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WPLO (610) Off Air

K

kf4rca

Guest
Couldn't find out any info on the web. Did the transmitter fail and parts are NLA?
Or did they have a coin operated transmitter and they ran out of quarters?
Web streaming still working though.
 
This station might be the end of WBZY's Hispanic dominance in Atlanta. I forget how many days you can be off with out a STA but IMHO 610 AM is only the "placeholder" for:

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/patg?id=W239AY-FX&s=C

I don't know any of the particulars of the licensee "TERESA PRIETO" (on the FCC web site) but WPLO will have a great signal for the many Hispanics who live in that area. With many AM stations going dark in the past decade a decent 5 kw AM transmitter should be a bargain if it comes to that.
 
secondchoice said:
This station might be the end of WBZY's Hispanic dominance in Atlanta.
Click to expand...

Hispanics have less use for an AM station than the general market. No chance an AM can displace WBZY in any fashion.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
David, I think he was referring to WPLO's new FM translator whose link he posted.
Click to expand...

I noticed that, but the translator is far out of town and the effective coverage is about 20% inside the inner red radio-locator contour. That covers 136,000 persons in a market area of 5.5 million.

WBZY, while a limited signal, covers 1.9 million in its 65 dbu contour. The WPLO AM day signal covers, usefully, less than 10% of the market and next to nothing at night. Even with the FM, it is a highly defective signal with rather dreadful programming.
 
Agreed, the translator will have virtually no effect on WBZY. But La Raza WLKQ/102.3 is the king in that part of the market and will continue to be.
 
DavidEduardo said:


I noticed that, but the translator is far out of town and the effective coverage is about 20% inside the inner red radio-locator contour. That covers 136,000 persons in a market area of 5.5 million.

WBZY, while a limited signal, covers 1.9 million in its 65 dbu contour. The WPLO AM day signal covers, usefully, less than 10% of the market and next to nothing at night. Even with the FM, it is a highly defective signal with rather dreadful programming.
Click to expand...

But the real estate both the AM and translator do cover is where many Atlanta Hispanics live. It would be interesting to see the Hispanic pop counts for these two signals versus WBZY and WLKQ.
 
according to the FCC's 60 db chart for the construction permit:

https://www.bing.com/maps/?mapurl=h...GA&fileno=BPFT-20160728ABZ&.kml&ignoreoptin=1

this should cover most of Gwinnett County which according to USA.com:

http://www.usa.com/gwinnett-county-ga-population-and-races.htm

has has over 171K Hispanic folks, of which 87K is Mexican.

I and the farthest thing from a Hispanic programmer there is, but having some similar experience (white guy who could sell white southern merchants in the late 1970's R & B block programming) IMHO 87 K with only two competitors could be lucrative if the sales folks are half way sharp and can work the streets. Also a question can you program to both the South and Central American together? If so you could have an over 50K market just in Gwinnett to yourself. Another question while there are folks who know on this board: Are PPM's distributed by the racial make up of a county population? Or are the minority PPM's in the whole market given extra weight?
 
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secondchoice said:
according to the FCC's 60 db chart for the construction permit:

https://www.bing.com/maps/?mapurl=h...GA&fileno=BPFT-20160728ABZ&.kml&ignoreoptin=1

this should cover most of Gwinnett County which according to USA.com:

http://www.usa.com/gwinnett-county-ga-population-and-races.htm

has has over 171K Hispanic folks, of which 87K is Mexican.

I and the farthest thing from a Hispanic programmer there is, but having some similar experience (white guy who could sell white southern merchants in the late 1970's R & B block programming) IMHO 87 K with only two competitors could be lucrative if the sales folks are half way sharp and can work the streets. Also a question can you program to both the South and Central American together? If so you could have an over 50K market just in Gwinnett to yourself. Another question while there are folks who know on this board: Are PPM's distributed by the racial make up of a county population? Or are the minority PPM's in the whole market given extra weight?
Click to expand...

Nielsen estimates a little over 500,000 Hispanics in the metro area so it would seem that over one third of ALL Atlanta area Hispanics reside in Gwinnett. I agree with Second Choice...it seems like this is a usable signal. I would also agree with David that these two stations will never "take down" WBZY.
Question for David: What is WPLO doing wrong in terms of programming?
 
wavo said:
Nielsen estimates a little over 500,000 Hispanics in the metro area so it would seem that over one third of ALL Atlanta area Hispanics reside in Gwinnett. I agree with Second Choice...it seems like this is a usable signal. I would also agree with David that these two stations will never "take down" WBZY.
Question for David: What is WPLO doing wrong in terms of programming?
Click to expand...

