Heard it last night at the top of the 7 PM hour just as the Hot 7@7 was starting. I wonder if this means that 101.7 will be moving to 101.5 soon?

They applied to move the COL to Urbana but the tower is remaining on Miller road. I guess this is part of the new policy of not requiring a station to actually broadcast from the City of License. Since the WAZU days 102.9 has not had a studio in Springfield. I would guess given the change you've cited that the 101.7 move can not be far behind and I assume that means that the studio moves to Dayton with the rest of their operations.

 

[Tri-State Media]

There's two things here I must note:

1) As long as they're ID'ing as "Urbana/Springfield/Dayton", their studio only needs to be 25 miles from Urbana. Otherwise, they have to move their COL. It does NOT have to be INSIDE Urbana proper.
2) The transmitter must be within, I believe, 15 miles of the COL, and the signal MUST cover their COL with a city-grade signal.

Beyond those two major requirements, everything else is moot. They can shout "Springfield and Dayton" to the heavens if they wish, as long as they're ID'ing with their primary COL FIRST and the transmitter/studios meet the distance requirements.

 

[Tri-State Media]

Heard it last night at the top of the 7 PM hour just as the Hot 7@7 was starting.  I wonder if this means that 101.7 will be moving to 101.5 soon?

They applied to move the COL to Urbana but the tower is remaining on Miller road. I guess this is part of the new policy of not requiring a station to actually broadcast from the City of License. Since the WAZU days 102.9 has not had a studio in Springfield. I would guess given the change you've cited that the 101.7 move can not be far behind and I assume that means that the  studio moves to Dayton with the rest of their operations.

One must assume, then, that the 101.7 to 101.5 move isn't far off. Maybe near the first of the year?

If I'm reading right, 101.7 (soon to be 101.5) is going from Urbana to Enon. That sends 102.9 to Urbana.

102.9, then will have its transmitter in Springfield (13 miles SOUTH of Urbana). That's legal.

101.5 will have their transmitter in Huber Heights, where W268AX has been as a translator of WSWO 97.7. Also perfectly legal, as Huber Heights is 10 miles out of Enon as the crow flies.

W268AX moved from 101.5 to 101.1 last year, which caused still ANOTHER move, as WCWT is going to move to 107.3 out of Centerville.

But hold on...107.3 is in between TWO second adjacents at 106.9 (WWSU out of Wright State, but COL is Fairborn) and WMMX (Mix 107.7) in Dayton proper. So THAT signal would be squeezed in right between them.

Whew...that's a lot to digest at 9:05 AM.

 

[gr8oldies]

It's not really a new policy (stations not broadcasting from their COLs). There has been a "main studio" requirement that has been liberalized a little (25 miles). At one time, going back to the early 80s, a few hours a week had to be originated from the "main studio" (it could be someone babysitting American Top 40 in a studio in the COL). You just have to be able to go on the air from a main studio location, and the public file has to be there, meaning regular office hours. WHIO-FM has to have a functioning main studio in Piqua because it is 35 miles away from the Wilmington Ave. studios..this is accomplished by having the owners of WPTW AM leasing their own space from Cox, and Cox cutting a check (while actually being reimbursed by WPTW) to a full time and part time employee..or paying someone to sit there from 8-5 M-F).

WCWT is already on 107.3.

 

[alans613]

If i'm not mistaken, WGTZ(Fly 92.9) says that their COL is Eaton but the tower is actually in Bellbrook or Brookville I believe. With that 40,000 watt signal they could really claim their signal was from anywhere in Dayton seeing as it is a city-grade signal for miles and miles around Eaton, Dayton, and Springfield.
My next question is what is Mainline going to do format-wise with 101.5. I think the Country format will blow away like a fart in a windstorm b/c I doubt Mainline wants to compete with Cox and K-99.1. My guess is that they'll put WING-AM on the FM @ 101.5 with ESPN Radio and have identical programming ala WBNS-AM and FM in Columbus(97.1 and 1460 The Fan). I don't really see what else ML could really do with the signal format-wise, unless they have an idea that i'm not thinking of. I don't see any change happening until after the first of the year though.