New Spanish FM Radio Station hit the airwaves in north florida

[MN Maniac]

The problem is, even with Vero Beach still on 93.5 as a class A, the best WFUZ/WOGK could have done is move somewhere near Leesburg and downgrade to a C1 because of short-spacing issues. And downgrading would have, for the most part, defeated the whole purpose behind moving to Orlando although such a move as a full C would have tremendously increased the station value of, what was then, WFUZ.

Are you sure it wouldn't have fit? I'm using the spacing between 94.5/Daytona Beach and 94.7/Gifford as a comparison. 94.7/Gifford is a few miles further south than 93.7/Vero Beach (which I believe is the same tower site they used when they were a Class A on 93.5?) But Gifford is also a C2. 94.5 is a full Class C from Paisley, of course. It also apparently fit when 94.5 was temporarily broadcasting from Orange City after their tower was downed by a tornado. But I noticed they were authorized as a C0 from Orange City, which I'm assuming was due to the fact that Orange City is a few miles closer to Gifford than Paisley was/is (?)

This is fun. I wish I could make a living doing this!

 

[jmtillery]

You're talking about a full C at Paisley (94.5) and a first adjacent C2 (94.7) at Vero Beach (Gifford) which has a shorter seperation requirement than a full C at Paisley (93.7) and a co-channel C2 at Vero Beach (93.7). It won't work now although it may have worked somewhere before Vero Beach upgraded.

However it seems to me an engineering study was made about 20+ years ago looking into the feasability of placing 93.7 somewhere in the general Paisley-Orange City or Leesburg area. The findings were that Vero Beach was too close to move 93.7 as a full C to any of those locations. It may work now in the general Orlando area as a C2, but, again, downgrading defeats the whole purpose of moving it in the first place.

This is just my opinion and is not based on any known fact, but I believe when Dix Communications constructed the 1,347 foot tower for, what was then, WMMZ (now WOGK) in Anthony to better target and cover Gainesville, I believe it had more to do with Dix being a smaller media company wanting to be a "big fish" in a "small pond" rather than being a "not as big of a fish" in a much larger ocean. In other words I believe they may have thought economically they could better compete in the Gainesville/Ocala market rather than "sink or swim" in Orlando.

Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
www.jmtillery.com
http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
[email protected]

 

[jmtillery]

Couriosity got the better of me regarding the 93.7 C3 in Southern Georgia, so I checked the FCC data base and verified the C3 on 93.7 is assigned as a vacant allottment to Saint Simons Island, Georgia (Brunswick). It seems to me, if memory serves me correctly, the new 93.7 was originally submitted to the FCC as a PRM to allot channel 229A to Saint Simons Island. The orginal petitioner then filed a new motion to allott channel 229C3 (93.7) as a substitute for 229A. The C3 proposal is where WOGK became effected and required to downgrade from a full C to a C0.

However, in my quest to satisfy my natural curiousity, I did find something even more interesting.

WPEZ-FM Jeffersonville, Georgia now operates on channel 229C1 (93.7) http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WPEZ&service=FM&status=L&hours=U serving the Macon metro. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and is a part of the Cumulus Macon cluster.


Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
www.jmtillery.com
http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
[email protected]

 

[MN Maniac]

Sorry. I meant that it should have fit *before* WGYL upgraded. A full C from Paisley should easily have cleared a first adjacent A in Vero Beach. Now, of course, there's no way it would fit unless WOGK was downgraded. Which as you said would totally defeat the purpose of moving it in. You'd have to be close in, in order to make it work at lower power/height. Something like the 95.3 site in Pine Hills. Even as a full C, there are places in the Orlando metro where 94.5 gets spotty coverage, due to the distance from Paisley.

When Bill Kramer was PD/OM at WOGK, he asked me about the possibility of moving into Orlando via the (then) new Channel 27 tower at Clermont. I told him it wouldn't clear 93.7/Vero Beach, but that it may be possible if Vero was paid to downgrade back to 6kW on 93.5 or possibly move somewhere else. Of course, when you get that far west, 94.1/Lakeland also becomes a factor.

