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WBGF Adding 92.5 Translator?

A

Alex Browne

Listening yesterday to WBGF/Belle Glade, which flipped to Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel on January 1. They are at 93.5, but have just begun promoting themselves as "the Palm Beach's True Oldies Channel at 93.5 and 92.5 -- take your pick!"

I cannot receive the 92.5 signal where I live, but I am assuming that this is a reference to W223AJ/Belle Glade which I believe has previously been a translator for WAFC/Clewiston, which also has an oldies format. (I note that WAFC appears to have another translator at 100.5, W263BT/Clewiston.)

Was there some deal made? WBGF and WAFC have different owners.

Does anyone know what the story is?
 
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My guess is that they will probably lease the W223CJ Translator from Circuitwerkes in West Palm Beach to help them fill the holes to the East.
 
Ah, jimmy, that makes a lot more sense! They still have problems with the signal in West Palm, and having a translator right there would be much more helpful than having another signal out of Belle Glade.
 
Alex Browne said:
Ah, jimmy, that makes a lot more sense! They still have problems with the signal in West Palm, and having a translator right there would be much more helpful than having another signal out of Belle Glade.
Click to expand...

This is the Circuitwerkes translator, owned by Kyle Magrill. I'm not sure how they are translating it direct or what secondary station they are using to rebroadcast WBGF on 92.5.
 
And just to confirm jimmydean's point, I heard a legal ID for the translator (and main station) today, and it is indeed W223CJ/West Palm Beach.
 
Yeah, I was driving through and heard the legal ID and it is W223CJ on 92.5 FM

I was thrown off by this translator as well. I knew there was W223AJ out in Belle Glade at 92.5 and translating WAFC's 590 AM (also on W263BT-FM 100.5 MHz). And that doesn't make sense: why have a Belle Glades translator in the same COL as 93.5 WBGF, it won't reach WPB . . . and solve the WBGF coverage issues.

Then, as you pointed out, it's Circuitwerks W223CJ 92.5, 40 miles to the east. I did go to Radio Fiesta's WWRF 1380 and website, like a week-and-half-ago, when this 92.5 thingy popped up on True Oldies 93.5 Facebook and I noticed only 96.9 is the only translator listed now on WWRF's webpage.

Note: W223CJ 92.5 was in Orlando; it translated WXXL 106.7 Orlando as W225CA 92.9. . . and Circuitwerks brought it down to WPB to use for WWRF. I can't see any ownership changes on W223CJ either. So, the leasing reason makes complete sense to me. Maybe, in time, JVC will buy it from Circuitwerks. But, the "sound," it does sound crummy. Is JVC webstreaming WBGF to the 92.5 translator. It just doesn't sound "right" to my ears.

The "webstreaming" may be true. Over on the 93.5 in Palm Beach County board, a couple posters noted the audio is "out of phase" and sounding "monaural." They mentioned "Black Water" by the Doobie Brothers was playing and the backing harmony was completely wiped out on the translator . . . but sounding FINE on the main 93.5 WBGF signal. They mentioned "webstream," was well, which was my thoughts. As they said on the thread, maybe, down the line, JVC will mount an actual antenna at W223CJ and pull in WBGF 93.5 proper.

However . . . if they, JVC, had done this sooner, I don't think it would have improved fortunes at the Bar. Their listeners were pretty vocal on the FB page about signal and coverage. Could you imagine what posts a tinny, 9 watt translator would have caused them. The dynamic range of alll that hard rock would have been decimated (worse that "Black Water") by the technical glitches.

Speaking of WWRF . . . there is a nice, little history on 1380 AM, once known as WLIZ, then WLVS. Sam Phillips of Sun Studios fame (and "The King"), owned it. Thanks to a 2005 post by Radio Sticker of the Day. But, in case that link gets truncated and you can't get to the link:

"WLIZ was a Religious station licensed to Lake Worth, Florida from 1975 until the mid 1980s. The station first went on the air in 1959 and was owned by record producer Sam Phillips, best known for discovering Elvis Presley and signing him to his Sun Records label. Phillips named WLIZ for ELIZabeth Taylor because "she was the hottest female going in 1959." The station was run entirely by women, both on-the-air and management positions, something Phillips had tried previously at WHER in Memphis. The all-girl WLIZ played show tunes, ballads and light jazz but no rock and roll--odd given the fact that its owner played such a huge part in rock history. By 1988 the station had changed its calls to WLVS (W-ELViS?) Currently 1380 AM is a Regional Mexican station "Radio Fiesta" WWRF."

Even has an old bumper stick for WLIZ. Nice.




 
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