WISCONSIN:
Ahead of the Nov. 1 flip of WKTI/94.5 (Milwaukee) from Country to Sports, suburban WVTY/92.1 (Racine) has flipped from Variety Hits to "VTY Country." The change reinstitutes a format that WVTY owner Dave Magnum had initially launched on the station when he bought it in 2014. Six months later, WKTI switched to Country and WVTY picked up WKTI's former Variety Hits format.
"A by-product of Craig (Karmazin) flipping WKTI from Country to Sports is that his move makes it viable for me to revert back to my original plan of flipping 92.1 to Country," Magnum said.
92.1 covers the southern half of the Milwaukee market and Magnum's "Buzz Country 92.5" (WMBZ West Bend) covers the northern half, both competing with iHeartMedia's WMIL/106.1 (Waukesha-Milwaukee). Magnum says the stations will be operated separately.
"We've invested a lot of resources over the last four years re-building the transmission, antenna and processing systems of 92.1 and 92.5," Magnum said, noting that they had just installed a new tube in 92.1's transmitter before the format change but it was blown out by a lightning strike. Fortunately, they have a backup transmitter.
WKTI is running ads promoting both 92.1 and 92.5 through Friday. (10/31/2018)
MINNESOTA:
One of the few remaining encrypted low-power TV systems in the region has opened up its feeds. Minnesota Valley TV in Granite Falls put its channels into the clear earlier this month, relaying most of the Twin Cities stations along with Pioneer Public TV and national networks such as Grit on K29JW-D. The system had previously kept major networks encrypted. It's now accepting voluntary donations to fund the over-the-air service. The organization posted instructions on its website telling members to discard their old set-top boxes and plug their antennas directly into their TV's. It's not clear which LPTV channels are relaying which stations; several of the stations also recently changed channel due to the spectrum auction repack.
Up the road in Alexandria, several services on the Selective TV system also recently changed channel due to the repack. NASA TV moved from 48.1 to 17.1 and the mix of five channels previously seen on K50DB moved to channel 20: Heartland, Newsmax, C-SPAN, MSNBC, and REV'N. It appears KMSP-FOX also moved from K38AC to channel 33, still remapping to virtual channel 9.4 through 9.9.
Elsewhere, translator systems in Birchdale, Frost, International Falls, and Willmar also recently made RF channel changes, but viewers will likely receive the same virtual channels once they rescan. A complete listing is available on the Minnesota TV Stations page. (10/30/2018)
MICHIGAN/WISCONSIN:
In the latest of what has become a trend of AM downgrades by different owners across the region, J&J Broadcasting's WJMS/590 (Ironwood) has applied to permanently cut nighttime power and switch to a nondirectional antenna. The application comes a year after WJMS told the FCC that vandals had damaged its three-tower nighttime directional array during an attempted copper theft, damaging feed lines and other cables. The site is several miles southwest of Ironwood along the Gile flowage in Wisconsin. WJMS is licensed for 1kW directional at night but been using 250 Watts nondirectional under special temporary authority since the vandalism and is now seeking permanent use of 113 Watts nondirectional at night. The reduction means more nighttime interference to some listeners in eastern Ironwood and Bessemer. WJMS will remain 5kW nondirectional during the daytime.
WJMS is at least the seventh Upper Midwest AM station in recent years to drop power rather than reconstruct aging or damaged towers or transmitters. As documented here over the years, other downgrades have happened in Eau Claire, WI; Faribault, MN; Carroll, IA; Sioux City, IA; Rapid City, SD; and Bismarck, ND. (10/29/2018)
NORTH DAKOTA:
Prairie Public Broadcasting has returned the license for translator K220FH/91.9 (Tioga). The network did not provide a reason for the surrender in a letter to the FCC other than to say the 8-Watt station was no longer in service. Tioga also receives fringe service from the network's KPPW/88.7 (Williston). (10/29/2018)
WISCONSIN:
Milwaukee is poised to get its first full-power all-Sports FM signal when Good Karma Brands moves its ESPN lineup from WAUK/540 to WKTI-FM/94.5 starting Nov. 1. Good Karma is in the process of buying WKTI from Scripps Broadcasting along with WTMJ/620, which is the flagship of the Packers, Brewers, and Bucks.
WAUK and WKTI will simulcast the same programming at first, which includes local shows hosted by Jason Wilde, Mark Tauscher, Steve "The Homer" True, and Gabe Neitzel. The station says, in response to questions on its Facebook page, that it will eventually add more local programming to the FM signal. It also says that current plans are for the ESPN hosts to move into the current WTMJ/WKTI facility.