The Jefferson, GA station on 93.7 has been there for awhile. I believe they started as a Class A, then upgraded to C1. They've tried to move it in as an Atlanta rimshot, but haven't been able to do so.

Having the same natural curiosity as you do, I noticed that WPCV has also been bumped down to a C0. What caused this? Did WSKY use the new (lesser) C0 separation requirements to move closer to Ocala?

 

[jmtillery]

Sorry. I meant that it should have fit *before* WGYL upgraded. A full C from Paisley should easily have cleared a first adjacent A in Vero Beach. Now, of course, there's no way it would fit unless WOGK was downgraded. Which as you said would totally defeat the purpose of moving it in. You'd have to be close in, in order to make it work at lower power/height. Something like the 95.3 site in Pine Hills. Even as a full C, there are places in the Orlando metro where 94.5 gets spotty coverage, due to the distance from Paisley.

When Bill Kramer was PD/OM at WOGK, he asked me about the possibility of moving into Orlando via the (then) new Channel 27 tower at Clermont. I told him it wouldn't clear 93.7/Vero Beach, but that it may be possible if Vero was paid to downgrade back to 6kW on 93.5 or possibly move somewhere else. Of course, when you get that far west, 94.1/Lakeland also becomes a factor.

The Jefferson, GA station on 93.7 has been there for awhile. I believe they started as a Class A, then upgraded to C1. They've tried to move it in as an Atlanta rimshot, but haven't been able to do so.

Having the same natural curiosity as you do, I noticed that WPCV has also been bumped down to a C0. What caused this? Did WSKY use the new (lesser) C0 separation requirements to move closer to Ocala?

WSKY had a big part in WPCV downgrading to a C0. When WRRX orginally upgraded from a class A on 97.7 to a C2 on 97.3 as WSKY, the original 97.3 transmitter/tower location was on the WGFL-TV 53 tower located in Newberry, about 20-miles due West of Gainesville. This cleared the WPCV Haines City tower site fine. However, Entercom decided to move WSKY's tower site back to the original WRRX tower site in Miccanopy to enhance the signal in Ocala. Because WPCV was, and still is, operating on a tower just slightly over 1,000 feet just South of Haines City, WPCV did not meet the new minimum class C HAAT standards to remain a full C. Hence, WPCV was forced to downgrade to a C0 because they were unable to identify and move to an alternate suitable transmitter site where WPCV could take advantage of a much taller tower of 1,500+ feet. Regardless of WPCV's 97.5 class, in my opinion it still has the BEST FM signal in all of Florida.

Regarding moving WOGK to Paisley, I believe if WGYL were to move back to 93.5, even as a C2 (assumming it doesn't short space WFLZ Tampa), 93.7 could, realistically move to that location as a C0.

Relating to the Jeffersonville, Georgia station, I was unaware it had upgraded to 100kw as a C1 until recently. I just wasn't paying attention to what those Georgians have been doing up there. Shame on me. However, I don't believe it can be moved to Atlanta due to WVFJ-FM 93.3 and WSTR-FM 94.1 already serving Atlanta. These stations would have to be protected as second adjacent channels. However, stranger things have happen, so a creative engineer might find of way to make it happen in that they may be able to get a better signal in the Atlanta metro area.

Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Asociates, P. A.
Orlando - New York
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
E-mail: [email protected]

 

[jmtillery]

Thanks, Mark. I didn't know about the new 93.7 in Georgia. Not surprised, since the FCC seems bent on shoehorning in as many new allocations as they possibly can. There's also the (fairly) new 93.7 translator in Jacksonville. Only runs a few watts from the north side of town, if I remember correctly (?) So, 93.7 is now a nasty mess of WOGK and the translator throughout much of the Jacksonville metro. As is 103.7 with WRUF and the eastside translator fighting for the frequency. Neither of these should have been allowed. Sad business.

