FM Radio Dead Zones

[sbeaver44]

I wasn't in the Quiet Zone but reporting Verizon had no service for me in Welch.

Also, the BEST service I had all trip (including downtown Cincy) was somehow perfect LTE 5 bars in Burkes Garden valley.   I stopped at the art gift shop/post office and they commented that Verizon has a tower.

[SP Cook]

i would think satellite TV would be available in that area, wouldn't it?

Satellite TV is available anywhere you have a clear view of the southern sky, the signals fall on the whole country, regardless of radio quiet zones or whatever.

Weirdly the federal government assigns every county to one and only one local set of channels for satellites.  IIRC, Pocahontas County gets Roanoke-Lynchburg channels.    Cable is under a different set of rules and often cable has a mix of channels from each direction in places like that.  An antenna would get you zero.

As to the OP's original question, if you go to the FCC's webpages for FM, you can project the reception map for any station.  With bankruptcies, there are plenty of places in central Appalachia beyond FM's reach.

[hbelkins]

Weirdly the federal government assigns every county to one and only one local set of channels for satellites.  IIRC, Pocahontas County gets Roanoke-Lynchburg channels.    Cable is under a different set of rules and often cable has a mix of channels from each direction in places like that.  An antenna would get you zero.

And only one network affiliate. All of southeastern Kentucky either gets Lexington or Charleston-Huntington stations on satellite. I don't know if any of the counties get Knoxville, but it's possible. WYMT-TV has made several attempts to get on DirecTV and Dish Network, but without success, even with the high-powered clout of Congressman Hal "He Didn't Name The Road After Himself" Rogers. So I get WKYT out of Lexington but not WYMT. I also, curiously, get a Channel 67 Ion Television station and an Ion cable feed.

Frankfort cable TV, on the other hand, carries both Lexington and Louisville broadcast affiliates.

My brother in Owen County, smack in the middle of the Golden Triangle, is in the Cincinnati market for Dish, not Lexington or Louisville. But with an external antenna, my brother can get the broadcast channels from both cities.

[Dirt Roads]

i would think satellite TV would be available in that area, wouldn't it?

Satellite TV is available anywhere you have a clear view of the southern sky, the signals fall on the whole country, regardless of radio quiet zones or whatever.

Indeed, but the geosynchronous position of the private satellites themselves are intended to not interfere with the National Radio Quiet Zone.  In addition to Dish Network (Echostar) and DirecTV (now AT&T), you've got other services like the railroads and cellular phone services competing for satellite radio transmission space (and bandwidth).  In one case, Lightsquared (now Ligado) caused problems with GPS satellites by having too strong of signals in the uplinks to their satellites.  All of this can get terribly complicated.  Thank goodness that modern railroad (ergo, positive train control) is not required in the Alleghenies of West Virginia (except for the former C&O mainline, which is quite a distance south of Green Bank).

[SP Cook]

All of southeastern Kentucky either gets Lexington or Charleston-Huntington stations on satellite. I don't know if any of the counties get Knoxville, but it's possible.

https://tbh.lerctr.org/~ekb/TVMarkets/Maps/kentucky.gif