WCOM-LP

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WCOM-LP
City of license Carrboro, North Carolina
Slogan "Your Voice in the Community"
Frequency 103.5 MHz
First air date November 2004
Format Variety
ERP 100 watts
HAAT 27.7 meters (91 feet)
Class L1
Facility ID 135187
Transmitter Coordinates 35°52′38″N, 79°04′09″W
Callsign meaning COMmunity
Owner Public Gallery of Carrboro, Inc.
Webcast Listen Live
Website communityradio.coop

WCOM-LP is a community low-power FM radio station, broadcasting from Carrboro, North Carolina. It broadcasts from a radio tower over Mary Scroggs Elementary School soccer field in Chapel Hill, NC. Its studios are located in downtown Carrboro at 201 North Greensboro Street. It is the first low-power FM station in the area, and began broadcasting in June 2004. In November 2004, the station began broadcasting a full lineup of local radio programming, including some Spanish language programming. It airs a Variety format.[1]

WCOM-LP is the first low-power FM community radio station in the area to be set up under a program established by the Federal Communications Commission in 2000.The station was assigned the WCOM-LP call letters by the Federal Communications Commission on February 5, 2003.[2]

As a low-powered station, WCOM-LP only produces a 100-watt signal therefore it cannot be heard from too far away from the tower. Its limits are just before the Chapel Hill Public Library and just past Weaver Street Market in Carrboro. During the afternoons, Fayetteville station WRCQ often bleeds over into WCOM-LP's radio space, due to WRCQ's high-power transmitter being fairly close by (about 60 miles).

[edit] History

In June 2004, WCOM-LP began broadcasting a test signal—a 30-minute loop in English and Spanish explaining the goals of the station. Since the technology was not yet in place to link the studio to the transmitter, that test signal came from a CD cabinet at the base of the transmitter at Scroggs.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Station Information Profile. Arbitron.
  2. ^ Call Sign History. FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database.

[edit] External links