It's gone. I listen to it at night when I can't sleep and the Wall Street This Morning show when I'm getting ready for work. The station is not on the air at night anymore. I don't hear anything on FM either. Radio-Locator has also removed the night pattern. WJNT.com is still streaming the night programming but nothing but static and Cubans on 1180. The website appears to have removed any reference to the FM simulcast. Why would they do this? Most AM stations WANT night service. Why give it up? If they wanted to get rid of one of their towers, why couldn't they have lowered the power and gone non directional and still keep the FM. What gives?
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Whats up with WJNT at night?
- Thread starter flytrap
- Start date
Correction. The FM station is back on the air. Apparently the timing is off. The AM station signs off before the FM signs on. Even though the AM has cuban interference. I wish they would leave it on the air, because on some cheap radios, 103.3 is hard to pick up due to co-channel interference from Miss 103. I have 2 radios in my bed room and 103.3 requires playing with the antenna and moving them around just to get a fairly week signal on FM. However 1180 AM is no problem except for nights when the Cuban station is in the background. During FM skip periods especially in the morning, 103.3 is obliterated by out of town FM stations. I think dumping the nigh signal is a mistake especially for local listenters around Pearl. They don't have to re-tune their radio when the sun goes down, since the Cubans don't pose a problem in the Pearl area.
The further west you go at night if you are listening to WJNT's night time signal on FM you run into Supertalk Mississippi's Meridian station, WZKR on 103.3.
What the owners of WJNT needs to do is drop 103.3 at night and transform WRKS 105.9 into a HD radio station. In addition to sports on the main channel they could add WJNT's signal as 105.9HD2 and put Oldies 1400's signal (WJQS) as 105.9HD3. This way both WJNT and WJQS at night can increase their coverage area at night and run on FM 24 hours a day in addition to their AM signals. This is what some stations in the bigger cities do. Mississippi does not have any commercial FM station that does HD radio so it is time to make a commercial FM station in Jackson the first.
What the owners of WJNT needs to do is drop 103.3 at night and transform WRKS 105.9 into a HD radio station. In addition to sports on the main channel they could add WJNT's signal as 105.9HD2 and put Oldies 1400's signal (WJQS) as 105.9HD3. This way both WJNT and WJQS at night can increase their coverage area at night and run on FM 24 hours a day in addition to their AM signals. This is what some stations in the bigger cities do. Mississippi does not have any commercial FM station that does HD radio so it is time to make a commercial FM station in Jackson the first.
The problem with the above is that NO ONE outside the industry cares about HD radio. A handful of cars come with it -- my wife's new car, for instance. But few owners understand it, or would bother to check out what's available.
In many markets -- like Memphis where I live -- HD is simply a back door conduit for feeding FM fill-in translators. For reasons that are a bit too esoteric here, they work far better than an AM primary.
Other than that, it's just a huge headache for a station CE.
DE
In many markets -- like Memphis where I live -- HD is simply a back door conduit for feeding FM fill-in translators. For reasons that are a bit too esoteric here, they work far better than an AM primary.
Other than that, it's just a huge headache for a station CE.
DE
For the last week, WJNT AM has been coming on at 6 AM instead of running overnight. Incidently this morning when I woke a little after 5:30, it was on the air as usual. Not sure when they signed on but they were defintely off the air when I went to bed. Only the FM was operating. shutting the station down at sunset will cause confusion. Many listeners will just turn off their radio if they are not informed that they can tune to 103.3. What if it happens in the middle of a ball game? It reminds me of listening to a shortwave station where you have to constantly change frequencies at various times a day. They need to either get daytime permission for the current FM or get a proper FM translator license and just leave the AM alone. The FM has been knocked off the air a couple of times. If that happens again, they will have no nightime service at all. The FM was originaly around 104.3 and moved to 103.9 and got bumped off the air by WLEZ and finally wound up on 103.3. I listen to the FM sometimes when the Cubans are blasting on AM, but I can't deal with the splatter from Miss 103 on these cheap radios, and the obvious QRM from stations on the same frequency.
