WNBP Newburyport Translator

[Laurence Glavin]

According to today's FCCApplications list, W292DY-FM 106.1 is requesting a license to cover for a facility running three, I said THREE watts directional apparently aimed away from Newburyport on the hill overlooking Amesbury. I'll have to check to see if WNBP-AM includes it with their station ID soon. The original COL was Sanford, ME, but the COL for the new licensed facility will be Newburyport.

 

[raccoonradio]

There is "WSCA-LP" at 106.1, "Portsmouth Community Radio", 100 watts

approx signal: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WSCA&service=FL&status=L&hours=U

They'll have to avoid them. 3 watts from Newburyport...wonder why, eh?
I think Newburyport is maybe 22-25 mi from Portsmouth.

 

[VoiceofWayne]

I wonder if they're not finished moving it yet. What would prevent them from going directional to the southeast and put more signal into Newburyport? Or what about a frequency change and higher power from where they are? All of these might require a "major change" and take awhile. I noticed deep down in the engineering application, the power was given as 11 watts not 3.
Now that they have bought the AM in Sanford, it almost makes sense to have left it there in the first place. When it was in Sanford it had more power and a better coverage area.

 

[JIBGUY]

I'm not sure why either station NEEDS a translator, except for just being able to say they're "on FM, too". - Both 1450 and 1220 have real good nighttime coverage of their markets. But since there is only one translator Port Broadcasting has, best ot have in Newburyport, a more trendy town than Sanford. Congrats to Port!

 

[raccoonradio]

This is popping up in other places of course. One day, scanning the dial while in Concord NH, I
found a station at 103.9 running talk and thought "this sounds like something WKXL would do". Sure enough, it was simulcasting WKXL at fairly low power. 10 w, just east of town. Their facebook (at least for the FM) says "WKXL 103.9-Concord News Radio (Listen in NH at 103.9fm and 1450am)"

We're not talking necessarily about a big FM signal, like how the 97.9 in Windsor Locks CT is now
simulcasting WPOP 1410--more like a very low powered FM signal, "hey we're on FM too".

 

[Schuyler]

(error - delete is not an option))

 

[aaronread]

About two or three years ago I heard thru the grapevine that the FCC has an unofficial (maybe it's become official since then) moratorium on "translator hopping." The first move would be granted relatively normally. Second move would be delayed a minimum of six months. Third move would never be granted; it'd either be denied or sit indefinitely at "accepted for filing" until the filer gave up and asked for it to be dismissed.

Beats me if this is true or not, but the source who told me was one that would be in a position to know and would have a reason to know. And right around the time I heard was when all those translator hops suddenly dried up, too.

So it's possible this could be an attempt to move it. 3 watts seems questionable in usefulness, unless you've got massive HAAT (like a mountaintop). But it could be an intermediate step towards something better on a different frequency...?

I'm not sure why either station NEEDS a translator, except for just being able to say they're "on FM, too".

Depending on the format, you may not have a choice. Some formats target demos that barely know AM exists, regardless of how good the coverage of the signal is.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

This morning I listened to a top-of-the-hour station ID on WNBP-AM 1450, and there was no mention of an FM at 106.1.

 

[raccoonradio]

Here's an idea of a "translator"--have a station run Spanish and then the "translator" outlet will say the same things, in English.
Translator!

 

[Laurence Glavin]

Here's an idea of a "translator"--have a station run Spanish and then the "translator" outlet will say the same things, in English.
Translator!

That "joke" is so lame that I have used it in the past. When I was in the Berkshires one day, I wrote somewhere that the opera on WFCR's main channel was in the same language as its "translator in Pittsfield. Michelle Obama made a face.

 

[VoiceofWayne]

"About two or three years ago I heard thru the grapevine that the FCC has an unofficial (maybe it's become official since then) moratorium on "translator hopping." The first move would be granted relatively normally. Second move would be delayed a minimum of six months. Third move would never be granted; it'd either be denied or sit indefinitely at "accepted for filing" until the filer gave up and asked for it to be dismissed."

