``WGTO GOING HIGH POWER

[loneagle49085]

Great news !!! To those who haven't yet heard, WGTO started broadcasting on FM 101.1. Sounds fantastic!!! Now I can listen to oldies at night!!

[loneagle49085]

Well, my comment of sounds fantastic only applied while I was in Dowagiac. Five miles out of town @ M152 the signal started to fade. By the time I hit the the hills around Sister Lakes, the signal was fluttering with another station in the background. WGTO FM must be low power. Anybody else care to comment?

[WGTO]

You are correct the  ERP is 250 watts. WGTO FM is actually W266BS translator. Coverage to the East is fanstatic   all the way east of Jones. Coverage to the west  poor due to conflict with WKQX Chicago. Present location is interim. Plans are already underway to move to higher location more centrally located in population center...   someplace closer to Niles. Antenna is also directional.  Regulations allow multiple translators to be used by AM stations so if revenue picks up we can purchase yet another translator for Niles South Bend...   Right now we are concentrating on making the power we have sound as good as it can. 
The intended area of coverage is Cass  County..  Van Buren is spotty. But since the  problem is Co- Channel from Chicago there are places where it booms in due to obstructions from Chicago. So its rather weird. There are places in South Bend where its full quieting but places in Dowagiac where its a bit fuzzy, It can also be heard well in parts of Three Rivers   but again that is due to lack of interference from other stations  to the East.

Larry Langford OWNER

[WGTO]

Sorry to report night power will NEVER go up. Power increase only possible during day. In fact night power will fall a bit. Another reason we are putting in the FM translator on 101.1

[skippertthomas]

Taking the time for the long haul will pay off.... At least electronic filing moves through on secondary and low power applications at blazing speed (a couple of weeks to three) compared to the old days of paper filing and your applications sitting on a desk gathering dust on the old "M" street in "D.C."......

[MarkW]

The translator on 101.1 FM is bad news for fans of Q101 in Berrien County.

Q101 is now completely unlistenable most of the time along I-94 in the Benton Harbor / St. Joe area.  It's now a 50/50 mix of Q101's signal and this translator's signal.

Before this translator signed on, Q101 could be heard with little difficulty across that area.  In the car, I could often hear it to the I-196 / I-94 junction or beyond.  Now, I have to drive to at least the Bridgman exit before I can get a listenable signal from 101.1.  WIRX must be loving this (not a bad station at all for a small market operation, btw.  Much better than WRKR and WBFX, for example.)

I know it wasn't WGTO's intent to cause this type of interference, but I'm still ticked off about it nonetheless.

Here's hoping the planned move closer to Niles will reduce inteference to Q101 if & when it happens.

[audioguy]

The translator on 101.1 FM is bad news for fans of Q101 in Berrien County.

Q101 is now completely unlistenable most of the time along I-94 in the Benton Harbor / St. Joe area.  It's now a 50/50 mix of Q101's signal and this translator's signal.

Before this translator signed on, Q101 could be heard with little difficulty across that area.  In the car, I could often hear it to the I-196 / I-94 junction or beyond.  Now, I have to drive to at least the Bridgman exit before I can get a listenable signal from 101.1.  WIRX must be loving this (not a bad station at all for a small market operation, btw.  Much better than WRKR and WBFX, for example.)

I know it wasn't WGTO's intent to cause this type of interference, but I'm still ticked off about it nonetheless.

Here's hoping the planned move closer to Niles will reduce inteference to Q101 if & when it happens.

MarkW, that's the problem with all of these "drop-in" low power translators and LPFM stations. They ruin reception of higher powered but more distant stations that some of us would prefer to listen to. Case in point: WLFQ-LP wipes out Chicago's classical station WFMT for many miles. The FCC considers these LPFM's to have a usable coverage area of just a few miles, but the interference extends for 20 miles or more! I used to be able to listen to WFMT while driving around South Bend, but now my classical music is replaced by hip-hop by the time I reach mile post 67 on the Indiana Toll Road... and that continues all the way to mile 107. We are seeing the "AM-ization" of the FM band happen in a big way. I, for one, hate this... and can't wait until I have mobile Internet in the car. Then it'll be good-bye forever to all of the noise and interference of OTA radio as far as I am concerned!

On another, possibly happier note: WLS has turned off their IBCO Hiss-O-Matic. I am wondering if this has improved reception for WGTO listeners to the west of Cassopolis?