Radio’s Journal of Record since 1984 — now online & updated daily at www.TheRadioJournal.com
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Scott Fybush - Editor
[email protected]
The big national EAS test has a date.
Any broadcast engineers who were expecting to be on vacation
November 9 may have to reconsider those plans, now that the FCC
and FEMA have designated that Wednesday at 2 PM ET as the time
for the first-ever nationwide test of the “EAN” national EAS code. FCC
homeland security chief Jamie Barnett says the date was picked to
avoid conflict with hurricane season or winter storms, while the time
was chosen to stay out of the way of drive-time programming anywhere
in the U.S. The FCC will set up a special website to inform the public
about the test, and Barnett says his office has begun holding meetings
with other government agencies and industries that will transmit the
warning to resolve any operational issues. “After this first test, a periodic
national test will likely be routine and may come at different times just
like the weekly and monthly tests do now,” Barnett says. After a statewide EAN test in Alaska, FEMA’s Damon
Penn says the agencies “learned some technical lessons and we modified some procedures but we have a basic
understanding and agreement that the system works as has been advertised.” Penn says it won’t be a “pass or
fail test” but rather a chance to establish a baseline diagnosis of how EAS is functioning. Stations will be required
to let the FCC know whether the test ran successfully, and so far the Commission has declined to grant immunity
from fines to stations where the test doesn’t go right.
Cumulus rearranges Atlanta translators. Ever since Cumulus resurrected its well-known “99X” brand in Atlanta
on one of the nation’s first HD-2/translator combos, the modern rocker has occupied a somewhat confusing spot
on the dial: while the name “99X” referred to the station’s old analog spot at 99.7 (now top-40 WWWQ), it was
being heard on translator W250BC, Riverdale, GA (97.9), forcing it to use the ungainly moniker “99X @ 97.9.”
Now Cumulus is fixing that branding muddle by moving “99X” to another translator, W258BU, on the more brandfriendly frequency of 99.1. Both 97.9 and 99.1 are on the same tall TV tower on Atlanta’s east side, but while 97.9
runs 250 watts (giving it similar coverage to what a full-power class A signal would enjoy from the same height),
99.1 is limited to 99 watts by IF-spacing issues with WRAS, Atlanta (88.5). It also suffers interference on the
south side of town from co-channel (and co-owned) WDEN-FM, Macon, GA. Cumulus also has a third translator
on that same tower: W229AG (93.7) simulcasts sports-talker WCNN (680). It’s not clear yet what the company
will do with the 97.9 translator when 99X completes its move to 99.1.
Signals in the news: Nashville’s Vanderbilt U. sells its big FM. It’s been no secret that Vanderbilt Student
Communications has been looking to sell its FM license and invest the proceeds in its on-line and other media
ventures. But when WRVU (91.1) changed hands last week, it happened with surprising speed and secrecy.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 Page 2 of 4
News of the Week
Student and community programmers were pulled off the
FM airwaves with no warning on Tuesday afternoon, and
just a few hours later the signal came back on the air as
WFCL, a new all-classical outlet programmed by Nashville
Public Radio, which runs NPR news and talk on WPLNFM, Nashville (90.3) and WPLN, Germantown (1430).
WPLN will pay Vanderbilt $3.3 million for the full-market,
10-kw/695’ class C2 FM signal, which transmits from the
WSMV-TV tower on Nashville’s southwest side. WRVU will
live on, in some form, as a webcast and on WPLN’s own
HD3 channel beginning this fall.
+ Vanderbilt’s high-profile move is just the latest, and
likely not the last. WRVU’s sudden disappearance from
the FM dial got attention as far away as the Op-Ed pages
of Sunday’s New York Times, where a former WRVU DJ
Rap star Chuck D of Public Enemy shows his support for Independent
College Radio WRVU during a “SaveWRVU.com” event held in Nashville
made the case for free-form college radio. But in an era
at Grimey’s Music. Photo Courtesy: publicenemy.com
of tighter college budgets, and when the perception is
that today’s students have moved away from broadcast radio, it’s hard for college administrators to resist the
temptation to cash out on FM licenses that can be worth millions of dollars to public and religious broadcasters
seeking more spaces on the dial. (That’s especially true of stations like WRVU that have as much involvement
from off-campus community members as from on-campus students.) The FCC still hasn’t signed off on the
pending sale of the University of San Francisco’s KUSF (90.3), which drew several petitions in opposition.
Other schools that have sold off or transferred operations of their student-run stations in recent months include
Nashville’s Trevecca Nazarene University (WENO/WNAZ-FM), Houston’s Rice University (KTRU) and Rhode
Island’s Bryant University (WJMF).
WRKT seeks a move closer to Erie. It’s been more than two decades since Rick Rambaldo bought sleepy
little WHYP-FM, North East, PA (100.9) and began aiming the station at Erie, 20 miles to the west. Renamed
“Rocket 101,” WRKT has served Erie ever since as a 4.2-kw/797’ B1 signal from a site just east of the New York/
Pennsylvania state line. Now owner Connoisseur Communications wants to move WRKT much closer to its
target audience: it’s applying to relocate the station to the tower of co-owned WRTS, Erie (103.7) – and to move
it up the dial to 104.9. That move would allow WRKT to operate from the WRTS site just east of Erie as a 4.5kw/526’ B1 signal, putting 70 dBu over all of Erie and over its city of license, North East. Connoisseur is also
asking the FCC to allot 100.9A to Westfield, NY, just over the state line from North East.
