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.
Minnesota
Tor Ingstad/Iowa City Broadcasting’s KDMA/1460 (Montevideo) went off the air Jan. 28 due to technical problems. A request for special temporary authority to remain silent explains that engineers believe the transmitter will need to be replaced.
Nebraska
Connoisseur Media’s KLIR/101.1 (Columbus) has been granted a construction permit to move its antenna lower at its existing site, going from 237 to 202 meters above average terrain. It will remain 100kW.
Wisconsin
The FCC has approved a callsign swap for Midwest Communications’ WNFL/1440 (Green Bay) and WDKF/99.7 (Sturgeon Bay-Green Bay) effective Feb. 2. The two stations began simulcasting WNFL’s Sports format in October. The AM station had used the WNFL callsign since 1967. The FM station became WDKF in 2015, reflecting the “Duke FM” format it carried at the time.
Meanwhile, the FCC has also approved a callsign swap for K-Love Inc.’s WLDB/93.3 (Milwaukee) and WLVE/105.3 (Mukwonago) effective Feb. 5. The change comes after K-Love moved its main network from 105.3 to 93.3 amid its purchase of WLDB and WLUM-FM/102.1 (Milwaukee) from the Milwaukee Radio Alliance, which closed on Jan. 27. The buyer has been programming the stations since October.
The Salvation Poem Foundation’s WEQR/100.9 (Tomahawk) has been granted a construction permit to switch to a non-directional antenna while reducing power slightly from 8.5kW to 8.2kW. The change will increase WEQR’s signal strength to the southeast.
The FCC granted WAQE/1090 (Rice Lake) a construction permit to co-locate with sister station WJMC/1240. WAQE will remain 5kW non-directional during the core of the day but will need to reduce power to 4.2kW during critical hours (two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset) to prevent skywave interference to WBAL/1090 (Baltimore).
QueenB Television/Morgan Murphy Media’s WPDR-LD/35 (Tomah) has applied to move to Baraboo on channel 31, using 15kW from the WOLX-FM tower.