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Site of the Week 5/12/2023: Sinclair Telecable, Norfolk VA

Scott Fybush by Scott Fybush
May 12, 2023
in Tower Site of the Week, Virginia
0

Text and photos by SCOTT FYBUSH

First things first – the “Sinclair Telecable” that owns a cluster of radio stations serving Norfolk, Virginia doesn’t have anything to do with the Sinclair Broadcast Group that owns all those TV stations around the country (including MyNetwork affiliate WTVZ right down the road in Norfolk).

Bob Sinclair’s group has been around here longer – it started here in the late 1970s on the former WKLX (1350), which it rebranded as news-talk WNIS. In 1987, it sold off 1350 and bought what was then WRAP (850), moving the WNIS calls there and launching an all-news format in the market that soon upgraded to a 50,000-watt AM signal from a new site at the western edge of the metro.

Sinclair's lobby
Sinclair’s lobby
AM racks
AM racks

On our previous visit to Norfolk in 2021, we got to see both of Sinclair’s AMs – 850, which took the heritage WTAR calls in a 1997 swap and had switched to an all-sports format, and the 790 facility, historically WTAR, that is now news-talk WNIS. But we didn’t get a chance on that visit to see the cluster’s studios, an omission that was easy to rectify with an hour or so to kill before first pitch at the Norfolk Tides, just down the block.

On the fifth floor of the office building at 999 Waterside Drive, located – just as the name says – on the banks of the Elizabeth River at the south edge of downtown Norfolk, the Sinclair Telecable studios are divided into two blocks. Turn right from the lobby and you’re on the AM side of things: there’s a newsroom looking in to the WNIS talk studio, a big rack of PPM encoders and another big rack of studio gear, and a smaller studio for WTAR’s sports talk.

W
WNIS 790
WNIS 790
WNIS 790

What we didn’t know for sure (but, as ever, Lance had mostly figured out thanks to his RadioInsight domain sleuthing) was that this last evening of August was also the last day of sports on WTAR. The next morning, 850 and its translators on 96.5 began stunting on the way to a relaunch a week later with a variety hits format as “Lucy,” replaced earlier this year by AAA as “96.5 the Coast.”

WTAR 850
WTAR 850
WROX
WROX 96.1

Turn left instead from the lobby and you’ll find yourself along the row of studios for the Sinclair Telecable FMs. As we noted in last week’s installment, WROX (96.1 Cape Charles) rimshots Norfolk from across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, over at the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula.

WUSH 106.1
WUSH 106.1
WUSH 106.1
WUSH 106.1

The next station in the row, country “US 106” WUSH (106.1 Poquoson) also started out in Exmore on the peninsula before it was moved into town in two steps, first to the WNIS 790 site near Newport News and then to its current site in Portsmouth at what was the original WNIS 850 site.

And last but far from least, “Bob 93.7” is WNOB, licensed to Chesapeake, Virginia and transmitting from south of the market, just yards over the North Carolina state line near Moyock (where it started in 1973 as WMYK). The variety hits format on “Bob” these days succeeded an earlier incarnation as AAA “Coast,” WKOC, which inspired the present version of “Coast” on WTAR.

WNOB 93.7
WNOB 93.7
Norfolk from the roof
Norfolk from the roof

We’ve still got a few minutes before we have to head over to the ballpark, so we head up to the roof (at 26 stories, the Dominion Tower is the tallest building in the city) to take in the panoramic view – and to see a little more of Sinclair Telecable’s gear.

Sinclair STLs
Sinclair STLs
Aux transmitter
Aux transmitter
WYFI/WWDE and WNOR
WYFI/WWDE and WNOR

Before stepping out to the roof level, we see the little room that’s home to Sinclair’s STL transmitters and the auxiliary transmitter that can be used for either WUSH or WNOB (this site is a little too far away to be a WROX-FM auxiliary.)

Out on the roof, we start off by looking south across the river, where it’s easy to get a nice view of two nearby FM towers. On the left, that’s Audacy’s WWDE (101.3) and Bible Broadcasting’s WYFI (99.7); on the right, it’s the newly rebuilt tower of Saga’s WNOR (98.7).

Aux antennas and STLs
Aux antennas and STLs
Aux antennas and STLs
Aux antennas and STLs

There’s a lot of STL action happening on the roof next to that two-bay FM aux antenna: there’s line of sight from here all the way across the Chesapeake to WROX-FM from a big dish on the side of the penthouse, as well as to the AM sites and WUSH to the west and WNOB off to the south in North Carolina.

Sinclair STL
Sinclair STL
The Tides' stadium
The Tides’ stadium

And there’s a fantastic view, of course, across I-264 to Harbor Park, where we headed next for a most enjoyable evening of Norfolk Tides baseball on the shore of the river.

WE’VE LOWERED THE PRICE!

It’s officially summer. Have you still not ordered your Tower Site Calendar?

Good news! You can now purchase it for just $8. You also still have the option of getting it signed for $13, or buying a storage bag for $1.

Get yours today. And be sure to look at the rest of the store!

And don’t miss a big batch of where IDs next Wednesday, over at our sister site, TopHour.com!

Next week: WHRO Public Radio and TV, Norfolk

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Tags: WNISWNOBWROXWTARWUSH
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Scott Fybush

Scott Fybush

Editor/Publisher, NorthEast Radio Watch and Tower Site of the Week

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