I'm surprised Dix never tried to move WOGK into Orlando...or sold it to someone who would have. Before Vero Beach moved from 93.5 to 93.7, it would have been possible to operate from either Orange City or Paisley and still put the required grade of signal over Ocala.

Translators are not allowed to cause interference to any licensed radio station, even if outside of that station's coverage area. If anyone in Jax complained about either 93.7 or 103.7, the translator owners would have to either find a solution that worked for the listener, or would have to sign the translator off. Since both translators are operating, evidently no one has complained about interference to WRUF or WOGK.

Kyle,

I think I met you and your brother once very briefly at WXCV Crystal River in the early '90s. Wasn't it you and Barry who initiated the big frequency switch involving WSKY, WXOF and WLVU Holiday as well as possibly a few other stations? I found that to very interesting and creative how that was pulled off. I'm working on a project now that is similar to that one, and I could use a little expertise. Please contact me off-list at [email protected]. I am very interested in talking with you about "what can" and what "cannot" be done as it relates to what I'm working on.

Thanks,

Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
E-mail: [email protected]

 

[Parttimer]

Sorry. I meant that it should have fit *before* WGYL upgraded. A full C from Paisley should easily have cleared a first adjacent A in Vero Beach. Now, of course, there's no way it would fit unless WOGK was downgraded. Which as you said would totally defeat the purpose of moving it in. You'd have to be close in, in order to make it work at lower power/height. Something like the 95.3 site in Pine Hills. Even as a full C, there are places in the Orlando metro where 94.5 gets spotty coverage, due to the distance from Paisley.

When Bill Kramer was PD/OM at WOGK, he asked me about the possibility of moving into Orlando via the (then) new Channel 27 tower at Clermont. I told him it wouldn't clear 93.7/Vero Beach, but that it may be possible if Vero was paid to downgrade back to 6kW on 93.5 or possibly move somewhere else. Of course, when you get that far west, 94.1/Lakeland also becomes a factor.

The Jefferson, GA station on 93.7 has been there for awhile. I believe they started as a Class A, then upgraded to C1. They've tried to move it in as an Atlanta rimshot, but haven't been able to do so.

Having the same natural curiosity as you do, I noticed that WPCV has also been bumped down to a C0. What caused this? Did WSKY use the new (lesser) C0 separation requirements to move closer to Ocala?

WSKY had a big part in WPCV downgrading to a C0. When WRRX orginally upgraded from a class A on 97.7 to a C2 on 97.3 as WSKY, the original 97.3 transmitter/tower location was on the WGFL-TV 53 tower located in Newberry, about 20-miles due West of Gainesville. This cleared the WPCV Haines City tower site fine. However, Entercom decided to move WSKY's tower site back to the original WRRX tower site in Miccanopy to enhance the signal in Ocala. Because WPCV was, and still is, operating on a tower just slightly over 1,000 feet just South of Haines City, WPCV did not meet the new minimum class C HAAT standards to remain a full C. Hence, WPCV was forced to downgrade to a C0 because they were unable to identify and move to an alternate suitable transmitter site where WPCV could take advantage of a much taller tower of 1,500+ feet. Regardless of WPCV's 97.5 class, in my opinion it still has the BEST FM signal in all of Florida.

Regarding moving WOGK to Paisley, I believe if WGYL were to move back to 93.5, even as a C2 (assumming it doesn't short space WFLZ Tampa), 93.7 could, realistically move to that location as a C0.

Relating to the Jeffersonville, Georgia station, I was unaware it had upgraded to 100kw as a C1 until recently. I just wasn't paying attention to what those Georgians have been doing up there. Shame on me. However, I don't believe it can be moved to Atlanta due to WVFJ-FM 93.3 and WSTR-FM 94.1 already serving Atlanta. These stations would have to be protected as second adjacent channels. However, stranger things have happen, so a creative engineer might find of way to make it happen in that they may be able to get a better signal in the Atlanta metro area.

Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Asociates, P. A.
Orlando - New York
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
E-mail: [email protected]

WSJT is licensed to Lakeland and is on a tower down towards I-75 near Sarasota... I can't remember if there's anything down that way that would have prevented WPCV from going there.....

