What Does the Fox Say? Goodbye...

[CK-722]

I once lived about a mile from an FM tower. The station used to sign off the air at Midnight. But you could hear the carrier after sign off, sometimes for a few hours. The Night man said that he usually left the exciter on, as the switch was in another room, until he went home. He demonstrated over the air that audio modulated the exciter and it went out over the air, and could be used for limited coverage in an emergency. I have heard stations using just the exciter while doing transmitter maintenance, as far as 15 miles away or so. They usually did it on Sunday Mornings. The telescoping antenna orientation was a little finicky compared to full power, but it came in with little noise in the correct position.

[Deleted User 4520]

I don't listen to FM in the car much but it's kinda sad 92.5 is gone. At least they played a LOT of 80's which I liked. Explains why I get nothing but static on the preset when I was trying to find something decent.

[tipo'mitt2]

One of the more odd decisions made in regards to "The Fox" was the bright idea of having Traverse City Beach Bums baseball broadcast over BOTH signals for their first season or two. (That was independent league, VERY minor league ball, folks) Never quite understood that one. Does anyone happen to know off-hand where 92.5 WAIR was based out of when it was a stand-alone? I want to say Petoskey...

[TC Talks]

WAIR had studios in Petoskey in 1988.

[CK-722]

WAIR had studios in Petoskey in 1988.

They also had an on channel booster, WAIR-FM1 which was 1000 watts maximum ERP DA from a 5 element Yagi, Horizontal as I recall. It was mounted on the studio building. Rick Stone started the station.

The problem with boosters is that radio waves are COHERENT, meaning that they have a single phase instead of random phase like incoherent light (except lasers, which are coherent). That makes them create interference fringes where the signals are about equal. Ideally, a booster is located in a location which receives a very weak measured signal from the actual station. With boosters, less power is often more effective than more power, limited to low signal areas in valleys, shorelines, or behind hills. WWRM/WKPK used to have a 1 watt translator on the Perry Davis Hotel, with two separate 5 element Yagis, one Horizontal and one Vertical. It was very close to the WAIR-FM1 booster location. It was on 100.9 until the East Jordan station, now WQHN, came on the air. The 1 watt signal did amazingly well, and of course, had no fringes.

[TC Talks]

WAIR had studios in Petoskey in 1988.

They also had an on channel booster, WAIR-FM1 which was 1000 watts maximum ERP DA from a 5 element Yagi, Horizontal as I recall. It was mounted on the studio building. Rick Stone started the station.

The problem with boosters is that radio waves are COHERENT, meaning that they have a single phase instead of random phase like incoherent light (except lasers, which are coherent). That makes them create interference fringes where the signals are about equal. Ideally, a booster is located in a location which receives a very weak measured signal from the actual station. With boosters, less power is often more effective than more power, limited to low signal areas in valleys, shorelines, or behind hills. WWRM/WKPK used to have a 1 watt translator on the Perry Davis Hotel, with two separate 5 element Yagis, one Horizontal and one Vertical. It was very close to the WAIR-FM1 booster location. It was on 100.9 until the East Jordan station, now WQHN, came on the air. The 1 watt signal did amazingly well, and of course, had no fringes.

Given how antiquated the facilities are for this station, did Rick buy them used? They seem older than 1987.

[Deleted User 12047]

One of the more odd decisions made in regards to "The Fox" was the bright idea of having Traverse City Beach Bums baseball broadcast over BOTH signals for their first season or two. (That was independent league, VERY minor league ball, folks) Never quite understood that one.

I believe that was a money decision. The team needed some sort of media to sell sponsorships, and paid the station (I think a lot of money) to air and produce the games.

[CK-722]

A lot of owners use preowned equipment. If you have good engineers, they can fix nearly everything, restoring everything to like new, and just replace what needs to be replaced.

The booster antenna on the 322 Bay St. Studios was near the corner of the alley that runs between the buildings off of Howard St. and Shoppers Lane as I recall. Should have taken pictures. There was a picture on a brochure for the Perry Davis Hotel that showed the WKPK translator, W265AA, antennas near Bay and Lewis St.

[TC Talks]

The problem? The power consumption is unsustainable and many new features that you expect from FM can't be implemented.

The transmitter would need to be replaced.

[CK-722]

The problem? The power consumption is unsustainable and many new features that you expect from FM can't be implemented.

The transmitter would need to be replaced.

There are ways of reducing power consumption. More bays, reduce licensed ERP. WAVC recently reduced licensed power.

Atlanta has no other radio stations, so it's difficult to remove under First Local Service without fancy footwork.

It's a difficult but not an impossible situation.

[TC Talks]

The problem? The power consumption is unsustainable and many new features that you expect from FM can't be implemented.

The transmitter would need to be replaced.

There are ways of reducing power consumption. More bays, reduce licensed ERP. WAVC recently reduced licensed power.

Atlanta has no other radio stations, so it's difficult to remove under First Local Service without fancy footwork.

It's a difficult but not an impossible situation.

Again, more cost for a bleak return.

[bmw]

Why CAN'T a station with that big a footprint sell advertising to both Alpena and Petoskey? Is it a logistics issue? Signal not quite strong enough issue? Too big an area to serve without focus on one area alienating listeners from the other? Just curious (as a non-radio person).

[bmw]

Maybe someone could snatch up both 92.5 and 105.5 (WBMI) for cheap and do some kind of simulcast on both frequencies.