Radio Conglomerates Battle in RI Over “Fun” and Its Frequency

Radio Conglomerates Battle in RI Over “Fun” and Its Frequency

The national radio group that owns Cat Country and numerous other radio stations across the country wants to launch a new station from West Warwick at the frequency 107.1 on the FM dial and that is sparking a battle with Townsquare Media — the owner “Fun 107” which is located in Fairhaven, MA.

Cat County's parent company Hall Communications is currently in a legal fight with Fun 107, which markets itself as “The Southcoast's # 1 Hit Music Station!”

The battle has been taken to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the conflict between the radio companies features Washington, DC law firms, pages and pages of technical data and listener surveys about their listening habits.

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Townsquare's CEO Steven Price sits on the Brown University Corporation besides overseeing more than 321 stations across the country.

Rhode Island Radio Battle

Hall has applied for a 15-watt license to be able to have a FM sister station -- at 107.1 FM -- for its “ESPN 1450 Providence” AM station.

Fun 107 objected to that filling and offered dozens of pages to the FCC with listener surveys and engineering reports. Then, Fun’s owners say even a one-watt station will diminish the ability to hear the Fairhaven station.

The FCC filling by Fun’s owners include listener surveys like the one by Mike Chace of Seekonk, MA which states, “I leave from Seekonk each day, and about 95% of my work is in Rhode Island. I listen to Fun 107 until I get to South County when it cuts out. But each day, I am listening on l95 East and West in Providence, over the India Point Bridge. I’ll listen on 95 North and South in Providence. I’m all around that area all day. I’ve been listening to Fun 107 for years. 5 days a week.”

And another document by Amy Viera of Bristol, RI states that she listens to Fun 107 on her way to work at Rhode Island Hospital.

About a dozen listener surveys off those living or working in Rhode Island are included in the Town Square FCC fillings citing that they predominately listen to the Fairhaven station.

While Fun 107 claims to have large listenership in Rhode Island, its website says Townsquare marketing and advertising solutions are "for businesses in New Bedford/Fall River, Massachusetts.”

“In its Petition, Townsquare explained that Hall’s Application should be dismissed because the proposed Translator would cause interference to the reception Townsquare’s station WFHN by established listeners within the Translator’s 60 dBi contour,” writes Washington DC-based Howard M. Liberman of the tony-law firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP.

Hall’s Providence Vice President/General Manager Tom Wall did not return phone calls.