WLAV Tower Relocation - new update 7/29

[CK-722]

WGRD comes in fairly well on a car radio nearly all days until mile marker 135 on US-131. The signal hits a cliff and dives rapidly once one crosses the Muskegon River just a few miles south of Big Rapids,.

With even a little bit of favorable atmospheric conditions, WGRD blasts in much farther north.

I hate how much 93.7 The Ticket from Wexford County cuts into B93's signal in the Big Rapids, Bitely, and Big Star Lake areas.

If it weren't for competitors trying to pull fast ones to prevent upgrades, neither 93.7 Harrietta nor 93.7 Frankenmuth would have been dropped in, at least as early as at the time they were. By fighting the upgrades, the competitors ended up with another whole station to compete with. And interference to The Superpower "Beast", WBCT. Everyone thought you couldn't do it because WJFM/WBCT was super powered at 470/320 kW. In fact, it is only considered as a 50 kW/150 meter Class B for allotment purposes.

How, you say, did this happen? By asking if there were alternatives to what the competitors proposed in Petitions to Deny and Petitions For Rule Making. There were alternatives, but you had to think outside the box. Be careful what you try to stop from happening. That's how both surfaced. Neither the stations nor their attorneys could resist the possibility of an entirely new station. Even if it got more interference from WBCT than a regular Class B.

[CK-722]

The extensively LOS location near Reed City is near Wells Lake, near where 170th Avenue and 13 Mile Rd. intersect in Osceola County.

[CK-722]

We talked about the WLAV-FM tower on the 6 Fountain Street TL. The tower dates to circa 1940, when most stations were already putting up monopoles. WLAV (AM) located on the top of the building and was on 1310 for a short time, until March 29, 1941, when they moved to 1340. WOOD was on 1270 at the time, and moved to 1300 in 1941. Some were confused and didn't believe it was on 1310, thinking WOOD was on 1300. Both moved at the same time.

Right next door, at 24 Fountain Street, is the Fountain Street Church, which has a bell tower that is almost as high as the old WLAV tower. Look at the 3D Satellite Phoetographs on Google if you don't believe it.

They used to have R & B Artist Concerts at the Fountain Street Church, and I suspect that caused a lot of controversy in Grand Rapids. Even some of the artists didn't want to play there because they felt their music conflicted with church teachings.

Found the story by accident.

http://www.westmichmusichystericalsociety.com/fsc-2/

[Gary Hunt]

I don't know if this has ever been posted on this sight, but it's well worth the read and view of the pictures captured in 1940 of WLAV radio. Here's a two (2) page scanned Grand Rapids Mirror magazine article from Volume VII-No. 3 from the Fall 1940. WLAV "Your Friendly Neighbor of the Air", contains several pictures. It's a very historical article. Maybe I should have started a new topic for this one.

Page 1: https://photos.app.goo.gl/RfmqKxk2Y3tdobCUA
Page 2: https://photos.app.goo.gl/tJHUXtWNVpvUj1tR6

Enjoy!

Gary

[CK-722]

Well, just to go off on another tangent, I was not surprised when I researched the Fountain Street Church and found it had similar origins to Woodside Church in Flint. Both had been Baptist Churches, and are now socially active Nondenominational churches. Woodside had a lot of recitals and concerts, but I don't think it was ever used as a R&B/Jazz/Pop/Folk/Rock venue, as those were held at the IMA Auditorium, The Sippin' Lizzard, Mt. Holly, and Sherwood Forest. I suspect that mid to late 20th century Grand Rapids was not overly fond of secular music, and Fountain Street Church provided a(nother) venue for those types of concerts. Woodside was in a Modern church building designed by the Saarinens, rather than a traditional ornate church/parsonage/rectory/abbey complex like 24 Fountain Street. It was recently sold to Mott CC and has moved.

[ftballfan]

Well, just to go off on another tangent, I was not surprised when I researched the Fountain Street Church and found it had similar origins to Woodside Church in Flint. Both had been Baptist Churches, and are now socially active Nondenominational churches. Woodside had a lot of recitals and concerts, but I don't think it was ever used as a R&B/Jazz/Pop/Folk/Rock venue, as those were held at the IMA Auditorium, The Sippin' Lizzard, Mt. Holly, and Sherwood Forest. I suspect that mid to late 20th century Grand Rapids was not overly fond of secular music, and Fountain Street Church provided a(nother) venue for those types of concerts. Woodside was in a Modern church building designed by the Saarinens, rather than a traditional ornate church/parsonage/rectory/abbey complex like 24 Fountain Street. It was recently sold to Mott CC and has moved.

