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FM Frequency of the Week: 96.9

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Tyler TX:

Regular catch is Country "Star Country 96.9" from Mt. Pleasant, but 100kW CCM "89.3 KSBJ" KXBJ El Campo makes appearances up here from SW of Houston, as well.
 
Manchester area, UK: ALL FM, a small community LPFM that describes itself as having "foreign language shows, shows by and for carers, those with mental health issues, disabilities, older people and younger people and all those in between". It has been on the air for 21 years this year.
 
96.9 MHz

WJGL - Jacksonville FL 96-9 – The Eagle - Classic hits - 2021
WINK-FM - Fort Myers FL - 96-9 More FM Variety – SW Florida 2015
KQOB - Enid-Oklahoma City OK - Bob FM - Classic rock - 22 May 2011*
West Palm Beach FL area (pirate?) Rhythm 96.9 Caribbean/reggae 2005
WYMY - Goldsboro – Kinston NC - La Ley 96.9 - Spanish 2010
WSUY - Charleston SC - Sunny 96.9 Today’s soft rock 2003

* Many stations heard from Texas-Nebraska - a devastating tornado hit Joplin MO later that day....

KW - Melbourne FL

​

 
Wilmington Delaware

Unfortunately W245CJ is what I hear now after it signed on a few years ago relaying WXCY in Cecil County MD playing Country Music . I could already hear it on 103.7 and on WSTW 93.7 HD3. It wiped out WFPG in Atlantic City which came in OK with Adult Contemporary Music. I can still hear WFPG if I turn the antenna SE to try to null out the low power FM to my N. WLAN in Lancaster PA comes in if I travel a few miles across the border into PA.
 
Oakland, CA, the hills above Montclair - This is going to be fun.

A consistent presence here are LPFM broadcasts at 96.9. The time is shared among three stations, according to information at fccdata.org:

KQEA-LP - transmitter in the Sunset district of San Francisco - 7 am-12 noon daily
KQEB-LP - transmitter at Clay & Jones in San Francisco (I believe this is the old 92.7 transmitter site) - 12 noon-7 pm daily
KGPC-LP - transmitter at Laney College in Oakland - 7 pm-7 am daily

KQEA and KQEB broadcast mostly in a Chinese dialect. Even though they're each listed as having 3 watts ERP, I can get them well enough to trigger stereo reception on most radios.

I don't do much radio listening at night so I haven't heard KGPC. It's owned by the local community college district. According to its (very nicely done) website, it's a block-programmed station with a variety of programming. KGPC-LP 96.9 FM
 
Crystal Lake, IL....

96.9 here is WWDV. which is a repeater for Hubbard's WDRV, "The Drive", Chicago. Verry good signal from a transmitter site just north of the Illinois-Wisconsin State line near Kenosha. 8.3kw from a 1.200 foot tower. That setup produces a stronger signal signal at my locthan the parent station. It also gives it decent coverage in the Southern half or two thirds of the Milwaukee Metro. Something no other Chicago FM can claim.
 
cyberdad said:
Crystal Lake, IL....

96.9 here is WWDV. which is a repeater for Hubbard's WDRV, "The Drive", Chicago. Verry good signal from a transmitter site just north of the Illinois-Wisconsin State line near Kenosha. 8.3kw from a 1.200 foot tower. That setup produces a stronger signal signal at my locthan the parent station. It also gives it decent coverage in the Southern half or two thirds of the Milwaukee Metro. Something no other Chicago FM can claim.
Click to expand...
This arrangement exists because of the vision of the original station on 97.1, WNIB, a classical music outlet. The husband-and-wife owners realized there was no longer a classical station in Milwaukee so put 96.9 WNIZ on the air (it had been WKZN Zion, Ill., a pesky first-adjacent) to cover much of that market. It also gave them a slight edge in the area on WFMT 98.7, Chicago’s higher-rated classical station, which had a higher power grandfathered in and had a bit better reach than the regular WNIB signal.

When Bill Florian and his wife sold in 2001, 46 years after putting the station on the air, Bonneville paid $185 million.
 
