Would A Buyer Of WFME Be Able To Move To The ESB?

[Laurence Glavin]

If a buyer came along for WFME, what restrictions would apply to mving the transmitter site to the Empire State Building? For one thing, it would be slightly farther away from the 94.5 in Trenton, although it might yield a stronger signal in that direction. Would the 94.7 in Springfield be impacted?

 

[WNTIRadio]

They would either have to reduce power to a B1 or go directional. Going directional from ESB poses many problems, the first of which is that there is no tower space to do so. 4 Times Square might be an option, but I'm not sure what you exactly gain, other than bragging rights to say "NYC".

I would leave it where it is and do a country format, as it covers all of northern NJ very well. I would imagine that the area that suffers signal wise would be Brooklyn/Queens because of the cement, steel and glass mountains in the way.

It would also be a good addition to NJ 101.5 to give them solid coverage of the northern part of the state and perhaps keep listeners away from whatever 101.9 will be.

Of course, this is all assuming the station is for sale. I have received no reports that 94.7 is for sale. Of course, a failed rapture prediction can change a lot of things. Let's see what happens after 10/21 when nothing happens again (the supposed end of the universe according to Mr. Camping).

 

[badjef]

It all depends on who purchases it.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[TimeIsTight]

Could a new owner of WFME make the same kind of monetary deals with any co-channel or adjacent channel stations that might have their signals compromised that was made on the 103.5 frequency in New York when it was WYNY?

103.5 was originally licensed to Lake Success, NY. When they first put their transmitter on the World Trade Center they could not use the master FM antenna on the North Tower. They originally had to use their own directional antenna on the South Tower to protect WPRB 103.3 in Princeton, and WNNJ 103.7 in Newton, NJ. Eventually, they made financial deals with the two adjacent NJ stations, and were then able to use the master antenna and go non-directional. The deal involved WYNY paying to upgrade the two NJ adjacent stations and all three agreeing to permanently accept any mutual interference.

Moving WFME's 94.7 transmitter the approximately 15-miles East to the Empire State Building would put it that much closer to a co-channel in Springfield, Mass. but that station might only be giving up a relative handful of "theoretical" listeners somewhere around Waterbury, Connecticut if WFME moved. For the right price, could it not be persuaded to permanently give up those few, if any, theoretical listeners that are not in its primary advertising market anyway?

 

[radioguy39nj]

Moving WFME's 94.7 transmitter the approximately 15-miles East to the Empire State Building would put it that much closer to a co-channel in Springfield, Mass. but that station might only be giving up a relative handful of "theoretical" listeners somewhere around Waterbury, Connecticut if WFME moved. For the right price, could it not be persuaded to permanently give up those few, if any, theoretical listeners that are not in its primary advertising market anyway?

If the buyer were Citadel/Cumulus, the answer would be NO because Citadel or Cumulus (not sure which one) owns 94.7 in Springfield, MA. For any other operator, the answer would likely be YES. Just MHO!

You have a similar situation with 99.5. There's 99.5 in NY, 99.5 in Wilmington, DE (135 miles from NY) and 99.5 in DC (100 miles from Wilmington, DE). That's three 99.5's in less than 250 miles on the I-95 corridor.

 

[badjef]

It all depends on who purchases it.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

But, it WILL happen.
It is the old expresion: "Go where the people are."
The people are in the 5 boroughs.

Almost 7% of the U.S. population is.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[MarcB]

103.5 WKTU is still licensed to Lake Success.

94.7 WMAS-FM (yes it's still WMAS-FM even though their AM is now WHLL) in Springfield, Mass will continue to broadcast from the Springfield area, but their COL is changing to Enfield, Connecticut to take the place of 97.9 WPKX, which is changing it's COL to Windsor Locks, Connecticut and moving their tower from the Springfield area to downtown Hartford.

WMAS-FM is owned by Citadel, but don't forget Cumulus and Citadel got married so I guess in-directly they're owned by both.

 

[MarcB]

You have a similar situation with 99.5. There's 99.5 in NY, 99.5 in Wilmington, DE (135 miles from NY) and 99.5 in DC (100 miles from Wilmington, DE). That's three 99.5's in less than 250 miles on the I-95 corridor.

