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1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Discussion pertaining to Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Battle Creek, Big Rapids, and Michiana
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1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by ENG » Sat Nov 24, 2018 9:25 am

Didn't see any TV coverage on this.

https://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/20 ... burns-down



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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Nov 24, 2018 9:47 am

Interesting info. I always assumed WJQK/WPNW had their studios in that building since it appears relatively large and looked well maintained. I am relieved to see no persons were injured and that programming on the FM stations is unaffected.

Because 96.5 FM is an AM translator, I suppose it's mandatory that AM 1260 be returned to the air. It is good to see that Mr. Lanser intends to work swiftly to return AM 1260 to the airwaves. That station has one of the best daytime AM coverage areas in western Michigan and is one of a select few that seemingly outperform predicted contours.

I saw no mention of the 98.9 MHz translator in the article, which ironically, was to use the short tower that is next door to the building that caught fire. Did that station ever sign on?



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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by wsummers » Sat Nov 24, 2018 9:56 am

This article is from June. Station is on the air with reduced power. https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.ex ... _num=36532



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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by Arthur Mometer » Sat Nov 24, 2018 10:01 am



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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Nov 24, 2018 12:29 pm

Thanks for the info. Certainly explains why I've not noticed a good signal from 1260 in the GR area in quite some time. Granted, I never tuned into the AM band while driving to & from my folks for Thanksgiving.

Running 1260 at 1 kW omni sacrifices a LOT of coverage in highly populated areas of Kent County. The 96.5 FM translator struggles once you get north & east of Grandville, the Wyoming pandhandle and Byron Center. Of course, the vast majority of WPNW's audience resides in Ottawa County, so as long as they can serve those areas well, they are probably happy with that.



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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by tvbobn » Sat Nov 24, 2018 1:06 pm

This building was office/studios for many years, but in the early 90's they moved office/studios to Zeeland. The large old building near the AM tower site was then just a transmitter building.

In recent years it was rented to a man that located a computer business in the building. Earlier this year he was in the process of moving out of the building. Over the years he had acquired a lot of computer stuff and had unlimited time to move out. He was working on it over a few months.

It was during the final move out that three people broke into the building in the middle of the night to steal 6 laptops. On their way out the back door, they set a fire to cover their break-in. This fire destroyed the entire building and transmitter room! This included the two transmitters and phasor unit. These people were caught and are now in jail for arson.

WPNW was back on the air the following day with a lot of hard work from their contract engineer. It has been broadcasting with an STA 1Kw for most of the summer.

It's sad to say, but they had just installed a newer AM transmitter at the site during the few months earlier that was destroyed too.

They have a new small transmitter building on site now. Replacement equipment is slowly coming in. The new phasor is suppose to ship next week. They will be back at full power as soon as everything is in place.

The old building destroyed by the fire was completely torn down and removed a few weeks ago. Even the parking lot was removed. The area is now back to nature. There is a large pond right behind where the building once stood. By spring, you'll never even know that this large building was located there!

By the way, the FM translator located at this site was not on the tower by the building, as someone mentioned above, it is located on one of the AM towers.


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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Nov 24, 2018 3:41 pm

Many thanks for providing full background on the situation as well as an update of current status.

I hope the arsonists remain imprisoned for a VERY long time. What those three pieces of human garbage perpetrated is sickening. I am happy to hear they were apprehended and successfully prosecuted.



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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by Arthur Mometer » Sat Nov 24, 2018 4:01 pm

Can anyone find a link on this? I can't find a single story on google about the arsonists being caught. If they are under 18, it may explain why there is not more information.


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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by cckadlec » Sat Nov 24, 2018 5:07 pm

I don't know why it isn't mentioned further, but 98.9 signed on weeks ago. It can be heard throughout the area, though 98.7 kind of kills it off within the city. Easy to hear in Wyoming and Kentwood. I hear it very regularly up here in Fremont too when things are quieter, as long as WEMP isn't peeking its easy listening head in the mix. 96.5 is quite crowded, so I only heard Zeeland in early morning hours. With Big Rapids on 96.5, that ain't happening anymore. (The WBRN owner refused to answer my e-mail about why they feel it's cool to be running 96.5 and 107.7 both with the same programming, same 250 watts, both from the same tower, aside from plain greed).


[ 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. ]

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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Nov 24, 2018 5:19 pm

Easy to hear in Wyoming and Kentwood.
I beg to differ. Perhaps for you it's easy, but for those of us using typical consumer-grade equipment, all one typically hears at 98.9 is splash-over from WFGR. For a Class A, WFGR's range and signal penetration is fairly impressive.

(As an aside, I enjoy WFGR's programming.)

Regarding 96.5 & 107.7, I can only surmise the news/talk format is a placeholder for one of those two stations. Is 96.5 stronger than 107.7 in your area?



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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by cckadlec » Sat Nov 24, 2018 5:51 pm

I think part of the reason it was so strong in those areas for me was because I was driving on M-6 when monitoring it. My car has a back window directional antenna, so I was aiming right at it and away from 98.7. But certainly it was having some issues with 98.7 in the GR area, no doubt there. But I'm not in town as often this time of year as compared to summer... and conditions are different between the two as well. It was recently heard in Coldwater at least; it does get out well due to the very open frequency.

