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WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Discussion pertaining to Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Battle Creek, Big Rapids, and Michiana
Kennelly Heaviside
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by Kennelly Heaviside » Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:29 pm

Well, there doesn't appear to be too much room in that little transmitter shack, but maybe there's another portion of the building. I do see two transmission lines. As they leave the building, one appears to have a smaller diameter, but the two going up the tower appears to be the same size. The AUX TPO shows 17 kW, the MAIN TPO is 17.5 kW. That would possibly indicate two 20 kW transmitters, one probably quite old. I've seen that configuration in a transmitter building, but when they had a major problem, with both, they had to bring in an even older 5 kW transmitter. That building looks like a castle by comparison to this shack. There appears to be two antennas, one with 6 Bays near the top, and another 2 Bays further down the tower.

Image


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Mega Hertz
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by Mega Hertz » Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:14 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue Jun 22, 2021 7:21 pm


Livingston County - 250,000 residents - only one commercial FM station is licensed to the whole county. That would be 93.5 WHMI.
And as soon as you hit Whitmore Lake on the Washtenaw/Livingston border, you already have fading. By the time you hit Ann Arbor, you've got Toledo fighting to come in.


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MWmetalhead
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by MWmetalhead » Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:22 pm

There appears to be two antennas, one with 6 Bays near the top, and another 2 Bays further down the tower.
WOOD-TV has its Muskegon area repeater on that tower, I believe.

WOMS-CD also broadcasts from that same tower.

People in Allegan, Wayland and Clarksville say they can hear the station well, so I suspect ERP must be pretty darn close to normal, even though the station is describing the current setup as "limited power."

The warm, humid weather might be aiding the signal, too. I was hearing crazy things on the FM dial last Sunday during the late morning hours. For example, 97.5 WLAW from Whitehall was walking all over 97.5 Now FM in western Ionia County! Heard a number of stations from SE Wisconsin, Chicagoland, and northern Indiana in the southern part of Kent County.



Kennelly Heaviside
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by Kennelly Heaviside » Sat Jun 26, 2021 6:11 am

MWmetalhead wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:22 pm
There appears to be two antennas, one with 6 Bays near the top, and another 2 Bays further down the tower.
WOOD-TV has its Muskegon area repeater on that tower, I believe.

WOMS-CD also broadcasts from that same tower.

People in Allegan, Wayland and Clarksville say they can hear the station well, so I suspect ERP must be pretty darn close to normal, even though the station is describing the current setup as "limited power."

The warm, humid weather might be aiding the signal, too. I was hearing crazy things on the FM dial last Sunday during the late morning hours. For example, 97.5 WLAW from Whitehall was walking all over 97.5 Now FM in western Ionia County! Heard a number of stations from SE Wisconsin, Chicagoland, and northern Indiana in the southern part of Kent County.
The smaller transmission line may be bundled with the other smaller transmission lines, making it appear as a larger line that goes up the tower. The original WMUS-FM tower was at the AM 1090 site on Giles Rd. I'd have to look to see if it was on the AM tower or on a separate taller tower, before moving to the present site.


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cckadlec
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by cckadlec » Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:04 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:22 pm
The warm, humid weather might be aiding the signal, too. I was hearing crazy things on the FM dial last Sunday during the late morning hours. For example, 97.5 WLAW from Whitehall was walking all over 97.5 Now FM in western Ionia County! Heard a number of stations from SE Wisconsin, Chicagoland, and northern Indiana in the southern part of Kent County.
Amusing, as far as WLAW goes. They're only at 1.58kw from the top of the water tower, barely getting out to Holton, generally inaudible 20 miles away here in Fremont. I get them sometimes, but it's pretty rare nowadays. 97.5 is Now here and when conditions are up, KLT to the north comes in well and ZOK to the southwest. Y97-5 comes in too now and then. The latter two are common in Muskegon too, which goes to show how horrible the WLAW setup is as long as they are stuck at low power from a really low tower. Not missing too much I guess. When tropo rolls in, even from the west, I don't hear WLAW. Just Now really strong.

