The other day I was tuning the FM dial and came across a "religous rock" station on 97.7 just north of Dayton. I didn't get the call letters but they claimed to serve the Northern Miami Valley, i.e northern Dayton suburbs and mentioned Tipp City and Huber Heights. I was surprised because I usually receive WOXY on 97.7 from Oxford Ohio, which is about 35 miles from Dayton. As I traveled from the northern Dayton suburbs through downtown Dayton, this station was weak and fighting it out with WOXY. It was all WOXY south of Dayton. I checked out the "Radio Locator" website and it didn't show a station on 97.7 near Dayton. I thought it was a LPFM but now I am not so sure. Any ideas?
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Pirate station on 97.7 near Dayton?
- Thread starter Len14043
- Start date
> The other day I was tuning the FM dial and came across a
> "religous rock" station on 97.7 just north of Dayton. I
> didn't get the call letters but they claimed to serve the
> Northern Miami Valley, i.e northern Dayton suburbs and
> mentioned Tipp City and Huber Heights. I was surprised
> because I usually receive WOXY on 97.7 from Oxford Ohio,
> which is about 35 miles from Dayton. As I traveled from the
> northern Dayton suburbs through downtown Dayton, this
> station was weak and fighting it out with WOXY. It was all
> WOXY south of Dayton. I checked out the "Radio Locator"
> website and it didn't show a station on 97.7 near Dayton. I
> thought it was a LPFM but now I am not so sure. Any ideas?
>
You missed the saga involving this frequency.
A dismissed employee of Southwestern Ohio Public Radio, the licensee of WOXR-LP/Huber Heights running Christian CHR as Choice FM, set up a station on the same frequency across the street from WOXR, identifying itself as WSWO-LP and running Oldies.
The court system implemented a timeshare between Southwestern Ohio Public Radio and the dismissed employee. Choice FM runs Tuesday 7 AM-Friday 7 PM, while Oldies runs Friday 7 PM-Tuesday 7 AM.
Both WOXR and WSWO will go bye-bye if WOXY moves to Mason, as LPFM is a "secondary service" to full-power FM as full-power stations have no obligation to protect LPFM signals when filing for new Construction Permits).
Both the FCC site and Radio-Locator will often show many stations as "CP off air" even though they are operating-stations that have FCC authorizations to test will obviously be broadcasting, even though a License to Cover has not been issued. Some stations may be on the air for months before the FCC database will reflect them as fully licensed.
As further evidence of the cluelessness funded by our tax dollars, the FCC generally only considers the 60 dBu (sometimes 54, sometimes 50 depending on station class) contour as a station's service area, so you will see many LPFMs that are located on the "fringes" of another station's service area. WOXY's 60 dBu contour falls well shy of Dayton, and the 50 dBu contour only clips southwestern Montgomery County. It is hard to receive a signal weaker than 50 dBu in most buildings, and signals under 40 dBu often aren't listenable.<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
> "religous rock" station on 97.7 just north of Dayton. I
> didn't get the call letters but they claimed to serve the
> Northern Miami Valley, i.e northern Dayton suburbs and
> mentioned Tipp City and Huber Heights. I was surprised
> because I usually receive WOXY on 97.7 from Oxford Ohio,
> which is about 35 miles from Dayton. As I traveled from the
> northern Dayton suburbs through downtown Dayton, this
> station was weak and fighting it out with WOXY. It was all
> WOXY south of Dayton. I checked out the "Radio Locator"
> website and it didn't show a station on 97.7 near Dayton. I
> thought it was a LPFM but now I am not so sure. Any ideas?
>
You missed the saga involving this frequency.
A dismissed employee of Southwestern Ohio Public Radio, the licensee of WOXR-LP/Huber Heights running Christian CHR as Choice FM, set up a station on the same frequency across the street from WOXR, identifying itself as WSWO-LP and running Oldies.
