BY JOURNAL TIMES STAFF | Posted: Wednesday, May 7, 2008 12:00 am
KENOSHA - Public radio listeners in parts of Racine and Kenosha counties will have an easier time picking up WGTD 91.1 FM after Gateway Technical College completed a five-year signal expansion project.
The station's signal will now reach into the western half of Racine and Kenosha counties and in to some previously "weak" pockets in the eastern part of both counties.
WGTD - the NPR and Wisconsin Public Radio affiliate owned and operated by Gateway Technical College - began broadcasting this week from a new antenna mounted on a taller tower.
The tower and WGTD's studios are located on the Kenosha Campus of Gateway Technical College, 3520 30th Avenue.
The station had a much wider coverage area when the station went on the air in the mid-1970s, said David Cole, the station's general manager.
As time passed, equipment aged to the point where the signal started to break up around Highway 45 as it runs through both counties, Cole said.
The new state-of-the-art panel antenna replaced original, deteriorating equipment and is designed to maximize signal strength as much as allowed by the Federal Communications Commission.
FCC rules, among other things, require WGTD to limit its range to the northwest in order protect a nearby station on the dial. That station happens to be WGTD's "sister" station, WHAD 90.7 in Delafield.
Both stations carry programming from Wisconsin Public Radio.
With the new antenna and taller tower, WGTD's signal in Kenosha County now pushes the Walworth County line and can be heard in Burlington and is stronger in the Kansasville and Union Grove areas, Cole said.
More information about the station and its programming is available online at www.wgtd.org or by calling Dave Cole at (262) 564-3030.