97.1 MeTVFM South Bend heard on 96.7

[cckadlec]

Hi all. I was doing some radio bandscan work at Warren Dunes last weekend for a project of mine and ran into MeTVFM. However, while it is typically on the air on 97.1 South Bend (as WGTO-AM Cassopolis), I logged a rather semi-local 96.7 with a "MeTV" ID and nothing at all in the null of local The Drive on 97.1, which had a city-grade signal. Had MeTVFM been on 97.1, I almost surely would have found it in the null, even if it took some work. But I could not find it anywhere.

The translator used to be on 96.7 before moving to 97.1 and I logged it at Warren Dunes back in 2018 on 96.7 as well. This time around, I heard the 96.7 at the same signal strength in the same direction as five years ago, beside WCOE and KLH IBOC. I made a handful of recordings of other stations, but didn't get this one as it was an easy ID of what was clearly a pretty-local station, so there was nothing special about it at the time. I didn't give it a second thought since it gave an ID, which I jotted down, until I realized... well, it doesn't... exist and there is nothing else running that. 96.7 Chicago is Streetz 95-1 last I knew, with Star in Joliet.

I sent an e-mail to the 97.1 contact on their website. No reply. I'm extremely detailed with my logs and 100% sure it was on 96.7 running typical MeTVFM oldies format that is hard to mistake as anything else, and with a reliable signal in all afternoon. I have a sensitive radio and it wasn't some image from another station either. I've picked up MeTVFM up here in Fremont quite a number of times on 97.1, but they were oddly absent on 97.1 during the recent South Bend tropo.

Anyone have any information on this? Perhaps they accidentally were on the wrong frequency for a day? Still broadcasting also on 96.7 as well as 97.1? I've got nothing here, so hoping someone more local could elaborate to help solve this very annoying mystery. I get grouchy when my projects have unlicensed stations or incomplete information.

[MWmetalhead]

You were probably hearing WXZO via e-skip.

https://www.967me.com/about-us/

[cckadlec]

You were probably hearing WXZO via e-skip.

https://www.967me.com/about-us/

Thanks, but it was local groundwave - not even tropo at that - in the entire time I was monitoring from 2 to 6pm with the same signal quality as the other South Bend stations (weak-ish, but stable).

[cckadlec]

This unknown station has finally been solved after a Facebook post on an AM group showed that an Valpo FM translator (of an AM station) was rebroadcasting WGTO, which made me curious if anyone else was, given this mystery that has bugged me for months.

I checked the station databases again to find that two days before my radio trip to Warren Dunes last summer, applications were approved by the FCC to allow GTO back on the air and then move to 96.7 from 100.3. It seems that there were a few modifications throughout August and that it wasn't approved until the end of the month, but surely it was back on 96.7 regardless at the time I was hearing it. None of these applications had been posted in the databases by the time of my searching due to the usual delays in things appearing online. And the station owner was oh so helpful as well, by not bothering to reply to my e-mail asking about it. I figured they had permanently moved from 96.7 to 97.1 South Bend, but it seems they wanted to stay put on 96.7 as well as 97.1.

It appears on 96.7 in Dowagiac nowadays as W244EO rebroadcasting GTO. And clearly that's what I was hearing 7 months ago. And if anyone else hears it again, now you know.