FCC Report Extra: Charlotte Area Move-In To Place Two Second Adjacent FMs On Same Tower

Taking advantage of their pre-1964 short-spacings, two FMs could soon be sharing a tower as Wilkes Broadcasting Company Hot AC 97.3 WKBC-FM North Wilkesboro NC seeks to move south closer to Charlotte. [membership level="2,3" show_noaccess="true"] WKBC-FM seeks to relocate to the tower of iHeartMedia Country " 96.9 The Kat " WKKT Statesville where it will downgrade from a Class C to a C2 licensed to Stony Point. WKBC-FM would operate with 5.7kW/424.44m . WKBC-FM is currently short-spaced to four full powered stations that all began operations before 1964. The proposal says that in addition to WKKT, it is short spaced to first adjacent 97.1 WQMG Greensboro NC, second adjacent WXBQ-FM Bristol VA, and third adjacent 97.9 WPEG Concord. By moving to the new location, it says it will eliminate the short-spacing with WXBQ, reduce it with WQMG and then rest match with the FCC precedent set in the Newnam/Peachtree City GA decision which was granted on the provision "that no new short spacings are created, no existing short spacings are exacerbated, and the potential for interference between the currently short spaced stations is not increased.” While WKBC-FM will cover downtown Charlotte, the filing notes that the application site "does not and cannot be further modified to reach a majority of the Charlotte, NC-SC Urbanized Area". It also says that although Stony Point is not part of any urbanized area, WKBC-FM's current 70 dBu contour covers 81.2 percent of the Hickory Urbanized Area and the station could be modified in the future to reach a majority of that area from a different transmitter site making the Rural Radio policies not apply, while giving the station a net gain in population served of 960,787 persons. [/membership]

FCC Report Extra: Charlotte Area Move-In To Place Two Second Adjacent FMs On Same Tower

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