Old QKC 93.7 tower in Freetown

[Mid West Clubber]

Just wondering if this is just a Ghost Tower now, or if it is used for any other communications, like maybe cell phones or something. The red Night Lights are still lighting up, which im guessing they legally have to maintain for the safety of aircraft, whether or not the tower is operational... Anyway, just wondering, we all know that QKC left and moved down south, leaving the area without a local station of any kind. Its a pretty tall tower, im sure someone could use it for something.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

I haven't been in there since about a month before it went dark. At that point, the Jackson County Emergency Management folks were installing some equipment, Jackson County REMC's 2 way radio system was on there & a ham radio group from Carmel was using it as a relay point to southern IN. WQKC went on that site in June 1992...had a great signal until it was directionalized. Anything that's happened recently, I don't know about. I do know this...if they offered me the tower for free, I doubt I'd take it. It is in the middle of nowhere...there are many more cows than people within 10 miles of it and there's little or no demand to rent space on it. It will be a financial drain on Cumulus if they keep it.

 

[fwmw]

there are many more cows than people within 10 miles of it

Errant programming thought: The best format for bovine ["cows"] would be that new hip format: MOO-ViN'.

fwmw

 

[BobOnTheJob]

I think Emmis is running that in LA...where there are more people than cows...no wonder it flopped.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

So ... how does Arbitron rate listening by cattle? Is the little ear tag that cattle have used as a Portable Bovine Meter?



And back on topic-ish: There are lots of towers in little towns that have more cattle nearby than people. Particularly cell-phone towers, thanks to the NIMBYs.

 

[fwmw]

So ... how does Arbitron rate listening by cattle? Is the little ear tag that cattle have used as a Portable Bovine Meter?

What concerns me more is survey accuracy in cattle pen-torium music testing.

PT's PBM comment made me spit soda all over the desk. Thank you.

 

[Timewarp]

Cows give more milk if a radio is playing in the barn. It's a fact. They like radio too.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Ive said this before, but they need to bring back a CHR for the area,,, like the old Z-93.7, on air before QKC, and the old Wynn 106 North Vernon-Columbus was CHR throughout most the 90s, and I think it was Hot Ac as Hits 106 before then, but they flipped it to CHR because WRZQ was killing them in the adult demo and had an identical format. At one point during the early 90s, WRZQ--Now Qmix was almost a CHR.

 

[Flying-Dutchman]

CHR today is not the same breed as back in the 1900s. Columbus and Seymour can receive a weak signal on 98.9 from
Louisville.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Yeah true,,, I was dating a girl from Brownstown earlier this year, and she was actually a big fan of WDJX 99.7,,, so the area can actually receive both Kiss 98.9 and 99.7 WDJX, but both signals are really only listenable on car radio's... I think Qmix 107.3 serves as the default CHR these days... Back when WNOU was on 93.1, it was also receivable on car radios in the area as well. I really miss the old 93.1 signal for WNOU, im in Martinsville and the 100.9 signal can be pretty spotty and weak sometimes, of course that doesnt stop the kids from listenng to it regardless. Alot of kids, (and by kids I mean under 25) listen to WBWB from Bloomington now since its signal here is slightly better than WNOUs. I noticed that WBWB has alot of Martinsville Adverts now days, mostly car lots, they even did a live remote here in Martinsville last week which made me really happy to see a CHR that cares about and serves Morgan County listeners. Back in the 80s and 90s when WZPL was a CHR it seemed all the kids at school listened exclusively to them, and no one semed to listen to WBWB or WYNN Columbus back then, but now everybody here listens to them,,, their signal is really good on car radios here, but it can be hit or miss on a boombox inside a house or business. I was never a big fan of WZPL, I always liked B-97 better, and my friends thought I was weird for listening to weaker out of market signals. I used to listen to the old Power 103 WPFR Terre Haute back in the 80s as well, and sometimes we could pick up B-106.5 Washington Vincennes. The dial wasnt so clogged and crowded back then, WTLC on 106.7 makes 106.5 very hard to receive here, but 106.5 is some form of country these days, has been since 93.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Carmel ICE recently went to the site because their ham packet nodes stopped working.

AC unplugged, cables pulled out of the building.

No notice, just off.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Carmel ICE recently went to the site because their ham packet nodes stopped working.

AC unplugged, cables pulled out of the building.

No notice, just off.

Susquehenna gives & Cumulus takes away...nice.

 

[skippertthomas]

Hey! Glad to know we have a 'memory' on the old (Electric or, B-106.5/WRTB).. We had fun doing CHR when we were in Vincennes at 96.7 as Hot/96-'RTB and then moving up and over to 106.5 in Washington as a 50Kw rock/CHR.... "Skipper T."

 

[fwmw]

Carmel ICE recently went to the site because their ham packet nodes stopped working.

AC unplugged, cables pulled out of the building.

No notice, just off.

I'm afraid I don't understand what CE wrote there. Mind explaining for the unenlightened?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I think Chief meant that the power company had turned off power to the site.

 

[fwmw]

I think Chief meant that the power company had turned off power to the site.

What is "Carmel ICE"? The only thing I can think of - "Immigrations, Customs, and Enforcement" doesn't fit here.

 

[IndyDan]

Carmel ICE recently went to the site because their ham packet nodes stopped working.

AC unplugged, cables pulled out of the building.

No notice, just off.

I'm afraid I don't understand what CE wrote there. Mind explaining for the unenlightened?

He is referring to some equipment a group of ham radio operators (ICE = Indianapolis Carmel Experimenters) had in the building and obviously an antenna or two on the tower. Packet is a digital mode of operation some hams use to send data back and forth and this was apparently a link site of some sort. Looks like someone went in and pulled the plug on their operation. The same thing more or less happened to our ham radio group in Hendricks County. We had a 2-meter FM repeater on the WRDZ site in Avon. The tower site was donated to us by the former WXIR..all we had to do in exchange was keep the grass and weeds cleared at the site and paint the building when it needed it. Once ABC bought the station, we were given a 30 day notice to remove everything from the building and tower....period. Some companies don't want ANTHING other than their own stuff on the tower, and aren't that generous when it comes to donating space when they can rent it instead and collect some extra cash every month. Fortunately, we located another site further west.

 

[fwmw]

He is referring to some equipment a group of ham radio operators (ICE = Indianapolis Carmel Experimenters) had

Thanks for the 'xplaination!

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Skipper T.. We used to listen to B-106.5 in Martinsville all the time, it came in good on car radios and some home stereos if you didnt mind a bit of static. Martinsville is way outside the normal listening area. WZPL was crappy back then, so we always listened to B-1065, and Power 103 WPFR....

B-1065 had a hard rock-Hairband lean in the 80s, but some time around 1990-91 they shifted toward a Dance-CHR...

I still have some recordings of the old B-1065,,, the cassettes are kinda cheap and noisy, and the signal did have some static, since the station was 100 miles away.. You cant DX in Central Indiana like you could back in the 80s and 90s, all the good frequencys are clogged up. 106.5 is all Iboc hash now from WTLC.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

106.5 still has a great coverage. Easily covers the area from Evansville north to Spencer, and east to Bedford (not sure how far west it goes on US 50...don't really travel that way). Heck, they run TV commercials in Terre Haute from time to time.

Love to see what 106.5 would do if they built out the tower to the full 500 feet. If memory serves, the stick is only 300 feet now.