 

[jmtillery]

Sorry. I meant that it should have fit *before* WGYL upgraded. A full C from Paisley should easily have cleared a first adjacent A in Vero Beach. Now, of course, there's no way it would fit unless WOGK was downgraded. Which as you said would totally defeat the purpose of moving it in. You'd have to be close in, in order to make it work at lower power/height. Something like the 95.3 site in Pine Hills. Even as a full C, there are places in the Orlando metro where 94.5 gets spotty coverage, due to the distance from Paisley.

When Bill Kramer was PD/OM at WOGK, he asked me about the possibility of moving into Orlando via the (then) new Channel 27 tower at Clermont. I told him it wouldn't clear 93.7/Vero Beach, but that it may be possible if Vero was paid to downgrade back to 6kW on 93.5 or possibly move somewhere else. Of course, when you get that far west, 94.1/Lakeland also becomes a factor.

The Jefferson, GA station on 93.7 has been there for awhile. I believe they started as a Class A, then upgraded to C1. They've tried to move it in as an Atlanta rimshot, but haven't been able to do so.

Having the same natural curiosity as you do, I noticed that WPCV has also been bumped down to a C0. What caused this? Did WSKY use the new (lesser) C0 separation requirements to move closer to Ocala?

WSKY had a big part in WPCV downgrading to a C0. When WRRX orginally upgraded from a class A on 97.7 to a C2 on 97.3 as WSKY, the original 97.3 transmitter/tower location was on the WGFL-TV 53 tower located in Newberry, about 20-miles due West of Gainesville. This cleared the WPCV Haines City tower site fine. However, Entercom decided to move WSKY's tower site back to the original WRRX tower site in Miccanopy to enhance the signal in Ocala. Because WPCV was, and still is, operating on a tower just slightly over 1,000 feet just South of Haines City, WPCV did not meet the new minimum class C HAAT standards to remain a full C. Hence, WPCV was forced to downgrade to a C0 because they were unable to identify and move to an alternate suitable transmitter site where WPCV could take advantage of a much taller tower of 1,500+ feet. Regardless of WPCV's 97.5 class, in my opinion it still has the BEST FM signal in all of Florida.

Regarding moving WOGK to Paisley, I believe if WGYL were to move back to 93.5, even as a C2 (assumming it doesn't short space WFLZ Tampa), 93.7 could, realistically move to that location as a C0.

Relating to the Jeffersonville, Georgia station, I was unaware it had upgraded to 100kw as a C1 until recently. I just wasn't paying attention to what those Georgians have been doing up there. Shame on me. However, I don't believe it can be moved to Atlanta due to WVFJ-FM 93.3 and WSTR-FM 94.1 already serving Atlanta. These stations would have to be protected as second adjacent channels. However, stranger things have happen, so a creative engineer might find of way to make it happen in that they may be able to get a better signal in the Atlanta metro area.

Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Asociates, P. A.
Orlando - New York
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
E-mail: [email protected]

WSJT is licensed to Lakeland and is on a tower down towards I-75 near Sarasota... I can't remember if there's anything down that way that would have prevented WPCV from going there.....

WPCV-FM 97.5 C0 is required to protect two second adjancent Tampa Bay FMs - WXTB-FM 97.9 C Clearwater and WSUN-FM 97.1 C2 Holiday; both towers located in North Tampa Bay near Holiday. For this reason WPCV cannot move any closer to Tampa Bay. Hence the reason Hall Communications chose Haines City for its 1,000 + tower in an effort to target Orlando since Tampa Bay was pretty much out of the question. However, Hall management changed its mind and decided to concentrate solely on Polk County with WPCV although 97.5 has a pretty decent signal over metro Orlando, and in my opinion, it has the best signal of any FM in Florida, covering two thirds of the state from its existing tower site for all practicel purposes.

Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
New York - Orlando
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
E-mail: [email protected]

 

[drt]

Things change so fast with frequency swaps, format changes etc, but as of 19 Aug 2009 (5pm) WSJT is now half the power, on a shorter stick, licensed to Holmes Beach and it's tower is in Seminole,FL.

