translator question

[FLjack2]

I know there are more and more AM stations (like WIOD) showing up on FM Translators around the country. Legally, can an FM Translator rebroadcast an AM station or must it be another FM?

In the case of WIOD, I know the 100.3 is rebroadcasting the HD channel that is airing WIOD. But if you have a stand alone AM, can you put it on an FM translator?

 

[jojobinks]

I was wondering the same thing about WIOD.

I am not well versed in the legal and engineering side, or the differences between LPFM vs. translators. But I was under the impression that LPFM's were created to reverse the negative effects of deregulation in the 80's and return programming diversity and the entrepreneurial spirit to broacasting. My understanding of the laws set up for LPFM licenses were that no commerical entities could obtain those licenses, that they were reserved only for non-commerical (non profit) entities.

Why does Clear Channel even have access to a LPFM in the first place? It always bugged me that Calvary Chapel swallowed up all the LPFMs in the state to simulcast their "Reach FM." That's not programming diversity, its not entrepreneurial, it doesn't serve the public interest.

I'd rather have several LPFMs like WJTW 100.3 Jupiter on the dial, than a bunch of Clear Channel, American Public Media and Calvary Chapel rebroadcasts. And speaking of APM...now that they've taken over WXEL, do they really need that FM translator replicating programming from WKPC into the Palm Beaches? I don't know about the legality of it, but on an matter of ethics, shouldn't they surrender the LPFM so it can be better utitized than duplicating programming already heard on 2 other stations...who signals already overlap one another?

As for Calvary Chapel: I see the loophole. They fall under non-commercial and non-profit, so the were granted all/most of the LPFMs in Florida. And its within the law…but its not ethical. Giving one entity, even a non-commercial one, control of those LPFMs, its just not right.

 

[FLjack2]

WIOD's 100.3 is NOT a low power FM (LPFM). It is a translator, W262AN-FM.
I know that WIOD's audio is on one of the Clear Channel FM's HD channel. I think it's on Big's HD-2. (I dont have an HD radio, so I'm not sure.)

In any case, I'm sure that, legally, 100.3 is the translator for WBGG HD-2 (which is airing WIOD)

But how do stations like WSVU 960AM in West Palm show up on an FM translator? You can hear that station on 95.9FM, which is W240CI-FM, another translator. It's not LPFM

 

[nfladxer]

The FCC recently revised the regs, allowing AM signals to be simulcast on FM translators. As far as I know, the main restriction is that the translator coverage must not extent beyond a certain point of the AM's daytime coverage area. This can also be useful to give AM daytimers a 24 hour signal in cases where they aren't able, or have a need, to utilize a full coverage FM for that purpose, etc.

 

[Ai4i]

I know the 100.3 is rebroadcasting the HD channel that is airing WIOD.

Please tell us how you know this, and how W262AN is able to broadcast more than a full minute ahead of WBGG-2 and when WBGG-2 is silent, which happens often. WBGG-2 is delayed at least a minute behind both WIOD and W262AN.

The FCC recently revised the regs...the main restriction is that the translator coverage must not extent beyond a certain point of the AM's daytime coverage area

Correct.
As W262AN is less processed than WIOD or WBGG-2, they are getting a dedicated studio feed, legal by the same logic which allows AM daytimers to broadcast all night over their translators.

 

[Ai4i]

And speaking of APM...now that they've taken over WXEL, do they really need that FM translator replicating programming from WKPC into the Palm Beaches?

WPBI will continue to be run as the primary NPR affiliate for the Palm Beaches with Florida and locally produced content. I wish CSF would extend some of that non-APM programming from WPBI to WKCP, such as "Classical Variations with Joanna Marie" And NPR's "World of Opera", which, as WLRN chooses not to carry, is available to any other station in Dade/Broward.

 

[fybush]

Please tell us how you know this, and how W262AN is able to broadcast more than a full minute ahead of WBGG-2 and when WBGG-2 is silent, which happens often. WBGG-2 is delayed at least a minute behind both WIOD and W262AN.

Fill-in translators (owned by the primary station and used to reinforce the signal within the primary station's own protected contour) do not need to be fed directly off the air and may be fed by alternate means. Whether W262AN is officially translating "WIOD" or "WBGG-FM-HD2," it can (and probably does) receive a direct STL feed, which would not go through the delays inherent in HD subchannel processing.

So what's the difference between being an "AM translator" and an "HD2 translator," other than semantics?

Power levels!

A fill-in translator can run up to 250 watts, provided that its own 60 dBu contour at no point extends beyond the 60 dBu contour of its parent station, if the parent station is an FM, or the 2 mV/m daytime contour of a parent AM station. (In the case of an AM translator, the 60 dBu of the translator also can't extend outside a 25-mile radius from the AM transmitter site.)

The most recent paperwork I can find on W262AN shows that it claims to be rebroadcasting WIOD, not WBGG-FM:

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101400322&qnum=5030&copynum=1&exhcnum=2

In this particular case, I see nothing that would prevent W262AN from rebroadcasting WBGG-FM, either...