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Nashville radio station power output history

S

stevenmcintosh2012

Can anyone give me a timeline on ERP and tower location changes at 107.5 and 104.5?I seem to recall 107.5 being fairly weak until the mid and possibly the late 80's. Then, they must have lowered their power around the mid-90's since I used to get them up to Elizabethtown, KY when I traveled north on I-65 until around 1995. Now, they don't come in past Cave City, KY.Also, around the time of the KIX 104/Arrow 104.5 switch, when did the tower move from Gallatin, where did it move to, and what ERP did they go down too. I remember the reception suddenly going from being quite strong in Bowling Green to poor during 1987.
 
Here is how I remember it. 107.3 was known as WCOR-FM from the time it came on the air in the middle 1960's. Tower was east of Lebanon where the AM still exist today. The station was sold and the transmitter relocated to Gladeville in 1979. They went to 100kw at that time. Now in the early 1980's they were moved to 107.5 as a result of a rule making by WQLT 107.3 in Florence, Al. and they remained at the same transmitter location. They were co-located with 96.3 WMTS transmitter at that same site. There were signal issues over some critical zip codes in Nashville, Franklin and Brentwood from this location about eighteen miles east of downtown Nashville. Around 1986 or 87 after the station was purchased Republic Broadcasting, there was a deal struck with WABD-FM in Ft. Campbell, Ky that would move them a good distance to the west of Clarksville allowing then WYHY to move to a new television tower about eight miles north of downtown Nashville. They had to downgrade to class C-1 status and reduce power to about 51 kw but a much improved height above average terrain and much better signal to compete with WLAC-FM and WKDF. After this, they dominated the Nashville ratings. They are still at that location but a different antenna on the ATC candelobra tower.104.5 came on the air in Gallatin in the 1960's and the transmitter was on a hill about three miles north of the city. Several power levels but soon was at 50kw on 500 foot tower untill 1978 when they increased power to 100kw from that location. in 1990, the moved to the WTVF television tower and reduced power to 49kw with c-1 downgrade. Very directional antenna with most of the power going towards the west protecting adjacent in Athens, Ala at 104.3. Late 1998 they were thrown off of the WTVF tower because of DTV. Then moved to 450 foot tower at the North Star tower at I-65 and Dickerson Road, 100kw non-directional from there but low average terrain. 2002 they relocated to the Richland Tower in north Nashville with about 38 kw and a directional antenna. Thats the way it is today. Either of those stations would have a pretty deep null to the north as the populace is to the south of there.w/
 
Thanks for the info, Watt. I thought Y107 made further power changes after they started broadcasting as Y107 but never knew where to look for information back in those days.When I first knew of Y107, I recall it was first a soft rock station for a brief time. I had this really sucky GE walkman radio and couldn't get a stereo signal on it for Y107 in Bellevue. I lived in Iroquois Apartments tucked next to a hill and noted as I walked away from the hill or up the hill, the station suddenly came in stereo. Even after they went Top 40, it seemed like the signal got much stronger at some point in the late 80s, and that also seems to be around the time they frequently promoted that they were 100K watts. So, I guess they weren't truly 100K then and that they were just accounting for the extra height to come up with the ERP, right?Also, during 104.5's KIX 104 days, was their 100K tower still at only 500 feet? In Bellevue on my awful GE walkman, I could get a marginally weak stereo signal from them. I vaguely recall the tower since I lived in Gallatin at one time. It was on the rim of the ridge along Hwy 109 sort of between Gallatin and Portland. I also remember when they were Jammin' Oldies and they ran sequences mentioning that the listener might have occasional reception problems since they were working to improve the signal. That's when they went to the tower on Dickerson Road. 104.5 was limited when they moved closer to Nashville by 104.3 ZYP in Hunstville, I believe.
 
Yes, they were 500 feet at the Music Mountain location and their move to the Nashville TV tower required protection of WZYP in north Alabama. The temporary Dickerson Road location offered enough terrain shielding to allow 100K non-directional under 73.215 of the rules.The Nashville and middle Tennessee area is a VHF/UHF engineering challenge from a propagation standpoint. Several factors enter in to this including the many terrain features, frequent temperature inversions that cross the area, allocation site limitations and the shear spread out nature of the market. Literally every broadcaster here has complained about signal issues at one time or another. I have been working in this market for thirty years and the topic has consumed a lot of that time. There is not enough bandwidth here for me to go into all of the different scenarios that I have been involved with but I am sure it would fill a book. In summary, the best transmitter location in this market is atop one of the peaks in the seven hills area of south Davidson County or north Williamson County. This is where Ch-2, Ch-8, WSIX, WNRQ, WKDF and WPLN live on two sites that straddle the Davidson, Williamson County line. The day after we turned up the new Class “C” WLAC (now WNRQ) and WKDF combined facility in August of 1982, which resulted in a double in coverage area for both stations, the GM at WKDF at the time was complaining that he could no longer pick up the station on the radio in his office at the studios downtown. In the middle to late 1970’s while working at the old WMAK and 92Q, the GM who is still in this market and shall remain nameless, constantly asked me if we were operating on low power or having some transmitter problems. Quite frankly I had gotten tired of trying to explain the difference between 3kw and 100kw so I offered up the conclusion “there were so many radios tuned into to 92Q, that it was using up all of the signal”. I actually think he bought into that reasoning for about two hours.W/
 
WGFX can actually be heard down here about 9 miles north of the Athens AL 104.3's tower (WZYP) now, on 104.6. I had wondered if there had been any changes since it was Arrow when I was actually trying to pick it up back then and only got it once when WZYP went off the air briefly.
 
First off, FCC rules don’t allow FM’s on even frequencies. Ain’t no such thing as 104.6 in this side of the world and WZYP still operates on 104.3 unless there is something SERIOUSLEY wrong with the exciter. Now, as it was then, the required null toward WZYP is very shallow like less than 3db if I remember correctly. The old antenna when they were located at Ch-5 was poorly patternized and the actual null that it developed to the south was on the order of 18db. I know that because we flew the pattern and took measurements to prove what we expected. I don’t know as a matter of fact now but I suspect the new ERI panel antenna resolved that issue and a lot more signal goes to the south than did before. I know this was one of the project design goals.W/
 
Watt Hairston said:
First off, FCC rules don’t allow FM’s on even frequencies. Ain’t no such thing as 104.6 in this side of the world and WZYP still operates on 104.3 unless there is something SERIOUSLEY wrong with the exciter. Now, as it was then, the required null toward WZYP is very shallow like less than 3db if I remember correctly. The old antenna when they were located at Ch-5 was poorly patternized and the actual null that it developed to the south was on the order of 18db. I know that because we flew the pattern and took measurements to prove what we expected. I don’t know as a matter of fact now but I suspect the new ERI panel antenna resolved that issue and a lot more signal goes to the south than did before. I know this was one of the project design goals.W/
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I know this, 104.3's splash is too loud on 104.5, so it's covered up, but if I put my radio on 104.6 I can hear WGFX, It's somewhat distorted, but definately audible and listenable
 
The tower is 500 feet and last I heard, it is still there. The average terrain up there on that ridge is around 300 feet. The center of radiation was in the high 700's as I remember.w/
 
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