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Pensacola/Fort Walton Today in stupid engineering mistakes (WBSR Pensacola)

tomservo

tomservo

Miracle Radio has filed an STA citing "extraordinary circumstances" for WBSR 1450 in Pensacola. In the STA they note that they built the CP they had to triplex with WVTJ and WPNN but forgot to file the form 302 license to cover. So now the CP has expired, the original site is "no longer existing" and they had to file an STA to legally operate from the CP site. They also filed a new CP to cover the mistake. As of posting date both the STA and CP are still pending at the FCC.

Oops.

Well, at least this explains the change in signal quality I've noticed over here in Baldwin County. The station went from "barely audible" to "slightly less audible than before, but still not totally missing". Sorry to use such technical language. šŸ˜
 
tomservo said:
Miracle Radio has filed an STA citing "extraordinary circumstances" for WBSR 1450 in Pensacola. In the STA they note that they built the CP they had to triplex with WVTJ and WPNN but forgot to file the form 302 license to cover. So now the CP has expired, the original site is "no longer existing" and they had to file an STA to legally operate from the CP site. They also filed a new CP to cover the mistake. As of posting date both the STA and CP are still pending at the FCC.

Oops.

Well, at least this explains the change in signal quality I've noticed over here in Baldwin County. The station went from "barely audible" to "slightly less audible than before, but still not totally missing". Sorry to use such technical language. šŸ˜
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Barely audible...that sounds like a good description of the WBSR signal when I would listen to the station 10+ years ago (during the daytime hrs) when vacationing at Gulf Shores every year. Back then, WBSR was programming soft AC and since that was only station in the area offering that format...
 
passtheword said:
Barely audible...that sounds like a good description of the WBSR signal when I would listen to the station 10+ years ago (during the daytime hrs) when vacationing at Gulf Shores every year. Back then, WBSR was programming soft AC and since that was only station in the area offering that format...
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WBSR was the very definition of a "local signal" for Pensacola. You didn't need to get far out of town before it started going downhill.
It's amazing the soft AC lasted as long as it did, what with it being a lower powered standalone AM. I have wondered if they held out a few more years and gotten an FM translator if they might've survived with that format. I don't think the translator came along until 2013, two years after the flip to sports.
 
tomservo said:
WBSR was the very definition of a "local signal" for Pensacola. You didn't need to get far out of town before it started going downhill.
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But back in the later 60's and early 70's under Mooney it was the far-away number one station there!
 
tomservo said:
Was the Pensacola metro area as big as it is now? It's always amused me how Pensacola itself it kind of a tiny little town that's surrounded by all unincorporated sprawl.
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Arbitron with its expanded survey areas arrived late here... perhaps Huff has a date... but in the 60's and early 70's they had either Pulse or Hooper, IIRC So the survey area was compact, and the market did not include the far suburban or semi-rural surrounding areas.
 
Today itā€™s hard to imagine the Pensacola metro being measured smaller than all of Escambia county and parts of Baldwin and Santa Rosa counties.

These Pensacola AMs only cover about a 10 mile radius or half of Escambia county in the daytime soā€¦.

On the other hand, all the Pensacola AM stations and FM translators cover 90% of the area I spend 90% of my time in so theyā€™re doing what the owners want.
 
Poledo said:
Today itā€™s hard to imagine the Pensacola metro being measured smaller than all of Escambia county and parts of Baldwin and Santa Rosa counties.

These Pensacola AMs only cover about a 10 mile radius or half of Escambia county in the daytime soā€¦.

On the other hand, all the Pensacola AM stations and FM translators cover 90% of the area I spend 90% of my time in so theyā€™re doing what the owners want.
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Remember, pre-ARB (they went into Pensacola in late 1973 with one book a year), surveys were done on the phone from a central location and they only called toll-free numbers. So any area outside that free calling zone was not in the survey area.

ARB used the mail instead of the phone, so they got around that issue.
 
As an engineer, dealing with FCC docs and regs is my least favorite thing, EAS comes close second. Filing FCC docs should be done by lawyers. Another day I needed to print out station's license to post at the tx site and just could not find it on FCC website. I don't know why they make it so difficult. So i am not surprised someone forgot to file appropriate form and would not call it an engineering mistake.
 
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DavidEduardo said:
Remember, pre-ARB (they went into Pensacola in late 1973 with one book a year), surveys were done on the phone from a central location and they only called toll-free numbers. So any area outside that free calling zone was not in the survey area.

ARB used the mail instead of the phone, so they got around that issue.
Click to expand...

In the mid 1990ā€™s Milton and Cantonment were still long distance from Pensacola Beach, so this makes sense.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Arbitron with its expanded survey areas arrived late here... perhaps Huff has a date... but in the 60's and early 70's they had either Pulse or Hooper, IIRC So the survey area was compact, and the market did not include the far suburban or semi-rural surrounding areas.
Click to expand...
Arbitron started surveying Pensacola in 1973. The market started with, and continues to be comprised of, Escambia, FL and Santa Rosa Counties.1717379387939.png

The top 5 in that first Arbitron survey:
1. WCOA 16.9
2. WBSR 16.2
3. WNVY 10.0
4. WPFA 9.7
5. WMEZ 7.6

(WBSR was #1 in teens by a large margin with a 36.4 share)
 
Huff said:
Arbitron started surveying Pensacola in 1973. The market started with, and continues to be comprised of, Escambia, FL and Santa Rosa Counties.View attachment 7057

The top 5 in that first Arbitron survey:
1. WCOA 16.9
2. WBSR 16.2
3. WNVY 10.0
4. WPFA 9.7
5. WMEZ 7.6

(WBSR was #1 in teens by a large margin with a 36.4 share)
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You might like to define MSA and TSA survey areas!

I loved the W-Navy calls on WNVA.
 
I am too old to remember him and too far east, I guess. I can't remember half of what I did when I was there. But, those days were heavy drinking before good things like Hendrick's came into existence. On a note of more importance...is the Northwest FL Board gone now?
 
All I see are three: Miami/Palm Beaches, Tampa Bay and Orlando, which are all exceptional reads. Maybe NWFL should be under Dothan, AL anyway. :) I blame David for all of his with his southern FL bias toward the north (FL).

​

 
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