I've heard this too, but in 2009 and after 13 hops, a translator was "moved" from Gloucester to Fitchburg to simulcast 1280. Where these make the most sense is with daytimers, such as 1520 WIZZ Greenfield. No PSA, no PSSA, no nothing, because they protect that big station in Buffalo that we all know. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that daytimers, and those with so little night power that they can't cover their city of license should have priority for these.

 

[JIBGUY]

I'd even go so far as to say that daytimers, and those with so little night power that they can't cover their city of license should have priority for these.

In a perfect world, that's the way it should be. But had it not been for all stations, then the NAB would have never lobbied the FCC for translators used for AM's.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

"About two or three years ago I heard thru the grapevine that the FCC has an unofficial (maybe it's become official since then) moratorium on "translator hopping." The first move would be granted relatively normally. Second move would be delayed a minimum of six months. Third move would never be granted; it'd either be denied or sit indefinitely at "accepted for filing" until the filer gave up and asked for it to be dismissed."

I've heard this too, but in 2009 and after 13 hops, a translator was "moved" from Gloucester to Fitchburg to simulcast 1280. Where these make the most sense is with daytimers, such as 1520 WIZZ Greenfield. No PSA, no PSSA, no nothing, because they protect that big station in Buffalo that we all know. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that daytimers, and those with so little night power that they can't cover their city of license should have priority for these.

As one would expect from a station with the call letters WIZZ, they do provide streaming audio. (If you say WWZN's call letters out loud, you get "wizzun" and they also offer streaming audio.) I don't know if WIZZ provides streaming audio 24/7.

 

[raccoonradio]

I put a long song on when I gotta go down the hall to take a WIZZ

 

[DanStrassberg]

Where these make the most sense is with daytimers, such as 1520 WIZZ Greenfield. No PSA, no PSSA, no nothing, because they protect that big station in Buffalo that we all know.

The Greenfield 1520 is entitled to a PSSA--if they want it and apply for it. Can't say what power, but since they are directional away from Buffalo, most likely it would be tens of watts, from Greenfield sunset to Buffalo sunset (an average, I'd imagine, of 30 minutes). After Buffalo sunset, Greenfield lies well within WWKB's 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour, so the PSSA would have to end at Buffalo sunset. Also, WWKB's "daytime" skywave during the half hour or so when the sun has not yet officially set in Buffalo, is likely so strong in Greenfield that the tens of watts WIZZ could get would most likely not produce a listenable signal beyond the ends of WIZZ's ground radials. Still, the half hour a night is potentially economically valuable because it falls within PM drive in most months--and not everybody who buys time takes the trouble to listen;>)

 

[Laurence Glavin]

Where these make the most sense is with daytimers, such as 1520 WIZZ Greenfield. No PSA, no PSSA, no nothing, because they protect that big station in Buffalo that we all know.

The Greenfield 1520 is entitled to a PSSA--if they want it and apply for it. Can't say what power, but since they are directional away from Buffalo, most likely it would be tens of watts, from Greenfield sunset to Buffalo sunset (an average, I'd imagine, of 30 minutes). After Buffalo sunset, Greenfield lies well within WWKB's 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour, so the PSSA would have to end at Buffalo sunset. Also, WWKB's "daytime" skywave during the half hour or so when the sun has not yet officially set in Buffalo, is likely so strong in Greenfield that the tens of watts WIZZ could get would most likely not produce a listenable signal beyond the ends of WIZZ's ground radials. Still, the half hour a night is potentially economically valuable because it falls within PM drive in most months--and not everybody who buys time takes the trouble to listen;>)

In my younger days, I often went hiking in the White Mountains of NH, staying at a rental house in North Conway. If the occasion of such a trip was mid-September or early October, and if I tuned to WBNC-AM 1050 shortly after sunrise, the station I heard was WHN-AM in NYC. Not WBNC with interference from WHN; just WHN. I am sure WBNC was on-the-air but its tower was down in Conway right where route 16 makes a left toward North Conway, 9 or ten miles away. Amazing.

 

[haverhill01835]

I'm not so concerned with translator hopping when it at least provides local service. 1450 will remain local, not unlike the translator on 99.9 out of Haverhill that "translates" a station of out Freeport, ME. Really? I can think of a few people who could make that 99.9 FM frequency a great LPFM station which would serve the community it's licensed to.

Just my $0.02.

Marc Lemay