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Can This be Done Legally?
- Thread starter Ai4i
- Start date
A translator can be paired with an HD channel and translate it. That happens routinely, making the translator a defacto radio station.
If a translator is paired with an AM station it has to "translate" the AM 100%. There's nothing to prevent airing the same programming on an FM subchannel and getting a second translator out of the deal.
We have close to that situation near Knoxville, TN. WIJV on 92.7 has a translator on 107.3. They simulcast on 1240 and have a translator for it on 94.7, so they have 2 translators for the same programming, in addition to the original FM. There's no HD2 involved but you get my drift.
If a translator is paired with an AM station it has to "translate" the AM 100%. There's nothing to prevent airing the same programming on an FM subchannel and getting a second translator out of the deal.
We have close to that situation near Knoxville, TN. WIJV on 92.7 has a translator on 107.3. They simulcast on 1240 and have a translator for it on 94.7, so they have 2 translators for the same programming, in addition to the original FM. There's no HD2 involved but you get my drift.
Mr Tony
Star Participant
Its done here in Minneapolis...3 fold
WDGY 740AM (Wee Gee) Hudson, WI is a 5KW daytimer only. They are also heard on 2 translators. 92.1 in St Paul (80 watts due to a 92.1 in the NW burbs of Minneapolis) and 103.7 (250 watts) in Hudson. Both were moved during the big FM translator "swap" when stations could move translators up to 250 miles away from their original city of license. They are ALSO on a HD sub of a station owned by some one else. KTMY-HD2 (owned by Hubbard Broadcasting) and have been for a couple years now. So technically the HD transmitter we could say is the "originator" due to AM740 being a daytimer
The AM is the only station that signs off at night. They do the sign off then right after the AM goes kaput they start a new song that can be heard on the HD and the 2 translators.
WDGY 740AM (Wee Gee) Hudson, WI is a 5KW daytimer only. They are also heard on 2 translators. 92.1 in St Paul (80 watts due to a 92.1 in the NW burbs of Minneapolis) and 103.7 (250 watts) in Hudson. Both were moved during the big FM translator "swap" when stations could move translators up to 250 miles away from their original city of license. They are ALSO on a HD sub of a station owned by some one else. KTMY-HD2 (owned by Hubbard Broadcasting) and have been for a couple years now. So technically the HD transmitter we could say is the "originator" due to AM740 being a daytimer
The AM is the only station that signs off at night. They do the sign off then right after the AM goes kaput they start a new song that can be heard on the HD and the 2 translators.
Ai4i
Star Participant
I think this is the simple answer to my simple question.
Where only one AM station and one translator exist,
that translator must translate that AM station,
only that AM station, and nothing but that AM station.
Correct?
When I mentioned having an HD subchannel,
I only meant having one on that translator,
no other FM station would be involved in my scenario.
I only wanted to know if the owner of a standalone AM who gets a translator
could sneak in a second revenue stream
without leasing any part of any other broadcast facility.
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A daytimer can have a 24/7 translator. In other words, the studio can feed the translator even when the AM is off the air, without the translator having to "rebroadcast" the AM. In fact, nearly all translators for AM stations are fed directly, not via the AM signal.
The translator does not have to be off when the AM is off, but when the AM is on it must carry a perfect simulcast of it.
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Ai4i
Star Participant
Exceptions to this might be that the AM station would not have to run supplementary signals such as
C-QUAM or HD stereo, RBDS, time codes, or orange alerts in order for the translator to translate the master station in stereo,
or do any of those other things, maybe even including the slipping in of an SCA stream or two.
I do not know whether these guys are in stereo, but I doubt that their AM is.
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A "simulcast" is generally the term used for program content... the audio only.
That's correct. What audio mode a station runs in, does not apply as a requirement to an FM translator. An authorized AM station with a FM translator, can direct-feed audio to the translator. That, and trying to carry the off air audio from an AM directly, would mean the FM translator would sound like poop. (technical term)
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