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WZEW adds an HD subchannel

tomservo

tomservo

It was mentioned in the WYCT goes HD thread over in the Florida section that WZEW has also begun broadcasting in HD. Checked the signal again yesterday morning and noticed they added a subchannel, "92 ZEW Christmas".

I'm right on the knife-edge of being able to pick up the HD signal here in Foley, so there may be another subchannel, too, that I'm not seeing. It'll be interesting to see what they do with it after the holidays. On their website, it seems the Christmas HD2 channel is in addition to the New Music and Blues streams they already have.
 
Yeah, which is surprising. Last I'd heard, when these translator CPs were first issued a few years ago, was that the GM of WZEW was livid because his station was listed as the parent to two of these (96.5 and 101.1?) but no one bothered to ask WZEW's people for permission first.

96.5 W243CY is the last of the Mobile translators to not be put on the air in some capacity* and it's already listed as being 50 watts from the ZEW tower south of I-10. Of course 50 watts from there is serving fish and industrial estates and not much else. There's nothing in the works yet to boost it to a bigger signal, although I'm sure it can be done with some creative thinking.

* — 92.5 W223BX may have been on the air briefly, but no one can tell me for sure. It's listed as rebroadcasting WRKH-HD3's Freedom Radio FM format, which is currently heard on the 101.1 translator. I could see a last-minute substitution for WZEW-HD2 going on here, as it's allegedly all built out and just waiting to be turned on. That might mean 96.5 is destined longer-term to go to someone else, or become an outlet for a future HD3 channel from Zew.
 
just following what i've been reading on the zew facebook and what they've said on air, the transmitter had taken so many beatings from weather and repairs it eventually became easier to replace. so, with that replacement, apparently also came the addition of HD subchannels. At one point they were reporting a weakened transmission signal and that they were working on it - and a few weeks later the new transmitter appeared - so that is where I am coming to this conclusion....

important fact: i don't even live in the Mobile market anymore but I never stopped listening to WZEW after graduating college from USA....
 
and they've had as many as four different streams before - - so I assumed naturally they'd put one or more on subchannels
 
Well, things are getting interesting.

I'm behind on my daily digests, but a few days ago Edgewater filed to boost the power of their 92.5 and 96.5 translators to 250 watts each. The 96.5 one is on the WZEW tower, while the 92.5 one is up in Mobile. 96.5 is listed as repeating WZEW-HD2 and 92.5 is listed for WZEW-HD3. "How about that, isn't that something."
 
Why is 96.5 using WZEW's tower down south instead of the 106.5 tower in town?

Is there something I don't know about the demographics within 10-15 miles of WZEW's tower?



Zach, are you keeping an eye on WYCT and the yet-to-sign-on Pensacola translators? Based on local chatter and a conversation with a dude from Cat Country, in 2018 I expect ADX to launch new formats on 94.5, 95.3 and 99.1 along with a major signal upgrade for WNRP (and I'm not referencing the 98.7-HD4 simulcast) to cover all or most of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. They claim Baldwin county will also be covered by WNRP, but I'm skeptical.
 
I'm pretty sure that 96.5 being on WZEW's tower is just because it's cheaper to stick it on their tower than lease out one somewhere else. Or maybe there's a spacing issue I'm not aware of. The demographics immediately around that tower site, from what I can tell, are trees and industrial buildings! But the secondary coverage area does include a lot of the midtown area as well as Fairhope on the Eastern Shore. So maybe they're hoping it'll skip over the open water. It's going to get killed by even mild tropo though; WZNS is like a local here many nights, even over into Fairhope and Point Clear. If they paired it up with the 92.3 translator licensed to Saraland for one format, it'd make a pretty good run of covering most of the Mobile side of the bay. But 92.3 is destined for a different format. I think WZEW is doing local music? on their HD3 now to feed it, but I dunno if it's actually on air yet or not.

I haven't really been keeping an eye on WYCT's programming. They don't seem to be in much of a hurry to do anything, and I don't get to Pensacola enough to really keep an ear on those translators.

You're right to be skeptical of WNRP expanding coverage significantly. They're on that 92.3 translator now, and have a permit for one on 95.3 that will broadcast from the WYCT tower up in the boonies in Baldwin County, but it's directional away from Mobile so it won't cover much but cows and trees over here, and Cantonment and Beulah and places like that up around I-10. The AM certainly can't expand coverage any more that I know of. Dunno how they would expect it to reach Baldwin and Santa Rosa Counties except as a weak secondary signal from one of the translators.

Now what ADX does with 94.5 and 99.1 is anyone's guess. They're both going to be hammered by tropo in the summer, though. I think that is pretty much guaranteed.
 
Yep. Meanwhile, Edgewater continues to list WZEW as the parent for the 101.1 translator in Mobile. It's still carrying Freedom Radio FM via WRHK-HD3 I believe. I'm interested to see if Dot Com Plus can move the 96.5 translator to a more favorable location like co-locating it with the 92.5 one on Shelton Beach Road. Where it is now, it mostly covers industrial wasteland and Mobile Bay.
 
Could Zew move 96.5 to the Eastern Shore and run 92.1 HD2 on both 92.5 and 96.5 while taking the Freedom Radio lease from iHeart and moving it to WZEW HD3?
 
Edgewater owns the translator and the Freedom Radio FM brand, so I don't expect it to go anywhere unless iHeart terminates the lease for some reason. But I don't see why 96.5 couldn't hop across the bay. I wouldn't go any further east than Fairhope though since Z 96.5 out of FWB booms in here during tropo, and is a decent easy catch even in normal conditions.
 
If Zew doesn't create an Eastern Shore-Mobile translator simulcast, the best format for 92.5 in Mobile is Classic Hip Hop.
 
I see Zew is making some changes.
Has there been any indication that Zew may use 92.5 and 96.5 to simulcast on different sides of the bay or is it assumed 2 new translators and formats are coming to Mobile?
 
In the applications for the translators, one had been listed for an HD2 channel and one for an HD3 channel, but ZEW never added a third HD channel, so… They may wind up trying to do some sort of simulcast. I guess a 250 translator will make it across the bay alright until the atmosphere kicks into high gear.

I tried to get some info from the station but they are keeping mum. I caught a few minutes of the HD2 last night; it appears to be a loop of "Tarkus" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, then a promo for "something coming soon up from the bay" or something to that effect. Then back into the ELP song.

Kind of surprised to hear that on the HD2, I thought for sure it'd be 92 Blues like it was after Christmas. Hard to believe that they'd relegate that format to online only when they have two translators to play with now.
 
Alex_0490 said:
Sounds interesting the way they are spinning this. What format could it end up on?
Click to expand...

No idea. All I got from them was "keep listening" which is hard considering I'm way out of the range of their translator and on the fringe of the HD. I have to pretty much step outside with my portable to get a lock, but then it will stay locked in fairly decently even if I go back inside. But the least little bit of atmospheric voodoo and the HD goes completely away, same as WUWF. Therefore, I can't check it regularly. I don't have HD in my car. I'd love to get a replacement for my wonky and decatying OEM headunit but it's a double-din and finding something to replace that has gotten kind of hard.
 
Alex_0490 said:
Sounds interesting the way they are spinning this. What format could it end up on?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing on two options.
First would be Alternative with a Mobile - Eastern Shore simulcast.
Second is Alternative and Classic Hip Hop on Mobile based translators.

When in doubt, go with the format of the month...
 
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