February 1, 2016… a busy day
February 2, 2016As I was updating some (and I do mean some; not all the ones that need to be updated) of the station addresses, I got distracted by one of my favorite sites – fccdata,org. Lots of AM owners have taken advantage of the FCC’s Translator filing window that opened today. WEDO (810 McKeesport), newly acquired by Broadcast Communications, applied to move sister’s translator from Waynesburg. WAVL (910 Apollo) which will be fully-owned by Colonial Media soon, applied to move a soon-to-be sister’s Olean, New York translator. WCNS (1460 Latrobe) is nabbing one from Girard, Ohio. There are more, but it’s late and I would be up all night putting the puzzle pieces together. My health doesn’t allow for it.
The current filing window is open to Class C and Class D AM stations right now. Class A and Class B have their opportunities to file come July. (Complete AM classification geek-out info here.) A station can reel in a translator (assuming there is frequency space for it) from up to 250 miles away.
Meanwhile, our buddy Scott Fybush is in the translator consulting and brokering business as we speak… go to translatorsale.com.
In other news, the application for the “assignment of license” (sale) for WZUM (1550 Braddock) was filed. AM Guys LLC is selling to Pittsburgh Public Media.
And happy birthday to “724”. 18 years ago in 1998, 724 became the break-off area code since 412 was almost out of numbers. After much discussion, heartache, drama, and screaming, it was decided that 724 would not be an overlay area code. Instead the new code would be a split for the majority of counties in the region leaving most of Allegheny County as the home to 412. 412 still spills into a piece of Westmoreland and Washington Counties, while 724 covers the northern Allegheny County where the former North Pittsburgh Telephone Company (Consolidated Communications) has their footprint. Even though 412 had been around since the codes started in 1947, it only took two years after 724’s arrival to come close to exhausting the numbers there too, The overlay (now more accepted than when 724 was introduced) 878 was introduced in 2001, but numbers in that code weren’t assigned until 2013. Happy birthday 724. We weren’t sure we’d like you, but now we can’t imagine life without you.
Time for bed…
Let’s be positive and hope that those FM translators will bring attention to the AM stations they represent. At least they’ll bring some status to the AM stations that get them.
This is what the old WZUM on 1590 was hoping for, they used to talk about opening up a translator.
Boomer
This could be the start of something big. – Rick J
PS Get well soon, Eric.
Any word on who is doing the morning show on Y108? Haven’t heard Monty in weeks, the Web site lists no morning host and it seems as if Y108 is putting on its morning show by committee. One morning I heard Maria D’Antonio, who was on Q92 before its morning hosts gave way to Jim Krenn and Co.