One side-effect from the explosion of FM translators is the possibility some of them may cause interference with existing radio stations. That’s what happened to Lakes Media’s WLUS-FM in Durham. Lakes Media President Tom Birch says a process that began nearly a year ago ended Tuesday when the FCC sent him a letter ordering “immediate cessation of the operation of Arohi Media translator W252DK and dismissal of the pending W252DK license.”
Birch said, “This has been an extraordinarily frustrating experience. The presence of W252DK interference to WLUS in Durham, Wake, Orange, and southern Granville Counties, NC, is undeniable. But Arohi was able to delay FCC action by objecting to Lakes Complaints at every step and questioning the validity of WLUS listener complaints on procedural issues.”
Lakes filed its initial Complaint on August 22, 2016 which was followed by voluminous filings to the Commission, including dozens of listener complaints, videotapes of the interference, engineering studies, and field strength readings in support of the Complaint. The first FCC action came in the form of a Staff Letter on February 24, 2017 ordering Arohi to resolve all WLUS listener complaints. Arohi failed to do so.
Birch said, “We are relieved that the FCC has finally acted and are now welcoming back the nearly 9,000 WLUS listeners lost in these areas due to the interference.”
Even though the FCC demanded the station go dark immediately, as if last night the station was still on the air. Ravi Cherukuri owns the station and told Radio Ink he’s working on shutting down. “Our broadcasting engineer on his way.”
Read the FCC letter to Lakes Media HERE.