Now, as far as WOOD-FM: they have been running without IBOC the past two or more days. I noticed it a day ago. 106.7 here is Chicago and Detroit around the clock and 107.1 is Cadillac (56 miles away, but was always buried in IBOC) with Fond du Lac on the side. I had Ann Arbor last night too with enhanced conditions to AA and Toledo; that station is RARE here. And at last check a few minutes ago, still no IBOC, still the same stations. I DO believe they turned back on with IBOC when they came back on after the fire or else I think I would have MAYBE noticed. Not 100% sure on that. When they were off, just a mix of Home.fm and Milwaukee oldies, The Lodge peeking in now and then. Conditions just had to be dead as a doornail during the days they were off, naturally!! And I didn't know for a little while and usually skip 106.9 on the dial because... why bother when it's nearly impossible to rid yourself of it to hear anything else at home?


[ Radio and weather geeks, beware! Coastal tropo studies, the 3-hr. Seoul AM Radio Listening Guide, 6-hr. 500 Top-of-Hour IDs, and Chinese FM at www.chriskadlec.comTuner: Grundig G8 • Location: Fremont, Mich. ]

A1B1C1D1
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by A1B1C1D1 » Mon Jul 05, 2021 7:12 pm

There are companies that have a transmitter in a truck that they can roll in to get a station back on the air quickly. They can gas power it, but of course your paying a chunk of change assuming you don't have the insurance for such a possibility.

Muskegon radio is mostly pathetic as far as ad dollars go, even Ottawa County isn't very impressive. Furniture stores and RV dealers mainly. Seasonal boat dealers as well.

When WLAW moved to Montague I just assumed they went to that new 911 tower. There was talk of someone moving to the new one by the highway in Muskegon, county towers normally rent cheap. I'm actually impressed how easily those got built, people hate big towers. Social media has people to busy on politics to care.



A1B1C1D1
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by A1B1C1D1 » Mon Jul 05, 2021 7:41 pm

But I should add that with the spike in home/rent payments, and the flat income growth in the middle/upper middle class poses another challange for media. Less disposable income is never good, especially in a market that is used to low payments in all but a few cities in West Michigan. Even the successful auto parts stores have moved further from media and more towards targeted emails with discount codes.

A greater challange might be if interest rates rise to a point where saving makes more sense then spending or paying down debt. Why pay extra on a 3% mortgage if you find a money market paying a little higher? True that index funds have done amazingly well over the last decade, but most people still think of saving as the local bank and not NYC.

Banning a radio stations moving its studios outside the city of license is a valid argument. But honestly most jocks shill for whoever pays them, and if there told to focus on the bigger city 50 miles away, they will.



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Bull Shannon
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by Bull Shannon » Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:03 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:22 pm
There appears to be two antennas, one with 6 Bays near the top, and another 2 Bays further down the tower.
WOOD-TV has its Muskegon area repeater on that tower, I believe.

WOMS-CD also broadcasts from that same tower.
WOMS broadcasts from a tower located off of White Road & Broton Road, just a short distance north of the WOOD-FM tower, which is south of Apple off Hilton Park Road.

I don't think the WOOD has the Muskegon repeater anymore; WOGC in Holland serves as the lakeshore repeater now.



jlpeterson1957
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by jlpeterson1957 » Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:16 pm

jesusjenny wrote:
Tue Jun 22, 2021 10:08 pm
Good Conversation. I think there is a big difference between big signals covering more rural areas, and corporate radio moving signals around and dumping the local market to make more money. IE -106.9 WOOD-FM is a great example. Take a Heritage Muskegon station and make it a repeater for a Grand Rapids AM?

