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WNKO 101.7 Get CP for New Albany
- Thread starter Allfirdup
- Start date
What a surprise that the FCC sleazed out yet again by doing exactly what they claim they will not do...allowing a small market station to move to a larger market to increase revenue. :
The only question remaining is which of the owners in the market will pay way too much for that signal just to get a 1 or 2 share like the rest of the Class A signals trying to compete with the big boys.
The only question remaining is which of the owners in the market will pay way too much for that signal just to get a 1 or 2 share like the rest of the Class A signals trying to compete with the big boys.CatFM said:What a surprise that the FCC sleazed out yet again by doing exactly what they claim they will not do...allowing a small market station to move to a larger market to increase revenue. :
There are actually two stations that are moving into bigger markets here. Dayton gets a rimshot too: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WKSW&service=FM&status=C&hours=U
They have been doing this all over the country, but they claim they don't allow it. They must think we are all stupid or not paying attention. After allowing a station in Laramie, Wyoming, to move to Denver*, they then allowed the station that replaced it in Laramie to move to Fort Collins, Colorado. The replacement is still licensed to Laramie, but the transmitter was moved to serve Fort Collins, and of course, that is where the studio and offices are. One of the real goofy moves they allowed was a station in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, to move to Cheyenne, Wyoming. They didn't license it to Cheyenne, but rather to Warren Air Force Base, which is on the edge of Cheyenne. Who ever heard of a full power commercial station being licensed to an Air Force Base?
*The Denver station I refer to is licensed to a podunk town about 60 miles north of Denver, but the station operates from offices and studios in downtown Denver. When it went on the air, all of the promotions proclaimed it "Denver's newest radio station" so let's face it...it's essentially a Denver station, regardless of what the license says.
It's the same situation as WLZT. Forget about Ashville. It's just a name on a license. The station is in Columbus, pure and simple. What did their promotions say after they moved? "Columbus' newest radio station."
*The Denver station I refer to is licensed to a podunk town about 60 miles north of Denver, but the station operates from offices and studios in downtown Denver. When it went on the air, all of the promotions proclaimed it "Denver's newest radio station" so let's face it...it's essentially a Denver station, regardless of what the license says.
It's the same situation as WLZT. Forget about Ashville. It's just a name on a license. The station is in Columbus, pure and simple. What did their promotions say after they moved? "Columbus' newest radio station."
CatFM said:
Look at the new CP for a 1030 licensed to Maxwell AFB, Alabama
Or the exsisting Am licensed to Camp Lejuene, NC
I believe there is also a pending AM CP in Montana licensed to an Airforce base.
Another Nebraska station has filed to move to Wyoming and they already operate from studios in Cheyenne, being heard in Cheyenne on a translator being fed by a Class A 60 miles away.
When it became the new thing to change the city of license of a station in order to move it closer to a large market, a number of applications specified little podunk towns that were too small to be considered. The FCC established a few guidelines as to minimum requirements for a location to be eligible for a station license. As I remember, one of those requirements was that the location must have an elected local goverment, such as a mayor, city council, etc. With that in mind, it seems unlikely a military base could qualify since there isn't exactly an elected local government. The whole idea of licensing a full power commercial broadcast station to a military base seems pretty questionable. A lower power non-commercial station might be easier to justify for a use like that. Of course, the FCC does as it pleases, even if something contradicts their own rules.
CatFM said:
And i think, in the FCC's eyes, a military base is it's own community.. 'cuse they have their own services there.. a fire department, police, and Im sure they have a post office.
the interesting question is... Will 101.7 keep it's "Classic Hits" format when it moves to New Albany?
Looking at the latest Ratings book.... if 101.7 kept the same format they would stand a chance to do well in Columbus... their current share is beating other stations in the market from their distant newark location.
CatFM said:
WCVQ-107.9 has been licensed to Fort Campbell, Kentucky for decades. There's been a 6,000-watt AM station licensed to Camp Lejeune, NC for quite a while as well.
