Thursday, October 10, 2019

WJCT OFF THE AIR: My FCC complaint No. 3590471 filed against WJCT, mediocre NPR affiliate in Jacksonville, Florida

The mismanaged Jacksonville Florida NPR station license needs to be awarded to another group. Station off the air all day long. I just filed an Federal Communications Commission complaint.



I just filed a complaint against our mediocre local NPR affiliate, stating in haec verba:

1. Ineptly run Jacksonville, Florida NPR affiliate has frequent service interruptions, but none as long as the twelve (12) hours today. Website currently states inter alia, "We are currently experiencing technical difficulties on 89.9 FM. Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve the issue. Streaming is still available at wjct.org/listen and on the WJCT App."
2. Broadcaster does not fulfill the public interest, refusing to cover St. Augustine and St. Johns County corruption and environmental issues involving clearcutting and destruction of wetlands, while taking money from developers and other corporations in exchange for favorable coverage or no coverage at all.
3. Please investigate this licensee, which refuses to talk to me about my concerns, having promised a meeting some ten (10) months ago.
4. Please grant a new license to provide public radio in St. Augustine.


UPDATE:
The next day, WJCT is still off the air.  Here's its Facebook post:

WJCT Radio Tower Outage Update 

  3 HOURS AGO
Dear WJCT radio listeners and supporters:
As I’m sure you have noticed, our FM service has been off the air since early Thursday morning.
We were quickly able to determine that the issue was caused by a fault of some kind between our transmitter and our antenna, which meant that it required a specialized crew to be able to climb the broadcast tower and diagnose the problem. A qualified crew was located in the region and was on-site by Thursday afternoon, and they have determined that there is a fault in the transmission line approximately 40 feet up the tower. We are hopeful that the issue can be solved with a splice in the line and have now made arrangements to have the necessary repairs completed. We are hopeful — but as yet there is no guarantee — that we can get back on air before the weekend.
Meanwhile, our service continues to be available via online streaming, at wjct.org or via the WJCT app. If you are approached by people who wonder where we have disappeared to, please advise them of these places where they may continue to listen. We have posted that information on our web site and have sent out notifications through the app.
We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused by this outage, and please rest assured that we are doing everything possible to get WJCT 89.9 FM back on the air as quickly as we can.
Best,
David McGowan
President and CEO
WJCT, Inc.
100 Festival Park Avenue
Jacksonville, FL 32202

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