Travel down U.S. 30 from the Cherry Hill, N.J., area just east of central Philadelphia, and you’ll happen across some smaller Southern New Jersey communities as Clementon and Berlin.
Here, an FM translator has been used to rebroadcast a religious noncommercial FM. Soon, that will change — along with the language of what’s heard on the air.
W281CL at 104.1 MHz, licensed to Cherry Hill but serving communities outside of its city of license, is being sold.
That means the “Reach Gospel Radio” network is losing the facility, and over-the-air access to these communities. In Center City Philadelphia, Reach Gospel uses W246AQ at 97.1 MHz. However, the signal does not reach the same areas as W281CL and is short-spaced to WQHT-FM in New York and WASH-FM in Washington, D.C.
The buyer of W281CL is Ritmo Broadcasting LLC, and this signals a change to Spanish-language programing.
A $75,000 sale price has been agreed to by the parties, with a $20,000 downpayment made by Ritmo to the licensee, Priority Radio Inc.
The agreement sees the transfer of the W281CL tower lease to Ritmo, assuming responsibilities regarding rent to Pinnacle Towers LLC, a Crown Castle affiliate.
Ritmo is led by Miguel Amador, who had previously sold W245CJ in Wilmington, Del., one half of a Tropical simulcast that is getting a rebirth.
That’s because W281CL is joining first-adjacent W281CM at 104.1 MHz in Swedesboro, which moved from — incredibly — 102.1 MHz in Bridgeton-Millville, N.J.
Placement of W281CM on its original 102.1 MHz frequency would have most certainly created interference with iHeartMedia Class B WIOQ-FM “Q102” in Philadelphia.
With W281CL and W281CM combined, “Ritmo” seeks to serve listeners from Wilmington, Del., through Chester, Pa. and now the Clementon and Berlin areas at 104.1 MHz.
Those translators will simulcast on W236AF, which recently shifted from 95.1 MHz in Burlington, N.J. to a Trenton-based signal at 98.5 MHz, with 180 watts serving the state capital, Levittown, and Croydon, N.J.
