‘What do you mean, the tower is gone?’: thieves steal 200ft structure from Alabama radio station | Alabama::Small radio station forced to go silent after ‘unbelievable’ theft of giant tower, which would cost over $100,000 to replace

  • KrapKake@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    “WJLX still has its FM transmitter and tower, it is not allowed to operate its FM transmitter while the AM station is off the air.”

    But why?

    • sudoku@programming.dev
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      9 months ago

      they have a deal with authorities only to re-transmit their AM broadcast. No AM, no FM. Prevents demise of AM broadcasts.

    • SpaceCowboy
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      10 months ago

      Yeah they really needed to do a follow up question on that one didn’t they?

      Can only really speculate here… maybe something to do with the Emergency Alert System? But I dunno. Could just be FCC bureaucracy reasons.

      • Kiernian@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It would set a horrible precedent.

        I don’t know the exact frequency specifics, but I know the FCC is super particular about any broadcast over a certain power on most wavelengths.

        I imagine this is yet another instance where “mostly works” is in fact somewhat problematic in one way or another.