It's interesting...
The FM transmitter has always operated under an STA. It exists merely at the whim of the FCC.
Now, the FM was granted to mitigate Cuban interference on 1180, the Cubans' response to the signal of Radio Marti. If WJNT is no longer operating at night, the reason for the STA evaporates. There would be no Cuban interference to mitigate.
So, I have to wonder if the FM survives long-term if the AM becomes a daytimer.
DE
The FM transmitter has always operated under an STA. It exists merely at the whim of the FCC.
Now, the FM was granted to mitigate Cuban interference on 1180, the Cubans' response to the signal of Radio Marti. If WJNT is no longer operating at night, the reason for the STA evaporates. There would be no Cuban interference to mitigate.
So, I have to wonder if the FM survives long-term if the AM becomes a daytimer.
DE
I think the Nashville situation you refer to is associated with 1160... it was WAMB at the time (I think those calls are now on 1200). The argument was that 1160 was the only outlet licensed to Donelson, and the station was unable to provide night service to the corporate limits of that municipality because of a Cuban station that jacked up its power. Of course, as a suburb of Nashville, Donelson does not suffer from a lack of "night service" at all, but the FCC rules, out of touch with reality, presume that the only facility that counts is one actually licensed to that town.
WJNT was back on the air last night like norman, so I'm not sure what the deal is, maybe technical difficulties. A lot of directional stations have reduced power in recent years because they don't want to pay for the upkeep of multiple towers. Since WJNT uses 3 towers, going to one tower would be cheaper, but I'm not sure how much power they would be able to use. It couldn't be much. But if it were only flea power, it would barely get out of the parking lot if the Cuban station was blasting. Even at 500 watts the Cubans can be heard in the background even in parts of Pearl. WJNT is sometimes wiped on a car radio in the Pearl Walmart parking lot. At any rate, I think they should keep going at night even if it's low power just so Pearl listeners don't have to hunt for the station at night. I didn't see any changes on the FCC website so there may not be anything changing at WJNT. maybe someone at WJNT can clear up why they've been signing off. When Clear Channel took Rush and Hannity from them, it really killed the station.
J Alex Bowab said:
Yep, it's associated with 1160, now WCRT. (yes, the owners built a new station on 1200, transferred the WAMB calls & format to the new station, then sold 1160 to Bott Broadcasting)
When Radio Marti was established, AM stations feared Cuba would retaliate with signals that would interfere with domestic reception within the U.S.. A provision was entered in that law, requiring the FCC to issue any reasonable waivers of their regulations to address this interference. In the vast majority of cases, these waivers were to allow Florida AM stations to increase power beyond the then-normal 5kw limit on regional channels. (I might imagine many of these waivers are no longer necessary)
WJNT and then-WAMB, however, opted for low-powered FM relays.
That's the only reason WAMB got one. (and the only reason WJNT did) There are, in fact, no corporate limits of Donelson; it's part of Nashville.
And since this is the Mississippi board... FWIW WJNT is not technically a Jackson station either. It's licensed to Pearl -- which is at least an actual, incorporated city...
I got some good propagation on 1180 tonight and the Cubans were there. But I was also able to null out the Cubans tonight. I did not find WJNT in tonight but I was able to get a station from Memphis on 1180. I understand this station cuts their power down at night. I know some nights that the Cubans are insurmountable. I was also using a Terk advantage to null out the Cubans. Usually with a good external loop you can null out the Cubans enough to listen when WJNT has their AM signal up at night. But it seems as reported that WJNT does not want to fight the noise anymore and it is understandable. I wonder if anyone in Cuba has access to the Internet because if so the Government can take down R. Marti like it has done with many Voice of America frequencies and stream Radio Marti on the Internet then maybe the Cubans will decrease their power on all the 1180 frequencies. Radio Marti is on 1180 in the Florida Keys and that is causing all the jamming.
