rcombs said:
Tom is right, it would take a lot of movement and changes to increase the power of 101.7 in the current location. Moving it to a C3 is not going to enhance the coverage very much at all. It would probably end up a C3 equivalent at about 14 or 15kw like I used to have here in Savannah. It would not really be that beneficial.
I have the FM search software and just ran it for 101.7 Albany. A C3 for 101.7 in Albany is out of the question without moving 4 or 5 stations to other channels, if they could be moved. FM directional antennaes can only be used if there is a clear area for the station to operate at full power without a directional and still city grade the city of license.
I remember when 101.7 went on the air WWCW....which I think stood for the owner's initials, Whitfield C. Woodall. WWCW and it's sister AM, WALG, were owned by the Woodall family which owned WDAK in Columbus. The Woodalls bought WALG when it was WALB and was spun off by James Gray who had newspaper, radio, cable TV, and TV in Albany. One son got Columbus and the other got Albany. It played soft AC/easy listening. Later it went automated country to take on WJAZ. Then went live country and that's when the AM, WALG, started getting the shaft just as WAZE from Dawson moved their tower to Sasser and took the market.
Sylvester got its first radio station in December 1963. WOGA at 1540 1KW sunrise to sunset. 1540 became vacant when WCLB in Camilla GA left 1540 and moved to 1220. WCLB later moved to 1400 which had been vacated by WMGA in Moultrie in 1969 when WMGA moved to 1130 and boosted power to 10KW. WCLB has been dark for years and years. Now WMGA is dark and WOGA is too. In fact, WMES in Ashburn is dark. WWGS in Tifton is dark. Not a good area for local AM Radio.
WOGA was never a financial success and was put on the air by Dr. J.M. Sutton ( a very distant and rich relative) and James Rouse. Rouse owned Sylvester's department store, everything store, The Empire. Dr. Sutton, a vet, also was a major stock holder in the Bank of Worth County. WOGA studios and offices were in the old Bank of Worth County building at the corner of Isabella and Front Street in downtown Sylvester.
A local attorney told me he had thought about putting a radio station on the air in Sylvester back in the 1950s. He was serving in the state legislature at the time and knew legendary James Rivers of Cordele who owned WMJM, WFAV-FM in Cordele, WJAZ, WJIZ in Albany, WDOL AM/FM in Athens (FM is now 104.7 the Fish) and WTJH in East Point, GA. I'm told Rivers rode around time and told attorney David Jones there weren't enough businesses in Sylvester to support a local station. He was right. Also, as soon as everyone in Worth County got a car, they were driving over to Albany to buy stuff so retail in Sylvester was always weak.
Sylvester has two radio stations licensed to it now, 2 FM stations. The AM went dark in the early 1980s. If Sylvester couldn't support a station in the 50s-80s...it can't now. I always thought a combination of the local newspaper The Sylvester Local News and a radio station might make it by combining resources. The Sylvester newspaper and the radio station never cared much for each other although the publisher Marion Sumner probably inspired me as much as anyone that the role of a newspaper person or a broadcaster is to also serve the community they are located in and to make them better. True story. The resentment grew when the radio station went on the air in 1963. The Local did all of the printing in town. The radio station ordered some really expensive paper for their stationary and then decided not to use it. In 1978 when the radio station changed hands, mind you 15 years since this happened, I went in as a 16 year old to order new stationary for the new owner. I convinced him to change the calls to WRSG for Radio Sylvester Georgia. The newspaper manager pointed out to me the radio station stuck them with all that paper back when they went on and he hadn't forgot it. He then pointed to the boxes of paper on a shelf. I'm serious and I would bet my life he was too.
I'll never forget my first words over WOGA. Rick Segers was doing a high school baseball game at Pope Field and I tagged along. The station sent it to Rick too early. He was down getting the line up and I was sitting by the equipment and open mic and you could hear me holler "Rick, Rick, we're on the air!" The guy back at the station, probably Scott Williams, brother of WALB-TV News Director Rick Williams, said something to the effect of "well Rick obviously isn't ready." I remember when Scott was let go. He played a current hit song called "Take this Job and Shove it". I think Scott was the baby of the large Williams' family. Now he's a top ranking Air Force pilot.
We radio folks are strange but we don't hold a candle to newspaper paper. I think all that ink contaminated them. Obviously the ink works faster than radio waves.
