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WGIB snagging another B'ham area translator?

tomservo

tomservo

Looks like WGIB may be getting another translator in the Birmingham area. It appears that the 104.1 translator that has been rebroadcasting WJLD is being handed over to WGIB in an application to co-locate the translator on the WZZK tower and up the power to 250 watts.

It appears that pains were taken to keep the application's signal within WJLD's 2mV/m, yet the app makes note that the translator will be within WGIB's 60 dBu contour.
 
Zach said:
Looks like WGIB may be getting another translator in the Birmingham area. It appears that the 104.1 translator that has been rebroadcasting WJLD is being handed over to WGIB in an application to co-locate the translator on the WZZK tower and up the power to 250 watts.

It appears that pains were taken to keep the application's signal within WJLD's 2mV/m, yet the app makes note that the translator will be within WGIB's 60 dBu contour.
Click to expand...

I don't really think that translator helped WJLD in any possible way. I was barely able to hear it on Shades Mountain when it came back on the air a few months ago. Probably only a handful of people knew about it and could actually listen to it.

Exhibit 4 from the link you posted says it's for "Fill-in" coverage for WGIB. As a christian, I'm all for christian radio, and I don't see any problem with WGIB having translators in areas outside of Birmingham where the WGIB or WQEM signals cannot reach well, but moving that translator up to the WZZK tower just doesn't make good sense. I don't understand what the purpose is behind all of that. I know WGIB's main purpose is to share the gospel, but what is the reasoning behind rebroadcasting the station in an area where its main signal adequately covers? WGIB is already serving that area well, so how is a translator (in the same area) going to make a difference?

EMF already has a translator in the Gorgas area (just north of Birmingham) rebroadcasting WGIB and that area is also within WGIB's 60dBu contour. There's another one scheduled to go on in Calera on the same frequency (96.1), also to rebroadcast WGIB. Again...why? I live in Calera here, and I can receive WGIB fairly well, and WQEM with a good signal. I hope those two translators are just going to temporarily broadcast WGIB and EMF will eventually put either a K-Love or Air-1 broadcast on them. :)


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passtheword said:
I don't really think that translator helped WJLD in any possible way. I was barely able to hear it on Shades Mountain when it came back on the air a few months ago. Probably only a handful of people knew about it and could actually listen to it.

EMF already has a translator in the Gorgas area (just north of Birmingham) rebroadcasting WGIB and that area is also within WGIB's 60dBu contour. There's another one scheduled to go on in Calera on the same frequency (96.1), also to rebroadcast WGIB. Again...why? I live in Calera here, and I can receive WGIB fairly well, and WQEM with a good signal. I hope those two translators are just going to temporarily broadcast WGIB and EMF will eventually put either a K-Love or Air-1 broadcast on them. :)
Click to expand...

That translator didn't even give WJLD any extra coverage at night. Now, it did provide a cleaner FM signal to a small part of west Birmingham, but certainly no 'problem areas' in the AM's signal. (Unless you count their HD self-interference, of course.)

I don't like seeing scarce spectrum ate up by duplicated programming, by WGIB or anyone else... Hopefully your wish will come true and EMF will put one of their formats on the translators at some point. I'm not a religious-format listener, but the EMF stuff would no doubt be a welcomed choice in the area; both Air-1 and K-Love seem pretty well done and fun to listen to.
 
K-Love doesn't even have a station, in Alabama. Their nearest station to Alabama is located in Quitman Mississippi. (Just south of Meridian) (WLKO 98.9 FM)

This station would be very hard to drag in, on an over the air translator, unless you lived in the those counties that are closest to the Quitman area, which include Sumter, Choctaw and Washington.

When I was working on getting 94.3 FM, I tried to get a rebroadcast of this station started. Due to various factors, it didn't work out.

Far as I know, the nearest Air-1 station to Alabama, is located in the Valdosta area of South Georgia.

That station would be extremely hard to drag in, unless the FCC were to allow the commerical band to do a Satellator rebroadcast and/or you lived somewhere within the Valdosta area.

Knowing the FCC, they may allow that to happen in the future.

Since they're now allowing AM stations to rebroadcast on FM, anything is possible.

R.D.P. <><
 
R.D.P. said:
K-Love doesn't even have a station, in Alabama. Their nearest station to Alabama is located in Quitman Mississippi. (Just south of Meridian) (WLKO 98.9 FM)

This station would be very hard to drag in, on an over the air translator, unless you lived in the those counties that are closest to the Quitman area, which include Sumter, Choctaw and Washington.

When I was working on getting 94.3 FM, I tried to get a rebroadcast of this station started. Due to various factors, it didn't work out.

Far as I know, the nearest Air-1 station to Alabama, is located in the Valdosta area of South Georgia.

That station would be extremely hard to drag in, unless the FCC were to allow the commerical band to do a Satellator rebroadcast and/or you lived somewhere within the Valdosta area.

Knowing the FCC, they may allow that to happen in the future.

Since they're now allowing AM stations to rebroadcast on FM, anything is possible.

R.D.P. <><
Click to expand...

According to radio-locator, there's a K-Love translator in Haleyville. That's the only K-Love or Air-1 presence in Alabama I could find. The record for that translator (W270BW) states that KLOV-FM Winchester, OR is the originating station. However, bear in mind this information is coming from radio-locator, so who knows if it's accurate.