WLLD (Wild 98) is now WLLD 94.1, WLLD is licensed to Lakeland, while true it's tower is toward Sarasota, more precisely it's tower is in extreme s.e. Hillsborough county several miles from where Polk, HIllsborough, Hardee and Manatee counties intersect.

Getting back to WPCV 97.5, they do have a great signal that covers a large geographical land mass, many of the FM's in the St. Petersburg/Tampa area have large geographical areas as well, except that much of their signals extend into the Gulf of Mexico.

drt

 

[ThatGuyOnTheRadio]

Personally, I think WOGK and WMGF have some of the best signals in the state too.

 

[swfl]

Personally, I think WOGK and WMGF have some of the best signals in the state too.

I agree with you on WOGK. I travel around the state a lot and have found that station consistently to be the best signal.

WPCV does have a good signal also but in my humble opinion WOGK is a bit better overall.

 

[ThatGuyOnTheRadio]

Check out WMGF (107.7) a pretty easy grab on the southside of Jacksonville (MGF's stick I believe, is just south and west of Orange City.

Pretty impressive!

 

[jmtillery]

ABSOLUTELY!!! WOGK has an awesome signal. There's no doubt about that... The truth of the matter is we have many Florida FM signals that have extended reach. The reason I had mentioned WPCV is largely due to the fact that 97.5 is much more centrally located within the state which gives WPCV a better signal towards South Florida as well as into Central and North Central Florida, AND Coast-to-Coast with an exceptional signal from the Gulf to the Atlantic. Although WOGK also has a very impressive coast-to-coast signal, WOGK doesn't reach as far South in many areas largely due to co-channel WGYL Vero Beach. WPCV has no co-channel intrusion as it is the only primary licensed FM on 97.5 within the state of Florida although there are a few secondary licensed co-channel translators on that frequency. WOGK, on the other hand, does send an awesome signal into North Florida and parts of South Georgia.

Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
E-mail: [email protected]

 

[swfl]

I understand what you are saying jm. The location of WPCV does allow it a lot of coverage to the central and southern parts of the state.

As for WOGK they also have a co-channel here in the Ft Myers/Naples area with WTLT 93.7. At one time what is now WTLT was at 93.5 before their upgrade several years ago. Back then it was not totally uncommon to pick up WOGK even down here at times.

 

[MN Maniac]

Personally, I think WOGK and WMGF have some of the best signals in the state too.

Problem is, the band is so jammed up in Central Florida that *nobody* has great coverage. WOGK has been compromised in all directions, as was mentioned previously. WPCV used to deliver a solid signal into Ocala. That is no longer possible due to first-adjacent interference from WSKY. On my car radio, I used to be able to hear WPCV *on* Daytona Beach with no problems. Now, there's a religious translator on 97.3 which makes that impossible.

Back in the early 90s, WMGF as well as all the other Orange City FMs used to have no problem making it into Gainesville. Even WJHM, which was only 28kW at that time. Now, a religious LPFM sits on 107.7. No fewer than THREE different LPFMs on 94.7 cause interference to WCFB's signal from Paisley. 96.5 is a particularly nasty mix of Columbia City, Orlando, and the LPFM in McIntosh.

The problem is further compounded in Florida by frequent band openings, caused by the warm, moist air. It doesn't take much to get things going. Too many stations + too frequent band openings = a real mess on FM.

 

[Kmagrill]

Personally, I think WOGK and WMGF have some of the best signals in the state too.

Now, a religious LPFM sits on 107.7. No fewer than THREE different LPFMs on 94.7 cause interference to WCFB's signal from Paisley. 96.5 is a particularly nasty mix of Columbia City, Orlando, and the LPFM in McIntosh.

