They and sister station WQTT from Marysville, Ohio, have been running the same pattern (WDLR its day pattern, whereas WQTT is on night pattern) for close to five years.
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They and sister station WQTT from Marysville, Ohio, have been running the same pattern (WDLR its day pattern, whereas WQTT is on night pattern) for close to five years.
WJJD was licensed to operate on day pattern up to sunset in SLC, and to also operate in any hours that KSL was not operating.
There are quire a few AMs that operate or operated on day facilities until sunset at a protected station. An example is 1560 in New York City which runs the day pattern until sunset in Bakersfield.
There are also cases where a western daytimer can sign on at the sunrise time of an eastern station. KFVD/KPOP/KGBS in LA signed on at 4 AM which, apparently, was all year around after the Pittsburgh sunrise. The station also operated from 9 PM PST on Monday mornings, since KDKA had a regular and invariable silent period for maintenance in that time period.
I remember that and I was able to hear it in eastern Iowa on the car radio during the daytime.
WVSG-AM 820 (ex-WOSU) does this here in Columbus, Ohio until Dallas sunset, when it switches to a very directional pattern to protect WBAP. Back when it was still WOSU, I remember hearing it blasting right around the Indiana-Ohio border coming east on 70 well after sunset, about 100 miles west of Columbus. I've also been within three miles of the tower behind the pattern when it switches to night power/pattern. The difference is remarkable, and you don't need to be all that far southwest of Columbus to start hearing WBAP.
Similar here with Chicago's 820, now occupied by WCPT. When WAIT was on 820 as a daytimer, it was allowed to stay on past local sunset for an additional half hour or hour depending on the sunset time in Dallas. Eventually, WAIT was licensed to operate fulltime with 1kw....also very directional...at night. The result was borderline ridiculous. I can recall hearing WBAP within full view of WAIT's towers at the "chicken farm" location just outside of Elmhurst, IL. WCPT did the right thing when they took over 820 and went to a two-site operation. They built a nighttime transmitter location south-southwest of the city which enables them to operate with a more favorable DA pattern than they could get from the chicken farm.
As for WJJD, the thing about their schedule that sticks out in my mind was not only the 4am sign-ons, but also occasional wintertime gaps where they had to sign off at 7am, and then sign back on at 7:15! Apparently KSL was signing on at 5am in SLC, which was fifteen minutes before sunrise in Chicago! I guess you were supposed to take a shower, get dressed, and then go back to your radio.
Another thread on one of the boards seems to indicate that WQTT's FM translator is apparently operating from the AM site instead of the licensed tower.
I would assume that any secondary station three time zones east or west of a dominant
clear would have to switch to and from its day pattern at times when its skywave would
not interfere with the dominant clear's protected skywave, not just their groundwave.
Dominant clears used to be protected as if they were ½ megawatt (500kw),
but now they are only protected to their actual 50kw contours (750 miles).
This happened on March 29, 1980, after congress usurped the commission's
authority to regulate power limits and capped AM stations at fifty kilowatts.
clear would have to switch to and from its day pattern at times when its skywave would
not interfere with the dominant clear's protected skywave, not just their groundwave.
Dominant clears used to be protected as if they were ½ megawatt (500kw),
but now they are only protected to their actual 50kw contours (750 miles).
This happened on March 29, 1980, after congress usurped the commission's
authority to regulate power limits and capped AM stations at fifty kilowatts.
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I would assume that any secondary station three time zones east or west of a dominant
clear would have to switch to and from its day pattern at times when its skywave would
not interfere with the dominant clear's protected skywave, not just their groundwave.
Dominant clears used to be protected as if they were ½ megawatt (500kw),
but now they are only protected to their actual 50kw contours (750 miles).
This happened on March 29, 1980, after congress usurped the commission's
authority to regulate power limits and capped AM stations at fifty kilowatts.
The only 500 kw station in the US was experimental, and never licensed.