Also, Grand Rapids didn't have a decent large indoor venue until Van Andel Arena opened. I've noticed how many tours in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s skipped Grand Rapids but played one or more of Kalamazoo, Saginaw, Flint, Lansing, Muskegon, and (during the summer) Val-du-Lakes and Castle Pines.

[CK-722]

I was just reading that for a short time in 1877, Fountain Street Baptist Church was the tallest structure in MICHIGAN. It burned down in 1917, so I don't know if the bell tower is the same. Has anyone noticed if the old WLAV tower is lighted? If not, it may be because the bell tower is actually taller. Has anyone thought of putting a translator antenna in a bell tower? I think I've read that some cell antennas are so mounted.

[CK-722]

Use "Find" "73.213" to see the old Section 73.213 rules for short spaced stations, used from the early 1960s to circa 1980. New is not always better.

https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Ar ... -73-74.pdf

Certainly it would have been a lot easier to relocate WLAV 96.9 without being oddly directional. It's the rules that were used for the Pettis Ave. and 5 Mile Rd. location.

[CK-722]

FCCdata.org is ahead of CDBS somehow, and reports a 1-31-2020 filing for a License To Cover for the CP. It doesn't show in CDBS yet.

They area using a panel antenna, but much of the pattern major lobe, other than at about 75-80 degrees true is between 64 percent (0.8 relative field) and 81 percent (0.9 relative field) of the 43 kW maximum ERP, according to the proof of performance previously filed as evidence of progress for the STA extension.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS_Att ... &exhcnum=2

RELATIVE FIELD AND ERP OF VARIOUS MAJOR LOBE LOCAL MAX AND MIN AZIMUTHS OF COMPOSITE MEASURED PATTERN

40 0.890 34.1 kW
50 0.830 29.6 kW
78 1.000 ABS MAX 43.0 kW
80 0.994. 42.5 kW
100 0.843 30.6 kW
120 0.928 37.0 kW

[radionut]

As acknowledged in the paperwork filed, WLAV cannot broadcast at full power until puny little WLAW moves.

Personally, I'd just turn in the WLAW license, or in the alternative, file an STA to broadcast at reduced power from the current WLAW site.

I believe it's not a over lapping coverage contour issue here. The way I understand it is that it's a physical location issue between WLAW & WLAV. If you turn in the WLAW license it still is not completely off the "books" and you can't increase WLAV to full power. Moving it was the only option to pull it off. If someone has a better understanding of the rules please explain....

Once WLAV goes to full power it should be a pretty decent signal. Gaining coverage in Ottawa and Muskegon County will out weight loosing the coverage to the East.

[CK-722]

If you notice, they adjusted the azimuths of each panel in the antenna slightly to adjust the pattern. I didn't see a power distribution between panels. But if the WLAW situation was resolved, theoretically if the power distribution to the NNW panel is increased, the pattern could be adjusted to improve it. The azimuth adjustments in each panel may result in better null filling in some directions also. I'd have to look at distances to see what the change is to the Central Grand Rapids and nearby Grand River Valley. The 70 dBu with the TL, distance, and actual pattern only extends a few miles past the Grand Rapids City Limits, similar to 101.3 and 107.3 on the West City Limits.

Click the Special Operating Conditions link near the end of the link pages, and scroll to Page 19 for the 70 dBu actual composite pattern.

https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/datae ... 7&goBack=N

The still licensed site is 8.7 miles from coordinates near the center of the CBD. The CP site is 11.6 miles from those coordinates.

[statmanmi]

As acknowledged in the paperwork filed, WLAV cannot broadcast at full power until puny little WLAW moves.

Personally, I'd just turn in the WLAW license, or in the alternative, file an STA to broadcast at reduced power from the current WLAW site.

Hi All,

I've become such a geek, I tend to check on the site fcc.today almost daily to see what's been approved and filed in the state of Michigan.

What I noticed on 1/31/2020 is that L2Cs were filed for both WLAW and WLAV.


As MWmetalhead noted, the conditions on prior documents noted that WLAW needed to finish its relocation to the Montague water tower before WLAV on the Grand Valley campus tower could go to full strength.

The WLAW 1/31 filing was indeed for the water tower site and approved power:

https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/datae ... f&goBack=N

Thus allowing for the WLAV L2C filing at their intended full power:

https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/datae ... 7&goBack=N


Hi CK-722,

I tend to seek out documents ultimately from the LMS data, not the CDBS. I'm just a recent aficionato to following FCC filings, so stumbled into this source self-sufficiently.

Trip, who runs rabbitears.info for television station data also had a blog post last year about how he's been transitioning to using LMS as the source versus CDBS for that site:

https://www.rabbitears.info/blog/index. ... -Questions


Yup, I'm definitely a geek for this stuff!
Cheers ~~ Statmanmi