The rapid expansion of data centers has sparked battles over electricity, water and land use. Now a Mississippi radio station says the boom has claimed something else: an AM transmitter site. Rainey Broadcasting has told the FCC that development surrounding a massive data center and semiconductor manufacturing project forced gospel WFQY Jackson, MS (970) from its longtime location. Yet the filing has also opened a separate dispute, with a rival broadcaster arguing the Commission should determine whether the station had already been silent before the site was lost.
Rainey Broadcasting has asked the FCC for Special Temporary Authority related to the operations of WFQY, after losing access to its licensed transmitter site. In a filing with the Commission, the company says the Rankin County Board of Supervisors terminated leases around the property because of the development associated with what it describes as a “mega” data center and integrated circuit chip manufacturing plant now under construction.
“The Rankin County Board of Supervisors has removed all leases due to ongoing construction,” consulting engineer William Fulgham writes in the filing.
According to Jackson Radio, WFQY immediately began searching for a replacement site after learning its 20-year lease would not be renewed. The company says it worked with realtors and commercial landowners before securing a temporary location on an abandoned 83-foot wireless cable television receiving tower behind an apartment complex about 1.2 miles from the licensed site — and slightly close to the nearest protected station, Cenla Broadcasting’s talk KSYL (970) in Alexandria, LA.
But the station says finding a permanent location has proven difficult as industrial development spreads through the area. The filing says portions of its city of license — Brandon, MS — and surrounding Rankin County have been rezoned to accommodate growth near the industrial park, creating new restrictions not only on land use but also on tower heights.
One a possible site has been located, but Rainey Broadcasting says required zoning changes will be needed and would likely limit the height of the radio towers. Fulgham notes it is a situation the FCC has faced elsewhere. Several foreshortened non-directional AM broadcast band radiators are now fully type approved and are operating under similar parameters as this one will be,” he says.
The case, however, arrives as WFQY faces a separate challenge.
SSR Communications has filed an informal objection targeting silent STA requests submitted by Rainey Broadcasting for both WFQY and its FM translator W256BL at 99.1 FM. The company argues the silent authority request fails to address questions already raised regarding the station’s operating history.
According to SSR’s filing, the FCC sent WFQY an operational status inquiry in April after receiving evidence suggesting the station may have been silent or operating from unauthorized facilities for more than a year. The inquiry also reportedly questioned whether translator W256BL continued broadcasting while its AM primary station was off the air.
SSR says the new filings focus on the loss of the transmitter site but do not answer broader questions about whether WFQY had actually been operating as authorized before the lease dispute arose. SSR also claims employees who routinely monitor stations in the Jackson market have not heard WFQY operating for a substantial period, although the translator was periodically heard broadcasting.
As a result, SSR is asking the FCC to deny the pending requests to allow the station go silent. It also wants the FCC to determine whether WFQY’s license may have expired for being off the air longer than a year. SSR is also pushing for a related investigation into the translator’s operations.
Rainey Broadcasting has not yet responded to the objections.
