WPLO Towers

[jabba17]

Oh, yes. They ran Plough products spots all ... the ... time.

Before WPLO, there was WAGA/590, owned by Storer. I believe the xmtr building had little columns on it, a trademark of Storer.

When did Storer sell WAGA-AM to Plough? Was the FM on 103.3 by then or was that after the Plough purchase (I seem to remember it being elsewhere on the dial)?

Did Plough sell WPLO directly to Cap Cities/ABC or was there an interim owner?

 

[secondchoice]

It gets a little confussing but 103.3's history on Wiki seems correct:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WVEE#cite_note-2

590's calls letters post WAGA are (were) WPLO 1959 till Jan. 1 1987, then WKHX Jan 1 1987 till July 1st 1997. WDWD since.

according to wikia, there was a "Liberty" on the ownership pre 1942:

http://broadcasting.wikia.com/wiki/Chronology_of_call_letters_WAGA

Between Plough and Capitol Cities was DKM which became Summit that sold 590 to Capcities but held onto V103

http://users.ece.gatech.edu/mleach/radio/am.html

 

[trusty]

FM 103.3
(from Broadcasting Yearbook)
Signed on as WAGA – May, 1948
(The only other FM stations in May “48 were WGST/94.1, WBGE/95.5, and WATL/97.5. WCON/98.5 signed on in July, WABE/90.1 in September, and WSB/104.5 in October.)
Changed to WPLO – 1958.
Changed to WVEE – 1976.

(The Wiki story is a little disjointed. The station was 103.3 when it was WAGA-FM.)

 

[Unregistered]

The flood plain part is mostly likely correct about the exact location, but the former Sylvia NC 680 and going south-southwest directional at night might have entered into the picture. A long time ago there was a link that went into detail the "relationship" between the two 680's. WCNN's site was picked a long time ago. I am sure if the former owners of 680 had a time machine, the nighttime antenna site would have been in the flood plain on the other side of Lake Lanier and some kind of "deal" would have been made with WPTF Raleigh and 680 Sylvia to allow night time coverage for most of what now is the market. WCNN might still be able to modify both day and night patterns now that Sylvia is no longer on 680 with out any new towers at it's existing site.




I am not an expert on FAA limits on towers but PDK is not that far from the site.

Sylva is now on 540 so it's no longer a factor to WCNN nighttime or daytime. Having studied the nighttime limits on WCNN very carefully, I can tell you that they have much more restrictive factors than Sylva. Mainly WPTF in Raleigh being the main one but the null toward Memphis is very tight too. While WCNN could drop the lazy two tower DA (directional antenna) in the daytime, they would actually weaken their signal over the core of Atlanta since the daytime DA pushes more signal to the SW than a non DA signal. Charles Smithgall who put 680 WCNN(then WRNG) on the air as a 5KW daytimer back in the 1960s got into a "p"ing contest with Jimmy Childress who moved WRGC from 1480 to 680. WCNN took North Atlanta city of license because back then FCC rules would allow the only AM licensed to a city to accept interference from another station on the same channel. WRGC did the same but even so, I think both stations probably had AM signal strength meters than needed better calibration.

 

[Unregistered]

FM 103.3
(from Broadcasting Yearbook)
Signed on as WAGA – May, 1948
(The only other FM stations in May “48 were WGST/94.1, WBGE/95.5, and WATL/97.5. WCON/98.5 signed on in July, WABE/90.1 in September, and WSB/104.5 in October.)
Changed to WPLO – 1958.
Changed to WVEE – 1976.

(The Wiki story is a little disjointed. The station was 103.3 when it was WAGA-FM.)

What is now WDWD, previously WPLO and WAGA actually got its start in 1927 here in Toccoa, GA. Toccoa Falls Institute (now Toccoa Falls College) put the station on the air at 1430, then 1450 with 500 watts day/night. Call sign was WTFI. By the early 1930s, it was up to 1000 watts which was a big deal in those days. By the mid 1930s, the station had moved to Athens, still on 1450. Liberty operated it a couple years in Athens then it was sold to the folks who owned Bulova Watch Company. They quickly sold it to the Atlanta Journal which moved it to Atlanta and by the time the big AM frequency shift occured in 1941, it was on 1480 with 1000 watts round the clock. Its tower was in the Sugar Creek area. By the late 1940s, Storer had bought it and moved it to 590 with 5000 watts day and night, 3 towers at night with a figure 8 pattern with the lobes east and west of Atlanta. If you want to see a picture of the transmitter building (designed by one of Atlanta's prominent architects...one of his houses is on Peachtree Circle in midtown and was built about the same time at WAGA transmitter building) go to the GA Radio Hall of Fame website, click on Georgia Stations then click on Atlanta. You can see the building, one of the three towers in the background. Toccoa Falls didn't get back into radio until 1980 when 100KW FM WRAF was placed on the air...Im told with insurance proceeds or donations received after the flood on the campus in 1977. The dam of Kelly Barnes Lake burst early one morning over Toccoa Falls and into the campus where nearly 40 students and their family members died. Kelly Barnes was a long time Toccoa Falls staff person and was the first manager at WTFI way back in the 1920s/30s.

