tower

UPDATE 3:15PM: The tower crew needed a few extra minutes to finish up, but they are done and down from the tower...and we are back on the air!

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To our South County listeners: 102.7FM may be off the air for periods between 11am and 3pm on Tuesday June 21st to allow AT&T Wireless tower climbers to perform emergency repairs on their equipment.

This past Saturday, AT&T Wireless performed a hardware upgrade to their cellphone antennas that're on the same tower RIPR's 102.7FM signal is, in Narragansett.   This entailed two tower climbers spending nearly six hours up on the tower, within about 20-30 feet of our Shively 3-bay antenna.  Fortunately between the laws of antenna physics, and judicious reduction in transmitter power, RIPR could stay on the air without jeopardizing worker safety!

UPDATE: More tower work Saturday April 11th beginning at 10am.

The second AT&T crew is returning for another try for antenna replacement on Saturday 4/11 starting at 10am and lasting most of the day.  

Based on previous experience, we are hoping to maintain normal operations on 102.7...or at worst just run at half-power.   Check the @RINPR twitter feed for updates.

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Beginning at 10:00am on Saturday March 28th there will be an extended outage of RIPR's 102.7FM signal.   It is expected to last several hours at least, possibly until sunset (around 6:30pm).

We may be able to continue operating at reduced power.  But it's likely that 102.7 will just be completely off the air.   Please note: whenever 102.7 is off, our WCVY 91.5FM signal in Coventry will be off as well.  (it gets its content via a radio receiver tuned to 102.7)

(Update 12/31/15 1:15pm) Please be advised that in late November 2015, WWBB installed a new antenna.  This antenna actually should help REDUCE blanketing interference in the downtown area, but nevertheless it's a change and that resets the one-year clock described below.

(Update 02/03/15 5:00pm) B101 has officially moved to One Financial Plaza (aka Hospital Trust tower) in downtown Providence as their new permanent home.  A "license to cover" has been granted by the FCC. 

What does this mean for your listening to 88.1FM?

If you live within approx. 1.5km of One Financial Plaza (see map at right) and you are experiencing blanketing interference to RIPR, then the FCC rules (47 CFR § 73.318(b)) mandate that WWBB must "satisfy all complaints of blanketing interference which are received  by the station during a one year period."   That period began 1/27/2015 and ends 1/27/2016 but please don't delay! (EDIT: after changing antennas in November 2015, the clock resets to end in November 2016)

You can contact Troy Langham at (918) 664-4581 or FCCcontact@iheartmedia.com to log a blanketing interference complaint and request assistance from their engineers.  Make sure to mention it's under "FCC rule section seventy-three dot three-one-eight".   Give your name, physical address, and a way to contact you (email or phone).

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UPDATE @ 1pm : 88.1FM is back at normal power!  Pics are available on our Twitter feed here, here, here and here.   By the way, many of these pics were taken with a stock iPhone 5S using this telephoto lens attachment.  Pretty good for $45!

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On Wednesday June 18th, beginning around 9:30 or 10am, 88.1FM will be running on the backup transmitter & antenna for a few hours to install new equipment on the top of the tower.   We must run on the lower-power backup for the health & safety of our tower climber.

The backup operates using a one-bay vertically-polarized omnidirectional antenna and about one-tenth our normal power.   

THIS WILL NOT IMPACT OUR 91.5 OR 102.7FM SIGNALS, NOR OUR WEBCAST.

Keep watching our Twitter feed for updates.