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STATION SOLD IN SAINT AUGUSTINE

I believe Mr. Geddings may have beaten his ex to the punch in this "War of the Roses". Picking up WSOS now to the county line. Guessing translator power has increased. Rumour is that Phillips has once agian gone off the rails and fired consultants/engineers in a tantrum. He's in it to win it. Looks like he will.
 
Moonshadow and 1250 are dead on. There has been some kind of War of the Roses going on between Geddings and Phillips for some time and feel Geddings has taken the higher road. To my understanding Phillips has some first class consultants guiding her through this translator situation and she has gotten bogged down at the FCC. I also agree with 1250 that crap in is still crap out no matter how strong the signal or the format. Both stations are really pretty poor but both have potential but fear it will be lost. Phillips has a station manager that has zero broadcast experience and very little if any sales experience. Sure makes sense to me! Wonder who will be guiding Phillips through the tower construction, transmitter installation, format control, imaging, and sales as she moves forward? It appears the winner in this market will be Steve Kingston at The Wire due to lack of management skills, in fighting, temper tantrums, poor programming, and lack of sales experience. Sad for this is a nice little market.
 
Can anybody point to where Geddings got around the issue of his translator being a non-comm? He bought a non-comm translator and now has a commercial translator? At 250 watts instead of 35?

If he got that done - that quick - Geddings should sell his stations and start handling FCC issues for hire.
 
There's no such thing as a "noncommercial" or "commercial" translator. It's all based on the parent station's status. If a translator is on a reserved channel (87.9-91.9), it may only relay a noncommercial station. If it's on 92.1-107.9, it can relay commercial or noncommercial.
 
The translator he purchased was below 92.1 - channel 205 I believe. He was originally turned down when he applied for the transfer due to the frequency being a reserved non-comm.
 
WSOS-AM's translator is on 99.5 FM. Don't understand how he bought a translator below 92.1 FM.

99.5 FM has a CP to go to 200 watts. That is going to pretty good coverage in St. Johns County right there.
 
All FCC info on this station prior to Geddings getting the station in late 2012 show channel 205 as the frequency, which is 88.9 on the dial. Then the frequency changed to 99.5 in October 2012. Reach Communications is the seller. It appears a non-comm protected frequency got changed to a commercial frequency. Once again, can anyone show where that was applied for and processed at the FCC? It sure got done quick too, so maybe Geddings should be the FCC consultant not the station owner.
 
A translator can move to any open frequency whether it be in the reserved band or the commercial band. As for the speed in getting the frequency move approved and a CP issued, that approval speed varies, depending on who at the Commission is processing the application. Normally translator applications do not take as long to process as it does to process an AM or primary licensed FM application. Class Ds fall under a different category.

As for the application filed with the FCC to change frequency, I am unable to locate that information in the FCC database. However, according to the most recent application filed on the 10th of this month (June), that application specifies moving the antenna to the WSOS-AM tower site with the translator already on 99.5 MHz filed by RFEngineers out of Gainesville, Florida. If there are any questions about the frequency move, you may be best served by contacting Joe Dipietro at RFEngineers since he is the person who is their consulting engineer in this matter.
 
ok walters said:
All FCC info on this station prior to Geddings getting the station in late 2012 show channel 205 as the frequency, which is 88.9 on the dial. Then the frequency changed to 99.5 in October 2012. Reach Communications is the seller. It appears a non-comm protected frequency got changed to a commercial frequency. Once again, can anyone show where that was applied for and processed at the FCC? It sure got done quick too, so maybe Geddings should be the FCC consultant not the station owner.
Click to expand...

Simple. The FCC defines a "minor change" for a translator as a move to the first-, second- or third-adjacent channel (up or down 0.2, 0.4 or 0.6 MHz) or to a channel 10.6 or 10.8 MHz away. 88.9+10.6=99.5. Simple minor change requiring relatively little FCC paperwork. The application was BPFT-20121004ABX, filed Oct. 4, 2012 and granted Nov. 13, 2012. Here it is:

http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws...779&Service=FX&Form_id=349&Facility_id=151917

As soon as the translator was moved to 99.5, it could translate a commercial signal. This is a pretty common move in the translator world. I've seen dozens, if not hundreds, of these and helped with a few myself.
 
Scott Fybush said:
ok walters said:
All FCC info on this station prior to Geddings getting the station in late 2012 show channel 205 as the frequency, which is 88.9 on the dial. Then the frequency changed to 99.5 in October 2012. Reach Communications is the seller. It appears a non-comm protected frequency got changed to a commercial frequency. Once again, can anyone show where that was applied for and processed at the FCC? It sure got done quick too, so maybe Geddings should be the FCC consultant not the station owner.
Click to expand...

Simple. The FCC defines a "minor change" for a translator as a move to the first-, second- or third-adjacent channel (up or down 0.2, 0.4 or 0.6 MHz) or to a channel 10.6 or 10.8 MHz away. 88.9+10.6=99.5. Simple minor change requiring relatively little FCC paperwork. The application was BPFT-20121004ABX, filed Oct. 4, 2012 and granted Nov. 13, 2012. Here it is:

http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws...779&Service=FX&Form_id=349&Facility_id=151917

As soon as the translator was moved to 99.5, it could translate a commercial signal. This is a pretty common move in the translator world. I've seen dozens, if not hundreds, of these and helped with a few myself.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Scott. I didn't search deep enough in the application file which explains why I didn't find anything.
 
ok walters said:
Is 39 days a normal turn time?
Click to expand...

While 39-days is an unusually short time frame, application grants vary. I have seen applications granted and a CP issued within 30-days, although this is the exception and not the rule.
 
A couple of years ago, the FM branch was processing changes within a week. They've slowed down a bit since then with simple stuff taking about a month and more complex items taking 90 to 120 days. 39 days seems perfectly reasonable for a simple channel swap. In fact, it's a little longer than it should be. Most applications could be processed in a few hours but the FCC was forced to slow down processing due to other considerations that have a permanent effect on processing times.
 
We stayed in Saint Augustine a little over a week ago and what I noticed about WFOY is how very weak it was. In the hotel room maybe a few miles from the tower I only had 25% signal. Car reception fared a little better but some noise and dropouts in town. Didn't sound like a 580 watt station, more like 58 watts. Bad antenna, reduced power, anyone know/care? Some of the local programming was interesting if not a little amateurish. I enjoy small town radio though, if I wanted the slick national shows there's WOKV.

WSOS 1170/99.5 sounded pretty good, both signals and programming. Saint Augustine is a neat little radio market :)
 
WSOS 1170/99.5 sounded pretty good, both signals and programming. Saint Augustine is a neat little radio market.

Your kidding right? That line was a joke!
 
WFOY is having some issues with the signal/tower right now. Should have it fixed soon, and should have the FM translators running if they aren't now. Not in the market, so I couldn't hear them if they were on anyway. I am still betting on Kris Phillips, even if you guys think she is the underdog.
 
I tried to listen to the stream for WSOS and WFOY and could not get either one. I am told WFOY is on their translator but the quality is very poot. Seems both the exhusband (Kevin) and the exwife (Kris) both like to do things on the cheap so guess that is what we are hearing.
 
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