Lest you think the FCC isn’t paying attention these days to technical rules for broadcast stations, here’s an instance that suggests otherwise.
The Enforcement Bureau has sent a notice of violation to Morris Broadcasting Co. of New Jersey, owner of gospel-formatted WIMG(AM) in Ewing N.J., and of four towers that make up its directional array in Washington Crossing, Pa., just across the Delaware River.
FCC agents inspected the station in May and August of last year. According to the commission’s notice, they found several issues.
The four towers had red beacons at the top but side markers were at the wrong heights, placed at the mid-level of each structure, not at the one-third and two-thirds levels as required.
Also, some of the antenna lighting was not operational in May, and at least some of the obstruction lighting still was not working in August.
The FCC said Morris did file an FAA notice to aviators (NOTAM) about the outages but failed to renew them later (an FCC agent did so).
Also, the rules require that antenna towers with radio frequency potential at the base must be enclosed but allow access to the bases for technical and maintenance purposes. The agents said the denseness of brush and vegetation on the property prevented ready access to the bases of all four towers.
The rules also require that in most cases, antenna input power of an AM station must be maintained as near as practicable to the authorized antenna input power and may not be less than 90 percent or greater than 105 percent of authorized power. But during the May inspection, the agents said the station was operating with 900 Watts during the daytime, 28.1% of its authorized 3200 Watts.
Last, during the May visit, the agents said WIMG’s EAS equipment would not power on.
Now the FCC has asked the station for additional information concerning these alleged violations and any remedial actions it has taken. The licensee must submit a written statement within 20 days.
Radio World reached out to the station and will report any comment for this story.
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