I was not aware of that. Very interesting.
I wonder if WHRI has a usable signal on any frequency over southern LA.
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Panama City Beach hurricane Michael
- Thread starter Poledo
- Start date
I was not aware of that. Very interesting.
I wonder if WHRI has a usable signal on any frequency over southern LA.
I would think that 7385 kHz would be the best bet in southern California, it's aimed at Western North America.
David meant Louisiana, not Los Angeles CA. The only real coverage coming out of Panama City right now is the iHeart cluster (and not all stations are on the air, 92.5 and 94.5 are, plus IIRC 98.5), and WJHG albeit only on Facebook. Both 7 and 13 have no OTA or cable/sat transmission at this time.
Oh, ha ha!
Well, in that case, any of their frequencies beamed to anywhere in this hemisphere should work. I hear all the WHRI signals from Cypress Creek except to Oceania and Africa to one degree or another here in Alabama.
Oh, ha ha!
Well, in that case, any of their frequencies beamed to anywhere in this hemisphere should work. I hear all the WHRI signals from Cypress Creek except to Oceania and Africa to one degree or another here in Alabama.
Not that it makes much difference, but it's a violation of the terms of licensing of all US based SW stations that they shall not serve any audience within the territory of the United States. The FCC purposely restricted Medium Wave stations to 50 kw and did not license any domestic SW stations to avoid single stations having the ability to, singly, cover large parts of the country. This is part of the 75 year old policy of encouraging local voices in American media.
Say hello to the Internet. So much for localism.
As I said before, that doctrine has not been in effect for years.
I asked a SW station owner in the US about this and i dont remember if he said the rule was relaxed or eliminated, but it's different today.. something about.. they cant solely target the US now.. one station beams at 315 degrees to Vancouver Canada but its heard over a very large portion of the US
WRMI's 9455khz would be perfect for this.. it's aimed at Mexico but covers a very large swath of the US from southern Missippi to The Dakotas and down to Mexico City
Go to https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-i...c=true&node=pt47.4.73&rgn=div5#se47.4.73_1701
... and scroll down to Subpart F.
There are specific requirements on programming to a defined international area with content appropriate for persons in that region. Commercials must be for products commonly available in non-US markets where the signal is directed.
One of the key requirements is "That there is a need for the international broadcasting service proposed to be rendered."
The language throughout the section indicates that service must be provided to listeners who are not in the USA. Like with the VOA, though, "accidental" reception is not prohibited buy should not be intentional.
There are plenty of flagrant violations: stations purporting to serve Mexico and Central America but which have programs mostly in English... obviously intending to be listened to in the areas of the US the signal flies over.
The current review of Class A Medium Wave stations is a very present-day application of "more little local stations" and no regional or national ones.
The issue with Short Wave is likely the knowledge that nearly nobody listens, and even if stations are violating the spirit of the rules, the potential domestic audience is so limited that we have a "if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears..." situation.
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Did the 7 & 13 towers fall? I'm assume PAP and FSY tower is still up otherwise wouldn't be on. I did see on the Ch. 7 facebook feed that they're broadcasting on Island 106. I didn't think they were back on yet.
A lot like what happened in Charleston after Hugo. 107.5 (Q107), our top 40 powerhouse in the 80s, went bankrupt after Hugo and was forced to sign off. They were later sold to an owner of another station in town, running an early duopoly.
I wasn’t alive then, but I read that all of Charleston’s radio stations went off the air during the storm. The only stations available were 690 Jacksonville (then WPDQ, running a 50kw night STA), WPTF, and WBT. WPDQ was the only one on during the daytime. TV went on the air though the Friday morning after, at least the ABC (WCBD). They went on from their transmitter site in Awendaw, which was right near the landfall. The NBC (WCIV) had several feet of water in their low-lying studios and had to move.
I wasn’t alive then, but I read that all of Charleston’s radio stations went off the air during the storm. The only stations available were 690 Jacksonville (then WPDQ, running a 50kw night STA), WPTF, and WBT. WPDQ was the only one on during the daytime. TV went on the air though the Friday morning after, at least the ABC (WCBD). They went on from their transmitter site in Awendaw, which was right near the landfall. The NBC (WCIV) had several feet of water in their low-lying studios and had to move.
Having once been in charge of 1270 in Tallahassee, I agree that AM performs miserably in that zone. Conductivity is horrible, and when you add in the summer FL and Gulf Coast static level, it is hard do cover very much.
AM radio did not perform a public service to anyone in the path of Michael. If those station owners were relieved of the responsibility of maintaining the AM station they could easilly afford to have enough spare parts on hand for an engineer to rebuild a 250 FM translator between squall lines.
OK, 3 people in Panama City own shortwave radios. Let's fire up a couple of hundred thousand watts of shortwave power.
Powell is shutting down......and with not much of a Panama City market existing at present, it's no surprise. https://radioinsight.com/headlines/171126/powell-broadcasting-to-cease-panama-city-operations/
Powell is shutting down......and with not much of a Panama City market existing at present, it's no surprise. https://radioinsight.com/headlines/171126/powell-broadcasting-to-cease-panama-city-operations/
You would think Powell Broadcasting would have insurance in case something like this happened. Eventually, it would have. Either they were didn't have any, couldn't obtain any, were under-insured or had some and just decided to take the insurance money and run away.
They had recently sold one of their four stations to EMF, so perhaps they had been contemplating selling the rest of the cluster at some point.
Look at the case of Gow Broadcasting in Houston, where it took them nearly a year to settle insurance claims and then more time to rebuild their facility. The operator did not have the funds to rebuild without the settlement, so it took over a year.
While there likely was insurance on the property, few smaller businesses have business interruption insurance. It is quite possible that, lacking an immediate insurance settlement and no business interruption insurance, the capital required to keep operating was more than the licensee had available.
Big A - I talked to Powell recently (heck, of all days last Wednesday before all heck came ashore), and as usual, they thought they had gold entities. But, they were willing to talk. They paid less then 250k a stick for those stations. AND IT WAS TOO MUCH when they bought them. They never could get any real advertising to kick in and the facilities were falling apart. AND IT WAS TOO MUCH TOO INVEST IN THEM. Now this horrific hurricane has nailed the coffin on these, and sadly, Powell (a multi million if not more company) is smart enough to look at the situation and look at the fact that the insane tower rental costs and crazy expenses of running stations in this market is TOO MUCH EXPENSE TO WASTE EVEN $1. This has been said on here a hundred plus times. Problems started in the mid-80's. The market is just way, way over radioed. But, Michael literally has wiped out so much of the area businesses that advertised to the locals that it will take years to just return to normal and normal was broke. Magic is in no better situation, in my opinion. I would also expect to see some serious "issues" with iHeart in the market, as well. The market needs no more than maybe a dozen signals and man, I hate to say it, this market may be the first real "test" for just how radio has fallen as people shift to other listening venues and a market strained by very limited advertising dollars. The daily afternoon paper version of radio has hit this area.Most on here know I love this area and the people (even more than I love the area's biggest fan, David Eduardo. But, just by a sliver of beautiful Emerald Coast white sand.) My guess is it will take $5-$6M long term investment just to ride out the build outs, low advertising budgets and start up costs. I think they made the right choice (heartbreaking to me.) I do not see how this will ever pay off with all the obstacles in the market. Run Tibbs Run. I want to not. Charlie may see this. I am actually glad he doesn't have to add fixing these stations at this point of time. Too much on one guy and his team.
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