Broadcast Electronics said Gulf Coast Radio in Bay County, Fla., is using its transmission gear at a new facility, opened in March.
WKGC(AM/FM) use an AM 5E 5 kW transmitter with HD Radio signal generator and FMi 21T transmitter high-level combined with analog FM and HD Radio signals, with service via a new tower. The facility was put up on land owned by Gulf Coast Community College, the licensee of the stations, and aided with CPB HD Radio grants.
The NPR member stations are in Panama City, Fla. They air a classical and opera program on the FM HD2 and a jazz format on HD3.
The FM moved from a leased tower and the AM from a site in a marsh. BE quoted engineering consultant John Monahan of Itinerate Engineers as saying, “The towers were getting ready to fall over. Most of the guy wires were slack. It was literally falling apart around you. I was warned the first time I went in to see if there was anything salvageable, to bang on the walls of the shack to get the snakes and rats out.”
The project includes a 10-bay ERI FM antenna providing 100 kW ERP. The AM’s LBA antenna radiates 5 kW daytime ERP 150 feet down from the FM antenna.
In December, BE said, the stations will to open a new emergency operation center across the highway. “The EOC, which is built to withstand 225 mile-an-hour winds, is a community effort by the public station and federal and local authorities to serve as command central in the event of a natural or manmade disaster, including a terrorist attack,” BE stated. “The EOC will serve as a studio backup in emergencies and link to WKGC AM/FM’s main studio through a BE AudioVault audio automation system.”
