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93.5 in Palm Beach County

S

ScottBurns

Star Participant
Assuming that the rumor of 93.5's stick moving 7 miles east is not true, what can be done to help this station's signal? As we have discussed, it is barely listenable from Lake Worth south. With several translators already taken and owned by different companies, is there anything else that JVC can do? Are there any other translators that can be bought?
 
ScottBurns said:
Assuming that the rumor of 93.5's stick moving 7 miles east is not true, what can be done to help this station's signal? As we have discussed, it is barely listenable from Lake Worth south. With several translators already taken and owned by different companies, is there anything else that JVC can do? Are there any other translators that can be bought?
Click to expand...

Got curious about 93.5 WBGF "The Bar" and it's move 8 miles from HERE at Water Plant Road off U.S 27 and South Bay to HERE just east of Belle Glade to Whitaker Road off East Canal Street.

Looking at CONTOUR MAP on Radio Locator, WBGF's "distant" signal will sweep West Palm Beach and Boca Raton, the "fringe" will reach Fort Lauderdale. The FCC application shows the construction permit was granted on 1/6/2016.

There's quite a bit of chatter on the subject on the RD boards HERE, at "93.5 Translator in Fort Lauderdale" (that is, "The Bull 93.5" an Iheart Station), HERE "Too Many 93.5's in South Florida" (which discusses, the "the Bar" and "the Bull" and "Evolution" -- the Bull and Evolution are both Iheart stations), and HERE "93.5 is gone" regarding the Bull's erratic on / off air record.

There is some off the RD boards chatter over on R.I HERE and HERE, for those who want to read up and piece things together.

Is this move happening. I definitely see it interfering with 93.5 The Bull in Fort Lauderdale (but I feel its more that The Bull interfers with The Bar). But even more alarming is that WGYL in Vero Beach, (on Facebook HERE) would be adversly affected by this proposed 8 mile move of the 93.5 WBGF tower and transmitter.

While I am the opinion that 93.5 WBGF needs trumps the needs of a 93.5 translator and the translator should be removed from air for its interference, I feel that WGYL 93.7 needs trump the needs of WBGF. Someone previously mentioned the use of a translator for 93.5 The Bar (in other threads).

I did notice that 95.9 The Palm, their sister station, which is also broadcasting on 960 AM (the old Seaview 960) and translated in the metropolitan West Palm Beach on FM translator W240CI, at 95.9 FM and heard in Jupiter-based translator W295BJ, at 106.9 FM. With an AM and two translators, I am sure they can use one of these three frequencies (the AM, or Translators) to improve 93.5 WBGF's coverage, as opposed to moving the x-mitter and tower. And really, how good is the news/brokered talk of their sister station 900 "The Talk" doing? Wouldn't it be more beneficial to dupe the "The Bar's" rock programming on the 900 signal?

 
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sundance kid said:
[
Looking at CONTOUR MAP on Radio Locator, WBGF's "distant" signal will sweep West Palm Beach and Boca Raton, the "fringe" will reach Fort Lauderdale. The FCC application shows the construction permit was granted on 1/6/2016.
Click to expand...

The useful coverage... that is where people actually will truly tune in to a station at home and at work, is about 20% inside the inner red contour of radio-locator.com. So for all practical purposes, the station is still primarily a Belle Glade facility as the 65 dbu only moves a couple of miles to the east. It definitely will not produce any greater interference in the protected contours of any other full facility.

Keep in mind that translators are not protected against changes in facility by full A, B or C FMs.
 
DavidEduardo said:
The useful coverage...that is where people actually will truly tune in to a station at home and at work...
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...would barely scrape Wellington and Royal PB.
Think "full quieting" while driving around buildings and trees because nothing else matters.
 
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(sorry, double-posting)
 
ai4i said:
...would barely scrape Wellington and Royal PB.
Think "full quieting" while driving around buildings and trees because nothing else matters.
Click to expand...

But in-car ("driving around") is the smaller part of all listening.
 