The court system implemented a timeshare between Southwestern Ohio Public Radio and the dismissed employee. Choice FM runs Tuesday 7 AM-Friday 7 PM, while Oldies runs Friday 7 PM-Tuesday 7 AM.
Both WOXR and WSWO will go bye-bye if WOXY moves to Mason, as LPFM is a "secondary service" to full-power FM as full-power stations have no obligation to protect LPFM signals when filing for new Construction Permits).
Both the FCC site and Radio-Locator will often show many stations as "CP off air" even though they are operating-stations that have FCC authorizations to test will obviously be broadcasting, even though a License to Cover has not been issued. Some stations may be on the air for months before the FCC database will reflect them as fully licensed.
As further evidence of the cluelessness funded by our tax dollars, the FCC generally only considers the 60 dBu (sometimes 54, sometimes 50 depending on station class) contour as a station's service area, so you will see many LPFMs that are located on the "fringes" of another station's service area. WOXY's 60 dBu contour falls well shy of Dayton, and the 50 dBu contour only clips southwestern Montgomery County. It is hard to receive a signal weaker than 50 dBu in most buildings, and signals under 40 dBu often aren't listenable.<P ID="signature">______________
> The other day I was tuning the FM dial and came across a
> "religous rock" station on 97.7 just north of Dayton. I
> didn't get the call letters but they claimed to serve the
> Northern Miami Valley, i.e northern Dayton suburbs and
> mentioned Tipp City and Huber Heights. I was surprised
> because I usually receive WOXY on 97.7 from Oxford Ohio,
> which is about 35 miles from Dayton. As I traveled from the
> northern Dayton suburbs through downtown Dayton, this
> station was weak and fighting it out with WOXY. It was all
> WOXY south of Dayton. I checked out the "Radio Locator"
> website and it didn't show a station on 97.7 near Dayton. I
> thought it was a LPFM but now I am not so sure. Any ideas?
>
What you heard was a LPFM. The city of license is Huber Heights instead of Dayton, so your search didn't show anything either due to the location you searched or because no license to cover has been issued (I think Radio-Locator doesn't show new stations operating under CP until they are licensed).
The rights to this license are under dispute and as such you'll hear two different formats on the frequency due to a court ordered time-share until the case is resolved. In the end it may not matter due to the impending WOXY move...which in fact will not force the LPFM off the air (Mason is not close enough to the transmitter site to cause interference from the LPFM inside the new WOXY 60dBu) but will likely make the LPFM license worthless as the increased interference they will have to deal with from WOXY will probably ruin the coverage area. Co-channel interference from WOXY already comes through in parts of Huber.
> "religous rock" station on 97.7 just north of Dayton. I
> didn't get the call letters but they claimed to serve the
> Northern Miami Valley, i.e northern Dayton suburbs and
> mentioned Tipp City and Huber Heights. I was surprised
> because I usually receive WOXY on 97.7 from Oxford Ohio,
> which is about 35 miles from Dayton. As I traveled from the
> northern Dayton suburbs through downtown Dayton, this
> station was weak and fighting it out with WOXY. It was all
> WOXY south of Dayton. I checked out the "Radio Locator"
> website and it didn't show a station on 97.7 near Dayton. I
> thought it was a LPFM but now I am not so sure. Any ideas?
>
What you heard was a LPFM. The city of license is Huber Heights instead of Dayton, so your search didn't show anything either due to the location you searched or because no license to cover has been issued (I think Radio-Locator doesn't show new stations operating under CP until they are licensed).
The rights to this license are under dispute and as such you'll hear two different formats on the frequency due to a court ordered time-share until the case is resolved. In the end it may not matter due to the impending WOXY move...which in fact will not force the LPFM off the air (Mason is not close enough to the transmitter site to cause interference from the LPFM inside the new WOXY 60dBu) but will likely make the LPFM license worthless as the increased interference they will have to deal with from WOXY will probably ruin the coverage area. Co-channel interference from WOXY already comes through in parts of Huber.
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