Radio listeners in Lexington have some new choices on the FM dial. Both WNRN of Charlottesville and WVTF of Roanoke have installed local translators for their stations on the Columbia Gas tower near Lime Kiln, said Paxton Durham, chief engineer for WVTF.

WNRN plays adult alternative, bluegrass, and hip-hop, while WVTF concentrates on a mix of classical, jazz, and NPR talk radio programming.

Mike Friend, general manager of WNRN, said that other than Washington & Lee's station, WLUR-FM, he didn’t see any competition in the area in terms of rock programming.

“Most places you fill a niche, but I think down there, we’re filling a void,” he said.

Both stations turned on their translators for testing on March 16. Durham, who is working on the installations for both, said the translators would stay on air if the sound quality is good. WVTF was on air as of Thursday, while WNRN had to be pulled off air temporarily due to technical problems.

Friend added that the signal quality will improve over the coming weeks after they tweak the translators. He said that earlier tests “sounded all right, [but] it had a little bit of noise on it.”

WVTF is entering Lexington on 101.9, a frequency normally reserved for commercial stations, because an educational frequency was not available, according to Durham. WNRN will be heard at frequency 95.9.

WNRN received a permit from the Federal Communications Commission to expand into Lexington in 2004, while WVTF received a permit only a year ago. Durham said WVTF waited, instead of building immediately, in order to receive a federal grant to help pay for the construction of the translator.

WNRN’s coverage is entirely new to the Lexington area, but WVTF’s is a matter of filling in an already-existing weak signal, said Glenn Gleixner, general manager for WVTF. WVTF already provides service to Roanoke, Charlottesville and Staunton, and will soon have new translators in Lovingston and Orange.

“In a mountainous area, signal blockage is more of a problem than it is in the Midwest, where everything is flat,” Gleixner said. “We’ve always covered the Lexington market; we’ve just had a signal problem there that we’re trying to correct.”

“It’s definitely going to cover town real well,” said Durham. He added that although the translator is relatively low powered, 25 watts, it should cover Lexington and parts of Interstate 81, but may not reach into Buena Vista because of the terrain.

After expanding into Lexington, WNRN has plans to also expand into Harrisonburg in April and to strengthen its presence in Richmond.

“There are a lot of students in your town and we think they’ll enjoy this,” said Friend. “Where you have students, you have faculty and some of them will enjoy it too.”

WNRN Web site

Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.

Lead supervisor:      Prof. Claudette Artwick

Reporting supervisor: Prof. Doug Cumming

Editing supervisor:  Prof. Pamela Luecke

Technical supervisor:  Michael Todd