Can anyone tell me why Clear Channel re-licensed WFUS-FM from Bradenton to Gulfport? WFUS still provides a city grade contour over Bradenton after the tower move, so it wasn't a matter of 103.5's inability to continue providing city grade coverage over the previous city of license as a reason for the COL change. I'm curious what possible reason would make sense for the change.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
WFUS-FM 103.5
- Thread starter jmtillery
- Start date
Good question; I've questioned that COL change as well. WFUS's tower is in Riverview (just south of Tampa) in Hillsborough county and their studios are in the CC complex on Gandy Blvd in Tampa, but they changed the COL to a small town in Pinellas county. (Gulfport).jmtillery said:
It's almost as though there is some type of incentive to have Gulfport as the COL; I say that because WFUS is not the only example as Gulfport being the COL where it really doesn't seem to make sense. There is a religious translator on 94.5 FM that uses Gulfport as the COL (for those outside the area and not familiar with Pinellas county; Gulfport is adjacent to s.w. St. Petersburg and adjacent to South Pasadena to the west).
At any rate the religious translator has its antenna in extreme n.e. St. Petersburg on the St. Petersburg side of Gandy Blvd and even on a good car radio this religious translator with the COL as Gulfport can barely be received in Gulfport.
I would love to hear the rationale on either of these.
drt
M
MsMusicRadio
Guest
Gulfport is considered extremely hip in kind of a West Hollywood way. I imagine that these stations wanted to glom on to that. 
If you change you COL to a city closer to where you wish to be and then because of changing circumstances you are able to move your transmitter site toward where you really want to go you don't get stuck with having to cover the first city with a city grade signal.
I'd op for a town closer into my goal than wait until I can make one big move.
I'd op for a town closer into my goal than wait until I can make one big move.
It's all about ownership caps and the contours like "sbe1" said. This change in COL was completed years after the antenna move to Riverview so that has little to do with it. At some point in the last couple years, Clear Channel had to make paperwork "changes" to a number of markets in reference to the sale to Bain Capital. Not exactly sure of the reason but it's absolutely a paper deal since nothing technically has changed with 103.5FM. I'm guessing it may have something to do with ownership of the Tampa and Sarasota clusters. Same thing in the Orlando area... WJRR-FM (101.1) was re-allocated to the Brevard County market even though it's sales and technical facilities still resides in the Orlando market. It's nothing but a pen and paper process to retain ownership of all the properties.
Billalm & sbe1 are both correct. With the way in which the rules can be changed and skewed at political will, it makes sense to offer further protection with the properties you have.jmtillery said:
Besides, CC-Tampa doesn't care about South-of-the-Bay. The license was for Bradenton which is in Manatee County. Gulfport is in South Pinellas County. Since the morph from Palmetto's 103.3 to
Riverview's 103.5 in 1996, the change of COL came around 2003.
106.5 is located on the old 103.3 tower. WCTQ is licensed to Sa-ra-so-ta!
Interesting that CBS hasn't done the same thing with Holmes Beach's 98.7, except they have no cluster, here.
Question answered.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
badjef said:
Excepet CBS cannot re-license WSJT 98.7 from Holmes Beach to anywhere without first replacing 98.7 in Holmes Beach as 98.7 is the only Primary radio service licensed to that community. LPFM and translators do not qualify as local radio service since these two radio services are licensed as Secondary radio services.
In the case of WFUS, Bradenton still had WJIS-FM 88.1 and WWPR-AM 1490, both licensed to Bradenton as Primary service, paving the way for WFUS to be removed from that community and given to Gulfport as a "first service". Had WFUS been the only primary licensed radio service to Bradenton, Clear Channel would not have been granted approval to remove 103.5 unless CC found an alternate Primary radio service to license or re-license to Bradenton, leaving Bradenton with at least one Primary licensed service.
Population must be in play.jmtillery said:
I remember 100.1 WJRZ was originally licensed for Ship Bottom, New Jersey in 1976. after a few years, they were able to change it to Manahawkin. They were also able to move their antenna 9 miles north of it's location in Manahawkin, several years after that as a result of WHTZ' move from "the baby, pea-shooter antenna" to the "Flamethrower" on Empire.
(Now, you guys know where the term came from)
So, that was a reverse of the question.
It was also before consolidation, if that makes a difference.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
BadJeff, the rules have changed since 1976. I, too, wondered about the same thing you mentioned at one time. For example: In Tampa Bay WTSP-TV 10 was originally licensed to Largo when it was WLCY-TV. This was done primarily because channel 10 was short-spaced with WPLG 10 Miami, so WLCY-TV had to position its tower and antenna in Holiday to avoid the short-spacing conflict with WPLG. From the Holiday site, WLCY-TV did not place a primary signal over Saint Petersburg, but it did place one over Largo. Hence, Largo was chosen as the COL. Years later, the former WLCY (now WTSP) was able to be re-licensed to Saint Petersburg after a power increase was authorized making it possible for channel 10 to place a city grade over Saint Petersburg. The FCC considered the COL change from Largo to Saint Petersburg to be in the "Public Interest" for the reasons you mentioned, that being channel 10 would serve a greater population as a Saint Petersburg TV station as opposed to a Largo one.
