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Almost Flip Side of the Coin: FM station with the lowest power.

R

RF101

The "FM station with largest coverage map?" thread got me thinking. LPFMs, Class Ds, and translators notwithstanding, what is the lowest-powered commercial FM station out there? For starters, I'll throw out KWVR-FM in Enterprise, Oregon. It blasts away at 32 watts.

(I would imagine the NCE FM sub-band is full of sub-100-watt outlets.)
 
RF101 said:
The "FM station with largest coverage map?" thread got me thinking. LPFMs, Class Ds, and translators notwithstanding, what is the lowest-powered commercial FM station out there? For starters, I'll throw out KWVR-FM in Enterprise, Oregon. It blasts away at 32 watts.

(I would imagine the NCE FM sub-band is full of sub-100-watt outlets.)
Click to expand...
It 6kw, not 32 watts
 
Looks like the station's primary protected signal contour goes no more than 20 miles, with another 10-20 miles for distant reception.
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MarioMania said:
It 6kw, not 32 watts
Click to expand...
Yes.. at 100M HAAT it would 6kw ERP as a Class A.. It's a +500M HAAT hence the massive power drop to stay within regulations... 87 watts in TPO but 32 watts at the antenna.. I suspect there are a few <20 watters out there.
 
RF101 said:
Yes.. at 100M HAAT it would 6kw ERP as a Class A.. It's a +500M HAAT hence the massive power drop to stay within regulations... 87 watts in TPO but 32 watts at the antenna.. I suspect there are a few <20 watters out there.
Click to expand...
And the problem is that there is a "sweet spot" as to height vs. power. When power is sacrificed so greatly to gain height, there is a point when you have a signal that is just plain weak everywhere.

When the group I was with bought two Class A FMs in LA in 2000, one of them was well under 1 kw but at nearly 1000 feet. You could hear it "everywhere" but nobody listened to it. It was just too weak even a few miles from the transmitter to get into homes and workplaces, and in cars it suffered from horrible multipath.

It contributed less than 10% of the two station ratings. We took the station down to the floor of the San Gabriel Valley on a little hill that gave us an almost perfect 100 m HAAT and a full 6 kw. That signal more than tripled the audience delivery with the same format... it was just that people could actually listen to it easily. Over time, it then grew to contributing 40% of the two-station combo's total AQH listening.
 
I work for a non comm whos 90 watts at -81 feet and has repeaters that are 20-50 watts at negative height located in remote alaskan villages, fed by satellite internet and cover more than enough. .even with 90 watts at negative 81 feet we more then cover our village.. does better then the 10kw on 870 used to.. we have repeaters in villages where the am never reliably covered

WPEB 88.1 philly owned by a local non profit used to be only 1 watt, its not got 10 watts
 
None of these are as low as the OP's example, but all of these are below the Class A maximum (or the maximum for their HAAT):
95.3 WGVS Whitehall, MI - 2kW/110m (short-spaced to 95.7 WLHT)
96.3 WKLA Ludington, MI - 3.4kW/93m (downgraded from 5kW as part of a move from 106.3 as this station is short-spaced to WLXT and WSFQ)
97.5 WLAW Whitehall, MI - 4.5kW/33m (had to downgrade to allow third-adjacent sister station 96.9 WLAV to move its TL 20 miles west from its original site)
98.1 WEUL Kingsford, MI - 1kW/135m (has been at this power since sign-on with no obvious short-spacing)
102.7 WMOM Pentwater, MI - 2.65kW/95m (downgraded from 6kW/100m after a tower site move in 2020 made it short-spaced to 102.9 WYHA)
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
I work for a non comm whos 90 watts at -81 feet and has repeaters that are 20-50 watts at negative height located in remote alaskan villages, fed by satellite internet and cover more than enough. .even with 90 watts at negative 81 feet we more then cover our village.. does better then the 10kw on 870 used to.. we have repeaters in villages where the am never reliably covered

WPEB 88.1 philly owned by a local non profit used to be only 1 watt, its not got 10 watts
Click to expand...
How far does 1 watt go? A mile?
I know a 10 watt FM might go 10 miles over flat land.
 
Most of the translators in my area put out a powerful signal for 38 to 250 watts. I can hear many of the Montgomery ones, here in Selma. When the winds are blowing right, I can also hear one from Marion, which is just north and west of me. The three we have in Selma, can be heard up to around 33 to 50 miles in various directions. And...for 95 watts, my LPFM broadcast gets a good 33 mile coverage in certain directions and when the conditions are just right.​

Dan <><
 
Full-power? I nominate KWCD-92.3 Bisbee, AZ, Cherry Creek Media-owned country station with only 90 watts.
Translator? 95.1 K236AH Synarep, WA, relaying KNCW 92.7 (Country) in Omak, with only 1 WATT!!! And I've heard this one before on high hills! They are quite audible in the Manastash Lake region W of town, at 5200 feet. At over 110 miles, this is an absolute shocker...but keep in mind they are 2382 feet HAAT, so 1 watt sounds like 100.
 