***

I sent an e-mail to them in Big Rapids - which I've done before in the past with zero reply, so there's no surprise there - asking them the same thing basically. I was curious if they planned to take their 107.7, which has a truly epic shitty signal, and broadcast some HD channel from a co-owned station like they do with 99.1. I can see why they wanted the 96.5 frequency back (it originally was a repeater of WFGR in Big Rapids for many years that would now and then faintly be heard down here, though WFGR seemingly admitted they had nothing to do with the translator).

107.7 is just terrible. Horrible audio quality and something you barely want to even listen to because of it. I actually had to record their TOH ID for my 500 TOH ID project three times because two of the times, the audio was so distorted it was hard to understand the ID!! They struggle with poor coverage on 107.7 too. And worse off, barely no coverage area to the southwest because WMUS's IBOC buries it almost entirely until right before you get close to Big Rapids (even in White Cloud, it's usually IBOC'y). So that sucks for them. It's the same situation as 103.9. 35 miles from here but all IBOC unless you aim just right.

96.5 is pretty open for them around here and I can easily carry their signal into the Muskegon area on most days. Certainly a local here in Fremont, and the audio quality isn't as harsh. But it doesn't excuse the fact they're on two frequencies from the same tower. My prediction: they plan to hog both of them and use them both for WBRN programming. Because in their eyes... the FCC was dumb enough to give them another station when they already had one, so why not!!!!? At the same time, though I haven't listened very recently, their IDs still only mentioned 107.7, so anything is possible...


[ 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. ]

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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by originalzzmfmjock » Sat Nov 24, 2018 10:39 pm

The last time I was in Fremont this past summer, I heard mostly the Whitehall LPFM on 98.9 in that area. It was pretty strong and very listenable too. Is the translator for 1260 now over running that signal in the Fremont area??????



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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by cckadlec » Sat Nov 24, 2018 11:29 pm

Nopers, it's more of a half-and-half thing right now. 98.9 Whitehall usually occupies half the frequency here. It's strong enough to hear but still very much a semi-local.

On the car radio, it's listenable on a good day, weak and staticy on a bad day. I usually hear Tomah and/or Two Rivers at least once every few days when I'm listening, but otherwise lately when things have been more dead - such as those winter conditions when all the nearby translators come in but none of the semi-local full powers - the new station is in. Obviously it hasn't been on very long and came on when the tropo season had long since ended, so it's hard to be sure how it'll behave with summer conditions as I haven't listened enough.
originalzzmfmjock wrote:
Sat Nov 24, 2018 10:39 pm
The last time I was in Fremont this past summer, I heard mostly the Whitehall LPFM on 98.9 in that area. It was pretty strong and very listenable too. Is the translator for 1260 now over running that signal in the Fremont area??????


[ 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. ]

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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by originalzzmfmjock » Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:56 pm

I've heard the 98.9 translator in the Grand Rapids area. You can understand what is being said, but a lot of bleed over from WFGR. Their 96.5 translator is quite audible on the Northeast side of Grand Rapids, particularly this time of the year, with the out of town signals being held down by the colder weather.



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Re: 1260 Zeeland Transmitter site burns

Post by cckadlec » Tue Dec 18, 2018 1:45 pm

cckadlec wrote:
Sat Nov 24, 2018 5:51 pm
I sent an e-mail to them in Big Rapids - which I've done before in the past with zero reply, so there's no surprise there - asking them the same thing basically. I was curious if they planned to take their 107.7, which has a truly epic shitty signal, and broadcast some HD channel from a co-owned station like they do with 99.1. I can see why they wanted the 96.5 frequency back (it originally was a repeater of WFGR in Big Rapids for many years that would now and then faintly be heard down here, though WFGR seemingly admitted they had nothing to do with the translator).

107.7 is just terrible. Horrible audio quality and something you barely want to even listen to because of it. I actually had to record their TOH ID for my 500 TOH ID project three times because two of the times, the audio was so distorted it was hard to understand the ID!! They struggle with poor coverage on 107.7 too. And worse off, barely no coverage area to the southwest because WMUS's IBOC buries it almost entirely until right before you get close to Big Rapids (even in White Cloud, it's usually IBOC'y). So that sucks for them. It's the same situation as 103.9. 35 miles from here but all IBOC unless you aim just right.

96.5 is pretty open for them around here and I can easily carry their signal into the Muskegon area on most days. Certainly a local here in Fremont, and the audio quality isn't as harsh. But it doesn't excuse the fact they're on two frequencies from the same tower. My prediction: they plan to hog both of them and use them both for WBRN programming. Because in their eyes... the FCC was dumb enough to give them another station when they already had one, so why not!!!!? At the same time, though I haven't listened very recently, their IDs still only mentioned 107.7, so anything is possible...
Without making a separate thread for these stations as they aren't worth it, anyone know what the deal is with 96.5 and 107.7 Big Rapids? Both went off the air right before the H*** 3-day tropo opening. (Thank you very much! Great timing, especially on 96.5!). I'd like to think the whole tower is off the air, but 102.3 runs from the same one. Both of the WBRN stations are still off today. Maybe they'll take this time to fix the signals so they're not so distorted, as they'll obviously end up back on the air.


[ 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. ]

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