Back on the Air at 105.7FM

Our Scranton signal (105.7FM) was restored Sunday June 17.

It is stronger and clearer than before, and reaches further. The problem was that the exciter in the translator failed. (The exciter is the gizmo that boosts the incoming signal’s power and blasts it out the antenna, much like an amplifier in a stereo system boosts the signal and pushes it through the speakers.) Once we discovered the problem, we had to find a replacement exciter.

This required a nationwide hunt. It’s not that there aren’t plenty of exciters around. It’s just that to find them in our price bracket is challenging. (New costs around $2,500.) We got a relatively new one for $900 from a station in Binghamton, went there immediately to pick it up, and since he had it in his hands, our engineer went to the tower Sunday and installed it.