There are a lot of Big Signal stations up north for sure. The rumor was that when Bob and Tom were discovered it was because they were on a 100000 Watt Station (WJML at the time) that covered so much territory (and the tower was on top of Boyne Mountain or Boyne Highlighands) you could pick it up in something like 30 counties in the Northern Lower, Upper Peninsula and in Wisconsin. One of the "big wigs" from down south heard while vacationing somewhere in Michigan and then rest is history. Interestingly enough, I believe at the time WJML and WMUS were owned by the same group at this time.
I worked at WJML from 1979-1983, so I can speak firsthand. Yes, we would get calls from Ontario, all the way over to Blind River and we'd also get calls from Wisconsin, and then down south of Cadillac. JML and MUS were owned by the same company and the HQ in Muskegon ran everything. There wasn't a whole lot of local autonomy at JML. I was PD during the Bob & Tom days and we did have some minimal say in the music, but not a lot in the hiring.



jlpeterson1957
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by jlpeterson1957 » Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:21 pm

Steve Dirksen wrote:
Wed Jun 23, 2021 8:30 am
Got my interest this morning. I think Tim Moore may have sent out the Bob and Tom tapes back in the day. As a sidebar, I interviewed for the morning show at WJML as their replacement sometime in 80 I think. It was with the legend who is/was Lucy Nally. The interview took place at MUS. I wound up calling Tom at FBQ one morning after 10am...he took the call...and was quite informative and helpful in about a half hour conversation. Fortunately I was rejected for the gig, and quickly realized after that I was NOT a morning show talent.
Interesting. I was the PD during the B&T days. I'd have to fend off calls from Lucy because they never started the news on time. I told her people didn't listen to B&T for the news and not to worry. When they left, I had no part at all in hiring their replacement and the guy they hired was a nice guy, but not a morning guy, for sure. Not too long after that they demoted me and then I left soon afterward.



statmanmi
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by statmanmi » Thu Mar 24, 2022 8:41 pm

cckadlec wrote:
Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:04 pm

...Now, as far as WOOD-FM: they have been running without IBOC the past two or more days. I noticed it a day ago. ...
Hi All,

WOOD-FM 106.9 is back to full strength!

I found this out initially when driving back from Up North for an errand on Monday evening, as I was near Reed City receiving the station successfully. Further south, the HD radio streams started decoding. (I didn't think to listen long enough to see if subchannel 2 is WKBZ AM 1090 "The Talk of Muskegon" or not.)

Then Tuesday and since it's been mentioned on their morning show that the FM is back to full power. They also posted this brief news entry on their website noting that Monday around 1pm is when they achieved restoration:

https://woodradio.iheart.com/content/20 ... ull-power/

Also noticeable again is that the 106.9 FM broadcast has resumed being 1-2 seconds behind the 1300 AM one. I expect the lag is for the processing time into HD Radio, as these last few months my occasional flipping between the two encountered true simulcasts. Guess now I'll go back to listening to the AM if they tease an upcoming ticket giveaway call-in of interest to me.
Bull Shannon wrote:
Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:03 pm

WOMS broadcasts from a tower located off of White Road & Broton Road, just a short distance north of the WOOD-FM tower, which is south of Apple off Hilton Park Road.

I don't think the WOOD has the Muskegon repeater anymore; WOGC in Holland serves as the lakeshore repeater now.
As Bull mentioned, Nexstar's 449' tower for the two TV broadcasts they have for Muskegon (WOMS-CD on RF29, which is either now ATSC 3.0 or still MyNetwork/COZI/Comet; and the WOOD TV Digital Replacement Translator {DRT for short} on RF34) is north of M-46/Apple Ave. (https://www.rabbitears.info/tower.php?r ... rn=1253407). WOOD-FM primary and auxiliary are on a 504' tower with no other AM/FM nor TV south of M-46/Apple Ave. (https://www.rabbitears.info/tower.php?r ... rn=1003960).

Cheers! ~~ Statmanmi



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MWmetalhead
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by MWmetalhead » Fri Mar 25, 2022 7:25 am

Great info - thank you! :)

I believe WOMS-CD in Muskegon is indeed broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 now.

WOOD still has the digital replacement translator in Muskegon as far as I know; on-screen ID is not required for that facility.

Gotta love how WWMT, WOOD/WOTV and WXMI played nice with one another for ATSC 3.0 signal distribution and how WZZM was shut out.