The move means an end to the three-year-old "KTI Country" format, which had been close to iHeartMedia heritage Country outlet WMIL/106.1 in some Nielsen Audio 6+ ratings periods but had fallen back in the past few months. RadioInsight reports the change will mean job losses for several "KTI Country" announcers. The station's Facebook page is encouraging listners to help them go out on a high note by participating in a station blood drive already planned for Oct. 30.
"ESPN 94.5" will compete with Entercom's "105.7 The Fan" (W289CB/105.7 and WSSP/1250) and iHeart's "The Big 920" (WOKY). (10/26/2018)
MINNESOTA:
iHeartMedia Minneapolis has extended the contract of long-running KDWB/101.3 morning host Dave Ryan. Ryan celebrated his 25th anniversary at the legendary Contemporary Hits outlet earlier this year and will continue with co-hosts Steve O and Falen for at least another three years, according to a news release issued Monday. He also serves as a mentor for other on-air talent and personalities. Ryan was profiled by the Star Tribune last month. (10/22/2018)
MINNESOTA:
Most of Duluth's commercial radio stations will again be located downtown after an announcement last week by Townsquare Media. After two decades in the city's main retail area, the Townsquare group of "Kool 101.7" (KLDJ), "B105" (KKCB), "Sasquatch 106.5" (WEBC/560 and FM translator), and "Mix 108" (KBMX) is poised to move to the Holiday Center in late 2019. The Superior Street-level space was previously occupied by a furniture store.
The new facility is just a block away from where WEBC previously spent several decades. According to Roger Johnson's WEBC Technological History thesis, the station moved into the Palladio Building at the northwest corner of 4th Avenue West and Superior Street in 1937 and remained there until a 1967 fire gutted the building. WEBC then moved to Duluth's East Hillside, where it added WAVC (now KKCB) in 1983 and KLDJ in 1995. The group moved to Central Entrance in 1999, where it soon added KBMX.
Townsquare's main competitor, the seven-station Midwest Communications group, is three blocks east of the Holiday Center on the Technology Village's third floor. Up until a few years ago, Midwest was located a mile west of Townsquare's current home on Central Entrance (and Northwestern's two non-commercial Christian stations remain just east of the former Midwest facility). The city's only other commercial radio operation, the two-station Twin Ports Radio, is located in East Hillside. Meanwhile, a different part of the Holiday Center had previously housed Minnesota Public Radio's regional office before it moved one block west to the Alworth building a few years ago. (10/22/2018)
WISCONSIN:
WPFP/980 (Park Falls) has dropped Conservative Talk for Variety Hits as "103.1 Jack FM" following the launch of new FM translator W276DJ/103.1. WPFP and Country-formatted "Q98.3" (WCQM Park Falls) are owned by Stephen Marks' Park Falls Community Broadcasting. The stations have no direct local competition other than a translator for an Ironwood station. WPFP's previous "Freedom Talk" format had been put into place by its previous owner, Heartland Communications, which continues to program the format in Ashland and Eagle River. (10/22/2018)
MINNESOTA:
Minnesota Public Radio's News and Classical networks are no longer simulcasting "Live from Here" with Chris Thile, dropping a decades-old dual broadcast of the live show in the Saturday 5-7 p.m. timeslot. The simulcast had begun at the height of the popularity of Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," which morphed into "Live from Here." Classical MPR playlists indicate the network stopped carrying "Live from Here" in favor of continued Classical music on Sept. 1. Thile's music and entertainment show continues on the MPR News network. Meanwhile, Wisconsin Public Radio continues to simulcast "Live from Here" on its two main networks. (10/21/2018)
IOWA:
Two competing applications for new FM translators in the Waterloo area will be resolved at auction. In the last AM Revitalization filing window, Coloff Media and NRG Media both applied for new translators on 101.5 to relay Coloff's KCFI/1250 (Cedar Falls) and NRG's KPTY/1330 (Waterloo). After no agreement was reached during a settlement window, the applications are among 13 nationwide (and the only ones in the Upper Midwest) headed to an auction next year. Bidding will begin at $10,000. Both stations already have FM translators that could potentially be repurposed for other uses, such as relaying an HD2 feed or moving to cover another area; existing KCFI translator K286CI/105.1 recently applied to move to a tower south of town. (10/19/2018)
ILLINOIS/IOWA/MINNESOTA/WISCONSIN:
Quincy Media stations returned to DISH Network on Friday (Oct. 12) following a retransmission consent dispute outage that lasted more than seven weeks, taking 15 major network affiliates off the provider in the Upper Midwest. They included ABC affiliates in Madison, La Crosse, Eau Claire, and Wausau, the CBS affiliate in Duluth, the FOX affiliate in Quincy, NBC affiliates in Quincy, Waterloo, Sioux City, Rochester, and Duluth, CW affiliates in Waterloo, Sioux City, and Wausau, and the MyNetworkTV channel in Duluth.