There's also 99.5 WCRB the Classical Station owned by WGBH in Lowell, Massachusetts near Boston. So that makes 4. Plus Connecticut Public Radio has a 99.5 translator in Storrs, Connecticut so that makes 5.

 

[davideduardo]

But, it WILL happen.
It is the old expresion: "Go where the people are."
The people are in the 5 boroughs.

Almost 7% of the U.S. population is.

The boroughs have just a bit under 8.5 million in population out of 18.6 million in the NY radio metro survey area. That would be more like just a bit under 3% of the population, not 7%. The entire MSA is amost exactly 6% of US population.

The New Jersey counties in the MSA have around 7 million. The rest is a slice of Fairfield County , Long Island and the Putnam/Westchester/Rockland area to the north.

 

[radioguy39nj]

94.7 WMAS-FM (yes it's still WMAS-FM even though their AM is now WHLL) in Springfield, Mass will continue to broadcast from the Springfield area, but their COL is changing to Enfield, Connecticut to take the place of 97.9 WPKX, which is changing it's COL to Windsor Locks, Connecticut and moving their tower from the Springfield area to downtown Hartford.

I guess that means any move by WFME to the ESB is now out of the question. If WMAS-FM will be broadcasting on 94.7 from downtown Hartford, a class B 94.7 on the ESB would be even more short-spaced than currently.

BTW, is 97.9 WPKX short-spacing WSKQ New York? ???

 

[reelyreal]

94.7 WMAS-FM (yes it's still WMAS-FM even though their AM is now WHLL) in Springfield, Mass will continue to broadcast from the Springfield area, but their COL is changing to Enfield, Connecticut to take the place of 97.9 WPKX, which is changing it's COL to Windsor Locks, Connecticut and moving their tower from the Springfield area to downtown Hartford.

I guess that means any move by WFME to the ESB is now out of the question. If WMAS-FM will be broadcasting on 94.7 from downtown Hartford, a class B 94.7 on the ESB would be even more short-spaced than currently.

BTW, is 97.9 WPKX short-spacing WSKQ New York? ???

The original post was a little confusing... 97.9 WPKX has an app in to move to downtown Hartford. In order to do that, they have to change their COL to Windsor Locks for community coverage reasons. As WPKX is the only station licensed to Enfield and considered their "first community service," WPKX had to find someone to be licensed to Enfield. Enter WMAS-FM. For agreeing to change their COL to Enfield and nothing else, they get use of a Clear Channel generator at a tower site out west somewhere. There are actually two other apps and another company involved in this shuffle, but that's irrelevant to this conversation.

Basically, WMAS-FM isn't changing their facilities, but it does show that current ownership is willing to make changes if the price is right.

 

[nd2023]

The 97.9s in Hartford and New York will be shortspaced. The 105.9s in New York and Meriden are shortspaced, it's a mess from Bridgeport to Stamford along 95 (along with the IBUZ from WBLI). And that's with WQXR much weaker than WHCN. Occasionally WHCN puts up a fight with WQXR in New Jersey. 97.9 moving to Hartford will be an even tighter short spacing.

 

[DToTheJ]

Of course... the whole "97.9 Hartford move-in" may not ever have happened, had CC not sold off 104.1 in the first place... :

 

[Bob1370]

Directionalization can solve a lot of co-channel interference problems. But it also makes the whole band a mess...look at what's happened on AM.

 

[badjef]

But, it WILL happen.
It is the old expresion: "Go where the people are."
The people are in the 5 boroughs.

Almost 7% of the U.S. population is.

The boroughs have just a bit under 8.5 million in population out of 18.6 million in the NY radio metro survey area. That would be more like just a bit under 3% of the population, not 7%. The entire MSA is amost exactly 6% of US population.

The New Jersey counties in the MSA have around 7 million. The rest is a slice of Fairfield County , Long Island and the Putnam/Westchester/Rockland area to the north.

I sai it is “almost 7%”. I did not have those figues in front of me.
More importantly, show me why the numbers wouldn’t work.
If not, then move 100.3 back to West Orange.
Show me a concentration of potential listeners in New Jersey that would be better than moving to ESSB.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

P.S. Ghandi was right, but the teaching is reversed. Dogma follows consistency of beliefs.