Albuquerque gets an AM move-in. There are already lots of AM signals in New Mexico’s biggest market – 15
of them, by our count at sister site 100000Watts.com – but New Mexico radio entrepreneurs Don Davis and
Derek Underhill are betting there’s room for another one. Over the last decade or so, Davis has rearranged the
top end of the Albuquerque AM dial, shifting stations from 1520 and 1580 to 1550 and 1600. That made room
for one more, as Davis engineered a shuffle that moved the former KABR, Alamo Community, NM (1500) to a
new home on 1510 in Isleta, NM, just south of Albuquerque. Now renamed KMYN, the new 1510 signal recently
signed on with 5-kw days, 4.2-kw critical hours and 25 watts at night, non-directional, all diplexed into the south
Albuquerque site of Citadel’s KTBL (1050). The new KMYN is simulcasting Underhill’s classic country KMIN,
Grants, NM (980). As for the Alamo Navajo School Board, former licensee of KABR, it remains on the air via
the new KABR-FM, Alamo, NM (88.1), a new 400-watt signal that Davis engineered for the Native American
community in a remote area 70 miles southwest of Albuquerque.
Intel makes a radio investment. The radio industry’s push to get FM reception included in mobile phone
handsets has been built in large part on the availability of new chipsets that make analog and HD FM possible
without consuming much space or battery power. Most of those chips have come from one company, Californiabased SiPort, which now has a new owner, chip giant Intel. “Intel’s acquisition of SiPort enhances our abilities to
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 Page 3 of 4
News of the Week
continue as the leading provider of low power, single-chip CMOS solutions enabling wide spread adoption
of broadcast digital radio. SiPort’s digital radio expertise and solutions will leverage Intel’s market and
technology leadership to provide best-in-class digital radio solutions,” says David Rolston, Intel’s senior
director for mobile wireless.
Reduced fine for a Michigan college station. Adrian College’s WVAC, Adrian, MI (107.9) missed the filing
deadline for its 2004 renewal, and didn’t file its renewal application until later in 2005. The FCC granted the
renewal, but it also hit the station with a $7,000 Notice of Apparent Liability for late renewal and unauthorized
operation. WVAC appealed, and it succeeded in getting its burden reduced. Because the FCC renewed WVAC’s
license before issuing the NAL, it was barred from enforcing violations that occurred more than a year prior to
the NAL, including the late renewal. That knocked the fine down to $4,000 for unauthorized operation. But WVAC
wasn’t done: because it’s a class D station, it argued, FCC precedent should reduce the fine still further. The
Commission agreed, reducing WVAC’s fine to just $250.
Rhode Island high-school FM escapes share-time deal. A few years ago, high-school and college stations all
over the country found their frequencies targeted by would-be broadcasters eager to take advantage of an FCC
rule that can impose a share-time license on noncommercial stations that operate less than 12 hours a day. Few
of the challenges succeeded, but in central Rhode Island, Coventry High School’s WCVY found itself sharing
91.5 with a new Spanish-language religious station, WRJI. After just a few years of operation, though, WRJI went
silent and stayed that way for more than a year, which led the FCC to pull the new station’s license last year. And
with no WRJI in the picture, WCVY was able to successfully ask the FCC to modify its own license to specify
fulltime operation. The high school station is installing automation equipment to make a 24/7 operating schedule
possible – and to forestall any further attempts to force a time-share on its frequency.
Down from the roof in Jamestown, N.Y. For many decades, WKSN, Jamestown (1340)
has operated from a tower atop the roof of the building that once held its studios in
Lucille Ball’s western New York hometown. But WKSN is now part of a larger cluster that
includes another AM station with a more conventional tower, WJTN (1240), and now it’s
asking the FCC to allow it to leave the rooftop tower and diplex with WJTN at its studio/
transmitter site west of downtown. Because WJTN’s tower is much more efficient than
WKSN’s short rooftop site, WKSN would reduce power from 500 watts day/1-kw night to
260 watts day/520 watts night to maintain its existing coverage and avoid interfering with
other stations in the region on the crowded channel.
CANADA THIS WEEK —
WKSN roof-top tower.
Photo: Fybush.com
Second-adjacent FM licensed in Toronto. It’s been a decade since Fitzroy Gordon started his quest for an FM
frequency on which he could program a station for Toronto’s Caribbean and black communities. The entrepreneur
even secured a license from the CRTC in 2006, but only on the condition that he find a frequency other than his
desired 98.7, second-adjacent to the CBLA (99.1), the high-powered flagship of the CBC’s Radio One network.
Gordon was unable to find an alternate frequency, and he persisted in his attempts to prove that 98.7 was usable
in Toronto. Last summer, his “CARN” organization worked with the CBC and Industry Canada on a month-long
test to determine whether 98.7 could work in real-world listening conditions. In the end, the CRTC and Industry
Canada agreed with Gordon that 98.7 could be used without actual interference to CBLA, and last week Gordon’s
company, Intercity Broadcasting Network, received a license for 1000 watts (max DA)/907’ on the frequency,
operating from the same site at First Canadian Place in downtown Toronto as CBLA itself.
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Copyright 2011. M Street Corporation. All rights reserved. No portion of the Radio Journal may be copied, faxed, retransmitted or reproduced in any form without written
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June 15, 2011
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