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WTAM on FM? Translator, that is...

OhioMediaWatch

OhioMediaWatch

When Clear Channel bought forlorn translator W262BN/100.3 Lorain, the same translator Radio One was trying to buy and move east (before being shot down by WNIR/100.1's complaints), I wondered...was the thing destined to be a downtown Cleveland fill translator for WTAM/1100?

CC had done so with a translator for 50 kW sports powerhouse KFAN/1130 in Minneapolis, after all.

Well, they've done it in Portland OR for a very similar station to WTAM, 50 kW talker KEX/1190, now heard on a translator at 102.3 FM (K272EL), and promoted on the air frequently and on the KEX website.

http://www.1190kex.com/main.html

Like WTAM, KEX generally needs no signal help, even in downtown.

Is CC starting to plant these "now heard on FM!" flags, using translators so they don't have to sacrifice successful full-power FMs?

Will Triv be eating on the FM dial soon, whenever this translator moves (probably to another frequency as its final resting place, 99.1 maybe?)?

W262BN has a CP now for 99.7 FM, which CC can do because it owns the affected station (WGAR/99.5), and it obviously won't stay on first adjacent to WGAR.
 
I'm speculating that the translator will end up being on 99.1 with a stick on Cleveland's near west side. Would make sense for WTAM to use the translator. It would help penetration into office buildings and give listeners another place to find them. Hopefully, some new listeners will catch the programming on FM, get hooked, and then tune it in on 1100 when out of the range of the FM signal.
 
Plus for play-by-play purposes... it can't hurt to have an FM relay. (Quicken Loans Arena actually has a mini AM transmitter within the building set to 1100 AM that relays WTAM's audio live during Cavaliers games.)

And if CC can disgronificate the translator to cover as maximum of an area as possible - their ability to manipulate translators for WIOD/Miami and KEX/Portland is actually pretty impressive - it should be a safe guess that W282BN will cover Downtown Cleveland and most of the inner-ring suburbs.

I'd also think that 99.1 would be a good logical point to place W282BN on, it's far away enough from WFRO/99.1 Fremont to not cause any interference. Plus if I were CC, I'd place the transmitter in Downtown Cleveland itself- either on the Terminal Tower or at the CSU Rhodes Tower (where WCSB/89.3's transmitter is located at).
 
I'm not so sure getting the signal into the Q for games is a big deal here.

Clear Channel seems to be following a pattern here...get a "decent enough" FM translator to put enough signal in the core of the market...just enough to say "(AM station name)...now on FM!".

The end game here may be on an existing tower somewhere in the Parma farm.

Look at Miami, Portland OR, etc.

There is a competitive full-market FM talker now in Portland (KXL), but there's no competitive pressure in FM English language talk in Miami at all. And for that matter, there's very little AM English language talk competition in Miami...
 
I wonder if a WTAM translator somewhere on the east side would be a good idea. Whenever I'm at my grandparents house in Mayfield, I notice WTAM fades at night. Not severely, but enough to be annoying. I assume Mayfield is in the skywave/groundwave cancellation zone, but I thought it would be farther away from Parma than that. WTAM booms in strongly in Kent all day and all night.
 
The only station that would stop that translator from landing on 99.1 would be WGAR.... and guess who owns WGAR. Both KEX and KFAN are quite directional at night so a translator does fulfill a bona fide need to fill in the signal. The main reason for WTAM to broadcast on FM is another shot of listeners who generally don't "browse" the AM band. If WTAM needed to fill in anywhere it would probably be in Lake County where poor ground conductivity and adjacent channel interference from Canada cause some problems along the lake. Before CC sold it I though it might have made sense to simulcast WTAM on 97.1. That signal could be moved close to Mentor and could have given 1100 both a boost in Lake County and a, albeit a rimshot, FM address.
 
