TOWER WORKERS recently installed a new FM antenna on the existing WGRA tower in Cairo.
Local radio listeners may now hear WGRA-790-AM broadcasting on a low powered FM signal, 95.9. The Cairo radio station added a new FM signal last week when the equipment was installed and new FM translator put into service.
According to Jeff Lovett, WGRA’s owner and general manager, the radio station was granted a construction permit for the low-power FM frequency in 2018, a project designed to give existing AM radio stations in the United States the ability to expand their coverage in small communities.
“The FCC has created a class of facilities called ‘translators,’ which are designed specifically to re-broadcast another station to provide coverage to an isolated community,” states Lovett. WGRA’s new FM signal has a radiated power of 250 watts he says.
“Even at this low power output, the new FM signal sounds great and we have been able to hear it very clearly as far away as Thomasville and Camilla,” says Lovett. “We have had concerns for many years that the station’s signal has denigrated over the years because of damage to the antenna’s ground system due to new infrastructure built along Highway 84 and Crine Boulevard. This new FM signal will help us fill in those gaps in our signal that have been lost over the years and better serve our community.”
WGRA has been on the air continuously in Grady County since 1949 and was recently granted a license renewal from the Federal Communications Commission. The station has broadcast a variety of formats over the last 71 years from country, rock, gospel to the new/talk format of today. WGRA also carries hourly local news and live Syrupmaker Sports.