The presence of an elected local government is one of several criteria the FCC will accept as evidence of a bonafide community. It's not an absolute requirement, if you can meet some of the other criteria.
There are a LOT of military personnel (and their civilian families) living on-post at Fort Campbell. There are streets and parking lots and businesses on-post. I think they're certainly entitled to broadcast service.
Is a 100,000-watt Class C1 station necessary? [0] Probably not, a Class A operation would probably provide a good strong city-grade signal across the residence areas of the base. Then again, we have an awful lot of civilian stations running a whole lot more power than is necessary to cover the city-of-license. Surely 96.3 doesn't need 18,000 watts and a 700-foot tower to cover Columbus -- 107.5 is doing it with 2,000 watts and about 400 feet..
[0] to cover the entire base, yes it is...
w9wi said:
They may be entitled to it, but they won't really get it from these guys. As with the rest, it's just a name on a piece of paper. The station isn't there and does nothing to serve the community, unless you call running a public service program at 5 AM on a Sunday once in a while public service.
It would be refreshing to see when the FCC states that a certain community is entitled to have a broadcast station, there is some effort made to ensure that station really does maintain a local presence to serve the community, which everybody knows is not going to happen when the station sets up shop more than 50 miles away in a big city.
In the case of licensing a station to a military base, it would be impossible to demand that the station be located within the base to satisfy the requirement of city of license (if there was one) and still afford public access to the station because of security on the base.
CatFM said:What a surprise that the FCC sleazed out yet again by doing exactly what they claim they will not do...allowing a small market station to move to a larger market to increase revenue. :
The FCC dismissed all of the Informal Objections for the WNKO-FM move-in to New Albany in what seems
to be record time. I was expecting this to drag on for years but the FCC granted WNKO-FM a CP
in just eighteen months time dispute all of the objections to the WNKO-FM move in. The same date
the FCC dismissed all the objections they granted WNKO-FM a C.P.
This is from the FCC website:
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http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws...cation_id=1178308&File_number=BPH-20070323ADB
Public Notice Comment
BPH-20070323ADB Minor change in licensed facilities.
Eight Informal Objections filed 5/29/07
Informal Objection filed 5/25/2007
Informal Objectin filed 6-13-2007 (Scott)
Informal Objection filed 6/29/2007 (Chapman)
Informal Objection filed 7/9/2007 (Hempleman)
Supplement to Informal Objection filed 7/2/2007 (Chapman)
Second Supplement to Informal Objection filed 7/20/2007
(Chapman)
Informal Objection filed 7/23/2007 (Couzens)
Informal Objection filed 7/23/2007 (BPRF)
Supplement to Informal Objection filed 8/7/2007
Informal Objectiion filed 11/19/2007 (Stephen)
Reply to Informal Objection Filed 04/28/2008 by Runnymede Inc
All informal objections dismissed by letter 10/14/2008
Application granted by letter 10/14/2008
CatFM said:
Not true.. I've seen petitions to deny actually change the otucome. I've also seen petitions to deny hold things up for YEARS.
I won't mention the specific place, but there was an AM CP recently granted out west, the owners wanted to sell it to someone else before it was even built. The guy in town who owns the majority of stations filed a complaint saying that they (the CP owners) filed in the first place just to sell the CP and had no intention of building it.
As i recall, the outcome was that the CP will have to be built before it's sold.
A good example of a recent local case where objections were blown off was the WLZT move. When Clear Channel applied to change to city of license to Ashville after moving the transmitter from Chillicothe to Williamsport on the old Channel 53 tower, a number of objections were filed by local owners, including Saga, North American, and even the owners of WCLT as I remember, stating that it was obvious Clear Channel was moving 93.3 to Columbus in several steps. They stated in their objections that they would not oppose the city of license change on the condition the FCC imposed the restriction that the 93.3 transmitter location could not be moved any closer to Columbus after the station was relicensed to Ashville, since that was the obvious reason for the request. Of course, the FCC dismissed all of the objections and granted the city of license change, and of course, the ink wasn't even dry on the license before Clear Channel applied to move the transmitter to Obetz. It was in that ruling that the FCC made the silly statement that they do not allow small market stations to move to larger markets just to increase revenue.
