| Callsign: | WDCN-LD | ||||||||
| City: | Fairfax, Virginia | ||||||||
| Atsc3: | yes | ||||||||
| Digital: | 6 (VHF) | ||||||||
| Virtual: | 6 | ||||||||
| Country: | US | ||||||||
| Affiliations: | 6.1: The Country Network | ||||||||
| Owner: | Signal Above LLC | ||||||||
| Operator: | Costa Mesa Boston | ||||||||
| Erp: | 3 kW | ||||||||
| Haat: | 189.90NaN0 | ||||||||
| Facility Id: | 20450 | ||||||||
| Class: | LD | ||||||||
| Coordinates: | 38.8745°N -77.2232°W | ||||||||
| Licensing Authority: | FCC | ||||||||
| Embed Header: | Radio station information | ||||||||
| Embedded: |
|
WDCN-LD (channel 6), branded on air as DC 87.7FM, is a low-power television station licensed to Fairfax, Virginia, United States, serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Owned by Signal Above LLC, WDCN-LD markets itself as a conventional FM radio station, broadcasting Spanish contemporary hits.
WDCN-LD has its studios on Old Gallows Road in Tysons. The transmitter is on Lee Highway (US 29) near Interstate 495 (The Capital Beltway) in Merrifield.[1]
In the analog television era, stations on television channel 6 broadcast an FM audio signal at 87.75 MHz which is receivable by ordinary FM radios. Some low-powered stations – colloquially known as "Franken-FMs" – took advantage of this fact and a loophole in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations that did not require a television station's video and audio content to be related (only that there is some sort of video content) to market themselves as radio stations.
WDCN-LP began broadcasting primarily audio content in 2009, prior to which it was a conventional television station broadcasting Spanish religious programming. At first, it was to be leased to Mega Media as the second outlet for Pulse 87, which had already been on the air at WNYZ-LP in New York City; the deal fell through and Mega went bankrupt later in the year.[2] [3] Instead, the station began broadcasting Spanish hits as "La Nueva 87.7". This continues to the present day, with a branding change to "DC 87.7" in 2022 when Costa Media took over programming at the same time it purchased WFAX (1220 AM).[4]
Low-powered analog stations were exempt from the 2009 digital television transition, allowing WDCN-LP to continue operating as a Franken-FM. However, the later set a 2021 deadline for all low-powered stations to cease operating in analog. Several Franken-FMs proposed experimentally embedding an FM carrier at 87.7 MHz inside an ATSC 3.0 signal, which tests later showed to be technically feasible; the FCC initially allowed this under special temporary authority grants, provided the stations broadcast at least one accompanying television service, and the FM and television signals had similar coverage.[5] On July 20, 2023, an FCC "Report and Order" included this station as one of 13 "FM6" stations allowed to continue to operate an FM radio broadcast, as a "ancillary or supplementary" service.[6]
WDCN-LP signed off on July 13, 2021, the day on which the FCC ended all analog television operation nationwide.[7] It restarted operations on October 5, 2021, carrying The Country Network and the embedded FM signal.[8]
WDCN-LP previously simulcast on co-owned WOWZ-LP, another low-power channel 6 station, licensed to Salisbury, Maryland, and serving the Ocean City–Salisbury area. That station has since switched to a simulcast of WVES.[9]
From 2010 through 2012, WDCN-LP was the home for Spanish-language broadcasts of D.C. United soccer games. WDCN-LP carried all of the team's games, including those not broadcast on television.[10]
Since the 2019 NFL season, WDCN-LD is the flagship Spanish-language radio station of the NFL's Baltimore Ravens.[11]
WDCN-LD and co-owned WFAX (1220 AM) broadcast Washington Nationals games in Spanish for the 2024 season.[12]
| Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.1 | WDCN | The Country Network |