Spanish Broadcast Station 87.9 FM Sanford/Fayetteville

[Lee_NWGA]

Does anyone know if there is an unlicensed FM station operating on 87.9 FM in the Sanford/Fayetteville area. There appears to be Spanish language programming being broadcast on 87.9 MHz.

 

[AudioRadiance]

Does anyone know if there is an unlicensed FM station operating on 87.9 FM in the Sanford/Fayetteville area. There appears to be Spanish language programming being broadcast on 87.9 MHz.

I can't say it's in that area but I have been hearing a station of that type in WNC for well over a year. If I go up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and approach Mount Mitchell (from the north) it starts to come booming in. That is, it did until recently.

Which brings us to WGNC (1450 AM Gastonia) -- last week Thursday or Friday that station started simulcasting on 87.9 with a mono signal, fully identifying itself as such complete with commercials and hourly IDs. It went through the weekend and yesterday went back to dead carrier at the same apparent power. A week ago it was doing the same thing, dead mono carrier, no audio. I had heard the same signal over the last year when I'd be up on that same stretch of the Parkway but until last week (that I noticed) it was considerably weaker -- it didn't make it over the continental divide at mile 345. Now it spills over easily well into Yancey County. I heard it outside of Spruce Pine. Judging by the direction both the earlier weaker dead-carrier signal and the new one identifying as WGNC were both coming from, it's gotta be the same source (and many months ago on a high peak I heard that same station WGNC carried on 87.9 but much weaker then). It didn't continue until it came back last weekend with its much bigger contour.

I'm sure this is not the Mexican station in question because while the carrier was empty but strong I monitored for a while and found blanking spots where the Mexican would come back in. If I was real quiet I could hear the Mexican's peaks peeking over the silent signal.

But for the Mexican signal to be coming from Sanford/Fayetteville it would have to travel at least 160 miles to here. That's not impossible on that freeq but it would seem a very bigly signal for a pirate, and it sounds too strong to be making a trip that far. Gastonia (WGNC) is about 70 miles to the southeast from here and from this point they seem to be from the same general direction. Pirates jamming pirates?

 

[Lee_NWGA]

There was a Spanish language pirate on the air just south of Charlotte, NC that went off the air in the last couple months. That may be when the station simulcasting WGNC on 87.9 came on the air. Pirates appear to like that frequency. Perhaps they feel by staying below licensed FM band they will be less likely to cause interference and be able to operate longer before getting caught by the FCC.