Regarding licensees who obtain licenses with the intention of selling them without ever building the station, that has been going on for years. There have been several scandals surrounding the abuses of the system. You may remember the people they shut down for running a scam where they had people applying for new FM licenses all over the country, not because they wanted to build and operate a station, but because they were hoping to be paid off to drop their applications by the serious applicants. One of the people indicted for that was a broadcast lawyer in DC who was originally from Ohio. It's hard to say how the FCC made the case that what they were doing was illegal since the rules left the system wide open to such abuse. However, one major change the FCC made in an effort to curb the abuse of people who won construction permits with the intention of selling them for a huge profit without anything ever being built was to stipulate that such unbuilt CPs could only be sold for the amount of money the holder had invested in legal and engineering fees, so no real profit could be realized. I'm not sure that rule is in effect since there have been so many changes recently, but I haven't seen any unbuilt CPs sold for a long time for the ridiculous amounts they once brought.
Regarding licensees who obtain licenses with the intention of selling them without ever building the station, that has been going on for years. There have been several scandals surrounding the abuses of the system. You may remember the people they shut down for running a scam where they had people applying for new FM licenses all over the country, not because they wanted to build and operate a station, but because they were hoping to be paid off to drop their applications by the serious applicants. One of the people indicted for that was a broadcast lawyer in DC who was originally from Ohio. It's hard to say how the FCC made the case that what they were doing was illegal since the rules left the system wide open to such abuse. However, one major change the FCC made in an effort to curb the abuse of people who won construction permits with the intention of selling them for a huge profit without anything ever being built was to stipulate that such unbuilt CPs could only be sold for the amount of money the holder had invested in legal and engineering fees, so no real profit could be realized. I'm not sure that rule is in effect since there have been so many changes recently, but I haven't seen any unbuilt CPs sold for a long time for the ridiculous amounts they once brought.
CatFM said:
...all of whom would gladly do the same thing if they could. They're quick to complain about the travesty of a move-in, except when it's THEIR OWN move-in. How much is Saga's Smooth Jazz duo serving their cities of license??
It is a travesty. Everyone's acting in their own self-interest. But so am I as a Columbus listener. If a move-in has a chance of bringing Columbus some of the great stuff that's available virtually everywhere else but missing here, I'm all for it. Trouble is, that desired outcome happens with many move-ins elsewhere, but not here. We get crap and duplication instead. The situation is especially true (and especially frustrating) if the move-in has a decent signal. That's the REAL travesty as far as I'm concerned, with WLZT being the penultimate example of wasting a precious big-signal move-in. Even co-owned Class A 105.7 is nearly a share ahead of them 12+ in the Summer book.
CatFM said:
It may have been obvious what they were doing with 93.3.. but they had no acutal evidence did they? I mean, nothing on paper or recorded with someone from Clear Channel saying that did they? THen they were out of luck.
When it comes to Petitions to Deny unless you have real, hard proof.. its going to be tough for the FCC to turn it down.. as long as everything works technically, theres almost no standing to have it denied or dismissed.
radioguybroadcasting said:
The hard proof is that they were moving a small market Chillicothe station to large market Columbus in order to increase revenue, which is exactly what the FCC says it will not allow, just as they moved Marysville and Marion to Columbus. Everyone, including the FCC can see what is going on. If a guy wearing a ski mask and carrying a gun walks into a liquor store, is there any doubt as to his intentions, and do you really need to wait until he pulls the trigger to do something?
As with so many of the moves, claiming to serve Ashville, Dublin, or Hilliard as a first local service is ridiculous since all three of those cities are already covered by city grade signals of numerous stations in the Columbus market. In the case of Ashville, the claim to be a first local service is pretty thin when the studio and transmitter of the station aren't even located in the same county. So Ashville ends up with another city grade signal over it. How does that benefit them any more than any of the other city grade signals that were already there just because their locality gets mentioned once per hour on a legal ID?
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