I have...WLBH 96.9 Mattoon,IL is licensed for 50KW at 499' but when I often hear a mix of 96.9 from Paris KY & 96.9 from Paducah,KY in the car within 30 miles of the WLBH stick, that tells me it's probably running a few hundred watts. I posted that observation on the Illinois board a year or two ago...everyone agreed that it's been on flea power for years, no one knew why. Not sure if they are aware of it or not..if they are, shame on 'em.KyDXIn said:
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WSGS Service Area Reduction
- Thread starter BobOnTheJob
- Start date
Getting back to my original question...why is WSGS doing this?
KyDXIn said:
It has to do with ownership. The Anderson family own lots of things. This includes a bank, a paper, and originally two radio stations. When the patriarch passed away twenty years ago the other properties were allowed to proceed but the radio staff was dismissed and the stations have been on auto pilot ever since. The idea was to sell the properties but they have been picky on the purchaser and want way too much money. Ironically, the Andersons purchased their competition in Muhlenberg County as well as the Hartford stations. WNES 1050 runs ESPN when it is on the air. WKYA 105.5 runs oldies. WXMZ 106.3 runs oldies at 150 percent modulation while its sister AM 1600 has been dark for years.
WKLO is no problem here even though I'm 23 miles from 97.1 in Indy. Actually, I'm the engineer for WKLO so I'm pretty familiar with the station. It and WUME run out of the same studio & while WKLO is farther south, it seems to go farther north than WUME. Speaking of stations in your area, WSEZ 1560 in Paoli just became "Destination Radio 1560" on Friday...it'll be focused on catching the folks who are coming & going to/from the tourist area around French Lick & the casino. Can you hear that one at all or does your local on 1550 make that impossible?KyDXIn said:
Back to WSGS, I attempted to email them & ask why they were doing that. After several days of "sorry, there's been a delay in delivery of your email, their server is not accepting our request for delivery" messages, it looks like they can't be contacted by email either.
So the reason for the move is so they no longer have to pay rent to WYMT? When they drop from Class C to Class C0 as a result, other stations may be dropped in a s result & that could further impact their massive coverage. They were operating at greatly reduced power a year or so ago...are they back to full power from WYMT?jodyeng said:
I gathered that they had a failure & an STA to run reduced power until they move. That's been a while. WSGS used to be here in my driveway 100 miles NW of Lexington several times a year. Nowadays they are almost never there on the APS-13 yagi...which used to be a 24/7/365 presence. With as hard as it is to cover those mountains, I'm really surprised that they haven't fixed this long before now. What a massive signal it was...
Speaking of stations in your area, WSEZ 1560 in Paoli just became "Destination Radio 1560" on Friday...it'll be focused on catching the folks who are coming & going to/from the tourist area around French Lick & the casino. Can you hear that one at all or does your local on 1550 make that impossible?
I can't get WSEZ here due to WOCC 1550 in Corydon and WNDA 1570 in New Albany. I had to drive out Hwy. 150 west of Palmyra before I began to receive it. BTW, WOCC is now being simulcast over 102.7, covering the county. I'm surprised they picked this frequency with a transmitter or translator in Louisville, and with another transmitter for WLME 102.9 at Lewisport, KY. I used to get often here even though its only its only 2250 watts on a 400 ft stick.
I can't get WSEZ here due to WOCC 1550 in Corydon and WNDA 1570 in New Albany. I had to drive out Hwy. 150 west of Palmyra before I began to receive it. BTW, WOCC is now being simulcast over 102.7, covering the county. I'm surprised they picked this frequency with a transmitter or translator in Louisville, and with another transmitter for WLME 102.9 at Lewisport, KY. I used to get often here even though its only its only 2250 watts on a 400 ft stick.
KyDXIn said:
WLME is actually on 102.7 now ... I can't remember exactly when it happened (maybe a couple of years ago?), but if memory serves, the move was to reduce/eliminate the interference with 103GBF out of Evansville. If that was the reason, it worked: I can get 'GBF pretty nicely nowadays, whereas I couldn't before.
Destination Radio is long gone.KyDXIn said:
I set the audio up on the 102.7 translator...it's got a nice antenna on a short tower. That 102.7 frequency has been licensed to Corydon for quite some time originally carrying WJLR 91.5/Seymour. The change to carrying 1550 WOCC is a recent happening. Note that the audio is the 10khz mono audio that also feeds the AM transmitter, so it won't be 15khz stereo but it does give them a presence on the FM band.
It does give the music a good clean sound in mono. I haven't driven out to the west lately but wonder what the interference sounds like over Crawford and Perry Counties. I used to get WLME here at the house loud and clear when it was on 102.9, even with the old 103.1 WRKA 25 miles away in Louisville.BobOnTheJob said:
Any idea when the change will happen? Are they still at 100,000 watts now?jodyeng said:
WSGS is still full Class C status and they are saying on the air they are switching to a more powerful transmitter and new antenna in the next few days. I've always heard that FM antennas on TV towers don't perform that well. That is probably the reason they are returning to their original tower where they were for 20 years. I use to listen to them here in Knoxville during that time. They are saying on the air that they will be switching to the new system, back to 100 KW soon.
I used to listen to them in Lexington....even had a button pre-set on my car radio... For quite a while, perhaps a year or more, they have been a "no show" here unless there is some serious tropo conditions going on. Even in Richmond, much closer to Hazard than Lexington, they are weaker.
They are at reduced power right now. Getting ready to blow the roof off again.
shreveville said:
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?sr=Y&s=C&call=WSgS&x=11&y=6
They are losing some 250 + feet HAAT. They will be a "C1" instead of "C". The coverage looks like the same but there is a slight difference the "adjacent" frequencies' protection. Some hills are better than other hills. What impact on the electric bill will depend on the # of bays. If they own the tower then no rent! A side mounted antenna (usually used when a FM is on a TV tower) can be very effective. A huge # of FM stations use side mounted antennas. I do not know the percentage, but I will guess 90%*+ use side mounted antennas. Proper mounting, and engineering of the bays can overcome any "null" caused by the steel in the tower. It appears that this is a "dual" polarized FM 100KW Horizontal and 88KW vertical. I assume the new setup will be "circular" polarized. IMHO, circular polarization is the best.
* I do not recall any "top" mounted FM radiators sticking up like TV stations use. I know a bunch FM's have the Antenna on the top of the steel tower and a couple even have a bay or 2 sticking above the steel tower, but all I have seen are mounted on the side of the top section of tower with a tower light on the top.
I can name at least one FM top-mounted that was previously mentioned in this thread: WKDQ. See Fybush's page for the photo. http://www.fybush.com/site-011212.html
I believe that WSTO is top-mounted as well, but do not have a photo for proof!
I believe that WSTO is top-mounted as well, but do not have a photo for proof!
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