97.3 Grand Rapids shut down

[cckadlec]

After a lengthy court battle over... stuff... WJWC-LP has seemingly been forced off the air this morning, according to a post I accidentally ran into five minutes before they shut down.

With WDEE off the air since Friday here, I've been listening to the Grand Rapids LP here in Fremont for these past three days and attempting to record one of their very few and far between IDs or even a simple mention of call letters (their legal ID give the wrong calls and their only other mention of their calls mixed them up as WCWJ instead).

Aside from during some big opening, hearing this 49-watt station at 36 miles - which broadcasts from a height 5 feet lower than my location - was something I assumed unthinkable even if it were a totally open frequency as it suddenly has become. I managed to get recordings of everything I wanted, finally getting their legal ID in the 1am hour.

They went off the air a tad before 7 this morning. Sad for them, but for me, it's like the planets aligned for a few days. Two stations on 97.3 bite the dust in a period of three days. 97.3 is really quiet now though. Meteor scatter from Quebec (with 30+ pings in a few hours even), fade-ups of half a dozen stations as far as Toronto and Des Moines... thank you, radio gods.

[cckadlec]

The fact 94.9 and 97.3 dumped African American-centric formats just weeks apart strikes me as odd. My guess is 97.3 was bleeding cash and has inside info that Cumulus is about to flip one of its local 50,000 watt stations to Urban.

I wouldn't say that 97.3 dumped their format. They were proudly African-American right up til the end.

They just dumped the entire station and everyone in it. Dumped the format by default. I think just some bad luck for both stations and good luck for 104.9. If Paul Allen Billings had a bigger role in 97.3, no doubt it would have been hugely successful like 103.7 and 106.1 in Muskegon. But I think whatever happened was just beyond their control as far as businesses go. Someone just made a wrong business move, legally, and the station got caught in the middle.

A corporate urban station in Grand Rapids is so laughable!

[TC doesn't Talk]

[cckadlec]

The added mention of "Would you believe the plaintiff even sued me (unsuccessfully) for all of my assets including equipment I paid for to run the station?" to the edited Facebook posts seems to shine some (still-dim) light on the situation.

[originalzzmfmjock]

Don't know what's going on with this station, but they are back on the air today.

[Trophyhead]

It's a big day for that frequency in the region, as WDEE in Big Rapids/Reed City also returned to the airwaves. A transmitter relocation was the reported cause of 12 days of darkness from that signal.

[cckadlec]

WDEE was off for 12 days?! I seriously didn't notice that for 9 of those days? Wow, and I call myself a DXer. Of course, I did clean up the dial in the last three days of them being off the air and I don't usually pay great attention to strong local frequencies, knowing nothing will come from them. I noticed them go back on the air last night in the late afternoon or early evening hours, but their signal is less than half the strength. It's still hard to null out, but signal readings are still low.

What do you mean that they had a transmitter relocation? I don't see any changes in the FCC records, unless there is an STA that is pending, which feels likely given the off-air period and now the weaker signal.

Interesting that GR is back on the air already. Of course, because of WDEE, I can't hear them anymore.

[Trophyhead]

I punched up and received the WDEE signal this morning at the 131 Sand Lake exit, while on my way to Big Rapids. They were previously able to hold off 97.3 in Grand Rapids till I reached the Cedar Rock area in my southbound travels. We'll see what the drive home brings in terms of reception.

I have no direct knowledge of why there was a period earlier this month where the signal went dark, the transmitter relocation talk came my way from someone who has regular dealings with the station.

[cckadlec]

So, is 97.3 Grand Rapids still on the air, or did it go silent again?

As of being in town early Saturday morning, it was on the air as usual. I can't hear it from up here in Fremont anymore due to WDEE certainly being on the air, but I have no reason to believe they've managed to go off the air again, so I assume they're on.

[originalzzmfmjock]

97.3 is on the air

[jm]

A minor point, Trophyhead, but WDEE was only off 9 days. From Sunday afternoon 1/6 to early evening 1/15. Several days of that was due to weather, when the tower climbers couldn't work.

[Trophyhead]

Point taken on the actual WDEE "down time."

I will leave it to you to define whether the adjustments have been completed, or if the signal contour has been changed. I am finding a less friendly arrival of their sound as I commute in from Comstock Park/Belmont. The grainy sound used to make it to Cedar Rock, it's more like Sand Lake at the moment.

[originalzzmfmjock]

As for WDEE, I noticed up in Newaygo over the weekend that their signal wasn't nearly as good as it normally is. It's usually the dominant signal on 97.3, but it was full of holes when I listened this past weekend.