However, the rules governing COL changes now reads that a community with existing radio service must have at least one remaining primary licensed facility (either AM, FM or NCE-FM all qualify as primary service) before a station licensed to the same community can be re-licensed to another community. Such COL changes are only considered when the proposed COL change specifies a community with no primary service at the time of the COL proposal, e.g., a first service is being proposed. This is what Clear Channel proposed when its application specified re-licensing WFUS from Bradenton to Gulfport, as Gulfport previously had no primary service licensed to that community.
In all fairness, the FCC knows well and good that the primary reason for any such COL change is in order to bring a station closer to a larger market where there are bigger ad dollars. In the case of 103.5, Tampa Bay was (and is) the primary target market. Still, the FCC considered the move to be in "The Public Interest" due to the fact that the new COL specified a first service for Gulfport. In the case of WSJT, at the present time, 98.7 is the only primary service licensed to Homes Beach. Therefore the 98.7 frequency cannot be re-licensed to another community unless such application is filed in conjunction with a proposed COL change of another station proposed to replece 98.7 at Holmes Beach and the new COL changes also meet all spacing and technical requirements assuming a tower move is warranted.
However, the rules governing COL changes now reads that a community with existing radio service must have at least one remaining primary licensed facility (either AM, FM or NCE-FM all qualify as primary service) before a station licensed to the same community can be re-licensed to another community. Such COL changes are only considered when the proposed COL change specifies a community with no primary service at the time of the COL proposal, e.g., a first service is being proposed. This is what Clear Channel proposed when its application specified re-licensing WFUS from Bradenton to Gulfport, as Gulfport previously had no primary service licensed to that community.
In all fairness, the FCC knows well and good that the primary reason for any such COL change is in order to bring a station closer to a larger market where there are bigger ad dollars. In the case of 103.5, Tampa Bay was (and is) the primary target market. Still, the FCC considered the move to be in "The Public Interest" due to the fact that the new COL specified a first service for Gulfport. In the case of WSJT, at the present time, 98.7 is the only primary service licensed to Homes Beach. Therefore the 98.7 frequency cannot be re-licensed to another community unless such application is filed in conjunction with a proposed COL change of another station proposed to replece 98.7 at Holmes Beach and the new COL changes also meet all spacing and technical requirements assuming a tower move is warranted.
M
MsMusicRadio
Guest
DToTheJ said:
I AM SO THERE
M
MsMusicRadio
Guest
What about Valrico ?
TV and radio are different in which the FCC structures the rules. OTA-TV is dying. Unless the FCC authorizes a different digital transmission for AM & FM , it will be around for quite awhile longer.jmtillery said:
WLCY also had WDBO-TV to contend with as well as WINK-TV by the time the legals got finished.
If someone were to put a translator, licensed to Holmes Beach, would that still apply?
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
badjef said:
Only AM, commercial FM and NCE FM qualify as primiary licensed radio service. Translators and LPFM do not qualify as primary service since they are both licensed as a secondary service. LPFM is basically a translator that is authorized to originate programming. So, to answer your question, the answer is no.
Regarding WDBO-TV and WINK-TV, neither of those two stations had anything to do with channel 10's COL. Co-channel WPLG Miami was the protected station when channel 10 was alloted to the Bay Area. Since you mentioned channel 6 Orlando and channel 11 Fort Myers, you must be thinking about the CBS affiliations being a possible problem with the allotment. That actually had nothing to do with allotting channel 10 to largo. WTVT was already a CBS affiliate for Tampa Bay since the 1950s and the orginal WLCY-TV 10 was an ABC affiliate, pulling ABC from WSUN-TV 38. WTSP became a CBS affiliate in 1995 when WTVT dropped CBS in favor of becoming a FOX affiliate while ABC went to former FOX affiliate WFTS-TV 28.
BadJef - So long as channel 10 cleared channel 9 by 65-miles, it clears. Considering channel 9's tower is in Bithlo, about 20+ miles due East of Orlando, obviously it clears any first adjacent TV channels in Tampa. Also, the same applies for channel 11 Fort Myers - 65-miles. Of course, these are technical concerns which were cleared with the Holiday tower site chosen for WLCY-TV. As I said in previous posts, WPLG-TV 10 Miami was the main concern as WLCY-TV had to clear WPLG by 220-miles. WFLA-TV 8 had to clear WFTV by the same margin as WLCY, and 8 fit comfortably in Tampa. So, apparently channel 9 wasn't too much of an issue with WFLA. Logic would dictate that WFTV was not a factor with channel 10, either. I believe where all the legal issues came about with channel 10 was due to several competing applications as channel 10 was already allotted to Largo. I don't remember how many applicants originally applied for the channel 10 facilities, but I believe the Rahall's (original channel 10 licensee) bought out the other applicants, leaving Rahall Communications as the sole applicant when the FCC finally issued a ruling.
- Status