taylorengineer said:
WRGC (originally WMSJ) in Sylva was originally a 5-kilowatter on 1480. Their move to 680 took many years to get done. Charlie Smithgall had built WRNG/North Atlanta on 680 with 25kw omni. WMSJ's engineering to move to 680 with a kilowatt ND days, 250w DA-N (with two towers) had no technical obstacles as far as WRNG or WPTF were concerned. It was WRNG's competing application to increase to 50kw DA-D that created the first problem, with the later filed application to add 10kw DA-N that created the second problem.
Art Sutton told me the long, long story about this one day, and showed me a contract that was originally entered into by Jimmy Childress at WMSJ/WRGC and Charlie Smithgall at WRNG. While essentially a mutual interference acceptance agreement between the stations (which the FCC finally just gave in and granted...long story), the document also contains a "until the end of time" clause that says the following: If WMSJ/WRGC should ever move off 680 (to another frequency, the current licensee of WRNG (now WCNN) will make a substantial cash payment to the current WMSJ/WRGC licensee...essentially paying ALL the expenses required to move WMSJ/WRGC to another frequency.
With WRGC's proposed move to 540, the above means the Dickeys must cut a check to Art Sutton. It's my understanding that they have thus far refused to agree to make any payment.
About that, I can say this. Art Sutton will not be screwed with. WRGC now has a translator that provides excellent coverage in Jackson County, and he has plans to apply to put 540 in another market.
That means that 680 will remain in Sylva, still creating massive interference to WCNN. To put it another way, the Dickeys will NOT get a free pass to eliminate the interference and make changes to improve WCNN's signal.
Stay tuned.
