650, 1060

["Dan Strassberg" <Dan.Strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

About 6:45 this morning, I caught Frankie Boyer, the host of 650's
AM -drive/herbal-remedies-for-everything talk show announce that next week,
the station will become WMEX and will move to a new spot on the dial with a
big new signal that will be heard all over New England. For several months
now, 650 has been legally IDing as WJLT and 1060 has been legally IDing as
WMEX. 1060 has also been intermittently testing its high-power directional
signal since early December, but the flip of 1060's Christian programming to
650 and 650's talk format to 1060 was scheduled to take place only after the
FCC allowed 1060 to transmit regularly with its improved facilities.
Appearently, that's going to happen next week. The flip seems to coincide,
either intentionally or fortuitously, with the annual convocation of
fundamentalist, evangelical Christians in Boston (I think this year's event
is called Congress 2000). Three years ago, WJLT debuted during the '97
event, which happened to coincide with the 1996 Telecom Act's deadline for
stations that had been dark for 12 months or more to return to the air. In
any case, Congress (or whatever it's called) should afford WJLT a good
opportunity to promote its new dial position. As soon as 1060 powered up at
7:15 (seems like it is still using the old 500W signal after sunrise), I
tuned in, but Tim Horton made no mention of the forthcoming change, and
repeatedly referred to the station as J-Light 1060. J-Light has a lot of
good will invested in the 1060 dial position, but I guess they are concerned
about any mention of a frequency occupied by another station until their
programming moves to that frequency.

It will be difficult to tell whether WMEX's initial high-power operation
will use the 40 kW-D/22 kW-CH specified in the CP. I still think it's likely
that the high power will start out at 20 kW-D/11 kW-CH and will remain at
those levels until the FCC grants a license to cover. I've seen nothing so
far at the FCC Web site about a grant of a license to cover. However, the
FCC has accepted for filing WMEX's application for a license to cover.