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stations with unnecisary translators

B

bobdavcav

What stations do you think have an unnecisary translator or two? I can think of several and I'm sure there are more.
KMTT broadcasts at 103.7 fm licensed to Tacoma, WA with a main transmitter on Tiger Mountain. They have 2 translators, one at 103.3 fm and the other at 104.1 fm, one in Olympia and one in downtown Seattle. Why would they need these? Are the listeners going to tune up the dial to get a better signal for only a couple miles through Olympia? If people want to listen to you at work downtown, you have a website, so why not shut the 103.3 translator down?
KLVU in the Eugene area is another one. In the city proper, it seems as if the main 107.1 signal is just as strong as the 107.3 translator, so why have it? Listeners aren't going to tune to a translator only to tune into the main station on a drive out of town.
KRCS in Rapid City, SD. They apparently have a translator at 104.7 that covers the city, while the main stick is about 20 miles away. How much is that translator worth when it's covered up by overload from the 20 or so other fm stations in that area? I'm also a little suspicious about the 98.3 translator they have in Spearfish.
KZZI in that same area is another one. From where I was staying in Rapid City, the main 95.9 signal was about as strong as the 96.3 translator. My solution for them would be to give that translator to their sister station KDDX, which currently has a translator at 103.5. That station should go to the owners of KRCS, though not for that station. They should use it to simulcast KKLS 920 and shut down the 97.5 translator. What else can you guys think of?
 
It is tricky at times trying to figure out the most appropriate board to post I do see why this page was chosen though, this is a policy issue. The FCC gives the green light to way to many of these statikns that are not needed. As was pointed out why does a station need a translator in an area that is served well by the host chennel? They don't yet they are being doled out all over the country. A lot of these are running in larger cities and have cut off the signal of a lot of stations that are suburban signals that were not perfect, yet listenable stations.

Some of the smaller stations are running a niche format like active rock, nostalgia or oldies that can't make it on a big signal anymore. I lost a good oldies station to a third clear K Love signal. I already had a full power and a translator that were strong signals, now I get a third?????

In the car now I have to listen to the standard classic hits station that most oldies stations have turned into. Meanwhile I can no longer hear the real oldies station until about 5 minutes from work.


The reason why this is policy and why these stations are on is to block LPFM community stations and other stations from getting on the dial. There is also big money in some of these TX's K Love for example leases quite a few out to the big radio groups. The group say, clear channel puts a format on an HD sidechannel of one of their full power stations and feeds that HD signal to the translator.

In a lot of cases the translator at 250 watts at tall heights is enough to cover a smaller city where the population is very dense(tall condo's, apartments and so on, in effect giving them another station in a market where they are at ownership limits. So the big players get another station, the owner of the tx like EMF which owns K Love make a nice chunck of change off leasing them.

It is a win-win for them, for the public it is rotten deal.
 
I wouldn't mind if Entercom in the case of KMTT rebroadcast an hd channel on the 103.3 translator, in fact I think that's a really clever and good way to use a translator, as well as the obvious fill-in, unless in your example, the hd and translator combo is broadcasting content that is already on one full power and one translator already. Cumulus does this in a couple of markets, and in one case, I really liked the format until they blew it up.
 
If you want some interesting reading about the current translator situation, just Google "The Great Translator Invasion." There may be a good history lesson for you there.

Translators can certainly be good things. I have personally benefited from them, and I believe my community has too. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. In 2003, I doubt anyone anticipated that a handful of entities (mostly religious broadcasters) would apply for hundreds or even thousands of translators. After all, the filing window was just five days long and the applications had to be made on-line using the FCC's very slow web site. That site is much faster now, but in 2003, it moved at the speed of a herd of turtles, especially when it was busy. On top of that, very few people had the kind of Internet connections we have today, so filing just one application was a very tedious process.

At the time, it seemed to all concerned that the limited window to file would put some kind of limits on the application process. Apparently that was not the case. Calvary Chapel, American Family Radio, EMF and a few others managed to apply for the lion's share of new Construction Permits. I'm sure there is a good story about how they managed to pull it off. It certainly took a lot of preparation. In their defense, they did this within the rules as they stood, but it certainly was not within the spirit of the filing window. It was kind of like having your derelict Uncle Ernie come over for Thanksgiving dinner, and take all the gravy and mashed potatoes for himself before anyone else is served.

Eventually, alarm bells went off and the FCC froze the translator settlement process, trying to work out an amicable solution. That has gone on for years. That freeze has put a burden on those who filed in good faith for a translator or two, just to serve their community. In those ten years, a lot of water has gone under the bridge. People change their interests, move on, die or just plain get busy doing other things. It is hard to be on hold for over 10 years.

Just recently the FCC settled on putting a 70 translator limit on each applicant in the 2003 filing window. That has started the process moving again. Meanwhile the FCC has allowed AM and HD stations to utilize FM translators. Personally, I think that is a good thing. At least it is more-or-less, local broadcasting. The problem is they failed to make a way for most stations to get a translator. That has made trafficking of these micro stations a fairly lucrative business for those who are sitting on construction permits or under-utilized translators.

