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WBBF-AM 1120 Broadcasting Illegally?

B

Buehly

I thought WBBF-AM 1120 was a daytimer only. They used to go off the air at 4:45pm in December like WUFO does.

They are not signing off! They keep on the air with their Spanish language programming and commercials at night..... I was listening to them on Tuesday night until I finally turned the radio off at around 11pm!

Citadel is still responsible for it, even though it is an LMA with Niagara Independent Media. What is going on?!! Can they be fined?
 
Buehly said:
I thought WBBF-AM 1120 was a daytimer only. They used to go off the air at 4:45pm in December like WUFO does.

They are not signing off! They keep on the air with their Spanish language programming and commercials at night..... I was listening to them on Tuesday night until I finally turned the radio off at around 11pm!

Citadel is still responsible for it, even though it is an LMA with Niagara Independent Media. What is going on?!! Can they be fined?
Click to expand...

WBBF-AM Technical Info:
Status Licensed Class D [Help] AM Station
Area of Coverage View Daytime Coverage Map
Hours of Operation Daytime Operation Only
Antenna Mode Non-Directional - Daytime Only
Power 1000 Watts
Number of Towers 1
Transmitter Location 42° 49' 50" N, 78° 48' 01" W
License Granted March 13 1998
License Expires June 01 2014
Last FCC Update May 26 2006
 
I don't think they could have post-sunset authority. Buffalo has to be within KMOX's nighttime protected contour. I don't see any notation of PSSA in radio-info.com.
 
They are broadcasting at night and I can't believe nobody does anything about it. We'll see if they continue to do it tonight.
 
You could e-mail the friendly folks at Citadel, both in Buffalo and NYC, and bring this to their attention. Since the station has been LMA'ed out and, shall we say, right now Citadel "has bigger fish to fry" they may well be distracted enough they haven't noticed.

It's potentially serious. If there is willful and repeated operation outside of their licensed hours, there could be gigantic fines and possibly even a short-term renewal hearing which could even affect other local properties. If it's just a rogue WBBF board op, that's one thing, but ongoing regular illegal operation is a real problem.
 
I've heard it happen at other stations (here in NC). Most of the time it's sloppy operating rather than something willful.
 
In this era of everything being totally automated, the main reason a daytimer doesn't sign off when it's supposed to is because the auto shut-off doesn't kick in when it should.

The best way to take care of this situation would be to contact KMOX and complain. Though, I have to wonder if they will care whether or not their signal is being heard in Buffalo.

There was a similar situation here in the Finger Lakes a few years ago. WSFW (1110), soon after joining the Finger Lakes News Network, stayed on the air all night for several nights preventing reception of WBT. From what I understand, it took a complaint from WBT itself to get this problem resolved.

I think it's disgusting that these companies are too cheap to properly handle something as important as a sign on and sign off. Most stations don't even bother running legal sign on/off announcements anymore, (anyone at the Lenox Road complex reading this?).
 
Ya gota wonder if BBF, becaue it's entirely in Spanish, if they do legal IDs. I don't know that I've ever heard one, at leat one I could understand.
 
As I write this I am on the air doing a weekend shift (yes, live radio). In our cluster are two AM's. One is for all purposes is a daytimer. It does stay on past sunset but a very reduced power. Up until a couple months ago all kinds of bells, alarms, and whistles went off at both power change times. One for post sunset and one at 6:00PM. I was on the transmitter logs and pushed the buttons myself. Now it is all done remotely and monitored from far away. As I read the post it was 4:45 so I decided to take a stroll out in the hall where one of the AM tranmitters is located and yes, the power was reduced on time-but I had nothing to do with it. I can go on line and check out the other AM and check to see if they are on their night pattern and if the towers lights are on but I am under no obligation to do so. My name is not on anything except the program log. This is all coming from an old 1st ticket guy. So what I am saying if the big corperations want to automate such things it is their priviledge to do so but if it isn't being done they need to take the lumps. I like to think I am responsible enough to call the right people if things don't work but when I leave today, no one is coming in. That's it til Monday morning. The owners lobbied for the technology to take over so I am not surprised that some stations are not signing off on time and power & pattern changes are not being done. They always were when I was doing it.
 
What about the sales department? Is there any illegal revenue being generated? Are any ads running?

An accident is an accident, but revenue generated illegally should perhaps be part of an FCC fine to the station.

Outside of newly generated ad revenue, how does one prove that it wasn't a simple unintentional error.
 
With IBOC fine and dandy, I can't see how the FCC can accuse anyone of causing interference.

Interference is now perfectly acceptable in any amount.
 
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