Beasley's South Florida Super-tower all but approved
AMS Media Services' Frank McCoy tells RBR his client, Beasley Broadcasting, has all but gotten full approval for its proposed super-tower that would be built in the Everglades an cover the Naples-Ft. Myers, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach Markets (7/30/02 RBR #17).
The opportunity to file against the tower's construction has come and gone. The FAA approved it many months ago. And, says McCoy, "It has been approved by the FCC and could be granted at any time. There is only one further step to get full thumbs-up, and that is de minimis at best. It's really just a matter of everybody making up their mind to construct it. And this tower could hold other stations as well. If more of these type of towers get built, the likelihood of there being workable spectrum space to cover very much area at all for pirates will be reduced."
He adds, "I think one aspect of it that has been missed is in some way a case of the Florida land use regulatory process. Florida is the one state where they're sending out the state police to get the pirates. Part of the reason for all the pirates there is we have a set of spacing rules for FM that give you maybe greater distance protections than the actual transmitted signals sometimes cover. This is particularly true for some of the Class C FMs down there."
Beasley's Classic Rock WRXK-FM (96.1) Ft. Myers facilities change would transmit a Full Class C 100-kW signal on a 1,958-ft. tower (tallest in the state) to cover its current Ft. Myers-Naples market; Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and a bit of Sarasota-Bradenton, as well. If approved, the new tower would be located on the north side of the Everglades swamp, SSW of Lake Okeechobee. In the Miami market, Beasley would be second adjacent to its own WPOW-FM (96.5) and SBS's WXDJ-FM (95.7). While every alligator in the 'glades would enjoy perfect reception of the station, advertisers would get a heck of a bang for their buck as well, essentially covering four markets with one ad. We doubt this would all be done JUST to focus on Miami.