The 65 dbu signal contour (within which essentially all in-home and at-work listening happens) covers 136,000 persons. It covers less than 50,000 Hispanics in a county of nearly 900,000 persons.

While in-car listening may extend out to or beyond the 60 dbu, how many commuters will listen to a station that disappears part way through their drive or commute?
 
secondchoice said:
according to the FCC's 60 db chart for the construction permit this should cover most of Gwinnett County which according to USA.com has has over 171K Hispanic folks, of which 87K is Mexican.

I and the farthest thing from a Hispanic programmer there is, but having some similar experience (white guy who could sell white southern merchants in the late 1970's R & B block programming) IMHO 87 K with only two competitors could be lucrative if the sales folks are half way sharp and can work the streets. Also a question can you program to both the South and Central American together? If so you could have an over 50K market just in Gwinnett to yourself. Another question while there are folks who know on this board: Are PPM's distributed by the racial make up of a county population? Or are the minority PPM's in the whole market given extra weight?
Click to expand...

As mention in my previous post, the useful 65 dbu only covers about 15% of the total population of Gwinnett County, so proportionally this means about 30,000 to 40,000 Hispanics (obviously this can vary depending on where Hispanics are concentrated).

Now not all Mexicans like one particular format. For example, in Mexico City, regional Mexican music only delivers about 25% of the total listening shares. So we can't assume that all Mexicans listen to that format... which is part of the issue with WBZY.

There is, in most areas, no commonality among the various regions of Central and South America and the Caribbean (a huge percentage of the non-Mexican population in the Atlanta MSA is from the Caribbean). The only format that can be generalized is rhythmic contemporary, but that is a more limited format for each individual group for a variety of reasons.

PPM distribution is proportional to the ethnic composition of the market and the market geography. African Americans and Hispanics (and "Hispanic" is an ethnicity, not a race) are sampled overall in proportion to the total market. In other words, 33% of the meters will be in Black households and 11% in Hispanic ones (within a margin of error). Each sampling unit (generally a county, although some counties are subdivided into multiple sampling units) is also subject to proportional placement. Using Geozones, they even try to be proportional in different parts of densely populated counties.

Weighting is only used if any group is under or over sampled. If there are too many meters with men 55-64, the value of each meter is decreased slightly. Same with ethnic groups, sampling units, age ranges, gender, income levels, etc. But weighting is only used so that each stratification variable is included in the sample in true proportion to that group in the metro.
 
Is the tower lit at night? Might have had power disconnected for whatever reason. They had a good signal all the way down to spaghetti junction. That area is about 48% Hispanic.
 
kf4rca said:
Is the tower lit at night?
Click to expand...

Isn't an unlit tower an FAA violation, especially with Briscoe Field nearby? IIRC even if you're off the air you're supposed to keep the tower lit.
 
The site still has power. 990 WISK is co-owned and diplexed into the same tower. 990 was on...at least yesterday
 
jabba17 said:
Isn't an unlit tower an FAA violation, especially with Briscoe Field nearby? IIRC even if you're off the air you're supposed to keep the tower lit.
Click to expand...

The FAA will grant wavers to towers with "taller structures" within a certain distance. This is a 300 + foot tower in a area where the MSA (minimum safe altitude) is 1000 ft. They might have a permit from the FAA not to have tower lights.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
I believe it has to be lighted if it's 200 feet high or more.
Click to expand...

is (are) there any structures or towers within a mile (2 kilometers for the metric folks) that are taller? They can get a waiver from the FAA. if no waiver, they can claim a lighting strike when they contacting the FAA which will issue a notice to all aircraft(or what ever they call it today). There will be a tower guy there when they put up the translator on the tower and then the light can be fixed. the FAA has guidelines on lighting near airfields. In Jasper Ga., WYYZ 1490 with a really short tower is lit a couple a air-miles away from the Jasper airport. Meanwhile the city put up a 150 FT.+ water less (taller than WYYZ's tower) that a mile east from the end of the north south runway with no lights. If they are more than 3 or 4 miles from Briscoe Field there should no be a problem because of the 1000 min. safe altitude rule they might get a waiver anyways.
 
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RoddyFreeman said:
I believe it has to be lighted if it's 200 feet high or more.
Click to expand...

The tower is not even quarter-wave, being listed by the FCC as roughly 230 feet high. While that is above the 200 foot level, they may have gotten a waiver based on the minimum altitude requirements for the area and whether it is even on a flight path.
 
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