A current Radio World ebook explores the interesting and sometimes arcane world of FM translators (read it here). This article is an excerpt.
Jim “Turbo” Turvaville, widely known as Turbo, is owner of Turbo Technical Services and retired former corporate director of engineering for WAY-FM Media Group Inc.
He would like to see translator owners and operators speak up about the need for a regulatory refresh.
“The FCC went through a phase of doing away with obsolete technical rules for AM and FM stations, but it failed to address any of those for FM translators,” he said.
“Whether that would be a total elimination of the IF spacing requirements; elimination of third-adjacent-channel protection completely; changes in ownership restrictions to allow common ownership with commercial primary stations under limited circumstances; or relaxation of signal delivery methodology for commercial band facilities — these and many other issues warrant discussion and consideration by the FCC.”
Strategic use
Turbo said the FCC’s AM revitalization initiative brought notable expansion in the landscape.
“With so much of radio listening being a mobile audience, and the miserable condition of AM receivers in automobiles, the only real lifeblood for most AM stations is having a companion FM translator,” he said.
“The FCC offered several opportunities for AM stations to acquire FM translators, from the first ‘250-mile window’ to the subsequent filings for new FM translators. Yet there are still some AM stations who failed to take advantage of either of those events. Now those AM operators either have to negotiate and acquire existing translators, or follow the path of so many others and just turn in the AM license.
“Meanwhile I personally work with several nationwide networks of satellite- or internet-fed NCE translators controlled from a single primary station control point, also known as ‘satellators.’ But that application longer seems to represent the bulk of translator use as it did in the 1990s and early 2000s.”
His experiences over the past decade suggest that FM translators have become strategic signals for both AM broadcasters and FM broadcasters utilizing HD Radio.
“The more rural markets that I work in now are primarily using translators for AM cross-band programming, most of which did avail themselves of the FCC filing opportunities. Some of my clients are now finding opportunity to acquire additional FM translators for their AM stations, a process that requires strategic negotiation with existing translator licensees and often involves moving the acquired signal to the desired areas,” Turvaville said.
“The FCC does not place a limit on how many FM translators can be used with an AM station, only restricts the coverage of the translators so they do not overlap by 50% or more. In my rural areas, the 2 mV/m AM daytime signal is large enough, or the 25-mile rule permits, a translator in the main community of license for the AM, and additional signals in nearby communities.
“My area of the U.S. does not have terrain issues like other locations that use translators as a fill-in signal in terrain-shielded areas, but that can be a strategic use of the service.”
He said the use of translators to rebroadcast HD Radio multicast channels created an entire new strategy for FM owners, especially in crowded larger markets where translators might still fit but other signals cannot.
“In my direct work, I have a client in a top 200 market that operates a Class C3 FM and is the only station in the market running full HD Radio. They also own three FM translators that are collocated and repeat the HD2, HD3 and HD4 channels,” he said.
“It has become a revenue source for the station, by leasing the programming on the HD channel and companion FM translator. While the initial investment to install the HD gear was large, they have more than recouped the money by leasing the alternate channels.”
Big fish, only fish
Turbo is particularly passionate about smaller-market operators, whether AM or FM.
“I own five small-market FM stations where I am either the ‘big fish in the pond’ or am the ‘only fish in the pond,’ so having an FM signal in some small areas is a unique opportunity for community service,” he said.
“I consider the large-market use of FM translators by AM and HD stations to be ‘just another spot on the dial’ in most cases. However, in the rural areas, those translators may be almost the only spot on the FM dial and the only way to serve a local community that may not be able to support a full-power station of its own.”
He said the FM dial continues to get more crowded thanks to the addition of AM cross-service translators and the opening of another recent window for new LPFMs.
“However, in the very rural areas where I live and work, some mechanism by the FCC to permit new FM translator applications would be very much welcomed. I would myself consider adding HD to one of my stations, were an FM translator available to let me super-serve a nearby community with it. Using my community reference coordinates, there are 28 open clear-spaced translator channels here, but no way to ask for one.”
Turvaville has direct experience with the complications that can be caused by the secondary status of translators; he has been on both sides of that issue.
“Before the FCC codified the grounds on which a full-power signal has a basis for complaint against an FM translator encroachment on their main signal, there was much wasted time, money and energies on the complaint process,” he said.
“Now that we have a guide in the form of the full-power FM 45 dBu contour being protected from the translator 60 dBu overlap, the process has become much more streamlined and efficient.
“The FCC has also granted FM translators displacement allowance to any other comparable channel on the FM dial in these circumstances, greatly limiting most of the ‘death nail’ situations from full-power station complaints,” he said.
“For the full-power being encroached upon, documentation of interference complaint location is crucial for the required analysis; the use of Google Earth as an underlay is helpful in precisely noting the listener’s location in reference to the full-power FM contour overlay. Having a database of your listeners’ addresses — for example, from a list of past contest winners — can be a key piece of information in doing a preemptive study of the effects of a translator on the full-power listening audience.”
He said this can permit the full-power station to make an objection to a pending application by a translator, and circumvent any interference.
“On the translator owner’s side of things, being able to carefully calculate and demonstrate both the translator and full-power station’s signal contours can be a great defense against a threat by a full-power. Particularly in the midwest and western areas of the U.S., where the land is mostly flat and FM signals tend to propagate much better than predicted by FCC contours, being able to accurately show the full-power station’s actual 45 dBu contour can be a tool to understand that just because a full-power FM signal can be heard does not automatically give it FCC protection,” he said.
“As one who files many translator applications, this upfront analysis has become standard operating procedure when there’s a potential for a nearby full-power to complain about the application.”
As for best practices, Turbo said that if you treat a translator like it is valuable, it will become a value to your operation.
“There are a lot of equipment options for building a translator facility, but if you will commit the finances and energies to build a facility with top-quality equipment and follow standards of good engineering practice, it will pay off with good signal and reliable operation with minimal ongoing maintenance,” he said.
“We are often told that you get what you pay for. If you skimp on building a translator, you can be sure that ‘you will pay for what you get’ one day.
“Even if you operate a terrestrial-fed translator, one with an outside antenna, having internet connectivity for proper monitoring and control is not only a step toward proper FCC compliance but it can ensure that you have a constant view of how the facility is operating. No signal can retain listenership if it’s not reliably on the air. Good remote monitoring and control is essential to achieve such.”
