The following are updates to previously-reported items and other recent regulatory filings and actions concerning Upper Midwest broadcast stations. This report is created by the author and is not an official report of the FCC.
Iowa
Gray Media’s KCRG-TV/9.1 (RF 32, Cedar Rapids) filed a license to cover application indicating that it has switched to its new antenna, which is located at 588 meters above average terrain at the station’s longtime tower site near Walker. It had previously been using an antenna 88 meters lower on the tower.
Michigan
Gospel Opportunities has signed on new 900-Watt station WHWM/88.5 (Rockland). Simultaneously, WHWM is now listed as the primary station for W251AE/98.1 (Rockland) and W224AW/92.7 (Bergland), which had previously relayed Gospel Opportunities’ flagship station, WHWL/95.7 (Marquette). (W251AE had also previously been licensed to Victoria.) WHWM’s sign-on will force WOAS/88.5 (Ontonagon) to change frequency; it has a construction permit to move to 91.5.
Minnesota
The FCC has denied an attempt by the City of Cottage Grove to amend its application for a new low-power FM station on 104.5. Due to a clerical error, the original application specified a transmitter site about 11 miles south of the intended site in Cottage Grove. The city requested a waiver of rules that don’t normally allow such a change, stating that while it could build the station at the unwanted location and later apply to move it north, the practice would “burden the City with unwanted fees and costs.” The FCC denied the request. The city’s original application (specifying a transmitter site near Vermillion) remains pending.
North Dakota
WDAY/970 (Fargo) reports that it returned to its fully-licensed power of 10kW on Jan. 24. According to previous filings, WDAY had been operating at reduced power of 6kW due to damage caused by a June 2024 lightning strike.
Disclosure: Jon Ellis was an employee of Gray Media Group at the time this item was posted. The statements and views expressed in this posting are his own and do not reflect those of Gray Media Group.