By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Two long-time St. Joseph AM radio stations now have companion signals on FM.

Eagle Communications announces 680 KFEQ and KESJ AM have added FM translators.

KFEQ, 680 on the AM dial, can now be heard at 107.9 FM. KESJ AM, which is better known as ESPN 1550, can now be heard at 107.5 FM.

Eagle St. Joseph General Manager Gary Exline stated the new signals will have a range of about 20 to 25 miles each.

“We’re excited to add these low power FM’s so that we can better serve the greater St. Joseph area, especially with our local sports coverage,” Exline said in a written statement.

FM signals have some advantage over AM signals, primarily because they are not subject to atmospheric interference. Sometime lightning strikes can cause static on the AM band.

“Whether it’s ag news and weather on KFEQ or all the sports available on ESPN 1550….it all sounds smoother on the FM dial,” according to Exline.

The Federal Communications Commission began allocating translator signals several years ago in an attempt to assist AM stations that had either interference or power reduction requirements that handicapped station coverage in primary signal areas.  Both KFEQ and KESJ have sunset power changes that affect their signal coverage area at night.