ChrisWL1980 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 11:28 pm
Mentor Partners still has that 96.5 translator which was at one time used to relay WFGR before Rewind came along (likely to piss off Sunny 97.3). I don't know what the status of that is now (FCC databases show it being used to relay 1460 WBRN, but there's no mention of 96.5 on WBRN's website), but I would imagine they'd just move the Rewind format to 96.5.
96.5 is WBRN-AM. They tested that station for some months back in 2018 when it only had a CP and then it disappeared entirely. Then it reappeared this year again and has been on the air ever since. 107.7 is their supposedly main frequency but why would they want it when it barely gets out anywhere to the south or southeast? WMUS IBOC crushes it. Heading from White Cloud (which should easily hear it) to Big Rapids, you can't even listen to the signal until more than halfway to Big Rapids because of the IBOC. It is useless. 96.5 on the other hand, doesn't have that problem anywhere. Here in Fremont, it is pretty clear with RDS, though KLH batters it sometimes. So they have their most potent signal on 96.5 but not even advertising it.
But same deal with 99.1. All those Big Rapids stations get out far to the north and east, but in this direction, barely at all. Rewind is on 99.1 but you can barely hear the thing til about 10 miles east of White Cloud because of WMYX on the same frequency. The country on 100.9 is regularly walloped by WKKV's HD where I live where it can be hard to get a clear signal from about April to November. I know 100.9 has HD but it too barely gets out.
As far as anywhere to the southeast, those Big Rapids stations really don't pick good frequencies. But where I live, most people don't go to Big Rapids for anything anyway, so it's probably not a big deal.
And as for 96.5 rebroadcasting WFGR, I'm not sure who was responsible for that. WFGR told me back then that they had nothing to do with it! But why complain about a free translator?