1660 Kalamazoo "The Fan" flips to Urban Format

[leadsquirter]

1560 is now silent. I remember the day the station signed on as WTPS. It was early August 1966 and a month before I left for the Navy. I read a July article in the Kalamazoo Gazette that had a picture of them putting up the towers. So when I found out the sign-on date I was up early for work that day and had my radio tuned to 1560. Sure enough sharply at 6 am this new station started its journey with a MOR format that wasn't bad. I came home for leave in October 1967 and the station had gone full top 40 by then. I remember it as the "Big Buck" WBUK country during the late '70s. Then it went all oldies for a while in the early '80s. They upped the power to 4,100 watts in 1985 and became WHEZ with a nostalgia format. Sorry, I can't remember a timeline for all the changes after that.

[ChrisWL1980]

Call signs have now swapped as well. 1660 is now WTOU and 1560 is now WQLR. I'd assume they're going to try to sell off 1560, otherwise they'd have just turned the license in.

Somewhere I have an aircheck of WBUK's oldies format from about 1981. It was given to me by the late Jim Heddle of Ann Arbor, who worked there at the time and was also part of the original 107.3 WODJ airstaff in 1990.

[Better Call Saul]

Don't understand this at all.

Guessing maybe the licensing agreements with the various sports talk shows and networks was up and they didn't want to renew?

And honestly, I listened to most of them on satellite anyways. And while H*** isn't always my cup of tea, it was nice to have local talk in the afternoon. Now we don't have that anywhere anymore.

That said. If you are going to simulcast a format, why wouldn't you broadcast something that people actually want to hear? This is awful.

[Qs23]

Don't understand this at all.

Guessing maybe the licensing agreements with the various sports talk shows and networks was up and they didn't want to renew?

And honestly, I listened to most of them on satellite anyways. And while H*** isn't always my cup of tea, it was nice to have local talk in the afternoon. Now we don't have that anywhere anymore.

That said. If you are going to simulcast a format, why wouldn't you broadcast something that people actually want to hear? This is awful.

WQLR the last 2 books was a 1.0 & 0.5. WTOU the last 2 books was a 5.7 & 3.6.

I think that they are broadcasting something that people ACTUALLY want to hear.

[tvbobn]

I'm not in that area to listen to these stations, but if I read this topic right. WQLR (1560) is off the air, but continues to operate it's FM translator. Is this correct?

That is a big no no. The AM has to be "on the air" to operate the translator! They can be on with an STA at low power, but the translator is a repeater of the AM. They can operate the translator at night when the AM is off legally, but that doesn't sound like what they're doing.

The FCC watches that type of problem closely and will fine them if they're caught!

[EdWalker]

I'm not in that area to listen to these stations, but if I read this topic right. WQLR (1560) is off the air, but continues to operate it's FM translator. Is this correct?

That is a big no no. The AM has to be "on the air" to operate the translator! They can be on with an STA at low power, but the translator is a repeater of the AM. They can operate the translator at night when the AM is off legally, but that doesn't sound like what they're doing.

The FCC watches that type of problem closely and will fine them if they're caught!

As pointed out earlier in this thread, the 95.5 translator is not "tied" to 1560. The restriction that bonds a translator to an AM station for five years is for those translators that were moved-in from up to 250 miles away for use by an AM; 95.5 was not one of those. It was originally licensed back in 2004 to rebroadcast WNWN-FM 98.5.

[tvbobn]

I'm not in that area to listen to these stations, but if I read this topic right. WQLR (1560) is off the air, but continues to operate it's FM translator. Is this correct?

That is a big no no. The AM has to be "on the air" to operate the translator! They can be on with an STA at low power, but the translator is a repeater of the AM. They can operate the translator at night when the AM is off legally, but that doesn't sound like what they're doing.

The FCC watches that type of problem closely and will fine them if they're caught!

As pointed out earlier in this thread, the 95.5 translator is not "tied" to 1560. The restriction that bonds a translator to an AM station for five years is for those translators that were moved-in from up to 250 miles away for use by an AM; 95.5 was not one of those. It was originally licensed back in 2004 to rebroadcast WNWN-FM 98.5.

I believe you are incorrect in thinking that the translator that is rebroadcasting WQLR 1560 in not tied to the operation of the AM station.

This is from the FCC's web site: A booster station rebroadcasting the signal of an AM, FM, or LPFM primary station shall not be permitted to radiate during extended periods when signals of the primary station are not being retransmitted. Notwithstanding the foregoing, FM translators rebroadcasting Class D AM stations may continue to operate during nighttime hours only if the AM station has operated within the last 24 hours.

1560 is a Class D AM station.

[fuzzpower]

http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/c ... r_id=97058

1560 is toast.