KVYN is a commercial FM station intended to serve the Napa Valley. However, since the Atlas Peak fire about two years ago, the station's been broadcasting at a fraction of its full power, and can really only be received in the City of Napa. The station's COL is St. Helena, a city about 20 miles north of Napa, and fades out long before there. Are there any other stations that cannot be heard in their COL? Is there an FCC requirement that a station must have a signal reach their COL?
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Radio stations with no, or very weak, signals in their Community Of License?
- Thread starter SwapMeetLouie
- Start date
The FCC requires stations to reach their COL's, the two exceptions being translators and daytimer AM's that are operating on post-sunset or pre-sunrise authorizations.
In KVYN's case, it has applied for an STA because the fire destroyed the building at the transmitter site. So long as the STA has been granted (which it has for KVYN), it’s operating legally. STA's won’t always cover the entire COL, and the station has to apply for an extension. While there are exceptions, the FCC usually allows only one extension.
In KVYN's case, it has applied for an STA because the fire destroyed the building at the transmitter site. So long as the STA has been granted (which it has for KVYN), it’s operating legally. STA's won’t always cover the entire COL, and the station has to apply for an extension. While there are exceptions, the FCC usually allows only one extension.
Most STAs can be extended many times provided the licensee can justify it...only Silent STAs have a time limit..365 days of no signal means instant delete of license..other STAs, like engineering, can be renewed more than once.
I can think of numerous translators that don’t quite make it to their COL due to tropospheric propagation. KVGC’s FM translator is licensed to Jackson, CA with a 99w transmitter about 8 miles away on a mountain. It is virtually impossible to hear in the nearby towns year round due to line of site from KOIT in San Francisco. During the summer, it can be downright difficult to receive due to KOIT and KLCA in Tahoe. Generally, old town Jackson is fairly reliable reception year round...anywhere else in the area outside of that valley, good luck!
Besides stations not operating within licensed parameters (including STAs), I can only think of a few “full service” stations that do not really cover their COL. Now that TV repacking has begun, there are several stations that sold their spectrum that cannot realistically serve their new COL without cable coverage.
Best example of a FM I can think of is WGRQ (a station serving the DC suburbs) which was licensed to Colonial Beach but eventually crept closer to the “big city” of Fredericksburg, VA. They were able to locate on a tower very close to the city...problem was, they didn’t technically cover their COL with a 60dBu signal. They tried to use L-R coverage to justify their move — the FCC told them to either move back to a closer tower to Colonial Beach or figure out a new COL. They did the latter, of course...adding a new 100w non-comm station to ensure the good folks in Colonial Beach didn’t lose their only licensed service (yet to sign on).
I can attest that while WGRQ was licensed to Colonial Beach, and on the new tower...once you started going down the hill into the town, WGRQ did not cover that area with a city grade signal at all.
Besides stations not operating within licensed parameters (including STAs), I can only think of a few “full service” stations that do not really cover their COL. Now that TV repacking has begun, there are several stations that sold their spectrum that cannot realistically serve their new COL without cable coverage.
Best example of a FM I can think of is WGRQ (a station serving the DC suburbs) which was licensed to Colonial Beach but eventually crept closer to the “big city” of Fredericksburg, VA. They were able to locate on a tower very close to the city...problem was, they didn’t technically cover their COL with a 60dBu signal. They tried to use L-R coverage to justify their move — the FCC told them to either move back to a closer tower to Colonial Beach or figure out a new COL. They did the latter, of course...adding a new 100w non-comm station to ensure the good folks in Colonial Beach didn’t lose their only licensed service (yet to sign on).
I can attest that while WGRQ was licensed to Colonial Beach, and on the new tower...once you started going down the hill into the town, WGRQ did not cover that area with a city grade signal at all.
KRML, 1410 AM, Carmel, California. Made famous by its prominence in the Clint Eastwood movie "Play Misty For Me" (1971), in which Eastwood plays a jazz DJ at the station. It's 500 watts day/16 watts night (it was a daytimer back when the movie was shot---allowing Eastwood to shoot his scenes in the actual studio each evening after signoff).
I just got back from Monterey, and Tuesday morning, an hour after local sunrise, the signal was about 50 percent static five miles from Carmel in Pacific Grove. They may still have been on night power. All the promotional emphasis for the station is on their translator at 102.1 FM.
I just got back from Monterey, and Tuesday morning, an hour after local sunrise, the signal was about 50 percent static five miles from Carmel in Pacific Grove. They may still have been on night power. All the promotional emphasis for the station is on their translator at 102.1 FM.
Translators are secondary services and thus have no requirement to cover a community of license. The COL is really only there to fill a space in the database. You could have put down "San Francisco" as the COL for KVGC's translator and it wouldn't have mattered; the only thing the FCC looks at is whether the proposed facility will cause interference to other services and whether it meets the coverage requirements for a translator (if it's relaying an AM, the 60 dBu of the translator can't extend past the larger of the AM daytime 2 mV or a 25-mile radius from the AM site.) And of course none of the other remaining purposes for a COL matter for translators, either. You don't have to do an aural legal ID with call and COL. You never had to have a main studio even when one was required. And as secondary service, you don't count as "first local service" for calculating ownership caps or anything else.
As for noncomms, they have less stringent COL coverage requirements. You don't have to put a 70 dBu over any of the COL, and you don't even have to cover the whole COL with 60.
As for noncomms, they have less stringent COL coverage requirements. You don't have to put a 70 dBu over any of the COL, and you don't even have to cover the whole COL with 60.
- Status