Here's another Class A flame-thrower for the list ... KMAK in Orange Cove, California. The 100.3 signal comes from a site with an HAAT of 632 meters. The means KMAK's ERP is only 72 watts! Their web presence is now nearly absent but a coverage map is included at the owner's website : https://www.kmakfm.com/KMAK_LIC_FCC_LR_COVERAGE___FIG_111.pdf

Supposedly the station is known as "La Unika Mexicana" may now be something else. Their signal is only 54dBu into Fresno.
 
One of the lowest ERPs of any station I know is KDTI 90.3, Rochester, MI at 37 watts from 53 meters. That's Michigan. When they moved the station from out West, they kept the K calls. It's owned by EMF, and has a unique format the last I knew, Classic CCM. EMF now has a full market Class B in the Detroit Market, which was always off to the side of the market in Clinton Township. Now it's on the tower in Oak Park with most of the directional antennas and a few AUX facilities, some which were used during the TV digital transition while they were locked out of their tower locations by new antennas on TV towers. After they turned off analog, they returned to the licensed location.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
One of the lowest ERPs of any station I know is KDTI 90.3, Rochester, MI at 37 watts from 53 meters. That's Michigan. When they moved the station from out West, they kept the K calls. It's owned by EMF, and has a unique format the last I knew, Classic CCM. EMF now has a full market Class B in the Detroit Market, which was always off to the side of the market in Clinton Township. Now it's on the tower in Oak Park with most of the directional antennas and a few AUX facilities, some which were used during the TV digital transition while they were locked out of their tower locations by new antennas on TV towers. After they turned off analog, they returned to the licensed location.
Click to expand...

EMF ditched the classic CCM format "K love classics" late last year
 
RadioPatrol said:
...some people have personal FM Transmitters for their devices and yes sometimes you may get some peoples personal phone calls or podcasts or personal playlists with these things.
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Off topic (sorry), but I recall a complaint back before in-car Bluetooth and USB jacks were widely available and TONS of people had those little FM transmitters so they could hear their MP3 players or iPods on their car radios. A woman was stuck in traffic with her small children, started scanning through the FM dial looking for something to listen to when she stumbled across Howard Stern, talking about sexual acts and making lots of scatological references. It was being broadcast by one of those small transmitters in a nearby car. Though her kids probably understood none of it, she was horrified and quickly complained to the FCC.
 
DavidEduardo said:
And the problem is that there is a "sweet spot" as to height vs. power. When power is sacrificed so greatly to gain height, there is a point when you have a signal that is just plain weak everywhere.
Click to expand...

You've mentioned this before with respect to having trouble picking up WQXR in NYC due to its low power on the Empire State building (610 watts). I assume that station could increase power if they moved to 4 Times Square as WBAI did. Would you do it?
 
Mikey Radio said:
Off topic (sorry), but I recall a complaint back before in-car Bluetooth and USB jacks were widely available and TONS of people had those little FM transmitters so they could hear their MP3 players or iPods on their car radios. A woman was stuck in traffic with her small children, started scanning through the FM dial looking for something to listen to when she stumbled across Howard Stern, talking about sexual acts and making lots of scatological references. It was being broadcast by one of those small transmitters in a nearby car. Though her kids probably understood none of it, she was horrified and quickly complained to the FCC.
Click to expand...

I used to have an FM MP3 transmitter and would intentionally put it on 88.3 in my home town of Dyersburg, TN and play CCM and Christian rock because it was on the same frequency as a translator for BBN, which is an anti-CCM network. So when I passed someone listening to BBN they would get a jolt of Christian rock. :LOL:
 
WZLY FM

The lowest one I know of, that never upgraded to 100 watts to get protected, on 91.5 in the Boston area so it is on the same frequency as WMFO, WMLN which are close by, plus first adjacents.

It is a whopping SEVEN WATTS, and was up for sale a while ago as the school got nailed for EAS non compliance and didn't want the expense.... they would have to give it away because NOBODY is going to pay for a 7 watt FM non com that has the coverage of a bikini in Brazil.

WZLY-FM 91.5 MHz - Wellesley, MA

Radio Station Information for WZLY 91.5 MHz FM, Wellesley, MA
radio-locator.com radio-locator.com

I am old enough to remember all the 10 watt stations running to get 100 watts so as not to be unprotected, I had a pre-existing first adjacent on 91.7 at 10 watts that I had to null my 1700w ERP in their direction because they were there first... If not for them I could have had a better pattern, as long as I didn't tread on WMFO about 15 miles down the road...

And the sh*tty thing was when Phillips Andover Academy took that 91.7 dark, U Mass Boston's WUMB promptly applied for an upgrade to their 91.7 in Newburyport MA, to the detriment of the U Mass Lowell station on 91.5 where I had been CE and had to null to protect 91.7 ..... freaking WUMB has so many stations already they could have helped us out but they are greedy MF'rs
 
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