We were leasing a couple translators up in Omak and one in Wenatchee. Both translators atop their respective hills picked up the primary signal from 98.5 solid. With the exception of shadowing from mountains into the Wenatchee Valley, that 1000' stick would have put a pretty decent signal into the area too.
The challenge with a station like KEYG-FM, is as goes the coverage, so do the advertisers. Trying to service advertisers over literally thousands of square miles is tough. The translators in more population-dense communities like Wenatchee and Omak/Okanagan made it a little easier, but there were a lot of rattlesnakes and small communities within 98.5's coverage in between. Restaurants, health clubs, and bars were, and even worse now, not a good source of income. Several auto dealers that were regular advertisers either closed up shop or consolidated, moving to digital advertising because it was cheaper, and like Dave Smith Motors in Kellogg Idaho, did most of their transactions purely on line or over the phone. There were some car dealers that would refuse to advertise on radio if the station also ran Dave Smith spots.
It's a tough environment for any station these days, but especially for a Class C FM out in the middle of a state with equal amount of mountains and prairie.
