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WAVH/WIJD Tower Down

K

KEVIN Country

I've been informed that the tower that WAVH (106.5) and WIJD (1270) uses was taken down over the weekend. I don't know all the details. WAVH is still on the air. I'm not sure where from, or what their power level is. I believe 1270 is off completely. If this is physically the same tower that has always been at that site, it has been there for a long, long time! Here's a link from the WAVH website with a small picture:
http://fmtalk1065.com/blog/comments/a_pic_of_me_posing_with_what_was_our_antenna_and_the_remnants_of_the_old_to/
 
Back in my home town of Foley over in Baldwin County, and they are as strong as ever here.

The only STA on file is from 2006 and puts a 451 watt temp site waaay up in Washington County, so I know that's fubared. Only the one picture on the FM Talk website; nothing on Facebook, nothing reported by any of our local stations. Weird. Judging by the photo, it looks like the antenna and/or tower came down, and if so that would be big news since it's in a residential area.

What's going on!?
 
I checked the FCC's Internet database yesterday and today and found nothing filed about the tower.
 
Zach said:
Whoa! This is news to me. I'm in Mobile now but it's too dark to venture into Pritchard and look around.
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It's a rule. We always explain this to people new to the area. If you get lost in Mobile and see a sign that says "Pritchard", turn around... your life is in danger.
 
Since it's not listed on the FCC site as of this writing: here's a challenge to find it the old-fashioned way.

Hams will know this as a "fox hunt", and yes Virginia, there is a Wiki page about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmitter_hunting.

You don't need directional antennas and such, just a portable radio with a signal strength indicator such as the Kaito or Tecsun, and a willingness to drive around a bit. I've found pirate FMs several times this way.

Be safe and have fun.
 
I got a reply from Sean Sullivan of FM Talk 106.5 this morning via Twitter, saying the tower was taken down by the owners on purpose, with "very little warning for the tenants".

My car radio has two great advantages for fox hunting: a signal strength meter in the settings and the antenna amp has quit working. So if I see the signal meter active, I'm very close (for reference, it won't peg out when tuned to any of our big tall class C's unless I'm within a few miles of the TX sites.)

Makes it good for finding low powered signals. ;)
 
I got a reply from Sean Sullivan of FM Talk 106.5 this morning via Twitter, saying the tower was taken down by the owners on purpose, with "very little warning for the tenants".
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So did anyone find out where the "temporary?" antenna/tower site is. The signal is poor in Gulf Shores.
 
musiconradio.com said:
So did anyone find out where the "temporary?" antenna/tower site is. The signal is poor in Gulf Shores.
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Off Moffett Road near Shelton Beach Road.

I updated the history/data page on my site under the presumption that they would be using the same equipment from their STA back in 2007, which was something like 450 watts at 125 feet, with the corrected coordinates. There's a STA filed and hopefully we'll see the actual data for it soon on the FCC site. Whenever it's published I'll put it on my site.

Strangely, I have absolutely no reception issues from Foley north. Without seeing any kind of signal meter or anything it actually sounds very similar. But it is weaker, and south of Uptown Foley it really gets choppy. I don't think it's going to be listenable east of Foley or Gulf Shores in its current state, but for a quick and dirty backup, it does cover Mobile just fine. If I had to guess, I'd say it's around a class A, performance-wise. It'll be interesting to see the actual stats if the FCC ever updates their site.

No word on what Wilkins is going to do about WIJD and WASG, but Bigler is looking for a new tower site and not expecting the older tower to be replaced anytime soon.
 
In the last week Wilkins has started putting up billboards for WNVY and WVTJ , 1070 and 610, around Pensacola... so they are still in the game. Now as far as the design of these billboards, they look to have been created by a 7 year old in Microsoft Paint.... but they are advertising the stations for the first time I can remember in Pensacola.
 
I don't think it's going to be listenable east of Foley or Gulf Shores in its current state, but for a quick and dirty backup, it does cover Mobile just fine. If I had to guess, I'd say it's around a class A, performance-wise. It'll be interesting to see the actual stats if the FCC ever updates their site.
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The ERP is much higher, I would say 6K or more. It does stop on scan in some places in Gulf Shores. Tropo is running this week, so I don't know how much that is impacting the signal.
 
musiconradio.com said:
I don't think it's going to be listenable east of Foley or Gulf Shores in its current state, but for a quick and dirty backup, it does cover Mobile just fine. If I had to guess, I'd say it's around a class A, performance-wise. It'll be interesting to see the actual stats if the FCC ever updates their site.
Click to expand...

The ERP is much higher, I would say 6K or more. It does stop on scan in some places in Gulf Shores. Tropo is running this week, so I don't know how much that is impacting the signal.
Click to expand...

Looks like we were both about equally off: 2.5 kW H pol only.
 
1270 came on the air about 1954 as WAIP Prichard, a 1 kw daytimer. I wonder if this is the original tower that would now be 58 years old. When WKSJ FM 94.9 transmitted from that tower, it did so with about 450 ft HAAT, so if this is the original WAIP tower, its height would have been increased over what was originally adequate for the AM. WAIP was country, then became WSIM which was beautiful music, then top 40 ... then became country WZAM, then WKSJ AM... by 1979 it was WLLF with Music of Your Life.
 
Looks like we were both about equally off: 2.5 kW H pol only.
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If that is the case the signal is better than expected in Gulf Shores. I'm impressed.
 
According to an employee of Wilkins Communications, there has been some work to get WSAG-AM and WIJD-AM back on the air and the work could be complete in a couple of weeks.
 
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