Small town stations off the air.

[knoxbob]

I was looking at the FCC web site for stations off the air and was astounded by the number of small town radio it included. Mostly AM's but several FM's as well, especially in North Carolina and the southeastern states. One in particular was WBHN in Bryson City. My family and I vacation there often and I'm sure tourist towns are hard sells for radio stations but the area is remote and most FM signals don't cover the mountainous region very strong. I know that Art Sutton has several small town stations in the area and he seems to be doing well. I wonder what happened to WBHN. I know it changed formats a few years ago and recently missed out on acquiring an FM translator in Bryson City but not enough local support must have doomed it. You just hate to see these small town stations go under.

 

[eacalhoun1]

I also agree that it's sad to see stations like WBHN go silent due to finances. But, I just queried them on the FCC and they have the almost worst of signal circumstances. They're at 1590, with lousy power at such a frequency -- 500 watts day/37 watts night. Even in the best economic times, their facilities are -- to me -- a real profit-making battle. They need an upgrade (power boost and/or frequency swap) or a translator. Could they get 680 when (or if) nearby WRGC in Sylva moves to 540?

 

[knoxbob]

Any station in that area has a bad signal, the ground conductivity in the mountains is about 0. For FM's the mountains peaks and valleys do them in. It would be good if they could move to another freq. but the 680 channel is sandwiched between the Atlanta and Raleigh station. Art Sutton could give us a better reason for not wanted to move there. Also Art bought the translator that was in Bryson City they would have to find another. You would think that they could make a good living as a mom & pop station doing local sports and some religious programming on Sunday's. Maybe Art will buy it and turn it around.

I have e-mailed the current owner but he hasn't responded.

 

[artsutton]

Any station in that area has a bad signal, the ground conductivity in the mountains is about 0. For FM's the mountains peaks and valleys do them in. It would be good if they could move to another freq. but the 680 channel is sandwiched between the Atlanta and Raleigh station. Art Sutton could give us a better reason for not wanted to move there. Also Art bought the translator that was in Bryson City they would have to find another. You would think that they could make a good living as a mom & pop station doing local sports and some religious programming on Sunday's. Maybe Art will buy it and turn it around.

I have e-mailed the current owner but he hasn't responded.

It's sad to see any small town lose it's radio station. Despite it's limited signal, people in Swain County listened to the station in large numbers. You have to keep in mind that most of the 8000 people who live in Swain County live near Bryson City since most of the county is national forest land. That being said, one has to accept the fact that the retail mix in Bryson City has changed greatly over the years. The type businesses which advertise to reach local folks are fewer in number. Most of the business there is tourist related and don't cater to the local residents. Bryson City didn't get a Walmart and that means a lot of people leave there to go shop in Sylva and Sylva will lose those buyers when the Walmart in Cherokee opens. The Sylva and Bryson city areas have been especially hard hit in the Great Recession. The real estate market drove many jobs, directly and indirectly and that market has drived up as the tourism market has also taken a major hit. The same can be said of the Cashiers/Highlands area. Franklin wasn't hit as hard because it's economy is better diversified than most people realize. Clayton in NE Georgia has also been hit hard for the same reasons. All these factors contributed a great deal to the demise of WBHN. It's real estate is worth more than the station is even in this depressed market.

We are securing tower space now for our Sylva/Bryson city FM repeater that is presently licensed to Bryson City. It will be on Cowee Bald which is at the point where Swain, Macon and Jackson County meet. At 5500 feet, it's the tallest peak in the area and there are several towers already there. The translator ERP will be 190 watts. A class A at that location can only transmit 115 watts so the translator will have excellent coverage. We plan to repeat WRGC over it. This will provide the first solid local FM signal over Bryson City, Cherokee and Sylva. Meanwhile, our FM in Franklin, WNCC is moving to 104.1 and will also be on Cowee. It will not have its signal nulled to the south as the translator will so it will provide the same coverage as the translator but also include all of Macon County. We have done extensive computer modeling of the FM signals to pick the best site. As with any FM located in the mountains there will be pockets of weak signal and perhaps some building penetration issues in some places but the signal will be much more reliable than WKSF in Asheville.

The country format will stay on WNCC and the AC format on WRGC. We're putting a translator on our AM in Franklin (oldies) which we are moving up from the south. Hopefully it too will be on Cowee and have a similar signal as WNCC but more oriented toward Macon County. Long term, this may allow us to put Macon County sports on WFSC(AM) and it's translator; keep Jackson County sports on WRGC and its FM repeater and put Swain County on WNCC-FM or perhaps Cherokee sports. We expect to end up with another FM translator at Cherokee. We could put HD on WNCC-FM and repeat that channel over the Cherokee translator and program it separately and specifically for the Cherokee Nation.

Despite the present economic challenges faced in the western NC area, we are excited about the potential these improvements will bring to the area.