97.1 can move closer to Atlanta and gain nearly 400,000 people

At present 97.1 the River operates with 100,000 watts from a tower in southern Hall County. It's city grade contour (3.16 mV/m) reaches a total of 3,026,582 people but 547,549 of the total resides outside the Atlanta radio market surveyed by Nielsen. WSRV reaches 2,479,033 inside the market. If WSRV were to downgrade to 50,000 watts; it could locate at one of three sites closer in to Atlanta where licensed broadcasting facilities operate. They are: Stone Mountain, Sweat Mountain (105.7 site) and on the Gwinnett County owned tower near Jimmy Carter Blvd (107.5 WAMJ site). A close analysis shows the Gwinnett County tower would afford the greatest increase in population covered. The pop count increases by 356,335 people for a total of 2,835,368. Only 4,156 reside out the market. That location is as far southwest as WSRV could move. It runs into the protected spectrum of 97.5 WUMJ. Over at Stone Mountain, the total pop count is 2,588,876 or 109,843 more than the present signal. On Stone Mountain, 97.1 would have to reduce power down to 14,500 watts due to the height of the site. It should be noted that either the Gwinnett tower or Stone Mountain greatly increase the numbers inside the city grade in Fulton and DeKalb counties: Right now it's 417,174 in Fulton..that would jump to 741,424 whereas in DeKalb the total now is 594,644, it would increase to 692,175. Cobb would have another big jump; 112,481 now to 353,563. You are basically taking a smaller circle but shifting it much close to the center of the market. Any of these moves would require changing the city of license from Gainesville to a community closer to Atlanta. Eligible for first service; Suwanee, Duluth, Dacula, Snellville, Sugar Hill, Loganville, Lilburn, Norcross, Johns Creek and Peachtree Corners.

Hopefully Cox doesn't realize that too much coverage is a bad thing!

Would that open up room for a 96.7/96.9/97.3 in NE GA, class A or C3 or something?

jabba17 said:

Would that open up room for a 96.7/96.9/97.3 in NE GA, class A or C3 or something?

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It would but there is a permit for a C3 on 96.7 at Westminster, SC which is just across the GA border and a station near Lake Oconee on 97.7 has an application to move to Lexington, GA which is between Athens and Washington, GA. Those two block any openings in that area if WSRV downgraded. The spectrum is pretty tight up that way but then you are getting closer to Knoxville, TN, Greenville-Spartanburg and even Charlotte NC stations. Most of the big Charlotte FM stations have their transmitter sites about 20 miles west of Charlotte. There is a 96.9 over there up on a 2000 ft stick so that comes into play once you reach South Carolina state line.

How much would this “improve” the current format’s ratings. How many more P1 folks would they pick up inside the perimeter. If you are looking to sell (which Cox most likely will do in a couple of years) this makes sense.

Would the 105.7 site you mentioned have issues with 96.7?

I wonder why nobody has ever looked at the 91.5 site in Cumming:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/3...!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d34.237041!4d-84.159916?hl=en

It is only 5 miles closer than the current 97.1 site, but should have a line of site into downtown. WWEV has a very short (187 foot) tower. Assuming you can get the FAA allow you to put up a 500 tower, Would you be able to squeeze in C1 for protection to fend off translators a have better HD protection?

You could never get approval to put a 500 ft tower up on Sewanee Mountain but if you could, the signal wouldn't be any better than now in the core of the market...Midtown, Buckhead, etc. You have to move deeper into the market where the population density is greater which is pretty much about 10 miles out from the 285 Perimeter. If 97.5 WUMJ were just .58 miles more distant than their present transmitter site, WSRV could locate on the WSB(AM) tower. Would still need to drop from 100,000 watts to 50,000 watts and change city of license away from Gainesville but talk about an improvement. Big time!

MediaMan said:

You could never get approval to put a 500 ft tower up on Sewanee Mountain but if you could, the signal wouldn't be any better than now in the core of the market...Midtown, Buckhead, etc. You have to move deeper into the market where the population density is greater which is pretty much about 10 miles out from the 285 Perimeter. If 97.5 WUMJ were just .58 miles more distant than their present transmitter site, WSRV could locate on the WSB(AM) tower. Would still need to drop from 100,000 watts to 50,000 watts and change city of license away from Gainesville but talk about an improvement. Big time!

