I was checking for parts of the Cincinnati FM band that seem to have room to squeeze in another station, when I came upon this agreement that's part of a January 22 FCC application:
http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=463640
WPAY, Portsmouth is asking the FCC to let it reduce its 104.1 MHz Class C signal to C1 and from 100,000 to 35,000 watts and, using a directional antenna, significantly reducing their signal toward Columbus while also reducing the city-grade signal in other directions by what looks like about 5km on FCC maps. Right now that signal level reaches Georgetown, with a fringe signal through most of Clermont County. It'll still be a good signal, better than any Cincinnati FM, but not the monster that it was.
This is being done for the benefit of and in exchange for payment from NW Columbus rimshot 104.3 WJZK, a smooth jazz station licensed to Richwood, OH whose local signal centers near Marysville and dies out as you move SE across Columbus. The City of License would change to Grandview Heights, just NW of Columbus, but the new transmitter site would be located in SW Franklin County, still somewhat of a rimshot, but a far superior one.
WJZK's owners would take their classic hits station, WQEL, in Bucyrus, 65 miles north of Columbus, and put it in Richwood. This would leave Crawford County, OH with WBCO, a co-owned 500-watt dead-meat daytime-only AM nostalgia station on 1540 in Bucyrus, and an FM station in Galion (SE corner of the county) that puts more signal east into Mansfield than into much of Crawford County.
In some parts of that county the signal coverage is just as good from WJR-AM, Detroit as from the Bucyrus AM station. WQEL/WBCO's website lists 16 on-air people, including two news people, whether FT or PT or freelance, between the two Bucyrus stations. They'll be lucky if more than 2 of the 16 are left after the FM goes away. But the owners can tell the FCC, they're preserving local service for Richwood by replacing the station they're moving, while preserving local service for Bucyrus with a horrible AM signal.
It's obviously a great move from WJZK's standpoint, but the signal area will be so different (no city-grade overlap between the old and the new) they may they may find a new format more suited to their radically increased urban signal penetration.
WPAY's agreement with WJZK mentions this is being done under the new (Fall 2006) FCC rules that make it easier to move radio stations.
So what's this all got to do with Cincinnati?? It seems to me like this series of moves, if approved, might give 104.3, WNLT Harrison, with a transmitter near Miamitown, already in the process of raiging their power slightly, a chance to move a few km's further east, or to increase the power a bit more.
http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=463640
WPAY, Portsmouth is asking the FCC to let it reduce its 104.1 MHz Class C signal to C1 and from 100,000 to 35,000 watts and, using a directional antenna, significantly reducing their signal toward Columbus while also reducing the city-grade signal in other directions by what looks like about 5km on FCC maps. Right now that signal level reaches Georgetown, with a fringe signal through most of Clermont County. It'll still be a good signal, better than any Cincinnati FM, but not the monster that it was.
This is being done for the benefit of and in exchange for payment from NW Columbus rimshot 104.3 WJZK, a smooth jazz station licensed to Richwood, OH whose local signal centers near Marysville and dies out as you move SE across Columbus. The City of License would change to Grandview Heights, just NW of Columbus, but the new transmitter site would be located in SW Franklin County, still somewhat of a rimshot, but a far superior one.
WJZK's owners would take their classic hits station, WQEL, in Bucyrus, 65 miles north of Columbus, and put it in Richwood. This would leave Crawford County, OH with WBCO, a co-owned 500-watt dead-meat daytime-only AM nostalgia station on 1540 in Bucyrus, and an FM station in Galion (SE corner of the county) that puts more signal east into Mansfield than into much of Crawford County.
In some parts of that county the signal coverage is just as good from WJR-AM, Detroit as from the Bucyrus AM station. WQEL/WBCO's website lists 16 on-air people, including two news people, whether FT or PT or freelance, between the two Bucyrus stations. They'll be lucky if more than 2 of the 16 are left after the FM goes away. But the owners can tell the FCC, they're preserving local service for Richwood by replacing the station they're moving, while preserving local service for Bucyrus with a horrible AM signal.
It's obviously a great move from WJZK's standpoint, but the signal area will be so different (no city-grade overlap between the old and the new) they may they may find a new format more suited to their radically increased urban signal penetration.
WPAY's agreement with WJZK mentions this is being done under the new (Fall 2006) FCC rules that make it easier to move radio stations.
So what's this all got to do with Cincinnati?? It seems to me like this series of moves, if approved, might give 104.3, WNLT Harrison, with a transmitter near Miamitown, already in the process of raiging their power slightly, a chance to move a few km's further east, or to increase the power a bit more.