There is an application to move an EMF CP in Oberlin, KS to Carbon Hill, AL (near Jasper). The call sign on it is KRLE. When I first saw it a few months ago, I thought it was an FCC error and maybe it was for a Carbon Hill, KS instead. It is for Carbon Hill, AL though. If the application is approved, it'll be be EMF's first station in Alabama, a C1. Here's the FCC info on the application:


KRLE application


I also emailed EMF a few months ago about its new translator for Calera and inquired about whether it might rebroadcast either the K-Love or Air-1 networks. In the email, I let them know that I felt the translator would better serve the Calera area by broadcasting one of those two networks rather than WGIB since the main signal from WGIB covers the area fairly well, and its sister FM, WQEM in Columbiana, puts a city-grade signal over Calera. I eventually heard back from someone at EMF about a month later, and the person responding to my email said that EMF does hope to use the Calera translator to eventually rebroadcast K-Love or Air-1, but in the interim, both the translator for Calera (and the one for for Gorgas) will be rebroadcasting WGIB.


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That Haleyville station I believe is rebroadcasting WAFR in Tupelo for the time being. What I don't understand is how this station got a license grant for KLOV if it's against commission rules to rebroadcast a station at such a distance away.

Second, if that KRLE application goes through, will the FCC assign new calls or let them keep the K-sign east of the Mississippi?

Somehow a station up the road from me in Sardis, Mississippi got assigned the KBUD calls as a new station, despite being nearly 40 miles east of the river. ::)
 
This translator still has an STA to rebroadcast WJLD. The results will be the WJLD translator will be at 250 watts on Red Mountian. That should give good coverage to most of Birmingham. My perdiction is that WGIB will never transmit a word through it but WJLD will. Sounds strange, just wait and see.
 
Zach said:
That Haleyville station I believe is rebroadcasting WAFR in Tupelo for the time being. What I don't understand is how this station got a license grant for KLOV if it's against commission rules to rebroadcast a station at such a distance away.

Second, if that KRLE application goes through, will the FCC assign new calls or let them keep the K-sign east of the Mississippi?

Somehow a station up the road from me in Sardis, Mississippi got assigned the KBUD calls as a new station, despite being nearly 40 miles east of the river. ::)
Click to expand...

I would think if that application were approved, it would have to have a "W" call eventually.

I've seen some stations close to the Mississippi such as what you mentioned which use "K" or "W" calls on the "opposite side" of the river. I'm not really sure whether the policy of allocating "K" calls on the west side of the river, and the "W" calls on the east side is determined by the station's city of license or if it's dependent on where the actual xmtr is located. Obviously, some of those stations must have their cities of license on one side, and the xmtr locations on the other. Also, if a station changes its COL from one side of the river to another, can it keep its calls, sort of like being "grandfathered in", or would it have to be assigned new calls beginning with the other letter? It doesn't seem to me that those stations changing COL's across the river would have to switch under those circumstances, especially if the station used those calls as a means to identify itself among listeners. Anyone know how that all works?

Anyone remember the idea the FCC was kicking around about 15 or 20 years ago about doing away with that rule and allowing "K" calls and "W" calls to be assigned to stations anywhere in the US, regardless of where they were located in relation to the Mississippi?


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I don't think the FCC has a policy on COL vs. transmitter location in regards to call letters. In the Memphis market, there's a urban CHR licensed to Olive Brance, Mississippi (east of the river) with the calls KJMS. The stick is in Arkansas (west of river).

But then there's KKND, licensed to Port Sulphur, Louisiana (west of river) whose stick is in St. Bernard Parish (east of river).

Several of Minneapolis' stations start with K despite being at the Shoreview transmitter farm, east of the river.

If there ever was a policy towards strict K-W licensening, it has apparently long been abandoned.

passtheword said:
I would think if that application were approved, it would have to have a "W" call eventually.
Click to expand...

I thought it was a move-in from somewhere west of the river, but apparently it was a new license, granted in 2004. ???
 
You guys need to get a clue, Richardson Broadcasting Corp/WJLD stills owns W281AB. WGIB is being listed as primary in stead of WBFR because of current rules. The switch was made because at 250 watts W281AB's extended beyond WBFR's 140 watts contour. WJLD will be simulcasting on 104.1 with a great signal in the Birmingham area. The 60dbu signal will reach 453,500 people.
 
That is about the same thing as what I said. That translator should cover the city very well. I would love to have a 250 watt FM 300 feet up a tower on Red Mountian.
 
rambo2 said:
You guys need to get a clue, Richardson Broadcasting Corp/WJLD stills owns W281AB. WGIB is being listed as primary in stead of WBFR because of current rules. The switch was made because at 250 watts W281AB's extended beyond WBFR's 140 watts contour. WJLD will be simulcasting on 104.1 with a great signal in the Birmingham area. The 60dbu signal will reach 453,500 people.
Click to expand...

Okay I must be stupid or something but where does WBFR come into the mix?

If they list one station on the application but relay another - isn't that in violation of the rules?
 
Zach said:
rambo2 said:
You guys need to get a clue, Richardson Broadcasting Corp/WJLD stills owns W281AB. WGIB is being listed as primary in stead of WBFR because of current rules. The switch was made because at 250 watts W281AB's extended beyond WBFR's 140 watts contour. WJLD will be simulcasting on 104.1 with a great signal in the Birmingham area. The 60dbu signal will reach 453,500 people.
Click to expand...

Okay I must be stupid or something but where does WBFR come into the mix?

If they list one station on the application but relay another - isn't that in violation of the rules?
Click to expand...

I'm still trying to figure that one out too, so it's not just you. :D

The translator did rebroadcast WBFR years ago. Was the originating station changed to WGIB on the application as a means of getting the paperwork processed?


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