WNCC FM 104.1 is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

broadcasting a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

format. Licensed to serve

Franklin, North Carolina Franklin is a town in and the county seat of Macon County, North Carolina, United States. It is situated within the Nantahala National Forest. The population was reported to be 4,175 in the 2020 census, an increase from the total of 3,845 tabul ...

, United States, the station is currently owned by Sutton Radiocasting Corporation, and features programming from ABC Radio and

Jones Radio Network Jones Radio Networks & Jones Media Group were branches of Jones International before being sold to Triton Media Group. JRN and JMN provide local radio stations with satellite-delivered formats. They also offer other services to local radio such ...

. Its main

radio tower Radio masts and towers are typically tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. There are two main types: guyed and self-supporting structures. They are among the tallest human-made ...

is located on Cowee Mountain, along with W267AD 101.3 and W285FD 104.9, and

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building per ...

s for W265AZ 100.9 and W262CE on 92.9. W267AD and W285FD are listed as having WNCC as their primary station, and WNCC provided digital notification to the FCC, indicating that they are being used as a

legal fiction A legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts, which is then used in order to help reach a decision or to apply a legal rule. The concept is used almost exclusively in common law jurisdictions, particularly in England and Wales. Deve ...

for circumventing both local ownership caps and the

rulemaking In administrative law, rulemaking is the process that executive and independent agencies use to create, or ''promulgate'', regulations. In general, legislatures first set broad policy mandates by passing statutes, then agencies create more de ...

process of getting new stations on the air by

simulcasting Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...

on WNCC's "

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compressi ...

s. These supposed "

broadcast translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tra ...

s" are instead intended to retransmit the main analog audio to areas blocked by the mountains, and are prohibited from carrying their own programming. W265AZ also shows WNCC as its primary station, but is still located atop

Wayah Bald Wayah Bald is a high-altitude treeless open area in Nantahala National Forest, near Franklin, North Carolina. The Wayah Bald Observation Tower is located at the area's highest point (5,385 feet); the stone observation tower was built by the Civil ...

west of Franklin, and unlike the first two is not owned by Sutton. W262CE is owned by Sutton, but lists WFSC AM 1050 in Franklin as its primary station, and is currently at 100.3 on

Black Rock Mountain Black Rock Mountain State Park is a Georgia, United States, state park west of Mountain City in Rabun County, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is named after its sheer cliffs of dark-colored biotite gneiss. Astride the Eastern Continental Di ...

in a state park near

Clayton, Georgia Clayton is a city in Rabun County, Georgia, United States. Its population was 2,003 at the 2020 census. The county seat of Rabun County, it is in the Blue Ridge Mountains. History The area that eventually became Clayton was called the Dividing ...

(where it is outside of WFSC's

broadcast range A broadcast range (also listening range or listening area for radio, or viewing range or viewing area for television) is the service area that a broadcast station or other transmission covers via radio waves (or possibly infrared light, which i ...

, which is not permitted by the FCC). W267AD has

Cherokee, North Carolina Cherokee ( chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, translit=Tsalagi) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Swain and Jackson counties in Western North Carolina, United States, within the Qualla Boundary land trust. Cherokee is located in the Oconaluftee River V ...

as its

city of license In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American b ...

, the others are all Franklin. W262CE has an effective power of 130 watts, while all of the others (including WNCC itself) are at or very close to 115 watts at the same height, indicating that they all share a single

radio antenna In radio engineering, an antenna or aerial is the interface between radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver. In transmission, a radio transmitter supplies a ...

through a

diplexer A diplexer is a passive device that implements frequency-domain multiplexing. Two ports (e.g., L and H) are multiplexed onto a third port (e.g., S). The signals on ports L and H occupy disjoint frequency bands. Consequently, the signals on L and ...

History

At one time, this station played

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

music with the

broadcast callsign Broadcast call signs are call signs assigned as unique identifiers to radio stations and television stations. While broadcast radio stations will often brand themselves with plain-text names, identities such as "cool FM", "rock 105" or "the ABC n ...

WRFR. It became WNCC-FM in 1999, just WNCC in 2004, re-adding the suffix again in 2005 until removing it yet again in 2014. Due to

RF interference Electromagnetic interference (EMI), also called radio-frequency interference (RFI) when in the radio frequency spectrum, is a disturbance generated by an external source that affects an electrical circuit by electromagnetic induction, electrost ...

with several other nearby stations on the same frequency or adjacent frequencies, WNCC had applied to move to 104.1 MHz. The station was issued a license to operate on that frequency on April 21, 2016, having previously been on 96.7 with 6000 watts at

below Below may refer to: *Earth * Ground (disambiguation) * Soil * Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) * Less than *Temperatures below freezing * Hell or underworld People with the surname * Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general * Fr ...

the average local terrain. In July 2016, it signed on a co-channel booster station WNCC-FM1, located immediately south of downtown

Bryson City Bryson City is a town in Swain County, North Carolina in the United States. The population was 1558 as of the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of Swain County. Located in what was historically the land of the Cherokee, Bryson City was founded as ...

and transmitting 40 watts of

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ...

References

External links

NCC NCC may refer to: Biology *Neural correlates of consciousness, neuronal events and mechanisms relating to perception phenomena *Sodium-chloride symporter, abbreviated as NCC Companies *National Certification Corporation, a nursing specialty cer ...

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