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NEW FM ALLOCATION FOR ROSWELL

J

jerry85303

(From radioinsight.com)
After 10 days and 47 bidding rounds, the FCC has completed its auction of 112 new FM allocations.

Hispanic Target Media came away with three new stations; A Bakersfield rimshot at 92.7 in Wasco, CA for $158,000, a Fresno rimshot at 107.7 in San Joaquin, CA for $147,000, and a Class C0 at 95.3 in Roswell, NM for $117,000.
 
Interesting. Hispanic Target Media also got 96.1 outside of Roswell in an auction a few years ago. From what I've heard, it's running a regional Mexican format as "Amigo 96.1."
 
Hispanic Target Media's KALN 96.1 Radio Amigo has applied to relocate to 102.5, with the same power level and a lower tower height. It goes from 138 to 111.5 meters.


Why would they drop the antenna though? I thought lower height means less coverage?
The only other 102.5 Hispanic Target Media owns is KXAM in San Diego, TX. Perhaps they plan to simulcast the two when the move comes... As far as I know KXAM is jockless with no studio.
 
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From what I can tell, HTM probably filed to relocate KALN to 102.5 at a lower antenna height to keep the frequency from being used by someone else. Here's the background on the situation:

Normally, you couldn't get two stations just two clicks of the dial away from each other licensed to the same city, but KBIM-FM's tower is a considerable distance from Roswell. It's literally halfway to the Texas border from Roswell! If I'm remembering correctly, the separation requirement for a class C and a C0 two clicks away from each other is 64 miles. With KBIM-FM 94.9 being about 40 miles out of town, 95.3 still has to be about 25 miles out of town. Of course, this is easily doable from a technical standpoint, but HTM found it not so practical. Obviously, they can't co-locate 95.3 and 96.1. They also found there were no existing towers that fit the minimum separation from 94.9 that could still cover Roswell, and securing some land and building a tower for 95.3 wasn't practical either.

The initial solution HTM found was to locate on an existing tower that doesn't quite citygrade any of Roswell and relicense 95.3 to Capitan. A further search showed that they could move 95.3 to Roswell as a C2 on 102.5 and co-locate it with KALN 96.1. However, the FCC dismissed the petition to change 95.3's frequency and downgrade to a C2 because the parameters requested had too much power and/or too high of an antenna for a C2. HTM has filed a petition for reconsideration saying they would've amended the application in time but couldn't do so due to the government shutdown.

So, most likely, you'll see a station at 96.1 and another one at 102.5 when all of this shakes out. It may be a case of KALN going to 102.5 while 95.3 moves to 96.1 with KALN's old facility. It may also be possible for HTM to simply request the FCC dismiss KALN's application to move to 102.5 when the issue of what to do with 95.3 gets settled. I'm not sure how all of that works from a legal standpoint.
 
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