UTICA-ROME -- After some pressure from local lawmakers, the FCC is reportedly preparing to address complaints (and scientific studies) regarding high levels of radiation from the new WOKR (93.5 FM) tower in the Town of Floyd.
Officials at the office of U.S. Representative Michael Arcuri (D-Utica) tell the Utica Observer-Dispatch the FCC has already been conducting meetings on how to address the issue.
Earlier this week, the paper reported on a family who lived near the WOKR tower, but moved out after they started developing blisters, headaches and other symptoms typically indicative of overexposure to radio radiation. The family claimed they could also hear WOKR's audio through a television set, even when it was turned off. A local engineering firm tells the paper it tested and confirmed the "high" radiation levels.
Since fall 2007, WOKR has been owned by Educational Media Foundation, a firm that's been known for snapping up stations all over the country and flipping them to satellite-driven religious music formats. WOKR is actually LMA'ed to God's Country Radio Network, with an option to eventually purchase the station.
For many years, one could argue that virtually any format on 93.5FM (formerly known as The River, Kool 93.5 and Warm 93.5) was doomed, simply because the former tower location in Remsen was just too far away to significantly penetrate the Utica metro. It was last July when EMF first applied for permission to move the tower to its present location.