MINNESOTA:
Longtime Twin Cities radio host John Hines has announced plans to partially retire later this year. WCCO Radio announced Hines' decision Friday, saying he will move into a part-time/fill-in role after the State Fair. Hines has been with WCCO since 2009, but may be better known as the co-host of popular morning shows on KSTP/1500 in the late 1970's, the defunct WLOL-FM/99.5 in the 1980's, and K102 (KEEY-FM) in the 1990's and early 2000's. The announcement quotes Hines as saying he is thankful to his listeners and to WCCO for allowing him to extend his career. (6/29/2018)
IOWA:
Saga Broadcasting has launched a new signal and a new format in Spencer. K273DD/102.5 has signed on relaying the News/Talk format of KICD/1240, which had previously been relayed on K252EX/98.3. K252EX is now carrying Saga's "Pure Oldies" format, which originates on the HD2 signal of KMRR/104.9. K273DD was granted as part of the FCC's AM Revitalization effort and is required to relay KICD, while K252EX was obtained earlier without a waiver and can relay any station. (6/29/2018)
IOWA:
iHeartMedia has signed on new translator K254DL/98.7 (Sioux City), relaying "La Preciosa" from KWSL/1470. The new 250-Watt FM signal was granted as a result of the FCC's AM Revitalization effort. "La Preciosa" is the second Spanish-language format on FM in Sioux City, competing with the "Fiesta" on K246CJ/97.1 (Sioux City) and KZOI/1250 (Dakota City, NE). Nielsen Audio says the market is about 18 percent Hispanic. (6/29/2018)
MINNESOTA:
K39GG (Aitkin), which had relayed FOX affiliate KQDS-TV/21 (Duluth) and was one of the last analog TV signals still on the air in Minnesota, has gone off the air. K39GG would have been required to move to a lower channel due to the spectrum auction repack but did not apply for a change during a recent filing window. Owner Red River Broadcast Corp. told the FCC in a notification of suspension of operations that it decided to take the translator off the air because Aitkin is outside of the Duluth market. At one time, all of the Duluth commercial stations had translators in Aitkin, but the others left the air more than a decade ago, leaving Aitkin with only a few distant signals.
Down the road in Brainerd, KSAX-ABC translator K16BQ recently converted from analog to digital. The lineup includes KSTP-ABC on 16.1, KSTC-45TV on 16.2, and KSTC-MeTV on 16.3. (6/28/2018)
IOWA/MISSOURI:
The Ottumwa Courier reports that new NBC affiliate KYOU-DT2/15.2 will launch a 10 p.m. newscast on July 16. KYOU has carried a 9 p.m. newscast on its primary FOX channel for the past several years, and the station's news director tells the paper that NBC required it to add the 10:00 newscast after adding the network earlier this year. KYOU is owned by American Spirit Media and operated by Raycom. It will apparently be the first 10:00 news competitor for Sinclair ABC affiliate KTVO-TV/3.1 (Kirksville-Ottumwa) in its 63-year history. (6/27/2018)
WISCONSIN/MINNESOTA:
An eastern Twin Cities metro FM signal is seeking permission from the FCC to return to the air at reduced power after an interference complaint from another station forced it to go silent. W279DD/103.7 (Hudson, WI) had signed on in 2016, relaying the Oldies format of WDGY/740 with 250 Watts from WDGY's tower site east of Hudson. Christian broadcaster WWIB/103.7 (Hallie-Eau Claire) filed an interference complaint last year, citing reports of reception problems from ten listeners in areas between the two stations' primary contours. After much back and forth between the two sides, FCC Audio Division Senior Deputy Chief James Bradshaw issued a letter on June 11 determining that W279DD had not resolved eight of the complaints and ordering the translator to leave the air immediately. W279DD has now requested special temporary authority to return to the air at 100 Watts or less to see if the interference can be eliminated. The STA request also says W279DD intends to apply for use of a directional antenna that would limit coverage to the east. WDGY's programming is also carried on W221BS/92.1 (St. Paul), which is unaffected by the dispute. (6/27/2018)
NORTH DAKOTA:
