"WBSA" 87.9

[soundsandsports]

So I'm flipping through my radio in the car on the way to work Friday night and I hear this guy on 87.9 making announcements about a Boy Scout Jamboree at the Wilson County Fairgrounds in Lebanon, TN. The only ID I managed to get was "This is WBSA". All weekend it's been this guy "DJ Dave" sharing information about upcoming events at the Jamboree site and a mix of oldies, AC, AAA, and dance music. "DJ Dave" sounds like he's come straight from a college radio gig, but he has a decent delivery, and the music, while being like an even more jacked up "Jack FM" at times, sounds pretty good.

I assume that if the event is just going to be until Sunday afternoon that this is an STA station, and I can tell you they're probably using Scott Studios or an equivalent to air music and idents, and that the power of the station is probably between 1 and 10 watts (doesn't make it to the next town over)

If anybody out there has been to one of these Jamborees either as a scout or parent of a scout, can you tell me

a) how long they've had radio broadcasts like this, because I had never heard of Boy Scouts on radio until now, and when I have a son, I'd like to get him involved with something like that given my short background in radio.

b) did the Boy Scouts get the FCC's permission to use the WBSA calls, because they are actually active on the AM band in Boaz, Alabama.

 

[travisl5678]

As a Boy Scout, I can answer some questions for you.
1. We have a radio merit badge,you can look it up on meritbadge.org is you want to see the full requirments
2. I only know of one "WBSA"and that one at the National Jamboree in Virginia, the DJ's were scouts that did half hour shows to fulfill Merit Badge requirments

 

[FreddyE1977]

a quick check of Radio Locator shows WBSA to be an AM station
(1kW day, 37 watts nite) at 1300 on the dial in Boaz, Alabama.
That would put it around 80 miles from the Tennessee Line.
Perhaps close enough to publicize a Boy Scout event there.
Religious programming, and they do stream live on their website.

Perhaps someone in traffic was using an FM bug to rebroadcast it from
a wireless device to their car radio? I have listened to weird stuff on the low
end of the FM band for miles until the people 2 carlengths ahead of me who
were rebroadcasting turned off at an exit.

 

[spunker88]

The actual WBSA is on AM so the calls could be reused by on FM. But the FCC doesn't license stations on 87.9 except for a few LP exceptions in order to avoid interference with channel 6 tv stations.

I find it interesting to dx the low fm band in a parking lot. You can sometimes find someone who has an FM transmitter on. Lack of commercials or station IDs and fastly fading signal give them away.

 

[JeeperOne]

The actual WBSA is on AM so the calls could be reused by on FM. But the FCC doesn't license stations on 87.9 except for a few LP exceptions in order to avoid interference with channel 6 tv stations.

Well then Denver's 87.7 The Ticket must be an exception to this rule because unless I'm missing something, it's a full powered commercial station.

I find it interesting to dx the low fm band in a parking lot. You can sometimes find someone who has an FM transmitter on. Lack of commercials or station IDs and fastly fading signal give them away.

Makes the DXing of NPR & Pacifica Radio stations pretty easy doesn't it?

Kinda like DXing PBS affiliates on TV.

Cheers

 

[fybush]

The actual WBSA is on AM so the calls could be reused by on FM. But the FCC doesn't license stations on 87.9 except for a few LP exceptions in order to avoid interference with channel 6 tv stations.

Well then Denver's 87.7 The Ticket must be an exception to this rule because unless I'm missing something, it's a full powered commercial station.

It's neither full-powered nor on 87.9. "The Ticket" is an LPTV station on channel 6, taking advantage of the fact that the audio carrier of an analog channel 6 signal is on 87.75 MHz and can be heard on most FM radios.

And it has less than two years to live, since the FCC has made it clear that analog LPTVs will have to switch to digital operation by 2012.

As for "WBSA," I'm quite certain it's not licensed - it's a Part 15 (or maybe somewhat bigger) operation from a Boy Scouts Jamboree (hence the "BSA" in the calls). They've been doing "special event" stations like this at Jamborees since my days as a Cub Scout 30 years ago. The FCC usually leaves them alone as long as they're not interfering with anyone, especially since they're rarely on the air for more than a few days at a time.