Is WILF 88.9 'Life FM' exaggerating its usable coverage?

[Nate Wesley]

Playing with the TuneIn website, I found the radio page for WILF 88.9 Monroeville, 'The Life FM'. For some reason I thought 88.9 was associated with or co-owned with Brewton's WOWB "Wow 90.9", but it isn't; The Life FM Network is a group of nationally programmed full-power stations home-based in Greenville, SC.

I decided to click through to the WILF Life FM page, and it brings me to a coverage map predicting 'ginormous' radio coverage from Montgomery to Mobile and throughout North Florida:
http://www.thelifefm.com/wilf

I'm willing to assume these maps have some accuracy--but at the pitifully low standard of 34-40dBu?

Here are the maps from Radio-Locator and the FCC for comparison:
http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=89620
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WILF&service=FM&status=L&hours=U

 

[WBGR FM 93.1]

Yeah... they definately are stretching the coverage contours - and stretching the truth (relating to the coverage map, that is)! Comparing the radio-locator maps to Life FM's map, fringe on the east side is around Florala (R-L) whereas on Life FM's website it is about 70+ miles east around Ashford (Dothan).

On air, though, how is the coverage?

Travis

 

[tomservo]

On air, though, how is the coverage?

On air, the Radio-Locator coverage map is pretty accurate versus the obvious lie on their site. The blue line on R-L is 40 dBu and it is much smaller than their 40 dBu red circle by a wide, wide margin.

For example, it shows Baldwin County well within the 40 dBu coverage but it's only audible south of I-10 when the wind is blowing right. It's clearly audible north of Pensacola (mall/Bayou Blvd. area) with the right radio but it's not something that's ever gonna stop your scan button.

I don't know what they stand to gain from portraying their signal to be so much bigger than it is. I hope I don't step on any toes saying this, but it's also a very un-Christian thing to say about your station, in my opinion.