New Buffalo FM?

[Element9]

The salvation of AM radio... Translators. Low power FM that barely covers the market, doesn't penetrate office buildings, gets corrupted by multipath and co-channel HD, and picket fences on the 190, 290 and Kensington. Marvelous.

 

[SirRoxalot]

People in office buildings are listening on-line these days anyway. If you can pick it up in the car, that's money. When radio eventually goes all-digital, multipath actually improves coverage (See MIMO).

 

[Element9]

"When radio eventually goes all-digital..." we'll be totally disinterested... or dirt napping.

 

[ckg279]

"When radio eventually goes all-digital..." we'll be totally disinterested... or dirt napping.

The entire country of Norway beat the U.S. to that milestone.(At least the NATIONAL radio networks; local stations are still airing on FM.)

Britain, Denmark and Switzerland will be making the switch over the next few years.

 

[TheBigA]

Britain, Denmark and Switzerland will be making the switch over the next few years.

This is a subject we've discussed many times. It's easier for a country that has all government owned media to do something like this than it is for a country where the media is privately owned. The FCC has a stated policy against DAB. But then again, that policy could change at the drop of a hat. If they do, everyone will be required to buy radios that can receive digital audio. Based on the success of HD radio, my estimate would be 15-20 years for digital radio to begin to have an effect in the US. But the fact of the matter is that digital radio is available via Sirius and all the streaming services. So making this change to OTA radio is kind of superfluous.

 

[davideduardo]

The entire country of Norway beat the U.S. to that milestone.(At least the NATIONAL radio networks; local stations are still airing on FM.)

What does not get noted is that the bulk of national broadcasting is operated by the government stations.

Britain, Denmark and Switzerland will be making the switch over the next few years.

Britain has delayed its total switch, as DAB coverage outside of the biggest metros is still vastly inferior to FM coverage at present. Further reasoning has included the fact that cars made in the last several decades can not easily be retrofitted if they did not originally come with DAB, so a full switch can be delayed until nearly all cars have DAB... perhaps another decade.

A recent article presented the facts very deceptively; in England 50% of audio listening is digital, but more than half of that digital listening is to streaming, not to DAB. DAB is at a level more like 25% when compared to all audio sources.

In Switzerland, about half of the stations on the air are government owned; the Swiss Radio & Television entity has 13 different program services in French, German and Italian, most with multiple transmitters. Whatever the state broadcaster wants is what will happen. Same goes for Denmark, except that there are fewer program offerings, with the state broadcaster having just 8 separate programmes.

Switzerland and Denmark are very small nations, with all Switzerland having fewer people than metro Chicago alone, and Denmark having a population comparable to that of just the Houston metro.

 

[Buddy Shula]

I think everyone here would be much happier if you went to fccdata.org. A much better and easier site

 

[WJPYFM]

Ok this translator is on the air. 94.1FM broadcasting from WDCX tower. It covers almost nothing. Listenable for maybe up to 1 mile from the tower on RT219 due to the interference from Toronto is so strong. Also it is 1st adjacent to the HD signal of WNED lower sideband at 94.3FM which has 100kw at 94.5FM on the tower next door.
So it would not surprise me if Crawford requests a freq. change because they are covering the trees pretty well next to the tower. Right now it is a 94.1FM jammer at the top of a huge tower on a very large hill!

 

[SirRoxalot]

Well, that might be true of most of the "upper demo" people on this board.

 

[BrockDorf]

hello... I have not see the projected pattern but 970am is a very tight pattern aimed north from Hamburg to Toronto. The idea is to get Crawford across the border. This translator would need to do the opposite of the AM pattern and transmit south.

 

[WJPYFM]

hello... I have not see the projected pattern but 970am is a very tight pattern aimed north from Hamburg to Toronto. The idea is to get Crawford across the border. This translator would need to do the opposite of the AM pattern and transmit south.

Yes this translator is pointed east/northeast of WDCX tower. It covers nothing and just adds noise to the band. It is currently rebroadcasting the same thing as the 110kw big brother at 99.5FM and from the same tower. However the point of it is add an FM freq to the AM at 970 and someday they could put different programming on them or sell the pair correct?

My point is the interference from 94.1 in Canada is soooooo strong that it only covers right in front of the tower where no one lives? What is the point?

 

[Buddy Shula]

Must be nice for DCX to own and operate stations and translators tax free.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Must be nice for DCX to own and operate stations and translators tax free.

Who said they do? WDCX et all are commercial operations. Who said they're tax free?

 

[four4rock]

Who said they do? WDCX et all are commercial operations. Who said they're tax free?

Wasn't there some tax reform issue that involved taxation on (radio) "advertising" expenses(?). As I recall, it involved radio ad expenses being tax-free. And, combining that with the possibility that most of the stuff on WDCX is infomercial-like, could that be what is meant by tax-free? Just a thought.

 

[davideduardo]

Wasn't there some tax reform issue that involved taxation on (radio) "advertising" expenses(?). As I recall, it involved radio ad expenses being tax-free. And, combining that with the possibility that most of the stuff on WDCX is infomercial-like, could that be what is meant by tax-free? Just a thought.

All business expenses are “tax free” in the sense that all business expenses are deducted from income to arrive at taxable “net income”. So expenses to advertise a business are always deducted from pre-tax income.

But in a radio station, income from ad sales is taxable, after deducting all costs of creating the revenue.

Then, of course, Canada has regulated its tax codes so that money spent on US radio and TV stations is not deductible as a business expense. That was done long ago du to pressures from Canadian broadcasters in places like Winnipeg, Windsor and the like. I assume that the ruling is still in effect, but have not verified it’s status.

 

[four4rock]

All business expenses are “tax free” in the sense that all business expenses are deducted from income to arrive at taxable “net income”. So expenses to advertise a business are always deducted from pre-tax income.

But in a radio station, income from ad sales is taxable, after deducting all costs of creating the revenue.

Then, of course, Canada has regulated its tax codes so that money spent on US radio and TV stations is not deductible as a business expense. That was done long ago du to pressures from Canadian broadcasters in places like Winnipeg, Windsor and the like. I assume that the ruling is still in effect, but have not verified it’s status.

Ahhhh. OK. Pretty rare that I'd ever be directly involved in stuff like that... I just had a vague fringe recall of reading about it some time ago.

Sooooo, the mystery of WDCX operating "tax free" certainly continues.

 

[Buddy Shula]

I think i got this wrong, but not sure. Since DCX runs religious broadcasting, i thought like a church, that DCX may pay no taxes, depending on what type of business it operates as. I have tried to research this, but cant seem to find anything.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I think i got this wrong, but not sure. Since DCX runs religious broadcasting, i thought like a church, that DCX may pay no taxes, depending on what type of business it operates as. I have tried to research this, but cant seem to find anything.

Wrong... WDCX is a commercial station owned by a commercial company, they pay taxes

 

[Element9]

Amazing what can be found in a Google search of Crawford Broadcasting, which is a for-profit corporation which pays taxes on earned revenue. WDCX is one of the company's more successful "pray for pay" stations.

 

[TheBigA]

Speaking of which, Crawford Broadcasting just turned in the license of a 50kw AM station in Albany:

https://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?712690-WDCD-1540-Turns-In-License

Buddy? Looking to expand to the Capital area?