I have always wondered where the four towers of 550 WCON were located in Atlanta. Jim Wesley mentioned in his book that the station never got a license as it had problems with its nighttime directional working. They had 5000 watts day and night and went on the air in 1947. When Cox bought the Constitution newspaper in 1950 they surrendered the license of WCON(AM) moved WSB-FM over to 98.5 which had been WCON-FM took the Channel 2 TV CP of WCON-TV for WSB-TV which had been Channel 8. What is now WXIA first started on Channel 8 but moved to Channel 11 due to allotment issues with Chattanooga. That is when UGA put WGTV on the air later giving it to the state or the state took it. It looks like history may repeat itself. The new UGA President officially took office on Tuesday and yesterday announced a committee to determine if UGA should keep WUGA-TV going. Another Toccoa station moved to Athens.So far UGA has blown through over $6 million for their latest TV venture.

 

[T.G.]

I think the land for WQXI was chosen because WGST had already been built and all the groundwork had been done for FAA clearance. Also the land was cheap, few houses nearby and it was within the city limits. It was not in a flood plain at the time. One of my first duties when I was hired by QXI in 1961 was to help cleanup from the first flood which occurred during the spring of 1961. All in all I believe the major factors in choosing this area were cheap land within the city limits and FAA clearance.

 

[Unregistered]

I think the land for WQXI was chosen because WGST had already been built and all the groundwork had been done for FAA clearance. Also the land was cheap, few houses nearby and it was within the city limits. It was not in a flood plain at the time. One of my first duties when I was hired by QXI in 1961 was to help cleanup from the first flood which occurred during the spring of 1961. All in all I believe the major factors in choosing this area were cheap land within the city limits and FAA clearance.

The real controlling factor in locating full time AM stations is the nighttime directional pattern. For a station to have full time power, 250 watts or greater, it must provide an interference free (from other co channel stations) signal across the corporate limits of its city of license and not create nighttime skywave interfere with other stations on the same or adjacent frequencies. Due to the great majority of AM stations being in the upper midwest and northeast back when most AMs went on the air, the AMs in Atlanta, other than WSB and the local channel such as 1230, 1340, 1400, all had to protect the existing stations on their frequency. WGST was such an old station that it too could run 1000 watts non directional nights on 920. When they put up the present tall AM 920 tower, they had to reduce the power down to around 500 watts to equate the same signal strength in the sky. Typically there was some protection to Mexico and Cuba so that meant the signals had to be pushed to the east, west or southwest. In those days and even now, the population density for Atlanta was from the center of the city off to the northeast and east with the Chattahoochee River being a natural barrier to earlier residential and commercial development. Thus....a directional AM nighttime signal would need to be north, northeast of the city's center or east or west as the case was with WAOK, originally WATL on 1380. Plus a moist area is better at generating strong AM signals. The granite in the ground around Atlanta is like sheets of glass electrically and basically soaks up AM signals which is the primary reason the coverage of Atlanta AM stations is among the worst in any major American city.

WSB's 50KW non directional signal is no better than a 5000 watt AM signal in most other places and out in the midwest where the ground is ideal for AM transmission, there are lots of 1000 watt stations that cover as much ground as WSB. Lots of ground covered, not nearly as many people.

 

[jabba17]

WCNN took North Atlanta city of license because back then FCC rules would allow the only AM licensed to a city to accept interference from another station on the same channel.

That is one of the oldest questions I have had on this board--why WRNG/WCNN had a CoL of a city that had been dissolved by the time of the station's founding. Clever use of a loophole--almost as clever as Cumulus's exploitation of the translator rules.

 

[secondchoice]

A lot of Lawyers make a good living figuring out loop holes, no only in Radio.