Did the people who got most of the applications anticipate something like this, or did they just blunder into it? Good question. Since most were already established broadcasters using their "satalators" to spread their radio empires, I'll suppose their intentions were good, if not greedy.

In the interim, this has also stalled out the LPFM process. The FCC says there will be a LPFM filing window this fall. They have a lot of work to do to make that happen.
 
In the South Bend, IN area, WFRN-FM Elkhart has 3 translators (one on 96.5 in Mishawaka, one on 100.3 in Granger, & one on 101.1 in South Bend), with a powerful 50kw signal coming out of Elkhart County on 104.7. While Ligonier, IN isn't part of the South Bend Arbitron market (Ligonier is SE of Goshen), there's a translator on 99.5 that is in Grade A coverage of WFRN-FM. These 4 translators make so sense at all.
 
The mentality of some licensees is opportunity...opportunity to gain as much of the market as possible. If a station can tie up a couple of frequencies they may not or simply do not need (at least now), then that's two fewer frequencies to compete with. The more you can tie up the more of the pie is yours in theory. I've known a few owners that have a 'I want it all' and the 'putting everyone else at the greatest disadvantage'.

There are those rumors of big boys getting individuals to outbid competitors for available frequencies. Once they win, nothing is done and there's one less competitor. Rumors about where an area's smaller market broadcaster bid huge amounts by using a person to win an auction for a frequency to preserve their market share.

Such actions go against my standards but I can understand the little guy wanting to do this because there comes a point there are so many competitors nobody can survive or they take so many dollars that the little guy has to cut back on the level of service to the community. I know one guy that had to make fairly drastic cuts. They went with network news and a parttime local news position from a staff of 4 fulltimers. Nights and weekends were automated. It's wasn't their lack of success but the division of the advertising pie that caused this. In his market, the stations (3 of them) did fine but when the 4th station came on, it cut into everyone else and the level of service to the community suffered. Lots of stations have very slender margins. There's a reason lots of small market operators work until they read their own obituary on the air.

I think this is the right place for this topic. This is about FCC Rules and the spirit of the rules. I think we are questioning if some operators are acting in the spirit of the rules.

Speaking of translators, I'd love to see the FCC revert back to requiring translators to ONLY cover those areas a broadcast station should be able to reach if geographic conditions or terrain did not get in the way. I'd propose these national networks have a few years to cash out the stations that don't fit that definition, opening them up to 250 watt or less local stations. If national networks wanted to keep them, then a local presence would be required. At the very least the big boys would be rolling in cash.
 
bturner said:
Speaking of translators, I'd love to see the FCC revert back to requiring translators to ONLY cover those areas a broadcast station should be able to reach if geographic conditions or terrain did not get in the way. I'd propose these national networks have a few years to cash out the stations that don't fit that definition, opening them up to 250 watt or less local stations. If national networks wanted to keep them, then a local presence would be required. At the very least the big boys would be rolling in cash.
Click to expand...

Well put. IMHO the FCC should reverse the requirement on these non-fill-in translators. Right now, they're required to be owned by the primary station. I would suggest they should be required to NOT be owned by the primary station. If the people of Podunk Hollow are willing to come up with the cash to put up a satellite translator of KAWZ or WAFR or whoever, we should let them. If they *don't* value that out-of-town signal enough to pay for it, keep the frequency available for the local AM, or for a translator of something they *do* want, or for a LPFM.
 
Please tell me that translator was rebroadcasting an HD subchannel of the main station. If it wasn't, that beats everybody as an unnecisary translator!
 
If the owner had an AM station that did not have enough power / coverage to legally drive the translator then HD 2 or 3 with the AM's programming is reasonable.
 
I nominate KDKR 91.3 in Decatur, Texas. It has translators in Irving (99.9) and Dallas (97.5) but the main 91.3 signal is stronger in the entire area (unless you happen to be within half a mile of the translator).

I have nothing against KDKR and their religious programming, but the translators block the signal from KLAK/97.5--which actually covers part of the market in Dallas and Collin Counties. On 99.9, I'd rather see some community broadcaster rather than have a duplicated, overlapping, unneeded signal.

DFW also has two translators for AM 660/KSKY 92.9 and 95.5. From my location, I can receive both. It's reported to be special temporary authority because of illegal interference from a Mexican station on 660. But I'd sure rather see them get higher power and cover the entire metroplex on one frequency rather than taking up two frequencies.
 
newsmark said:
DFW also has two translators for AM 660/KSKY 92.9 and 95.5. From my location, I can receive both. It's reported to be special temporary authority because of illegal interference from a Mexican station on 660. But I'd sure rather see them get higher power and cover the entire metroplex on one frequency rather than taking up two frequencies.
Click to expand...

Make that three frequencies on FM. You didn't mention 99.9 in Fort Worth, which conflicts with an application to move KDKR's translator from Irving to Arlington: https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101366550&qnum=5330&copynum=1&exhcnum=2

Also note that all three are called "emergency repeaters" instead of translators, and don't appear in the station databases. They've been in operation since 2009, but online listings for extensions of the original STA stopped appearing a while back.
 
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