In the Duluth market, CW affiliate KDLH remained off DISH for a few additional days but later returned. KDLH had left DISH in the spring amid a dispute between DISH and the station's previous owner, SagamoreHill Broadcasting. Quincy closed on its purchase of KDLH in August, and other SagamoreHill stations returned to DISH that same month. (10/13/2018, updated KDLH 10/18)
MINNESOTA:
KMBD-LD/43 (Minneapolis) has left the air and most of its programming has been moved over to K33LN-D (Minneapolis), which had previously carried several channels from 3ABN. It's now carrying Bounce on 33.1, Escape on 33.2, Laff on 33.3, Cozi on 33.4, CBN News on 33.5, 3ABN on 33.6, and Grit on 33.7. The lineup is the same as it had been on KMBD with the exception of QVC and QVC+ being replaced by CBN and 3ABN. Both stations are owned by HC2 Broadcasting/DTV America. KMBD-LD is being displaced by the spectrum repack and has a construction permit to move to channel 20 with 3kW, a downgrade from its previous 15kW. (10/8/2018)
MINNESOTA:
The Twin Cities HD Radio lineup has seen several changes in recent months:
ILLINOIS/WISCONSIN:
An AM station and its new FM translator just south of the Wisconsin-Illinois border launched a Hard Rock/Heavy Metal format on Oct. 1. "Rebel Radio" is heard on WPJX/1500 (Zion, IL) and W223CN/92.5 (Zion-Antioch), both of which can be heard in Kenosha County, Wisconsin. The "Rebel Radio" format has been heard on numerous stations in the region over the past quarter century, inlcuding WPJX from 2009 to 2011. The stations compete with Alpha Media Active Rocker "95.1 WIIL Rock" (WIIL Union Grove-Kenosha). (10/5/2018)
IOWA/NEBRASKA/NORTH DAKOTA:
The following new FM translators have recently signed on:
NEBRASKA:
Gray TV is again growing in Nebraska, adding ION affiliations in three markets, the CW in two markets, and, pending FCC approval, an NBC satellite in one market.
Gray has launched CW on KCWH-LD/18.1 (Lincoln) and KIIT-CD/11.2 (North Platte). Meanwhile, ION is now being carried on WOWT/6.4 (Omaha), KSNB/4.3 (Superior-Hastings-Lincoln), and KNOP/2.3 (North Platte), all of which carry NBC on their primary channels. ION is also simulcast on channel 18.2 of KCWH-LP.
Gray has also reached a deal to buy KHNL/5.1 (Hastings) from Legacy Broadcasting and has a multicast channel agreement to simulcast KCWH's CW programming on KNHL/5.3 while the deal is pending. It has also filed a satellite waiver request seeking to use KNHL's primary channel to relay KSNB's NBC programming, which had been carried on channel 5 as KHAS-TV up until 2014.
An asset purchase agreement filed with the FCC says Gray will pay Legacy $475,000 for KNHL, which now carries the religious Sonlife Broadcast Network without local advertising. KHAS-TV had been divested in 2014 when Gray bought KHAS-TV owner Hoak Media because Gray also owns CBS affiliate KOLN/10.1 (Lincoln) and satellite KGIN/11.1 (Grand Island). As a satellite, KNHL would not be subject to ownership caps.
Though KSNB and KNHL's signals do have some overlap, Gray's filing says the addition of KNHL would improve NBC's theoretical broadcast reach in the western part of the sprawling Lincoln-Hastings-Kearney market. (Both KSNB and KHNL broadcast digitally on VHF Low channels, which are easier to receive with rooftop antennas.) The market is essentially two different viewing regions long connected by the KOLN-KGIN simulcast. KSNB's NBC programming is also relayed on KOLN/KGIN-DT2. (10/1/2018)
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