hoping to be educated about lettered classes for stations

[oldiesfunhouse]

   In the Real Salt Lake thread, 102.7's Class C status was being discussed. I realize I could probably Google this but I'm hoping you all that know about this stuff could educate me instead. I'll start with what I know. There are at least three lettered classes of radio stations-A, B, and C. There may be more. There are also some with numbers after them. I want to say the Humpy stations are C1 perhaps. I believe the 50KW AM stations like KSL, KOA, KNX etc. are class A stations. Is there such thing as a class A FM station and, if so, are there any in our market? I'm assuming the class letter has to do with how much power and range the station is allowed to have. I'm hoping to be enlightened! Thank you in advance.    

[David]

Yes, there is Class A status for FM stations, but I have no idea if there's any Class A stations in the Salt Lake City market. This table from the FCC website explains the different FM broadcast license classes and their service contours.

www.fcc.gov/media/radio/fm-station-classes

[Terry]

Class A stations are the strongest AM stations, followed by B, C and D.

Class C stations are the strongest FM stations, followed by B and A. A C1 station is slightly less powerful than than a class C station. There are no class C FM stations allowed in several states from Illinois through New York and beyond.

For what it’s worth, KUFR 91.7 is a class A FM station in Salt Lake.

I believe the Humpy stations are all class C.

[CAwasinNJ]

Just to be confusing, yes AM class lettering is opposite from the FM ones. Very annoying.

Any particular area can have either FM class C's or class B's, but not both. The page David linked to pretty much explains the FM classes. In FM any particular station can ask for whatever class they want depending on what they want to accomplish. FM class A's in the Salt Lake area include KGNT, KTCE, KMGR and KPVO. There are also various flavors of class D stations which include translators and boosters plus the old 10 watt noncommercial stations that haven't been authorized outside Alaska since 1978. There's also LPFM.

AM is done completely differently. Each frequency on the AM band is assigned a class or classes and any station broadcasting on that frequency has to follow those parameters. You can read about that here:

www.fcc.gov/media/radio/am-clear-regional-local-channels

Things used to be simpler on AM but that gets down into the weeds. You can look up the breakdown of the clear channel stations if you want to get into it.


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