FM from the WEYI-TV and the former CKCO-3 towers

[Marcus]

WEYI and WBSF TV are combined on a tower near Clio. The old CKCO-3 tower near Oil Springs ON is between Sarnia and Chatham. Right now there are no FM transmitters at either one. From Oil Springs you could put a City Grade signal into both Sarnia and Chatham. Example : If 89.3 MHz moved to there from Chatham they could do this as long as they protect Metro Detroit with a D.A. That signal would improve in Middlesex County around where Strathroy is along with Lambton County.

Clio is between Flint and Saginaw, meaning the same thing could be done from there. A Non-Commercial / Public broadcaster would be the first to do this as Flint and the Tri Cities are actually two different radio markets.

My question is this. Has anyone seriously considered operating a FM broadcast from either one of those sites?

[Ben Zonia]

WEYI and WBSF TV are combined on a tower near Clio. The old CKCO-3 tower near Oil Springs ON is between Sarnia and Chatham. Right now there are no FM transmitters at either one. From Oil Springs you could put a City Grade signal into both Sarnia and Chatham. Example : If 89.3 MHz moved to there from Chatham they could do this as long as they protect Metro Detroit with a D.A. That signal would improve in Middlesex County around where Strathroy is along with Lambton County.

Clio is between Flint and Saginaw, meaning the same thing could be done from there. A Non-Commercial / Public broadcaster would be the first to do this as Flint and the Tri Cities are actually two different radio markets.

My question is this. Has anyone seriously considered operating a FM broadcast from either one of those sites?

The short answer is yes, sort of, for the WEYI tower. The problem was that the ideal height to get a clear LOS and Fresnel Zone for Flint and Saginaw wasn't available, and the lease costs were also prohibitive at the ideal height.

[Marcus]

So cost and unavailable tower space often get in the way. WIOG is a superpower that will not want to move and WHNN cannot remain anything above a class B FM with 50 KW/500 ft. if they move that far south.

In Ontario the commercial radio stations would have a difficult time talking the CRTC into allowing them to cover two radio markets which is what would happen if they moved to Oil Springs. 89.3 in Chatham is non-commercial meaning they might be allowed to do so. They could also make an agreement where CBC Radio One can use 89.3 from that location, and UCB Canada airs on 90.3 in Sarnia and 88.1 in Chatham-Kent. If 89.3 was directional to protect Dearborn, 50 KW or more would be possible in the other directions.

[Ben Zonia]

Remember that WFBE is very short spaced to 94.9 WMMQ East Lansing, and it might have flown when they were coowned by Cumulus, but not now without a WLAV like situation to WWDV. They should have stayed on at Otisville. It was great the weekend it was tested. Now Buick is gone, though a very low power booster might have worked in the complex. WFBE had agreements to go 50000 watts nondirectional from the FCHS tower location. WKQI wouldn't play ball, though they soon changed 73.215 so it wouldn't have mattered.

WCRZ has always had an FAA problem to the flight path from FNT. Apparently, they wanted to go 500 feet, but got turned down repeatedly. There are/were also WHSB and WRKR to consider.

WWCK would be short spaced to WBMI without a lot of frequency shuffling, and the Chatham allotment would still be a problem, though less there.

[darcyh]

I drove by the CKCO 42 tower a year or so ago. Looks like there are some two way radio and ham repeaters on it. Given the age of the structure, liability, maintenance and insurance costs I am surprised the owners have not brought it down and sold the land. It was probably built in the 70's when CKCO - TV was expending its coverage through Ontario. They also had a couple of other repeaters including channel 2 from Wiarton. It too went dark and its tower was taken down. Those repeaters cost CKCO a lot of money in the day.

It is still too bad that there is not an alternate use for this.

CHCH also has a rebroadcast tower near Alvinston Ontario where the Hamilton TV station rebroadcasts from. There are no additional antennas on this tower that I can discern. It too would make and interesting platform for a London / Sarnia FM frequency.

[radio_sparty]

WEYI and WBSF TV are combined on a tower near Clio. The old CKCO-3 tower near Oil Springs ON is between Sarnia and Chatham. Right now there are no FM transmitters at either one. From Oil Springs you could put a City Grade signal into both Sarnia and Chatham. Example : If 89.3 MHz moved to there from Chatham they could do this as long as they protect Metro Detroit with a D.A. That signal would improve in Middlesex County around where Strathroy is along with Lambton County.

Clio is between Flint and Saginaw, meaning the same thing could be done from there. A Non-Commercial / Public broadcaster would be the first to do this as Flint and the Tri Cities are actually two different radio markets.

My question is this. Has anyone seriously considered operating a FM broadcast from either one of those sites?

I always thought the WEYI tower would make a lot of sense for an FM translator. At 250 watts at 1,000 feet you could probably hit both Flint and Saginaw from there. Would be a heck of an improvement for a station like WJMK but of course, cost is probably the limiting factor here.

[fairbankshockeypuck]

Pretty impresssed with 99.3 WJMK...comes in pretty good to Hemlock amd almost to Merrill and Midland. No problem separating from 99.1 WFMK