The company that's been operating a new FM station along the North Dakota/South Dakota border for the past year is buying its license. Jeff Hallen's HiRange Media Corp. will pay Midnation Media $65,000 for KZRN/102.3 (Hettinger), which carries a mix of Country and Classic Rock as "The Range." KZRN is the only strong commercial FM signal in the town of about 1,200 people and competes with a longtime local AM station, Schweitzer Media's KNDC/1490. (6/26/2018)
IOWA:
The price for the previously-reported sale of two Keokuk radio stations is $245,000, according to an asset purchase agreement filed with the FCC. Keokuk Broadcasting, owned by Leah Jones and Michael Greenwald, is buying KOKX/1310 (Keokuk) and WCEZ/93.9 (Carthage, IL-Keokuk) from Riverfront Broadcasting. Longtime station employee Jones teamed up with city councilor Greenwald to buy the stations after Riverfront laid off staff and put the stations up for sale earlier this year. The buyers began operating the stations under a programming agreement on June 1. (6/26/2018)
NATIONAL TV MERGER:
Gray TV has announced plans to merge with Raycom Media in a $3.6 billion deal that will create the nation's third-largest broadcast TV group. The combined company will own stations in 92 markets reaching 24 percent of U.S. households, with a Gray/Raycom station ranked first or second in the vast majority of those markets. Gray owns stations in more than a dozen Upper Midwest markets; Raycom's only regional operation is FOX/NBC affiliate KYOU (Ottumwa), which is licensed to American Spirit Media. (Raycom formerly owned several other stations in the Upper Midwest, two of which are now already owned by Gray.) Gray and Raycom have overlap in nine markets outside of the Upper Midwest, and the companies say they will divest one station in each of those markets rather than go through the FCC's new waiver process to allow top-four combinations (though Gray may be able to retain the network affiliations of the divested stations on subchannels and/or low-power stations, as it has done in other markets). A newspaper group owned by Raycom will be spun off. (6/25/2018)
IOWA:
Phil Falcone's HC2 Broadcasting is buying KWKB/20.1 (Iowa City-Cedar Rapids) from KM Communications for $1.85 million. George W. Kimball of Kozacko Media Services served as exclusive broker for the deal. HC2 owns several other full-power stations in other parts of the country has been assembling a group of hundreds of low-power TV stations. KWKB transmits with 1,000kW from its own 1,345-foot tower in West Branch, giving it coverage of both Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities. The Bae family started KWKB in 1999 and retains ownership of WOCK-CD (Chicago). KWKB was originally a WB affiliate and later a CW affiliate and currently carries ThisTV and Light TV. (6/21/2018)
NEW FM TRANSLATORS GRANTED (6/8-6/15):
After dismissing an informal objection to nearly 1,000 applications for new FM translators nationwide, the FCC has acted quickly to approve applications filed during the most recent AM Revitalization filing window. Most proposed facilities in the Upper Midwest have now been granted construction permits. (470 applications were granted nationwide on June 8 alone, representing nearly half of all pending FM translator applications at that time.)
The most recent grants include two new signals for the Twin Cities metro area: News/Talker KQSP/1530 (Shakopee) will be relayed on a 250-Watt translator on 99.1 broadcasting from the WLOL/1330 tower in the southwestern suburb of Savage, and WLOL's Catholic format will be rebroadcast on a 100-Watt translator on 105.3 in the western suburb of Minnetonka. The new translators will reach only a portion of the metro since the Twin Cities FM dial has already been filled by other translators and low-power FM stations.
Here are the new translators granted between June 8 and 15:
Meanwhile, one application was dismissed: WTTN/1580 (Columbus) had applied for a 75-Watt translator on 92.7 in Madison, but the FCC said it had prohibited overlap with WMBZ/92.5 (West Bend). The application was reinstated a few days later after the station modified its application and filed a petition for reconsideration.