DavidEduardo said:

But in-car ("driving around") is the smaller part of all listening.
Click to expand...
I believe that you would agree that my example is probably good for not having to move a radio around the room and be playing with the antenna. When I was a child, we had a floor model TV - phonograph - radio console and I would actually lift up one side and pivot it around (fortunately, this was the first model year with built-in degaussers) so I could null out WFUN and listen to Jerry & Dottie Cowan's "Happy Station" program on R. Netherlands on 800 at night...:cool:
 
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To put things back on track and topic regarding the 93.5 frequency in Palm Beach . . . that is, WBGF . . . .

Discussing radio over beers last night . . . an opinion expressed that this transmitter / tower move offers minimal improvement to coverage of 93.5 "The Bar," and won't have any impact on improving the station image, ratings, or increased advertising revenue for the Bar. And as ai4i stated, The Bar still does not reach Wellington or Royal PB.

Anyway, the opinion expressed was that the move is "spit and polish" to make the station more desirable to sell it, as the purchase of 93.5 WBGF was a bad buy in the first place. And if you read through the above linked threads in post number #2, the "bad buy" opinion is not a new one, as it has been expressed on several occasions.
 
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Interesting, on, of all places, the Florida job boards on All Access.com, entitled R.I.P. Active Rock Radio 1986-2016 and talking about how Active Rock, Modern Rock (aka Alternative Rock radio) were distinct and separate formats - now all jumbled together - and the refusal to "fix" active rock radio to its glory days. Just found the post interesting . . . and thought it worth sharing to start a discussion.
 
My understanding is there are a few things in the works to move the tower even closer to WPB. It appears WBGF may be a good candidate to move right into WPB if it were to downgrade to a class A. That very thing was made possible when 99.5 C3 moved from Clewiston to Palm Beach Gardens as 99.5 A a few years ago.
 
Even if it becomes a Class A out of West Palm Beach, what about 93.7 WGYL in Vero Beach? That seems awfully close...
 
ScottBurns said:
Even if it becomes a Class A out of West Palm Beach, what about 93.7 WGYL in Vero Beach? That seems awfully close...
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It is close, but WLLY-FM 99.5 A Palm Beach Gardens works with WJKD-FM 99.7 C2 Vero Beach, so it should work for WBGF-FM 93.5 A in relation to WGLY-FM 93.7 C2 Vero Beach as the minimum first adjacent class A to C2 separation requirement is the same in both cases.
 
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That makes sense then. I cannot believe how poor 93.5's signal is in much of Palm Beach County. On my car radio, it is extremely scratchy on Congress Ave. in Boynton Beach.
 
I just looked up the two Vero stations and found that 93.7 is actually about ten miles south of 99.7.
All things being equal, 93.5 would probably need to be about ten miles south of 99.5, which is not bad because 99.5 transmits from several miles north of downtown.
One station that would have presented a stumbling block, but is no longer an issue, would have been the one that is the IF frequency above 93.5, but they have literally gone south.
 
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Even if WBGF downgrade from a 15,500 C3, to a Class A between 3 to 6,000 watts, the IHeart translator W228BV at 179 watts/264 ft (93.5 “The Bull”) is still going to be an interference problem for JVC’s 93.5 WBGF (“The Bar”).

One would hope that, once WBGF moves 7 miles east (remaining as a C3), or moving further (an additional 40 miles), all the way into DT West Palm Beach as a Class A -- JVC’s next step is to get the the W228BV translator off the air.

If you look at WLML 100.3, and the location of the now off the air IHeart translator that was on 100.3 in Fort Lauderdale, and compare the distance between the two – you’ll notice it’s practically the same distance between JVC’s 93.5 and IHeart’s 93.5 translator . . . and Dick Robinson successful petitioned the FCC to get IHeart’s 100.3 translator off the air because of the interference. So, I believe JVC can get IHeart’s translator off the air as well.

