W243CE (96.5
FM "''La Mega 96.5 y 105.1''"), is a
Spanish-language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
music
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
having
Winder, Georgia
Winder (pronounced WINE-der) is a city and the county seat of Barrow County, Georgia, United States. It is located east of Atlanta and is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. The population was 18,338 at the 2020 census.
History
The Georgia Gene ...
as its
city of license
In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.
In North American broa ...
, and previously transmitting from west-northwest of Winder, about halfway to
Auburn, Georgia
Auburn is a city in Barrow and Gwinnett counties in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 7,495.
History
Auburn incorporated in 1892 soon after the railroad was extended to that point.
Geography
Auburn ...
.
In late February 2016, it was granted a
construction permit
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
to move all the way southwest to
Columbus, Georgia
Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it ...
, in the far west-central part of the state, to become the FM side of
WOKS AM 1340, with 250 watts ERP on 97.5, at about in
height
Height is measure of vertical distance, either vertical extent (how "tall" something or someone is) or vertical position (how "high" a point is).
For example, "The height of that building is 50 m" or "The height of an airplane in-flight is abou ...
. Ordinarily prohibited, the long-distance move is allowed under the FCC's "AM revitalization" program, which allows AM stations (but not other low-power community stations like
LPFM
Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower broadcasting" (more commonly " ...
) to take existing FM translators and the service they provide away from their current areas and use them to duplicate their own service in the same area they already serve.
History
Originally
license
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
d for just five (now 250) watts of
effective radiated power
Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...
, it is owned by
Davis Broadcasting
Davis may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Mount Davis (Antarctica)
* Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago)
* Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land
Canada
* Davis, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated community
* Davis Strait, between Nunavut and Gree ...
of Atlanta. It was originally permitted in 2004 and started in 2007 by
Radio Assist Ministry
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
, a company that speculatively
filed for thousands of translator stations and then
rented
Renting, also known as hiring or letting, is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for a ...
or
resold them for profit. RAM sold the station to Davis in May 2010.
Before the FCC even approved the sale the following month, it applied for and later received a
construction permit
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
to move to the WSRV/WSBB (
Cox Radio
CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company pri ...
)
tower
A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...
between Gainesville and Atlanta, increase to the maximum translator power of 250 watts, and exponentially increase its
height
Height is measure of vertical distance, either vertical extent (how "tall" something or someone is) or vertical position (how "high" a point is).
For example, "The height of that building is 50 m" or "The height of an airplane in-flight is abou ...
from to . This now gives it the
broadcast range
A broadcast range (also listening range or listening area for radio, or viewing range or viewing area for television) is the service area that a broadcast station or other transmission covers via radio waves (or possibly infrared light, which ...
of a class-A station, while circumventing
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) broadcast licensing, which would otherwise not allow for another station in an already-crowded
metropolitan area
A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...
. The "translator" was and is still entirely within the main station's range, making it redundant if it were serving a translator station's purpose of retransmitting the main analog audio of its parent station.
Independent operation
Although W243CE is
license
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
d as a "
broadcast translator
A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...
" (a service intended to retransmit analog FM stations to distant or
terrain
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...
-obstructed areas), it is operating independently under an FCC
legal fiction
A legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts, which is then used in order to help reach a decision or to apply a legal rule. The concept is used almost exclusively in common law jurisdictions, particularly in England and Wales.
Deve ...
that allows such stations to transmit original programming if it is also
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...
on another station's HD Radio
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
— in this case,
WSRV
WSRV (97.1 FM, "97.1 The River") is a commercial radio station licensed to Gainesville, Georgia, and serving Metro Atlanta. It is owned by the Cox Media Group. WSRV broadcasts a classic rock radio format. The studios and offices are in the C ...
's HD3 subchannel on 97.1 FM. Since legitimately licensed
noncommercial
A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...
LPFM
Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower broadcasting" (more commonly " ...
stations cannot do any of these things (have multiple stations, operate
commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
ly, use higher
power
Power most often refers to:
* Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work"
** Engine power, the power put out by an engine
** Electric power
* Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events
** Abusive power
Power may a ...
s and unlimited
height
Height is measure of vertical distance, either vertical extent (how "tall" something or someone is) or vertical position (how "high" a point is).
For example, "The height of that building is 50 m" or "The height of an airplane in-flight is abou ...
s, or afford to rent an "HD" channel or AM station) despite being in the same FCC
class D, no
community radio
Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popular ...
stations have gone on-air in or immediately around the city since the 1980s, and two have been forced off-air in the 2000s. Other local "translators" originating their own programming include
W222AF
WAKL (106.7 MHz, branded ''106.7 K-Love'') is a non-commercial FM Christian Contemporary radio station licensed to Gainesville, Georgia. Owned by the Educational Media Foundation, WAKL serves the Atlanta metropolitan area as the local affiliate ...
,
W233BF
W233BF (94.5 FM) is a radio station in metro Atlanta, now licensed to serve Atlanta owned by Edgewater Broadcasting. After a series of moves (previously serving the eastern exurb of Social Circle), the station now transmits from the WUPA tower e ...
,
W250BC, and
W255CJ
WWWQ (99.7 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia, carrying a Top 40 (CHR) format known as "Q99.7". Owned by Cumulus Media, WWWQ serves the Atlanta metropolitan area as the regional affiliate for ''The Daly Download with ...
.
Davis also owns a different station in the area:
WLKQ-FM
WLKQ-FM (102.3 MHz "La Raza 102.3/107.1") is a commercial radio station licensed to Buford, Georgia, and serving Metro Atlanta. It is owned by Davis Broadcasting and airs a Regional Mexican radio format. The programming is simulcast on 107.1 W ...
102.3, which ironically has a translator station (
W266BW
WJZA (1310 AM) is a commercial radio station broadcasting an eclectic mix of smooth jazz, soft rock, light pop and R&B classics in the Atlanta radio market. The station is currently owned by Davis Broadcasting Inc. Its city of license is Deca ...
FM 101.1) owned by a different company. That station transmitted from near W243CE's previous location, and was also upgrading and moving.
See also
References
External links
VidaAtlanta*
{{Atlanta Radio
243CE
243CE