Full summaries of the new translators proposed and granted during the four AM Revitalization filing windows are linked on the left side of this page under "More Information." (6/15/2018, updated Madison item 6/19)
MINNESOTA/NEBRASKA/WISCONSIN:
Several new FM translators have recently filed for licenses to cover, meaning they are now on the air or will be soon:
MINNESOTA:
For the fourth time in six years, Cumulus Media has "parked" an out-of-market callsign in Minnesota. "Parking" is the practice of holding onto a callsign by putting it on a small station where it won't get much attention. In the latest move, Cumulus has parked heritage Chicago callsign WLUP on the former WRXP/105.3 (Cambridge), which is one of three signals in the Twin Cities-area "Vibe 105" Classic Hip-Hop simulcast. FCC records say the change was official June 12. The WRXP callsign, once used in New York, had been parked in Cambridge since 2013. Before that, the frequency hosted the WNSH callsign before Cumulus moved it to New York to launch "Nash FM." Another "Vibe 105" station, WWWM-FM/105.7 (Eden Prairie-Minneapolis), has hosted a callsign parked from the Toledo market since 2016. (6/12/2018)
WISCONSIN:
Woodward Communications is adding a simulcast of its "Razor 94.7" (WZOR Mishicot-Green Bay) on a station with rimshot coverage of Oshkosh: social media posts say WBJZ/104.7 (Berlin) will begin simulcasting the Hard Rock format on Tuesday, June 12, at 3 p.m. Woodward is in the process of buying WBJZ from Caxambas Corporation and has been stunting with 1,047 hours of commercial-free Rock.
WBJZ formerly carried a Hot Adult Contemporary format programmed by Martini Broadcasting. As previously reported here, Martini filed a petition to deny the transfer of the station's license to Woodward, saying it had first right to purchase the station. Caxambas responded by saying that Martini's right to buy the station expired in 2013 and that Martini lacks standing to file the petition, which prompted a response from Martini asserting that it does have standing and saying that subsequent dealings gave it the right to buy the station. The FCC has not yet acted on the petition or the application to transfer the license. (6/11/2018)
IOWA:
The FCC has denied efforts to resurrect a south-central Iowa FM license.
The FCC's Audio Division deleted KMYQ/97.1 (North English) in December, saying the license was considered expired because owner Justin McLuckie had allegedly failed to prove that KMYQ was on the air between 2013 and 2016. McLuckie's counsel filed a petition for reconsideration in January alleging that the FCC did not give McLuckie due process or adequate time to present evidence, as well as a motion for stay.
The latest letter from Audio Division Chief Albert Shuldiner says McLuckie failed to show a material error by the FCC or raise facts not previously known. Specifically, the FCC says it still did not receive adequate documentation showing that KMYQ was on the air for several years prior to an effort to return the station to the air in late September 2017. The letter also says McLuckie had been granted an additional 30 days to respond. (6/11/2018)
SOUTH DAKOTA:
The FCC has issued a public notice extending the deadline for petitions to deny Gray TV's proposed combination of the ABC and NBC affiliates in Sioux Falls to July 9. As previously reported here, Gray owns ABC affiliate KSFY/13.1 is seeking a waiver of the "top four" rule to allow it to buy NBC affiliate KDLT/46.1 from Red River Broadcast Corp. for $32.5 million. KSFY ranks second in the market, and KDLT ranks third. Rules normally forbid a company that owns one top-four station from buying another top-four station, but the FCC said last year that it would consider waivers of the rule (see the earlier story for Gray's argument about why a waiver should be granted). The Sioux Falls proposal is one of the first tests of the new waiver process nationwide. (6/9/2018)
MINNESOTA:
The post-spectrum repack channel lineup for the Twin Cities may be solidifying after some displaced low-power TV stations modified their plans. All stations transmitting on RF channels above 36, as well as some LPTV stations displaced by full-power stations changing channels, have to move. There had been competing applications for channels 18 and 20 in the Twin Cities, but those conflicts were resolved last week when one applicant from each channel instead applied to VHF. Telemundo affiliate KJNK-LD would move from 25 to 8, while KTCJ-LD would move from 50 to 13. VHF DTV signals have proven more difficult to pick up, but the stations could benefit from lower channel numbers if they are allowed to use their RF channels as their PSIP virtual channels.