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Wonder why Cox doesn't get the checkbook out and write Alfred Liggins a check to move 97.5 down the road a bit. Plenty of cow pasture down that way to put up another 500 foot stick. That could also serve as an aux site for 104.1.

wavo said:

Wonder why Cox doesn't get the checkbook out and write Alfred Liggins a check to move 97.5 down the road a bit. Plenty of cow pasture down that way to put up another 500 foot stick. That could also serve as an aux site for 104.1.

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Don't know if you would have to build a new tower but since we are pretending what could be done if we had Cox's checkbook, they might get Radio One's interest if they dealed them the 97.7 translator they own up on the 97.1 tower. 97.5 and 97.7 together might be worth something to them whereas I can't imagine it is doing anything for Cox.

trusty said:

Just one quick question: Why move 97.1 to a lower stick with reduced power and possibility of fighting adjacents when you have the bulk of Atlanta population moving toward 97.1?

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Good point!
Another consideration would be the 50/50 maps are all PREDICTED coverage maps and assume a receive antenna 30 feet in the air!
When we talk about population counts we are talking about how many people live in a circle based on signal strength. Media Man is referencing the 70 dbu contour, or circle I believe. So while hardly anyone has a receive antenna at 30 feet almost everyone can hear a station in the 70 dbu circle and building penetration is reasonably good. Still, 50/50 means the predicted signal strength will be found at 50% of locations 50% of the time. Predicting coverage, and pop count from a 50/50 map is not always a good approach.
Longley-Rice predictions take more factors which affect coverage into account, terrain for example, and offer better prediction of signal strength gain, as well as gains in pop count.
Probably the most important consideration is WHO the gain in population is composed of. If you're a Classic Hits station why would you downgrade, and potentially lose P1s, to potentially gain 400K listeners, many of whom are NOT P1s?
Trusty is correct! For the money demos WSRV, and it's massive, best in the market, full C coverage should not be tampered with!

wavo said:

Good point!
Another consideration would be the 50/50 maps are all PREDICTED coverage maps and assume a receive antenna 30 feet in the air!
When we talk about population counts we are talking about how many people live in a circle based on signal strength. Media Man is referencing the 70 dbu contour, or circle I believe. So while hardly anyone has a receive antenna at 30 feet almost everyone can hear a station in the 70 dbu circle and building penetration is reasonably good. Still, 50/50 means the predicted signal strength will be found at 50% of locations 50% of the time. Predicting coverage, and pop count from a 50/50 map is not always a good approach.
Longley-Rice predictions take more factors which affect coverage into account, terrain for example, and offer better prediction of signal strength gain, as well as gains in pop count.
Probably the most important consideration is WHO the gain in population is composed of. If you're a Classic Hits station why would you downgrade, and potentially lose P1s, to potentially gain 400K listeners, many of whom are NOT P1s?
Trusty is correct! For the money demos WSRV, and it's massive, best in the market, full C coverage should not be tampered with!

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You are probably right. It certainly seems to do well.

I assumed having more coverage into Cobb County and out through Douglas/Paulding and further up into Cherokee and Bartow counties might result in even more audience on that format. What they would lose doesn't show up in their ratings now since the area is all outside the Atlanta radio market.

Time all these translators go on the air, full power FMs aren't going to have much secondary coverage any how.

MediaMan said:

You are probably right. It certainly seems to do well.

I assumed having more coverage into Cobb County and out through Douglas/Paulding and further up into Cherokee and Bartow counties might result in even more audience on that format. What they would lose doesn't show up in their ratings now since the area is all outside the Atlanta radio market.

Time all these translators go on the air, full power FMs aren't going to have much secondary coverage any how.

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97.1's massive HAAT means that signal will carry. Yes, you won't get good building penetration at the fringe but there aren't a lot of commercial buildings up Cherokee/Paulding/Bartow way that would pose that much of an obstacle. It's mostly residential, not commercial concrete and steel.