DES PLAINES, Illinois — Two of Chicago’s best-known AM stations are now sharing a transmitter site after the Federal Communications Commission granted licenses for Audacy’s WBBM 780 and WSCR 670 to operate from Salem Media Group’s WYLL facility.
The stations use part of WYLL’s four-tower daytime array with new transmitters, matching and filtering equipment, and detuning work designed to allow the signals to coexist.
The move follows Audacy’s sale of its former 25.75-acre transmitter property in Bloomingdale, Illinois, for approximately $29.3 million.
Efficiency brings a shared-risk question
Combining facilities can lower property, maintenance and operating costs. It also makes redundancy more important when several major signals depend on one site.
The operational questions now include backup transmitters, generator capacity, fuel contracts, tower and transmission-line failures, shared maintenance windows and the effect of the new location on nighttime and fringe-area reception.
The project is a useful case study for AM operators balancing valuable real estate against the cost of maintaining separate legacy facilities.
Source: Radio World.