WSEG AM 1400 dark? Or temporarily off the air

[drt]

I live in the St. Petersburg/Tampa dma and had not driven through Georgia in years; at any rate while scanning the AM band on Saturday the 17th of Aug on the way to Charleston,SC and then upon my return on Thursday, the 22nd of August; there was nothing on 1400; on the way, there were a lot of storms (Charleston had severe flooding and winds) and I thought that maybe they were temporarily off the air; but now I’m thinking like so many AM stations they are dark. Any info and time frame? Thanks.

 

[drt]

Should have mentioned this is/was a Savannah station; while in Charleston, I wasn’t picking it up, but that was no surprise considering Charleston, SC is a good distance away to receive a grave-yard station from Savannah, but while in Savannah, coming and going......nothing but dead air.

 

[seattlesarchiebunker]

I live in the St. Petersburg/Tampa dma and had not driven through Georgia in years; at any rate while scanning the AM band on Saturday the 17th of Aug on the way to Charleston,SC and then upon my return on Thursday, the 22nd of August; there was nothing on 1400; on the way, there were a lot of storms (Charleston had severe flooding and winds) and I thought that maybe they were temporarily off the air; but now I’m thinking like so many AM stations they are dark. Any info and time frame? Thanks.

Doubtful they went completely belly-up. They have a very good FM translator on 104.3 that seems to get out pretty well (had no problems picking it up in Bluffton back in the day). In addition, I do believe they are the ESPN affiliate for the area now since WFXH-AM on Hilton Head dropped it and 102.1 as well. So there’s probably some income to keep the lights on.

No actual answer on whether it’s dark or down for maintenance, but if both the AM and translator are off, there may be cause for concern. I do believe FM translators have been allowed to remain on the air if the AM is off for maintenance (via STA). However, there is nothing on the FCC regarding a STA being filed recently. And it appears their engineering staff do a good job of notifying the Feds of technical issues.

Based on this, I’d imagine a power failure or possibly a pre-emptive shut off if flooding would be a potential problem

 

[drt]

Doubtful they went completely belly-up. They have a very good FM translator on 104.3 that seems to get out pretty well (had no problems picking it up in Bluffton back in the day). In addition, I do believe they are the ESPN affiliate for the area now since WFXH-AM on Hilton Head dropped it and 102.1 as well. So there’s probably some income to keep the lights on.

No actual answer on whether it’s dark or down for maintenance, but if both the AM and translator are off, there may be cause for concern. I do believe FM translators have been allowed to remain on the air if the AM is off for maintenance (via STA). However, there is nothing on the FCC regarding a STA being filed recently. And it appears their engineering staff do a good job of notifying the Feds of technical issues.

Based on this, I’d imagine a power failure or possibly a pre-emptive shut off if flooding would be a potential problem

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Thank you seattlearchiebunker, I too had checked the FCC AM query site and had trouble with the site; only got the short version, not the more detailed version; but I did get enough info to notice there was not an STA; I had stopped at the Georgia Welcome Center as well as a gas station near downtown (not to get gasoline but to do a radio scan on the parking lot fringe! ), on their website, no mention of them being off the air and on the listen option, that is working; will have to keep listening online to see if I can get the TOH ID to see if the AM is mentioned; IIRC; the translator was on the air.

Thanks again; hope the AM didn’t go belly up but I know AM radio is becoming a quaint thing of the past and so many radios now are FM only, such as one of my HD radios.

drt