The application has been filed to move the translator to 99.1. It will be a pretty decent facility.... 250 watts from one of the tower sites in Parma behind Rustic Trail off Broadview Road. Coverage will encompass Westlake to the west, Brunswick. Richfield, and Cleveland Heights. Because of a null in the pattern it won't have good coverage in Solon or Twinsburg. Still better coverage than a lot of Cleveland AM's have. Here's the link to the coverage map: http://maps.google.com/?q=http://ww...&freq=99.1&contour=60&city=CLEVELAND&state=OH
 
Whoever had 99.1 and Parma in the pool, you win! :)

Here's the engineering for it (PDF):

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101423264&qnum=5120&copynum=1&exhcnum=1

Looks ilke its 54 dbU contour will cover pretty much all of Cuyahoga County.

That null to the southeast is to protect WMXY/98.9 Youngstown...which of course, is also owned by Clear Channel. I wonder if they can loosen that up, or are just living with it because the other coverage is pretty much OK.

Looks like they lit up on 99.7 earlier this month, just long enough to file a cover on it!
 
SonoSational18 said:
The application has been filed to move the translator to 99.1. It will be a pretty decent facility.... 250 watts from one of the tower sites in Parma behind Rustic Trail off Broadview Road. Coverage will encompass Westlake to the west, Brunswick. Richfield, and Cleveland Heights. Because of a null in the pattern it won't have good coverage in Solon or Twinsburg. Still better coverage than a lot of Cleveland AM's have. Here's the link to the coverage map: http://maps.google.com/?q=http://ww...&freq=99.1&contour=60&city=CLEVELAND&state=OH
Click to expand...

Plus, you throw W282BN in mono, and that cuts down on the interference in fringe areas, too. Since WTAM naturally has a spoken word format, they can get away with it easily.

I also see that the tower W282BN will be landing at is... the WMJI/105.7 tower in Parma... right in middle of a tower cluster that includes towers for WKYC, WBNX and WQHS.

This is a best-case scenario for CC/Cleveland: they are able to put WTAM on FM without blowing up any of their established FM sister stations, and not risk watering down the AM signal in total. It also makes up for Cleveland's lack of a youthful demographic, and for WTAM's strong performance on the AM dial.

For WTAM, this is icing on the cake - AND a direct swipe at WKNR, who has been trying to court younger listeners with their non-sports sports programming a la tRBS. It's not a preemptive move, mind you... because WKNR has no FM sister station, and probably never will.
 
I just wanted to make one thing clear...the use of W262BN or whatever it becomes at 99.1 as a WTAM translator is my own speculation.

It would appear to be a good educated guess based on the company's recent moves in other markets like Miami and Portland.

I mean, they could put punk country or polka on the thing, but I don't consider it likely :)

CC refers to it as W259BI in its 99.7 incarnation, calls that I can't see on the FCC site otherwise. (I'm pretty sure you can't track translator calls in Call Sign Query, and CDBS still calls it W262BN.)

It'll be W256(whatever) on 99.1.
 
What if -

They used it for the HD-2 channel of 106.5 which airs the CC traditional AC "Sunny" format. It would give in office opportunities for a new soft rock station in between WMJI and WDOK, which plays Lady Gaga and Rihanna like most AC's today.
From what I've read, HD-2 stations are still commercial free. (Not sure about 99x in Atlanta) and it would give them a unique position. At work listening with little or no commercials compared to 16 minutes elsewhere.


Just a thought.
 
John Baylor said:
What if -

They used it for the HD-2 channel of 106.5 which airs the CC traditional AC "Sunny" format. It would give in office opportunities for a new soft rock station in between WMJI and WDOK, which plays Lady Gaga and Rihanna like most AC's today.
From what I've read, HD-2 stations are still commercial free. (Not sure about 99x in Atlanta) and it would give them a unique position. At work listening with little or no commercials compared to 16 minutes elsewhere.


Just a thought.
Click to expand...

That wouldn't be unheard of. In fact, relaying 106.5-2 would be a very nifty second option for 99.1 outside of a WTAM simulcast.

Stations like "99X ON 97.9" in Atlanta (WNNX/99.7-2 and WWHQ/100.5-2) and "100.7 The Zone" in Toledo (WXKR/94.5-2) have found second lives on the non-HD terrestrial dial via translators. (I'd have to check on either station, but given their newfound analog presence, they probably do run ads... albeit a small amount.) In fact, "99X ON 97.9" is - if I'm not mistaken - the flagship station for the Atlanta Hawks!
 
