In 2000, it became a property of iHeartMedia predecessor company Clear Channel Communications, by way of its purchase of Capstar Broadcasting Partners. All the while, the Class C1 property licensed to Martinsville, Va., has been a Rock giant in Roanoke, with a signal audible in parts of the Greensboro, N.C., market.
Yet, even as WROV-FM is iHeartMedia’s top-rated station in Roanoke-Lynchburg, the company filed a minor change application with the FCC proposing a city of license change. The Media Bureau’s response? Amend your application, and then we’ll consider the ask.
The request involves the shift of WROV’s city of license to New Castle, Va., from Martinsville.
Interestingly, the WROV transmitter sits atop Cahas Mountain, some 44 miles north of Martinsville, giving it excellent coverage of much of Southwestern Virginia.
New Castle is some 45 miles to the north of the Cahas Mountain transmitter site. Yet, even with the request to shift WROV’s city of license by nearly 90 miles, each municipality is within the main signal contour of the FM.
The key difference between the two towns is that New Castle sits within the Roanoke urbanized area, by geographical definition.
A principal assertion from iHeartMedia is that the proposed WROV-FM modification would result in a preferential arrangement of allotments under “Priority (4),” based on the increased population coverage within the proposed 60 dBu (74,208 persons) and 70 dBu (10,518 persons) contours.
Nazifa Sawez, Assistant Chief within the Media Bureau’s Audio Division, begs to differ. He says the Audio Division disagrees with the assertion by iHeartMedia that the proposed city of license change for WROV would be in the public interest based on the net gain of those 74,208 individuals.
How so? “A staff engineering analysis found that [iHeartMedia]’s net gain population in the service contour is based on the allotment coordinates, which is inconsistent with the Commission’s Rural Radio policy,” Sawez explains.
Specifically, the Commission stated in the Rural Radio Second Order that when determining gain and loss areas for an FM station changing its community of license, the contours should be calculated using the authorized transmitter coordinates for the existing facility and the actual transmitter coordinates specified for the proposed new or modified facility.
The FCC’s staff engineering analysis determines that, based on the actual transmitter coordinates, the proposed WROV-FM modification to New Castle would provide an additional service to 9,942 persons within the proposed 70 dBu contour while resulting in a net loss of 137,657 persons within the proposed 60 dBu contour.
Further, WROV-FM’s existing licensed facilities at Martinsville covers 100% of the Roanoke urbanized area and 61.5% of the Blacksburg-Christiansburg urbanized area, whereas the proposed facilities at New Castle covers 100% of both areas — traditionally distinct markets when it comes to audience measurement, advertising needs and ratings data.
“Accordingly, we find that the proposed WROV-FM modification to New Castle is not in a preferential arrangement of allotments under Priority (4),” Sawez says, adding that the proposed WROV-FM modification results in a net loss of 133,322 persons within the Roanoke and Blacksburg urbanized areas.
But, rather than dismiss the application, iHeartMedia is being directed to amend it. That’s because the FCC’s rules require this. Pursuant to section 73.3522(c)(2) of the Commission’s rules, “An applicant whose application is found to meet the minimum filing requirements but nevertheless is not complete and acceptable shall have the opportunity in the 30 days specified in the FCC staff’s deficiency letter to correct all deficiencies in the tender ability and acceptability of the underlying application, including any deficiency not specifically identified by the staff.”