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tvnut said:
This arrangement exists because of the vision of the original station on 97.1, WNIB, a classical music outlet. The husband-and-wife owners realized there was no longer a classical station in Milwaukee so put 96.9 WNIZ on the air (it had been WKZN Zion, Ill., a pesky first-adjacent) to cover much of that market. It also gave them a slight edge in the area on WFMT 98.7, Chicago’s higher-rated classical station, which had a higher power grandfathered in and had a bit better reach than the regular WNIB signal.

When Bill Florian and his wife sold in 2001, 46 years after putting the station on the air, Bonneville paid $185 million.
Click to expand...
Did they throw in the "famous" cats that had the run of WNIB's studios and offices? I was fairly familiar with the history story of WNIB and its satellite, but it's a great story and bears repeating. Thanks for sharing it.

I was sort of sorry to see WNIB go. Although it clearly was inevitable. And part of me was happy for the Florians. After years of running WNIB on a shoestring...cats and all... they got to cash out in a big way and retire.

Didn't the WNIB music library get donated to WFMT?
 
cyberdad said:
Did they throw in the "famous" cats that had the run of WNIB's studios and offices? I was fairly familiar with the history story of WNIB and its satellite, but it's a great story and bears repeating. Thanks for sharing it.

I was sort of sorry to see WNIB go. Although it clearly was inevitable. And part of me was happy for the Florians. After years of running WNIB on a shoestring...cats and all... they got to cash out in a big way and retire.

Didn't the WNIB music library get donated to WFMT?
Click to expand...
Listening to Obie Yadgar in the mornings on WNIB certainly made the Northwest Tollway commute that I had at the time much easier to deal with.

Reportedly, Bill Florian originally bought the station for $8,000!

I'm trying to go through newspaper archives to see what happened to the WNIB library but I see no indication regarding where it went.
 
The sale didn’t include the studio - Bonneville built WDRV separately - so the Florians kept the dogs and cats. They set up the WNIB arts foundation, which operated from the WNIB offices until Bill’s death in 2006 or so. Remarkably, Bill was WNIB’s chief engineer from start to finish.

It was a neat station, a great mix of a smart format and quirk. The Saturday “Those Were The Days” old-time radio show lives on at WDCB. I miss WNIB still. I have a tape of their sign off somewhere.

I have no idea about the music library.
 
Great stuff. Thanks for posting!
tvnut said:
I have no idea about the music library.
Click to expand...

I may have been thinking of WIND. When they flipped to all talk, the music library was shipped to sister station WOWO.
 
Mark Roberts said:
Oakland, CA, the hills above Montclair - This is going to be fun.

A consistent presence here are LPFM broadcasts at 96.9. The time is shared among three stations, according to information at fccdata.org:

KQEA-LP - transmitter in the Sunset district of San Francisco - 7 am-12 noon daily
KQEB-LP - transmitter at Clay & Jones in San Francisco (I believe this is the old 92.7 transmitter site) - 12 noon-7 pm daily
KGPC-LP - transmitter at Laney College in Oakland - 7 pm-7 am daily

KQEA and KQEB broadcast mostly in a Chinese dialect. Even though they're each listed as having 3 watts ERP, I can get them well enough to trigger stereo reception on most radios.

I don't do much radio listening at night so I haven't heard KGPC. It's owned by the local community college district. According to its (very nicely done) website, it's a block-programmed station with a variety of programming. KGPC-LP 96.9 FM
Click to expand...
Last night, I tried listening for the 7 pm switchover between KQEB-LP and KGPC-LP. Neither station ID'ed. The only evidence of a switch was about two seconds of "dead air" which wasn't so dead - KSEG from Sacramento came rushing through during those two seconds. KQEB and KGPC were clearly undermodulating because KSEG was a whole lot louder. Unfortunately, no IDs during any of this. I think I was getting enhanced reception of Sacramento at my location last night because KYMX was stomping all over the Alameda time-share LPFMs at 96.1.

On the one hand, LPFMs make an interesting DX challenge to catch. On the other, they get in the way of full-power stations.
 
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