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
A2Z Broadcasting’s KLGZ/1600 (Algona) is transmitting at reduced nighttime power due to a problem switching to its nighttime directional pattern. A request for special temporary authority says KLGZ is using one-quarter of its licensed nighttime 500 Watts in non-directional mode; it continues to use 1kW directional during the daytime.
Michigan
AMC Partners Escanaba’s WDMJ/1320 (Marquette) requested an extension of temporary authority to transmit with 1kW daytime, 500 Watts critical hours, and 134 Watts night as it continues work to return to daytime power to 5kW.
Minnesota
Sinclair CW affiliate WUCW/23.1 (Minneapolis) requested an extension of special temporary authority to operate at reduced power, saying that a new transmitter is scheduled to be delivered on May 15 but won’t be ready before the current STA expires on May 21. The filing says WUCW expects to have the new transmitter up and running by July 1. The previous filing said the station is using 580kW ERP rather than its licensed 790kW.
Subarctic Media’s K274AL/102.7 (Mankato) applied move its transmitter to a site near Lake Crystal and switch its primary station to KXAC/100.5 (St. James). The new CP would replace a previous permit to move to the site that continued to specify KTOE/1420 (Mankato) as K274AL’s primary station. KTOE is also paired with revitalization translator K254DT/98.7 (Mankato).
South Dakota
The FCC notified Landover 2 LLC that its construction permit for K36QE-D (Kadoka) has been automatically forfeited for failure to file a license to cover application before the permit’s expiration on March 4, 2023.
Wisconsin
With Civic Media’s pending purchase of WLXR/1490 (La Crosse), current owner Magnum Radio has been granted a request to change its WXYM/96.1 (Tomah-La Crosse) to WLXR-FM. 1490 becomes WLCX, a callsign the frequency had used from 1947 until 1983 (except for five months in the late 1950s). The WLXR callsign has been used in La Crosse since 1975 and was on what is now WGSL/104.9 until 2020. The changes were effective May 14.
Meanwhile, Magnum swapped the callsigns of WEZY/105.7 (Chippewa Falls-Eau Claire) and WCFW/92.7 (Kewaunee) effective May 14, returning the WCFW callsign to the station that had used it until last fall. Civic Media is also in the process of buying the Chippewa Falls station.
The FCC granted an extension of special temporary authority for Milwaukee Media’s WIWN/68.1 (Fond du Lac) to use increased power. WIWN transmits on RF channel 5 from Milwaukee and has said that its licensed 9kW facility has trouble reaching viewers; the FCC has now approved continued use of 34kW through Nov. 11. WIWN separately has a pending application to move to channel 7 with 38kW.
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.