Well, if anyone got the short end of the stick on the LPFM vs WMGF battle, it was the LPFM, for sure. Because there is so much RF from WMGF, the LPFM can't effectively cover anything beyond their 70dBu. During band openings, they are swamped after about 6 blocks. I live 2 miles from the transmitter and can hear WMGF at my house on about half of my radios. I hear the LPFM on the other radios at home. I've spoken to the owner of the station and she is, anxiously, waiting for the FCC to drop their third channel restrictions so that she can move off of WMGF's channel. As for the three LPFMs on 94.7, they time-sharing using common transmitting facilities, so it's only one signal, not three and the ERP for the station(s) is only about 25 Watts.

Although I also liked to DX FM stations in past years, it's important to realize that radio stations have communities or areas that they are intended to serve. Although many are able to serve outside of their communities, this is not guaranteed. They are only protected to their 60dBu contour. Stations in Orlando don't much care about if anyone is listening in Ocala, or vice-versa. Their business is in their cities. The point is that proliferation of local stations does diminish the DX possibilities of stations, but those new stations are serving market segments that are ignored or unserved by the big guys. Now, you or I might disagree with the programming choices that the local station makes, but that's quite a different discussion from the question of how much out-of-market coverage is a station entitled to receive.

But we digress..... Wasn't this thread supposed to be about a new Spanish language station in Perry?

 

[Louis_009]

Well when 107.7 from Perry Florida came on they were playing mixed of spanish music old to new the singal coverd was good from Taylor (Perry Florida) to Jefferson, Wakulla and some parts of Leon counties. When they sign on the air a few weeks ago. Now the singal is not that quite storng I can't pick them up anymore. I know they on the air in Perry Florida but right now I am getting like eveyone is talking about now is Magic 107.7 from Orlando Florida. Even some parts of Tallahassee is picking up Magic 107.7 here and there like a gost singal. We have a Magic station in Tallahassee own by clear channel of Tallahassee Magic 107.1.

 

[MN Maniac]

Although I also liked to DX FM stations in past years, it's important to realize that radio stations have communities or areas that they are intended to serve. Although many are able to serve outside of their communities, this is not guaranteed. They are only protected to their 60dBu contour. Stations in Orlando don't much care about if anyone is listening in Ocala, or vice-versa. Their business is in their cities. The point is that proliferation of local stations does diminish the DX possibilities of stations, but those new stations are serving market segments that are ignored or unserved by the big guys. Now, you or I might disagree with the programming choices that the local station makes, but that's quite a different discussion from the question of how much out-of-market coverage is a station entitled to receive.

Except that the big Class C station *paid* for that coverage and is now having it chipped away from them.

I was around in 1986 when the FCC created Docket 80-90. In preparation for the hundreds of new allocations that were to be issued, the Commission issued a "use it or lose it" mandate to Class C FMs. They were given a deadline to upgrade to a minimum of 100,000 watts ERP at 300 meters (roughly 1,000 feet) and maintain their Class C status. If they chose not to do so, they would be downgraded to the new Class C1 and would have their protective contours reduced. I was working for such a station at the time. As a small market operation, we simply could not afford the additional costs, so we kept what we had and were downgraded to C1. Building a new 1,000+ tower is NOT cheap. Neither is the land, insurance, endless environmental hassles, STL, etc. Many stations did so, however. They made a substantial investment to keep what they had and avoid encroachment by other stations.

Two decades later, the FCC changes the rules. They now tell Class C's that they must upgrade again...this time to a minimum 450 meters to avoid being downgraded to Class C0 and losing protection. Totally unfair. Not to mention, it is now much more expensive and difficult to erect a 1500+ foot tower than it was in 1986. Most stations simply cannot do it. WOGK and WPCV are perfect examples. Both have had their coverage compromised as a result. It's like paying an upfront fee of $5,000 to receive "free steaks for life." Twenty years later, they change the rules and tell you that from now on, you're getting hamburger instead.

 

[Kmagrill]

Except that the big Class C station *paid* for that coverage and is now having it chipped away from them.

