Richmond’s New Rock Alt moving to 100.9

Cox Radio's WDYL-FM is Richmond’s rock alternative with true personality programming.  Nationally-known “Bubba the Love Sponge” and the locally-produced “Sludge Nation” highlight each weekday with topical humor and a focus on listener interaction.  WDYL operated as a “Class A” facility licensed to Chester, Virginia and had been operating at 101.1 MHz from a tower on the south side of Richmond.  The old facility utilized a 2-bay antenna at a height above average terrain (HAAT) of 112 meters (367 feet), with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 4 kilowatts.  

Cox set out to improve the facility in order to better serve the Richmond area but as is often the case, several obstacles prevented an immediate upgrade solution.  First and foremost among these obstacles were some short-space issues with other licensed facilities.  A number of modifications to those facilities, a frequency change from 101.1 to 100.9 and a change of city of license from Chester to Lakeside, Virginia, cleared the way for WDYL to improve from a “Class A” to a “Class B1” facility.  The new B1 facility for WDYL consists of an antenna HAAT of 130 meters (426 feet) and an effective radiated power (ERP) of 15 kilowatts.  The Longley-Rice predicted coverage from the new tower location “throws” a solid signal over the Richmond metro area and provides excellent coverage in areas that were poorly-served from the old facility in Chester.  In particular, Richmond’s crucial “West End” area will now receive a full city-grade signal from WDYL for the first time.

WDYL’s new transmitter location is Mechanicsville, VA along Interstate 295, just northeast of Richmond on a new tower constructed and owned by Sinclair Communications (not affiliated with the Sinclair Broadcast Group).  The tower, a model “6000 SRWD” guyed tower, was manufactured by Sabre Towers and Poles (http://www.sabreindustriesinc.com), is 122 meters in height (approx. 400 feet) with a 5-foot face.  The 5-foot face is an important point to mention inasmuch as 5 feet is one-half wavelength at FM frequencies and would thus have an adverse effect on the radiation pattern (i.e.: the “shape” of the signal) of an FM broadcast antenna.  We therefore decided a pole-mounted 4-bay antenna system manufactured by Dielectric communications ( http://www.dielectric.com ), would provide us with an optimum tradeoff between required transmitter output power (TPO) and antenna gain to achieve the licensed ERP of 15 kilowatts.  The pole mounting scheme we used greatly reduces distortion of the signal as radiated from the antenna.   The 50-foot pole was also manufactured by Sabre.

Our antenna of choice for this project was a Dielectric DCR series 4-bay system chosen with the assistance of our antenna consultant, Dean Sargent of D.W. Sargent Broadcast Services.  Dean is well-known to many broadcasters (Radio and Television) throughout the United States and elsewhere.  We elected to forego the customary (and less expensive) quarter-scale pattern testing of the antenna in favor of full-scale pattern verification at the Dielectric test facility in Raymond, Maine.  In this test procedure, a small signal is introduced into the antenna input while the antenna and its 50-foot mounting pole are affixed to a motorized turntable and then rotated. A receive antenna and chart recorder records the relative signal strength during the rotation process. The antenna’s pattern performance was thusly verified to be as predicted.  At the same site and time, Dean tested and certified the electrical performance of the antenna (specifically, return loss or “VSWR” at 100.9, the operating frequency) while mounted and assembled on the actual pole that will be used on the tower.

 Range testing of the WDYL Antenna at the Dielectric test range in Raymond, Maine

After testing was completed, the antenna and pole were shipped to the Mechanicsville tower site, offloaded and prepared for installation on the new Sinclair Tower.
 

Dielectric DCR 4-Bay antenna and pole arrives at the site in Mechanicsville, VA

In about a week, the new antenna was mounted on the tower along with Radomes for icing protection.

As a final step, I asked Dielectric Field Service to perform a field “Post Installation Inspection” in order to ensure the antenna system was installed by the local tower crew precisely as specified in the antenna drawings.  I believe this to be a crucial step.  The actual performance of a new antenna could very well be compromised and not meet your expectations if improperly installed.  Our antenna has a number of components, all of which need to be assembled correctly by the tower crew not specifically trained in this make and model.  After the antenna was mounted on the tower, the Dielectric field service crew climbed the tower, noted and fixed any discrepancies (nothing major in this case).  I have to say that I was impressed by the professionalism of Dielectric’s crew and the manner in which they went about their work.  The relatively small expense for this work is critical to your success, in my view.

A key part of the WDYL signal improvement and change in frequency to 100.9 was the upgrade to a new state of the art transmitter and the upgrade to High-Definition (HD) broadcasting.  I chose the new Harris HPx transmitter (www.broadcast.harris.com) which utilizes a single-tube design with a new, enhanced control system and very clean design. The HPx transmitter has the inherent capability to operate at the proposed -10dB HD injection level, now being considered by the FCC (the US currently operates HD at the -20 dB level).  With this transmitter, WDYL can operate at the current HD injection of -20dB and can easily switch to the -10dB injection level if and when it’s authorized to do so by the Commission.  As part of our “due diligence,” I took advantage of the Harris “Customer Witness” program in which the customer visits the factory and observes the transmitter on the factory floor in final test.  This also provides an excellent opportunity to study the transmitter and to make notes that will make installation easier when it arrives at your site.  I highly recommend everyone make the trip to Harris whenever feasible for the Customer Witness.

 

Harris HPx Transmitter

So far I have discussed the careful antenna selection, full-scale antenna signal verification, installation, antenna post-installation inspection, and the new state of the art Harris HPx transmitter.  As part of the improvement in the WDYL technical product, we selected the new Omnia 6EXi audio processor and a new Intraplex “STL Plus” T1 STL system for transmission of audio from the studio to the transmitter.  The combination of new processing and STL equipment, along with the new antenna, provides WDYL with an entirely new and current-technology system from studio to antenna.  As previously mentioned, WDYL will be able to instantly operate at a higher HD Radio injection level when (and if) the rules change.

One final item in our project to discuss is the transmitter building to house all of the new and expensive equipment.  After researching several manufacturers of “Equipment Shelters,” as they are called in the communications industry, as well as considering a locally-constructed concrete block structure, I selected Thermobond of Elk Point, SD (http://www.thermobond.com).  The prefab shelter in my opinion is the way to go for most installations – it saves times and can truly cut your build out costs.  The building (shelter) is built to your specifications and will comply with your state’s requirements. The completed building is then shipped to your site with electrical wiring and AC (Air Conditioning) completed and ready for installation of your equipment.

 

A Thermobond Equipment “Shelter” similar to the one used for WDYL

The new WDYL signal in Central Virginia on 100.9 will, I believe, prove to be arguably one of the best quality signals in the country.  Bubba and Sludge will now reach out and entertain several new listeners in Richmond and the surrounding metro area.

-- Dennis L Sloatman, Cox Radio Richmond Market Director of Engineering

[Editor's note: the big switch is set for 7/31]