If all applications are approved, the Twin Cities RF DTV lineup would be:
8 KJNK-LD (moving from 25)
9 KMSP-TV (9.9)
11 KARE
13 KTCJ-LD (moving from 50)
14 K16HY-D (moving from 16)
15 KWJM-LD
16 KPXM-TV (41.1) (moved from 40)
18 KHVM-LD (moving from 48)
19 KKTW-LD
20 KMBD-LD (moving from 43)
21 WUMN-LD (moving from 17)
22 WUCW (23.1)
23 KTCI-TV (2.3)
29 WFTC (9.1)
30 KSTC-TV (5.2) (moving from 45)
31 WDMI-LD
32 WCCO-TV (4.1)
33 K33LN-D
34 KTCA-TV (2.1)
35 KSTP-TV (5.1)
36 KMQV-LD (moving from 49)
Some of the LPTV stations are not currently on the air. (6/6/2018)
IOWA/ILLINOIS:
A Keokuk city councilor has teamed up with a longtime Radio Keokuk employee to buy the two local radio stations, KOKX/1310 (Keokuk) and WCEZ/93.9 (Carthage-Keokuk). Mike Greenwald and Leah Jones announced their purchase on Facebook last Friday, June 1. The deal has not yet appeared in the FCC database. KOKX/WCEZ owner Riverfront Broadcasting had laid off the stations' employees in April and announced it was looking for a buyer. KOKX carries Country and WCEZ carries Classic Hits as "Z93." (6/5/2018)
WISCONSIN:
New FM translator W224DN/92.7 (Shell Lake) has signed on carrying Hard Rock as "Ink 92.7," originating on WXNK/940 (Shell Lake). WXNK was formerly Conservative Talker WCSW and changed its callsign Friday, June 1. The stations are owned by Zoe Communications, which was granted W224DN as part of the AM Revitalization filing windows. The 250-Watt signal has a strong signal to Shell Lake and fringe coverage of Rice Lake, Spooner, and Siren. (6/3/2018)
IOWA:
Nexstar ABC affiliate KCAU/9 (Sioux City) was temporarily hosted on a competitor's subchannel when storm damage forced it off the air. The station reports that it went off the air during a thunderstorm Friday night and returned by TUesday. KCAU's main ABC channel was temporarily carried on channel 4.3 of Quincy's KTIV, displacing MeTV. The move returns a favor KCAU paid to KTIV when KTIV experienced transmission problems in 2014 - at that time, KTIV's main NBC channel was made available on a KCAU subchannel. KCAU-ABC also remained in its usual cable and satellite channel positions during the broadcast outage. (6/3/2018, updated 6/7)
MINNESOTA:
ION's KPXM-TV/41.1 (St. Cloud-Minneapolis) has completed an RF channel change that also included a move from its longtime transmitter site near Big Lake. KPXM was bumped off its RF channel 40 position by the spectrum auction repack and relocated to RF 16. As previously reported here, the station also moved its transmitter 15 miles east to the KQQL/107.9 site in Nowthen after failing to come to an agreement with the owner of the Big Lake tower. With the move and channel change, KPXM reduced power from 1,000kW to 470kW, though coverage maps show the signal strength to the Twin Cities metro should be about the same as it was before (see page 5).
KPXM's channel change forced Catholic station K16HY-D (St. Paul) to leave the air. The station has applied to move to channel 14 and says on its website that it hopes to return to the air around June 20. (6/1/2018)
SOUTH DAKOTA:
Ownership of two Black Hills stations is changing as Steven E. Duffy sells his interests in stations that are already operated by the buyer. New Generation Broadcasting LLC is buying KZLK/106.3 (Rapid City) from Duffy for $497,775. Separately, Duffy is redeeming his 20.59 percent equity in Western South Dakota Broadcasting LLC, licensee of KZZI/95.9 (Belle Fourche-Rapid City), $240,000. The numerous other members of Western South Dakota Broadcasting include members of the Duhamel and Duffy families, and others. Duhamel Broadcasting already operates both stations, as well as another owned by New Generation Broadcasting, as part of a five-station group. (6/1/2018)
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