Even though WLML is local to Boyton, distant to Boca Raton, and fringe to Pompano, with IHeart’s 100.3 off the air, I can pick up (and listen to often, because it’s programming and on air presentation is excellent), nicely, with minimal fuzz.

In fact, before W228BV went on the air, you could pick up 93.5 WBGF in Southern Palm Beach and Northern Broward with minimal fuzz. Currently, you can’t -- one needs to travel past Linton Blvd. to pick up WBGF, and even then, you’re still picking up pieces of W228BV.

All in all, the reduction to a Class A between 3 to 6,000 watts is the better option. WLML is a 4,000 Class A and doing quite well, and back in the day, the Broward School Board’s WKPX 88.5, a 3,000 Class A was very popular with a loyal listenership and image during that alternative rock boom in the early to mid-90s. So, I think WBGF will do really well, provided they go Class A into the heart of West Palm Beach, and get W228BV off the air.

I was of the school of concern that either move of WBGF 93.5 The Bar would cause problems for 93.7 WGYL C2 /50,000 transmitter in Vero Beach, but, as it has been pointed out and cleared up, neither move -- as C3 or Class A -- will cause a problem for WGYL 93.7. If it did, I am sure Vero Beach Broadcasters would already be all over it, and we'd find intel on the web of them opposing the current CP moving WBGF seven miles east as a C3 --I can't find anything of a sort.
 
David Francis said:
Even if WBGF downgrade from a 15,500 C3, to a Class A between 3 to 6,000 watts,
the IHeart translator W228BV at 179 watts/264 ft (93.5 “The Bull”) is still going to be an interference problem for JVC’s 93.5 WBGF (“The Bar”).
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It has been pointed out numerous times by numerous people in numerous threads, that translators and LPFM's are secondary services.
If any interference is found to exist, either in theory, in practice, or from the ramblings of an irate but dedicated listener,
the translator or LPFM shuts down without any argument.
 
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It looks like the 54 DBU service contour will hit West Palm Beach from the new C3 tower site. The 60 DBU appears to end right at Royal Palm Beach.
 
jmtillery said:
It looks like the 54 DBU service contour will hit West Palm Beach from the new C3 tower site. The 60 DBU appears to end right at Royal Palm Beach.
Click to expand...

The caveat there is that somewhere around 95% of all at-home and at-work listening takes place inside the 65 dbu contour.
 
With all the chatter about 93.5 moving its transmitter . . . . Wanted to see the ratings. The overalls are out on Radio Online for West Palm Beach.

WBGF is 2nd to dead last with a 0.2 (up from a 0.1) and being beat by --

WAY Media's non-commercial Christian CHR WAYF 88.1 with a 3.4

Dade County Public School's WLRN 91.3 with a 1.9

Moody Bible Institute's non-commerical religious talk/music WRMB with a 1.3

Even JVC's own WSVU (93.5 The Palm) is beating their own rock outlet with 1.1

Just wow. Rock just does not work in South Florida. Will a C3 transmitter move seven miles east, or downgrading to a Class A to get into the heart of West Palm Beach even help WBGF and rock in general?

WBGF, as rock station, will be on the air two years by November, and the best an rock/active rock-alternative format can do is a 0.1 and 0.2's? I haven't seen numbers this bad since the abortive "92.1 The Planet" (the old WNGS "Wings 92" lite favorites) from Clear Channel tried to go head-to-head with 103.1 The Buzz. The Buzz had better numbers than WBGF, and CBS pulled the plug. And right now, with the numbers that WBGF are showing, there is no way Alpha Media will ever roll the dice and move 103theBuzz.com from/off the web and back onto a terrestrial outlet (a hope that some rock radio lovers have floated).

Which is a shame, because, both stations, are programmed and presented very well.
 
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WPBZ "The Buzz" had better numbers than WBGF because 103.1 was (and still is) a 100kw class C1 with a city grade service contour over all of West Palm Beach unlike 93.5 which has a a very weak rimshot signal at best. Signal makes the difference, then programming and promotions then sales; and in that order.
 
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