Red Wolf changes to W248AB

[reelyreal]

Got a tip and confirmed it with applications filed with the FCC...

Red Wolf Broadcasting is proposing changes to translator W248AB Bolton, which is currently on 97.5 with 60 watts. The new application that went in last month is to move the translator to channel 246 (97.1) with 100 watts from the same transmitter site.

W248AB was bought for 100,000 last year from mountaintop enterprises, and it was previously used to relay WILI-FM. The translator currently relays WMRQ-FM HD2, and brands itself as "La Bomba 97.5"

 

[MarcB]

There goes any chance of hearing WQHT up here. Anyway this has to be done as part of Clear Channel's plan to move 97.9 from Springfield to Hartford. La Bomba's signal most certainly will go out further on 97.1 than it does on 97.5 which has limited reach due to WALK.

 

[DToTheJ]

So the translator's call letters will presumably change to "W246AB"?

Meanwhile, looks like Connecticut loses another Spanish station (WSUB).

 

[kms575]

There goes any chance of hearing WQHT up here. Anyway this has to be done as part of Clear Channel's plan to move 97.9 from Springfield to Hartford. La Bomba's signal most certainly will go out further on 97.1 than it does on 97.5 which has limited reach due to WALK.

Hopefully I can still pick up WQHT down here on the shoreline as well as I do now.

 

[Ozman]

HOT 97! going... going... gone! I can see WALK-FM value going up by a couple thousand $$ as we speak

 

[fybush]

So the translator's call letters will presumably change to "W246AB"?

You presume incorrectly.

Translator calls are entirely sequential; when they're licensed on 97.1, they'll become W246-whatever's next in sequence. Right now that looks like W246CB, unless someone else is licensed on 97.1 in W-land before that.

 

[reelyreal]

Scott! That gives me a great chance to ask a question you may know the answer to:

I knew that the call letters for translators were always issued sequentially. However, when I looked to see if there happened to already be a W246AB, I noticed there no longer is a station with those calls. Does the FCC ever go back and use those previous call letters that have since been abandoned, or do they continue to move forward?

 

[fybush]

At least for now, the FCC does not reissue defunct translator calls. I believe it was Doug Smith (W9WI) who'd noted at one point that this policy meant the impending exhaustion of available calls in the LPTV/translator service on several channels, and I have a vague recollection that he determined that the FCC would eventually begin issuing three-letter suffixes ("W13AAA") when the time came.