The only problem with this idea is that CC hasn't seemed to have done it elsewhere, where Cumulus does it (as noted) in a lot of places.

Based on their recent history in other markets, I'm still betting on a WTAM simulcast.

I could very much be wrong.
 
According to the FCC's PDF file link provided, it states at the beginning:

"This application is to request a change to its 3rd
adjacent channel, as well as a change of location, and antenna
type of translator station W259BI. The facility will continue to be utilized as a “fill-in” translator for primary
station WGAR."

To me this sounds like a translator for WGAR, not WTAM, which doesn't make sense to me as it would be covering an area which is in WGAR's primary 50K watt signal area. However, on this Board, sounds like the freq. could be used by WTAM. What am I not getting here?
 
dannykewl said:
According to the FCC's PDF file link provided, it states at the beginning:

"This application is to request a change to its 3rd
adjacent channel, as well as a change of location, and antenna
type of translator station W259BI. The facility will continue to be utilized as a “fill-in” translator for primary
station WGAR."

To me this sounds like a translator for WGAR, not WTAM, which doesn't make sense to me as it would be covering an area which is in WGAR's primary 50K watt signal area. However, on this Board, sounds like the freq. could be used by WTAM. What am I not getting here?
Click to expand...

My guess is that they used the WGAR designation for testing purposes - i.e., placing W262BN/W259BI on 99.7 in North Ridgeville and likely firing up the equipment over there for a cup of coffee. It must have worked perfectly - no one knew that it ever was on the air at 99.7, whenever that took place.

I presume that whenever the equipment for W262BN/W259BI gets put on the WMJI tower, WGAR will also be temporarily relayed. If W262BN/W259BI does eventually simulcast WTAM, 1100 also could be relayed on 99.5-3 (as 99.5-2 is "classic county") - which should cover for being a translator for WGAR.

They also probably did that to alleviate any possible signal issues for WGAR itself when moving to 99.1 - while CC now owns them both, you don't want to accidentally impair either station's signal.
 
Are you speaking as the Primary editorial voice or the secondary?


OhioMediaWatch said:
The only problem with this idea is that CC hasn't seemed to have done it elsewhere, where Cumulus does it (as noted) in a lot of places.

Based on their recent history in other markets, I'm still betting on a WTAM simulcast.

I could very much be wrong.
Click to expand...
 
RF Man said:
Are you speaking as the Primary editorial voice or the secondary?


OhioMediaWatch said:
The only problem with this idea is that CC hasn't seemed to have done it elsewhere, where Cumulus does it (as noted) in a lot of places.

Based on their recent history in other markets, I'm still betting on a WTAM simulcast.

I could very much be wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

"OhioMediaWatch" is the Primary Editorial Voice for the blog. For the record, I'm the Secondary Voice.
 
Nathan Obral said:
"OhioMediaWatch" is the Primary Editorial Voice for the blog. For the record, I'm the Secondary Voice.
Click to expand...

And anyone who saw your WP account picture in the subscription mailers knows this. :D

I'm the only one who has access to this R-I login, and if you see the "ohiomediawatch" login above a new post on the blog itself, it's mine. Nathan does not have either this log-in info, or to the info for the main "ohiomediawatch" WP account. Or, to the Gmail account, as I have to bounce him stuff to his own E-mail when I'm on hiatus.

Now, what's the point...am I about to look bad by predicting an FM translator simulcast of WTAM? I did say (both here and on the blog) that I could be wrong, and it's mostly speculation on my part based on the company's recent moves to do so in other markets.

For the record, I'm hearing nothing about this out of Oak Tree, one way or another, but I haven't really asked yet...
 
I know they list WGAR-FM as the station to re-broadcast but I am really willing to bet as speculated here by others that they will NOT waste that translator on a rebroadcast of a 50kw FM when it's all said and done. Clear Channel isn't that silly :)
 
There is indeed no need to give WGAR a second, less powerful frequency just down the FM dial.

CC does apparently (based on what they've done in Portland and Miami) see the need to use a signal like this to put a powerhouse AM talker onto the FM band.

Again, I could very well be wrong. What other market-hole-filling options does CC have?
 
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