The Clear Channel Broadcasters tried, from the late 30's to around 1968, to get the 1-A clears authorized for up to 750 kw, but the FCC never approved the proposition as they wanted to encourage local broadcasting.
The protection of the 1-A clears was based not on power but on the idea that those 25 channels would be uncomplicated anywhere. In the 30's, the Grand Ole Opry got mail from all 49 states, and proudly advertised the fact in the trades. A national clear channel station could indeed cover most of the nation if located somewhat centrally.
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Quite an accomplishment, given that in the '30s there were only 48. Alaska and Hawaii weren't approved for Statehood until 1959.
I was thinking the same thing. That WSM managed to get mail from more states than actually existed at the time. Quite a feat!
But then I thought of my aunt who lived in northern Ontario.....about 200 miles north of Lake Superior. As late as the 1960s, the Opry was part of her Saturday night routine. So they DID have an incredible following.
Obviously a typo.
Now back to your religious war.
I was thinking the same thing. That WSM managed to get mail from more states than actually existed at the time. Quite a feat!
Sorry for the typo. I'm moderately dyslexic so I sometimes can't see that kind of mistake... that's why I depend on a number of volunteer proof-readers and checkers for my website and yet still a bunch creep through! (I even have a custom keyboard with the numbers in different colors to help out!)
It is quite amazing how a number of the A-1's ran trade advertising, particularly in the 30's and 40's, with mail pull maps that showed every existing state, nearly all the provinces of Canada and even lower Alaska as the source of correspondence. When most smaller markets did not have a network affiliate or any station, and when prime time was at night, coverage was something that sold advertising. In fact, in the period when it ran 500 kw, WLW would run 6 to 8 page ad inserts in color on card stock promoting its coverage and quality programming!
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Here, we see Maxwell Smart, Control's agent 86, describing how he suffers from a similar malady.
No need to apologize, David. My comment was just an attempt to "make light" of it. And actually, if the Opry was heard in Alaska and/or Hawaii in the 1930s, the statement eventually became true.
I have to say in thumbing through some of the materials in your website, I'm struck by how different the landscape was back in the days of the 1-A clears. The emphasis on how far a station's signal could travel versus today's focus on having as strong a signal as possible in the target coverage area. Here in the Chicago area, WLS used to make a big deal out of their ratings in a "54 county survey area". So maybe they still reach 54 counties today. So what. A more significant matter for them is (or perhaps should be) that their signal here up here in the northwestern portion of the metro area has noticeably degraded.
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The big change in the way the "big stations" were used came with a sequence of changes.
First, in the early 50's, particularly after the end of the TV freeze in 1953, entertainment at night was delivered by TV, not radio. So all night listening changed.
Second, local towns got their first stations in the post-War period, allowing delivery of programming on better more relevant signals.
Then man-made noise started to increase with TV sets being a big factor, as well as appliances with motors, fluorescent lights and other elector-mechanical devices. Distant and weak signals began to be harder to hear.
The final step was the late-60's increase in FM listening. Most markets were better covered by their FMs than by most of their AMs. So listening declined further.
As a sidebar, as farms became more corporate, and farm data began to be transmitted by, first, pagers and then computers and the Internet, the wide coverage requirements for farm stations has declined. WNAX, for example, was once one of America's highest billing radio station.
Those dayparts are not the most important in the 48 PPM markets; middays is.
But in any case, a lot of listening throughout the day takes place in the home in all the three major dayparts, and lots of work listening takes place throughout the day, since 9-5 is not the schedule for much of today's workforce.
Wow, much has changed since I last saw a ratings book.
Of course, if you picked that particular book up today,
it would be like when HG Wells's nameless time traveler lands in the year 802,701 and grabs a by-then ancient book from a by-then ancient library.
Then why is so much emphasis placed on the morning show on most stations with a current-based musical format? Middays are usually pretty anonymous, a pleasant voice sticking to a bland script, but everyone knows the morning crew and they're the ones who get all the promotion.
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