As the lamp timer drifts...
Yesterday (March 31), Lumberyard 1440 came on with 52 watts in
the 0559 minute and powered up to 5000 watts in the 0644 minute.
I wasn't eyeballing an
hh:mm:ss clock so I don't have the exact.
Nothing bad about this in itself...but wait, there's more!
This morning April 1 (new month, new on/off times 0600-1900) KAZG
came on at 0559:10. Again, not unreasonable to be a minute or two
early, especially if a station wants to do a full-blown sign-on, play the
anthem, and hit a network 'cast at the TOH. But we know that the
lumberyard lamp timer is in its usual drift mode and if not reset, could
again get to ten minutes early as it did last month. Bad timer! ;D
What I really found interesting was that at sign-on both days, the carrier
came on with a song in progress. No legal ID--not then and not through
the first five minutes or so. Just like in the evening when they simply
cut the carrier at (when the lamp timer thinks it's) sign-off time.
I thought sure there was an FCC rule that a station had to ID itself at
sign-on (wasn't too sure about sign-off), so I found good ol' Part 73:
Sec. 73.1201 Station identification.
(a) When regularly required. Broadcast station identification
announcements shall be made:
(1) At the beginning and ending of each time of operation, and
(2) Hourly, as close to the hour as feasible, at a natural break
in program offerings.
So KAZG appears to be in violation of the legal ID requirement at
both sign-on and sign-off, if I interpret 73.1201 correctly.
Not to mention they also didn't ID at the (0600) TOH.
