Bonneville Files with FCC to Upgrade Bay Area Boosters

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, October 14, 2021

Bonneville International

Bonneville International has filed with the FCC to modernize and upgrade its existing boosters signals for San Francisco stations KOIT (96.5), KMVQ (99.7) and KBLX (102.9) to be deployed in March, 2022. Under the upgrade, each station would share the antenna infrastructure through a multiplex system. The improved signal would also increase penetration with Nielsen PPM Portable People Meters (PPMs).

The three stations were acquired by Bonneville from Entercom in 2018. A particular challenge to all stations in the region is the terrain of the East Bay hills. The company is seeking permission to implement a MaxxCasting SFN system in the East Bay for all three Bonneville stations. Bonneville would use the MaxxCasting system to simulcast the main signal for the three stations to provide greater coverage in the East Bay.

GeoBroadcast Solutions, the sole developer, says its MaxxCasting system expands the coverage area of a FM signal and allows for potential geographic targeting and fencing of text advertising and messaging. It is a system of FM single-frequency networks (SFN) with transmitters fully synchronized to boost the signal from the main transmitter with seamless transitions from the main to and between the booster nodes.

MaxxCasting uses modern cellular network design, broadcast and SFN software tools utilizing high resolution terrain data including building heights, propagation tuning based upon real-time field measurements, as well as analysis of vehicular traffic and demographics.