From the Manager's Desk

Can you hear us now?!

As some of you may be aware, WUOT has been experiencing signal reception difficulties in some areas since moving to a new tower earlier this year. We've spent several months working with the transmitter company, the antenna company and the tower company to determine the exact cause of the problem. Unfortunately, trouble-shooting the difficulty continues to be a tedious "process of elimination".

Numerous tests, on-site inspections, evaluations and measurements have been conducted, including most recently, an aerial survey. In addition, several engineering and broadcasting consultants have been retained in an effort to identify and correct the problem.

We now know definitively that the reception problem is not related to WUOT's transmitter, nor the HD Radio components which were installed after the move to the new tower. We believe we're close to isolating the cause of the signal reception problems, but unfortunately, we still do not yet have conclusive data to confirm it.

WUOT is continuing to investigate the problems and how to resolve them. While this investigation proceeds, WUOT will be broadcasting from our auxiliary site on the WBIR Channel 10 tower, which had been our main transmitting site for many years.

Reception in Knoxville and Knox County is generally unaffected regardless of which WUOT transmission facility is in use. However, listeners outside the immediate Knox County area may notice changes in their ability to receive WUOT's signal, depending on whether we're broadcasting from the "new" or the "old" tower.

We request your continued patience and understanding as we work through these technical difficulties. We realize your frustration at "spotty" WUOT reception and we are doing everything possible to nail down the source of the problem and fix it.

Regina N. Dean
Director

 

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