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WDBR tower or no tower that is the question

B

bozo2111

I keep hearing that WDBR Springfield has a tower problem. They are broadcasting at half power because a storm took out their maintower. That was months ago, when will the new tower be up??? It can't take that long to fabricate a tower and get a grew here to put it up. Do they cover the market? Or only part of it? Just wondering.
 
You just don't go to Menards and buy a new tower. They need to get everything squared away with the FCC and find tower climbers, which I hear aren't very easy to come by in the summer months as they are scheduled way in advance. I think since WTAX was on the same tower (correct me if I'm wrong) it will take longer since they have to take care of 2 stations instead of one.

Last I knew WDBR was operating at 200 watts I think.

Give them time. 4 months really isn't that long.

By the way...can you shoot me an e-mail?? [email protected]. You had some questions earlier about RDS Equipment and I was wondering where you were from. I operate a website that lists stations that carry RDS.

Thanks,
Chris Cervantez
 
Has any improvement been done to WDBR? You would think someone would have a tower to help them? Scary thought you they keep predicting the great mid-west earth quake...and I know lots of towers will fall in that situation. So, with this type of time-table stations are going to be years waiting on towers?
 
No one keeps "spare" towers. Only way you have one is if you have a sister station in the same market with an extra antenna on its tower.

And according to bozo, WDBR is on a "spare" tower now. For whatever reason, that tower cannot give the proper amount of signal -- probably not an antenna designed for the maximum power of WDBR, or it is mounted low on the tower.

And yes, if a magnitude 9 earthquake were unleashed from the San Madrid fault, it would be several years before all the towers could be replaced. I bet the majority of the pole-style cell towers would be down. Guyed towers would have the best chance of survival IMO.
 
Trust me...when it comes to erecting a new tower, it's not something that happens overnight. I started the proceedings to do just that for a new station in Wyoming almost 6 months ago...and still haven't gotten it approved. That, and you have the insurance claims to deal with just to get the money (ERI doesn't hand you a tower and say "here".)...
 
the question i propose is why not hang it your attenna on another tower? I guess they couldn't find one in a better area?
 
When "shopping" for an aux tower, you take what you can get.

Aux towers still require authorization from the FCC just as with primary sites.

In this town, there are these towers:
- College Station at about 100 feet HAAT (just an antenna atop a building)
- Country Station at about 300 feet HAAT
- Christian station at about 425 feet HAAT, but 10 miles out of town
- Tower with 'for rent' space - only about 150 feet HAAT
- Tower for government purposes that is already overloaded with antennas - 100 feet HAAT

Now, which should the country station try to find aux space on? Obviously not its own, obviously not the government tower, and probably not on the college station.

The Christian stick is 10 miles out of town, and the station is an A. That would be less than optimal, and might not meet FCC requirements for covering the COL.

The 'for rent' tower is the best option left. It is actually in the city limits of the COL, so it would work well -- but there is no space for FM bays above about 50 feet.

No matter what aux site they chose, if the station lost its primary tower, its coverage of the COL would be fairly limited. Most stations would have this problem, except in the (previously mentioned) case of well-planned backups, which would usually happen only in a cluster.
 
My guess is WDBR will have to locate to another tower in the area somewhere. Putting an FM on an AM stick is more difficult as the FM antenna must be insulated from the hot AM tower. The AM tower is also insulated from the ground. Even putting tower lights on an AM tower is more difficult as you must use a large ring type transformer to get the power over to the tower.

Insulating an AM tower is one of the most costly parts of an AM tower.

Aren't there some TV stations in the area with space for rent? What about Clear Channel or Midwest Family. In my market we rent space to our competitors.
 
Maybe they'll find a tower when the programming gets better, it's a decent power for how their station sounds, in my opinoin, KISS FM is much better in Capital City.
 
The station doesn't have a very good morning show. Night guy is decent. Hopefully, they'll get their tower up and operating soon.
 
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