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WJBO-AM, the powerhouse of local talk radio, is about to get more powerful: The Federal Communications Commission recently granted the Clear Channel station a construction permit to build a new transmitter tower, which will enable it to triple its power during daylight hours.

The station, 1150 on the AM dial, currently broadcasts at 5,000 watts but will be jumping up to 15,000 watts when the upgrade is completed late this year. That means its signal will be much clearer and stronger over the outlying and fastest-growing parts of the metro area, like Ascension and Livingston parishes.

“The city has outgrown our signal, which is happening all over the country,” says Matt Kennedy, program director for WJBO.

The upgrade won’t come cheap, however. Industry insiders estimate it will cost around $500,000—money well spent considering it will give the station a stronger hold over a fast-growing and affluent market that currently spends some of its ad dollars on the New Orleans-based WWL-AM.

Kennedy denies WJBO is trying to go head-to-head with WWL in those areas that currently pick up both signals. But with so much growth in Ascension and along the Interstate 12 corridor, it only makes sense for WJBO to increase its presence there.

New stations for B.R.

In other radio news, two new stations have signed on in the Baton Rouge area in the past month.

One is WJBR-FM (105.7), a low-powered community radio station owned by Jefferson Baptist Church with a 90-watt signal that will extend out just five miles or so. To compare, country pop station WYNK-FM (101.5) operates at 100,000 watts and extends out more than 80 miles.

Jefferson Baptist Pastor Tommy French isn’t ready yet to discuss details of his long-term plans for the station, but it is up and running, broadcasting a blend of Christian pop and inspirational songs.

KDDK-FM (105.5) is the other new addition to local radio, though technically the station isn’t new. It’s been playing a mix of so-called standards—think Streisand, Sinatra and Big Band-era classics—since 1997 from its Franklin headquarters, but recently got permission from the FCC to move to Addis, where it can reach the bigger, more lucrative Baton Rouge market.

With a transmitter of just 6,000 watts, the station is not very powerful and will likely reach just a fraction of the local listening audience. But it’s only going after a small targeted market—affluent older listeners who are ignored by the corporate chains that favor younger demos with pop, rock, country and rap.

“We really have no place in corporate radio America,” concedes station owner Kenneth Noble, who is originally from Virginia and has been in the radio business since the late 1980s.

Noble concedes he had “horrible luck” with the format in Franklin, which he blames on its low-income, rural population. But he believes there’s a market in the bigger city for the more than 2,000 songs in his rotation. In any case, he says he’s in the business less to make money than to indulge a passion.

“If I couldn’t broadcast these standards, I’d be in a different field,” he says. “I’m doing this because I love it.”

Turner joins WVLA, WGMB

Baton Rouge has its first female sportscaster, though she’s not on the air just yet. Emily Turner, a two-time All-American softball pitcher for LSU, joined WVLA and WGMB last month after four seasons with the Tigers. Though she has no prior television news or sports reporting experience, she’s no stranger to TV cameras.

“I first saw her being interviewed on Channel 2 and Channel 9 and I said, ‘I’m going to hire that woman,’” says Phil Waterman, general manager for WVLA and WGMB.

He did, and for the past several weeks Turner has been learning the nuts and bolts of TV news. Waterman says she’ll be ready to make her on-air debut in the near future.