Around this time in December 1982, WCIX found itself in quite a perplexing situation. The Channel 6 signal in South Florida also fell in the same spot as FM 88.5 on your radio dial…and in South Florida in the 1980s you could hear WCIX audio at that radio spot. Unfortunately for WCIX, the Boca Christian School had applied for a license to use 88.5 for its school radio station. Soon after they applied, the Broward School Board applied for the same frequency which Piper High School in Sunrise wanted to use.
More after the jump, and this months old video!
WCIX was afraid that if either new FM station goes on the air, its signal will interfere with the sound portion of Ch. 6’s programs and completely diminish its audience in Broward County. That fear prompted WCIX to file protests with the FCC against the Broward School Board and Boca Christian. Since neither school ever ended up using 88.5 FM signal, the issue just went away altogether!
In early 1983, WCIX’s then owner, General Cinema of Boston sold WCIX to Taft Broadcasting.
Oh, and from the South Florida Television Libraries this month…a 1989 Happy Holidays from WFLX! See you all next month with another journey into the SFLTV past!
Actually, Broward School’s WKPX on 88.5 FM went on the air on Feb. 14, 1983 and has been at that dial position ever since. They have recently been authorized to increase power from 3000 watts to 25,000 watts at their transmitter site at Piper High School in Sunrise.
Well that would be because Channel 6 doesent broadcast analog anymore so there is no threat.
The “SFLTVLibrarian” should check the facts before posting stuff like this.
Ch.6 analog does not occupy “the same spot as 88.5”, although it is close enough to cause interference.
The FM dial begins at 88.1, and Ch. 6 analog came in over 87.7, which some FM tuners could receive. In fact, Ch. 6 used to advertise that you could hear their audio over your radio.
That said, for the entire time Ch. 6 broadcast analog from Homestead, I could never pick it up clearly because WKPX was in between Ch. 6 and me.
The whole point was that it could cause enough interference that it would have interfered with the sound on their channel as well..at least that’s what WCIX claimed to other News outlets when this made news.
I am only passing on information I dug up..I wasn’t there so therefore whether their claims were true, or if they were just making a big stink is up to your mind.
SFLTVLibrarian, nice try, but no cigar.
I’m quoting you from above: “The Channel 6 signal in South Florida also fell in the same spot as FM 88.5 on your radio dial…and in South Florida in the 1980s you could hear WCIX audio at that radio spot.”
Simply put, none of the above is true.
By law, TV broadcasts are not permitted to interfere with the FM band, which starts at 88.1 MHz. If Ch. 6’s audio was heard on 88.5, they would’ve been in flagrant violation of the law, which they were not. From that standpoint, their audio was never heard on 88.5, especially in Broward.
If you just “pass information on”, you might want to at least do a cursory check to see if it’s anywhere near correct. If not, it’s really nothing more than common web static.
Joe, I am not saying you are wrong. However, I am not writing this off the top of my head, I only passed on information. They DID complain about this as an issue as described above. It isn’t current news, so there really is no need to complain about it. Whether WCIX was making a big stink about something they should not have is up to you.