Back in the 1980's there was indeed a couple of signals that Castro cranked up in response to Radio Marti. One was 830 if I'm mistaken and the other was somewhere around the middle of the dial. Both were massive, rumored to be 500,000 watts that obliterated anything on those frequencies. It completly pegged the signal meters on my stereo. It was in English and played lots of Cuban jazz. I heard some really good music and lots of USA bashing. For a while Radio Moscow could be heard nightly from cuba on the lower end of the AM band. As for WJNT, it is back off the air again tonight. Not a good idea, since 103.3 is not a "real" radio station, just a special authorization. And if they lost it, they would become an daytime only station. I once DXed a fairly decent signal from WJNT AM one night in Warsaw, MO.
IIRC the other big one was on 1040. 500,000 watts is certainly possible. Some of the bigger ones disappeared after the collapse of the USSR. Generating enough electricity to run one of those is pretty expensive & without Russia subsidizing their energy, I think the Cubans figured there were more efficient ways of handling things..
Radio Marti's only AM transmitter is a 100,000-watt facility on 1180 - so WJNT could probably have counted on being the first station to get clobbered by any Cuban retaliation.
I'm not entirely sure what would happen to WJNT (from the FCC standpoint) if it continued to only operate during the day. As a Class B station, WJNT is required to operate at least 2/3 of the hours between 6pm and midnight. If they'll be unable to comply for more than ten days, they must notify the FCC.
It doesn't, however, say what happens if they just continue notifying the FCC they'll only be operating during the day. One might suppose that if some other station on 1180, restricted in power in order to protect WJNT, would apply to relax that protection. But I'm hard-pressed to identify any other station on 1180 that might be restricted by WJNT but not at least equally restricted by the dominant station on 1180. (WHAM in Rochester, NY)
If your implication is that the FCC would withdraw authority for 103.3 FM, that's certainly what they *should* do if WJNT isn't operating the AM at night. But I think the Commission has largely forgotten these FMs. The one in Nashville ceased to be truly necessary years ago; today, the primary source of interference to 1160's night signal is *Chicago*.
I'm curious what priority the FCC assigns these things. The frequency they're using in Nashville is actually a pretty good choice. There's a LPFM here that could make good use of that channel. They couldn't get it because of the 3rd-adjacent restrictions in the initial LPFM rules. Those restrictions have now been repealed - but in the meantime 1160's FM relayer has taken over the channel. Could the LPFM get it bumped? Good question.
Radio Marti's only AM transmitter is a 100,000-watt facility on 1180 - so WJNT could probably have counted on being the first station to get clobbered by any Cuban retaliation.
I'm not entirely sure what would happen to WJNT (from the FCC standpoint) if it continued to only operate during the day. As a Class B station, WJNT is required to operate at least 2/3 of the hours between 6pm and midnight. If they'll be unable to comply for more than ten days, they must notify the FCC.
It doesn't, however, say what happens if they just continue notifying the FCC they'll only be operating during the day. One might suppose that if some other station on 1180, restricted in power in order to protect WJNT, would apply to relax that protection. But I'm hard-pressed to identify any other station on 1180 that might be restricted by WJNT but not at least equally restricted by the dominant station on 1180. (WHAM in Rochester, NY)
If your implication is that the FCC would withdraw authority for 103.3 FM, that's certainly what they *should* do if WJNT isn't operating the AM at night. But I think the Commission has largely forgotten these FMs. The one in Nashville ceased to be truly necessary years ago; today, the primary source of interference to 1160's night signal is *Chicago*.
I'm curious what priority the FCC assigns these things. The frequency they're using in Nashville is actually a pretty good choice. There's a LPFM here that could make good use of that channel. They couldn't get it because of the 3rd-adjacent restrictions in the initial LPFM rules. Those restrictions have now been repealed - but in the meantime 1160's FM relayer has taken over the channel. Could the LPFM get it bumped? Good question.
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