Many of you will recall 104.1 WALR came out on the losing end of a fight with 93.3 WVFJ which resulted in WALR losing it's 100KW at its Newnan transmitter site. The FCC required WALR to reduce back to the 60KW it had previously used at that location. First they requested the FCC to grant 50KW at a tower closer toward Atlanta but eventually modified the request to remain 100KW at another tower which is near the Douglas/Carroll County line. The FCC has now licensed WALR at the new location which results in near 500,000 fewer people inside the station's primary service contour but most of that loss is in the rural areas the station did cover between LaGrange, Columbus and Macon, GA and an area in far eastern Alabama near the Georgia line...all areas which have zero impact on the station's revenue. The station maintains it's signal across most of the Atlanta metro..in fact the signal in the downtown area is predicted to be a little better. It also gains signal into the Cartersville, Woodstock and Roswell area. Points south along the eastern boundary of the signal are about the same til you get down around McDonough. Signal is lost there from the new site and that loss continues on an arch that passes through Griffin, Zebulon and LaGrange.
Cox definitely made lemonade from lemons on this forced downgrade which would have never happened had someone not been asleep at the switch with some FCC rule changes. There were few alternatives available because you simply can't build a tower of any substantial height any where on the southwest side of Atlanta due to the airport location and flight paths of aircraft using the airport plus the 104.1 mHz frequency interacts with the aeronautical radio equipment used by the aircraft.
That being said, they will earn some major brownie points if and when they build out the move of 95.5 to the midtown tower site of WSB-FM. WSB will then have 100% FM coverage of the metro from that market central location.
Cox definitely made lemonade from lemons on this forced downgrade which would have never happened had someone not been asleep at the switch with some FCC rule changes. There were few alternatives available because you simply can't build a tower of any substantial height any where on the southwest side of Atlanta due to the airport location and flight paths of aircraft using the airport plus the 104.1 mHz frequency interacts with the aeronautical radio equipment used by the aircraft.
That being said, they will earn some major brownie points if and when they build out the move of 95.5 to the midtown tower site of WSB-FM. WSB will then have 100% FM coverage of the metro from that market central location.