UPDATE: WKNR "Little Brother" Growing

Good Karma Broadcasting now has the FCC go-ahead to upgrade sports WWGK/1540 "KNR2", the company's first Cleveland market acquisition, with the approval earlier this month of an upgraded signal construction permit.

OMW reported in April that WWGK filed to more than triple its daytime power - from 1000 to 3500 watts - and to move its transmitter site to co-locate at the WKNR site in North Royalton. WWGK's current transmitter site is at 1540's long-time former home, on Euclid Avenue on Cleveland's East Side.

The station will reduce to 1500 watts in the "critical hours" time period, defined as two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset.

But the upgrade does not give WWGK any nighttime signal - which would presumably be nearly impossible considering all the full-power stations on the 1540 frequency...among them, Waterloo IA's KXEL and Toronto's CHIN.

The directional signal - depicted here in a Radio-Locator "for entertainment only" signal map - aims most of WWGK's juice north from North Royalton towards the bulk of the Cleveland area. But if the map is any guide, WWGK may actually lose some signal in some northeastern Cleveland suburbs...though it certainly improves in much of central and western Cuyahoga County.

As Good Karma's "backup" sports station, on a difficult frequency, WWGK basically gets whatever it can squeeze out of 1540.

Good Karma, owned by Craig Karmazin, bought the former WABQ/1540 as his first Cleveland station - before eventually buying what's now "ESPN 850 WKNR" from Salem a few months later...