By Kate Lochte
Murray, KY – Media Release: WKMS Tower Work Continues
Date: 5-19-11
Contact: Kate Lochte (kate.lochte@murraystate.edu)
Murray, KY. Public radio service 91.3 FM, WKMS, has been working on transmission line repairs for the last week and a half. This follows a three week period of the station's broadcasting at 50 percent of its full 100 kW power. During the repair work, the station has broadcast region-wide at about 35 percent of full power from about 5 p.m. each afternoon to 9 a.m. the next morning.
WKMS Engineer Allen Fowler says that there will be no work on the tower Saturday when the station is scheduled to broadcast Music From the Front Porch (from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.) with The McKendrees, Terrapin Pond and Bawn in the Mash from Paducah's Lowertown Arts and Music Festival. As of Thursday afternoon, he could not say whether the station would be at full power region-wide Saturday, or at the reduced region-wide signal that is not as efficient around the edges of the coverage area in western Kentucky, southernmost Illinois and northwest Tennessee.
The transmission line repairs require climbers on the station's 500 foot tower in Land Between the Lakes. Today (Thursday, May 19) climbers identified a problem additional to those for which parts were obtained two weeks ago. This has necessitated an additional repair component, a 20 foot section of copper transmission line, to be trucked in from Indiana. WKMS Engineer anticipates that this line will arrive tomorrow (Friday, May 20).
From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the time climbers are on the tower, the station has been turning off its main transmission system and losing its main coverage area during the daytime, resuming most of the coverage area after hours and in the mornings. Both WKMS channels are still available at www.wkms.org, and the WKMS signal at 90.9 FM, Madisonville remains on the air because it repeats a signal delivered to it through the internet rather than over the air.
Because the station's HD transmissions are also affected by the tower work, the 24 hour classical channel normally heard at 92.5 in Paducah and 105.1 in Madisonville have also been quiet or interfered with. This channel is available at www.wkms.org.
The station is updating the changing nature and status of the work daily on the air, on its Facebook page and on its website homepage. For more detailed information call Station Manager Kate Lochte at 800-599-4737.