WOOD-FM transmitter fried by lightning strike

[Ben Zonia]

Actually, the population of Livingston County is closing in on 200,000, not 250,000. The pandemic delayed the count, which normally would be for April, 2020, but the accurate counts are apparently for July 1, 2020 due to delays.

The lack of complete data, and the overuse of statistics rather than actual counts, confuses this. Some of the statistics are frankly wrong, predicting identical percentages of gain or loss rather than actual counts on regions of counties and all townships and other subdivisions. But the best figures are here for Livingston County, 195,702 about a year ago.

https://michigan.hometownlocator.com/mi/livingston/

As far as powerful signals where there are less people, more sparsely populated areas are often overrepresented with powerful signals. The concepts of First Local Service and the Rural Radio Initiative result in more and more stations with towers in the middle of nowhere. They appear to be motivated by an attempt to limit competition in more populated areas rather than providing service to an economically unsustainable low population for radio stations.

Consider all the 100000 watt stations in the Upper Peninsula, Great Plains, Montana, etc.

[Ben Zonia]

County lines may define SMSAs and radio markets, but where a city like Muskegon has suburbs such as Grand Haven in Ottawa County, which is rapidly growing, they don't represent reality. At least until recently, cities in Michigan lost population or didn't grow because they could not and cannot easily annex compared to other states. The population continued and continues to grow in suburbs outside the city and/or county. Toledo, Ft. Wayne, Columbus, Indianapolis, and others in nearby states have had less loss or more gain due to their boundaries steadily increasing or including an entire County in a Metropolitan government.

[jesusjenny]

Good Conversation. I think there is a big difference between big signals covering more rural areas, and corporate radio moving signals around and dumping the local market to make more money. IE -106.9 WOOD-FM is a great example. Take a Heritage Muskegon station and make it a repeater for a Grand Rapids AM?

There are a lot of Big Signal stations up north for sure. The rumor was that when Bob and Tom were discovered it was because they were on a 100000 Watt Station (WJML at the time) that covered so much territory (and the tower was on top of Boyne Mountain or Boyne Highlighands) you could pick it up in something like 30 counties in the Northern Lower, Upper Peninsula and in Wisconsin. One of the "big wigs" from down south heard while vacationing somewhere in Michigan and then rest is history. Interestingly enough, I believe at the time WJML and WMUS were owned by the same group at this time.

[Ben Zonia]

The other Bob and Tom theory is that someone from MacDonald Broadcasting leaked their resume and tapes to WFBQ Indianapolis because they were beating WWPZ and WMBN in the ratings.

WOOD 1300 should have had more research done before they moved. The WOOD Proof of Performances used for the WCCW 1310 application for 50 kW Day shows that the radials from the new WOOD site are <<< M-3 toward Grand Rapids. Other stations do site studies before they do such a big move. I guess corporate didn't want to spend the money. Their insistence on a single pattern and phasor rather than DA-2, a site so far South from the old site, and a Day pattern that didn't serve Ottawa County so badly might have resulted in better service, and not such an urgent need for an FM simulcast. Service in Scandinavia at Night on a regular basis, while impressive, isn't as critical as service in Central Grand Rapids.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS_Att ... &exhcnum=1

[Steve Dirksen]

Got my interest this morning. I think Tim Moore may have sent out the Bob and Tom tapes back in the day. As a sidebar, I interviewed for the morning show at WJML as their replacement sometime in 80 I think. It was with the legend who is/was Lucy Nally. The interview took place at MUS. I wound up calling Tom at FBQ one morning after 10am...he took the call...and was quite informative and helpful in about a half hour conversation. Fortunately I was rejected for the gig, and quickly realized after that I was NOT a morning show talent.

[andymuskegon]

Well, the economy of Muskegon county could be better if the reach out of it for local business and events could actually reach other markets. It's also the ad rate the locals have to pay compared to the national chains who pay pennies on the dollar. It's bullshit and everyone knows it

The economy of Muskegon County doesn't warrant multiple 50 kW blowtorches hypertargeting the area.

Look at Benton Harbor / St. Joe. The class B behemoth there (99.9) changed its focus to South Bend years ago. The "local" stations are all Class A (6,000 watts equivalent or less).

Mt. Pleasant - similar story with WCEN-FM.

Best comparable case might be Jackson, where 94.1 and 106.1 shifted attention (and studios) to Lansing decades ago. Until a series of AM translators signed on within the last decade, WKHM-FM was the ONLY commercial FM station with a primary focus on Jackson and with studios there.

Livingston County - 250,000 residents - only one commercial FM station is licensed to the whole county. That would be 93.5 WHMI.

[ftballfan]

I'm surprised iHeart hasn't dumped 96.1 or 101.3's format to temporarily rebroadcast WOOD 1300 (or bumped one of the HD2's they have in the market)

[Ben Zonia]

I'm sure if they could have they would have downgraded 104.5 and 106.9 to Class B1 and moved them close to Grand Rapids. But the second channel adjacent restrictions are brittle and prohibitive and the closest they could get is 44 miles to WVGR and WTNR respectively. And Class B1 is a much larger step down than it appears. It's not just going down from 50 kW to 25 kW, it's going down from 150 to 100 meters reference, so it's really about 7 dB down from a Class B.

[Bull Shannon]

The biggest problem with Muskegon area radio, in my opinion, is the lack of local content on the stations actually targeting Muskegon. I believe 92.5, 97.5, 98.3 and 100.1 all rely on national programming around the clock. 101.7 & 107.9 rely on voicetracking from out-of-market personalities fairly heavily.

100.9 and 103.7 are the only truly local stations.

[Kennelly Heaviside]

Are there any details as to how they got it back on the air? I guess they could have transported a temporary transmitter in, and fixed any damage to the electrical supply and transmission line. Any idea what the TPO and ERP are?