It's clear those stations are doing everything in their power to prevent WZZM from gaining an OTA signal in the southern reaches of the market.

There's still hope for WZZM, though. They could (and should) try to partner with WLLA, unless there is language in their ABC affiliation agreement that would prevent them from adding an OTA signal in that neck of the woods.



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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by Ben Zonia » Sun Mar 27, 2022 4:56 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Fri Mar 25, 2022 7:25 am
Great info - thank you! :)

I believe WOMS-CD in Muskegon is indeed broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 now.

WOOD still has the digital replacement translator in Muskegon as far as I know; on-screen ID is not required for that facility.

Gotta love how WWMT, WOOD/WOTV and WXMI played nice with one another for ATSC 3.0 signal distribution and how WZZM was shut out.

It's clear those stations are doing everything in their power to prevent WZZM from gaining an OTA signal in the southern reaches of the market.

There's still hope for WZZM, though. They could (and should) try to partner with WLLA, unless there is language in their ABC affiliation agreement that would prevent them from adding an OTA signal in that neck of the woods.
Read over the History Cards of WJRT 12, WZZM 13, and WBKB 11, and you'll see where from the beginning, competing applicants and market competitors played fast and loose with obscure rules to make sure they didn't serve a larger and/or full market and/or population by forcing the TL into thinly populated areas. WJRT and WBKB made the best of it, and WBKB is now carrying all four major commercial networks. But WZZM has always been forced to be the illegitimate half or step sibling of the market, by allowing WOTV ABC to horn in way back in 1971.


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MWmetalhead
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Mar 27, 2022 5:45 pm

Indeed, the FCC screwed over WZZM in multiple different ways in order to protect local service in Battle Creek and to give WUHQ as wide of a lane as possible in the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek areas. For many years, cable systems along the I-94 corridor were forbidden from carrying WZZM by the FCC, yet no such prohibition existed against carriage of WUHQ up north (since it was a UHF signal).

Keep in mind WZZM had a translator on channel 12 in Kalamazoo for a number of years, and for a very brief time also had one on channel 72 or 74 in Battle Creek. The Battle Creek signal was forced to sign off; I want to say that happened before WUHQ even began broadcasting, but I could be wrong. I cannot recall for certain if the Kalamazoo translator was forced off or if it shut down voluntarily (I believe WUHQ asked the FCC to shut that one down, and the FCC obliged).

In the early 70s, WZZM tried to move its transmitter to a tower to be built north of Hudsonville. This would've brought a Class B signal into Kalamazoo. The FCC blocked the move, in part due to objections raised by WUHQ. The station would've operated with less than maximum power to protect RF 13 in Toledo.

There was a detailed article about the origins of local TV in Battle Creek (which began with the short lived TV 64 WBKZ), which described the legal battles between WUHQ and WZZM in great detail. I'll see if I can find the URL. I last read the article just a couple months ago.



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Ben Zonia
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Re: WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

Post by Ben Zonia » Sun Mar 27, 2022 6:50 pm

There was an interim operator for Channel 13, which was forced to allow the other competing applicant to take over. This is documented in the Autobiography of Don DeGroot, who left WWJ briefly for a management position there, and left when they awarded it to the other applicant. It is available on library loan, seems like it was the GVSU Library, but I also checked out "Local DJ" and "Records Truly Is My Middle Name" about the same time, and all were only available on library loan, from three different libraries.

The WZZM History Card has the information about the proposed move, out beyond the WGVU-TV and WGVU-FM tower a few miles as I recall without looking it up.

W12AP was forced to leave the air also. In the Detroit Free Press State Edition, there was an asterisk next to the channel icon, for which the footnote read, "Seen on Channel 12 in Kalamazoo". It was 100 watts TPO, no information could be found about the ERP. In the short time between the sign on of WJRT and WZZM, some TV viewers put up big antennas to pull WJRT off the air. Kent County was just a few miles beyond the Grade B contour for WJRT from the Chesaning TL. I remember seeing it on the Motel TV in the early morning tropospheric hours with rabbit ears when I visited during that era.


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