I was around in 1986 when the FCC created Docket 80-90. In preparation for the hundreds of new allocations that were to be issued, the Commission issued a "use it or lose it" mandate to Class C FMs. They were given a deadline to upgrade to a minimum of 100,000 watts ERP at 300 meters (roughly 1,000 feet) and maintain their Class C status. If they chose not to do so, they would be downgraded to the new Class C1 and would have their protective contours reduced. I was working for such a station at the time. As a small market operation, we simply could not afford the additional costs, so we kept what we had and were downgraded to C1. Building a new 1,000+ tower is NOT cheap. Neither is the land, insurance, endless environmental hassles, STL, etc. Many stations did so, however. They made a substantial investment to keep what they had and avoid encroachment by other stations.

Two decades later, the FCC changes the rules. They now tell Class C's that they must upgrade again...this time to a minimum 450 meters to avoid being downgraded to Class C0 and losing protection. Totally unfair. Not to mention, it is now much more expensive and difficult to erect a 1500+ foot tower than it was in 1986. Most stations simply cannot do it. WOGK and WPCV are perfect examples. Both have had their coverage compromised as a result. It's like paying an upfront fee of $5,000 to receive "free steaks for life." Twenty years later, they change the rules and tell you that from now on, you're getting hamburger instead.

Okay, but you could make the same argument about fairness for those stations that built facilities prior to 80-90. WRUF-FM and WUFT-FM had both been class C stations for decades before 80-90. WRUF had a 429' tower and WUFT had a 750' tower. Basically, it could be said that it was unfair to downgrade them when they had built facilities that had previously been considered full class Cs. Why not just grandfather the stations with 500' towers and only apply the rules to new facilities? The answer is because those stations with lower facilities were not serving the large regions that they were authorized to cover. Most stations, major or small market, had decided the minimum facilities needed to cover the areas that they thought were important to them. When docket 80-90 came to pass, many stations upgraded to the bare minimum 300 meter facilities in order to maintain their class C status. Part 73.207 spacing rings are based on a simplified version of the FCC's prohibited contour overlap method. There is a significant coverage difference between 100kW @ 300 meters and 100kW at 600 meters. Eventually, someone at the FCC noticed that a high percentage of so-called class C stations still had a lot of excess (unserved) buffer space that they had not filled because they had built only the minimum facilities required to maintain their class C status. Just as it had been when these stations owned 500 tall towers before, these stations were, generally, not interested in covering the maximum possible area or serving the greatest population. Once again, they had decided what the minimum facilities that were necessary to protect their market value by insuring their status as class C stations. If docket 80-90 had not passed, many would still be using 400' towers today. After studying the situation, the FCC then came back and basically said, use it or lose it. Those that wanted to serve to their full class C contour could have built taller towers (and some did), but this is an expensive proposition. Many stations chose not to incur the added expense, or it was otherwise impossible due to government restrictions. The problem is that the FCC, like nature, abhors a vaccuum. If you leave part of your licensed region unserved, for any reason, then the FCC has a tendency to fill that void with a new, local, service. Generally, this is considered a good thing, although, as has been pointed out, it does tend to diminish DX coverage of big stations. However, it is incorrect to state that the new stations on the fringe of the former class C stations are covering population that the big stations are entitled to serve. In fact, the FCC only authorizes new facilities outside of real coverage areas of these stations. These service rings are, loosely based upon the real coverage of that class of station, assuming MAXIMUM facilities for the class. So, a station with a 300 meter tower is being protected as if it had a 449 meter tower. In essence, commercial stations generally still get a larger buffer zone than their actual coverage. By contrast, NCE stations are all based on prohibited overlaps, so stations are shoe-horned in much tighter together than on the commercial band in most locations. The point I'm making here is that protecting stations well beyond their actual coverage areas means that potentially significant populations will be, unnecessarily, deprived of any radio reception. Besides, being downgraded does not necessarily spell the end of the story. In some cases, it is possible for a station to still upgrade back up to a full C at a later time.

 

[Louis_009]

107.7 fm in Perry Florida is back up and running they were on low power for a week or so now they back up and running high power. I guess they were off the air or on very low power for a while when they working on the tower.