CBS Radio is launching a Country radio format station in Baltimore
http://bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2013/10/24/cbs-radio-baltimore-new-country-1061.html
Read carefully and see if you can tell me the call sign of the CBS station. A big hint is the story says the “frequency” is “owned” by Hope Christian, a religious broadcaster – and the frequency is at 106.1, not in the non-commercial band.
The “station” turns out to be W261BA, a 4.5 watt FM translator originally intended to allow Hope Christian to spread the non-commercial love of Jesus out in the suburbs.
It appears they have decided that the love of money is more attractive. But how does CBS get permission to feed a commercial signal to an FM translator without it translating an existing FM station? The magic of HD radio. Even though virtually nobody listens to it, the FCC allows an HD2/3/4 “channel” to be fed to power an FM translator. As a bonus, since translators and HD channels don’t count against ownership limits per market, large owners can buy up more and more available frequencies.
The current signal is fairly useless, but with a small amount of FCC paperwork, likely the transmitter (which is less powerful than a CB radio and about as portable) will quietly move to the top of a skyscraper in downtown Baltimore. As long as nobody complains of interference, they’re home free.
It makes me want to bushushuru just when I thought I had finally recovered.
That transmitter is driving me nuts. Where do I complain?
Well, CBS owns the stations at both 105.7 and 106.5, so the chances of a complaint are small
I can hear it in my head without a radio. It keeps calling me “Kenneth” and asking my it’s frequency…. its trying to tell me that it should be 100.1 and is asking me for directions back to Ocala.
Dan Rather, is that you?
http://streamingradioguide.com/streaming-schedule.php?action.x=0&action.y=0&station=W261BA&service=