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
Faith Broadcasting Network/TCT’s KWKB/20.1 (Iowa City) resumed full-power operations on Jan. 31. The station had reported in September that it was transmitting at half of its licensed 1,000kW due to a transmitter issue.
After being displaced by the sign-on of a new full-power station, the University of Northwestern-St. Paul’s K210CG/89.9 (Spirit Lake) has been granted a construction permit to move to 88.3 as K202CG. It will remain 250 Watts and relay KNWC-FM/96.5 (Sioux Falls).
Aquinas Communications’ W220EQ/91.9 (Galena, IL) has completed a move of its transmitter to the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, transmitting from a location southeast of Dubuque with 19 Watts. It relays KCRD-LP/98.3 (Dubuque).
Edge Spectrum requested an extension of special temporary authority for K22LJ-D (Mason City), K35PA-D (Mason City), and K31PP-D (Sioux City) to remain off the air.
Michigan
Ontonagon Public Schools’ WOAS/88.5 (Ontonagon) left the air on Jan. 15 due to the sign-on of new station WHWM/88.5 (Rockland). WOAS has a construction permit to move to 91.5; its request for special temporary authority to remain silent states that a new antenna must be installed before the frequency change can be made.
West Central Michigan Media Ministries’ WGTM/90.3 (Manistique) has applied to upgrade from 150 Watts to 1kW. WGTM signed on last month.
Minnesota
Midwest Communications’ WMFG-FM/106.3 (Hibbing) has requested a callsign change to KQDX, which would take effect Feb. 14 if approved. The new callsign would match KQDS-FM (Duluth), which WMFG-FM rebroadcasts. The legacy WMFG callsign, on the air in Hibbing since 1935, would continue on AM 1240.
Edge Spectrum requested an extension of special temporary authority for K29NY-D (Alexandria), W22FD-D (Dodge Center), K35JN-D (Duluth), K31LN-D (Rochester), and K15IS-D (Willmar) to remain off the air.
South Dakota
Midwest Communications KELO/1320 (Sioux Falls) reports that it returned to full power of 5kW on Jan. 31. The station reported last fall that it was operating at 1kW non-directional day and night due to an issue switching to the station’s nighttime directional pattern; it operates non-directionally during the day.
Edge Spectrum requested an extension of special temporary authority for K22KD-D (Sioux Falls) to remain off the air.
Wisconsin
The FCC has granted construction permits for competing low-power FM stations that will have to share time on the same frequency in Milwaukee and the Madison area. Souls Harbor Baptist Church and CPC of the WMM – Milwaukee – One Inc. will share time on 90.1 in Milwaukee, while Iglesia Pentecostal Jehova Rafa and Madison Christian LPFM Radio, Inc. will share time on 103.7 in the Madison suburbs of McFarland and Monona. (Madison Christian LPFM previously had a licensed station on the same frequency, but the FCC deleted it in 2018 after determining it had been off the air for more than a year.) The exact hours each station will transmit is not specified in the applications.
Good Karma Broadcasting’s WBEV-FM/95.3 (Beaver Dam) notified the FCC that it is operating at reduced power of 1kW ERP, rather than its licensed 6kW, due to transmitter failure.
The FCC has approved Civic Media’s purchase of WHSM-FM/101.1 (Hayward) and W245CT/96.9 (Hayward) from Zoe Communications. The buyer is already operating the stations through a time brokerage agreement.
Edge Spectrum requested an extension of special temporary authority for W26FG-D (Eau Claire), W19DP-D (La Crosse), and W36EI-D (Wausau) to remain off the air.
Disclosure: Jon Ellis is an employee of Gray Media Group. The statements and views expressed in this posting are his own and do not reflect those of Gray Media Group.