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1090AM on the air with Religion?

W

Wimmmex

Was cruising around the outer suburbs on a trip back to Mass, and noticed a signal on 1090AM.

Did the sale go thru to Blount Communications?

I thought they had a major transmitter/antenna problem that prohibited them from getting back on the air.

Anyone else hear them?

Thanks!
 
I thought that Blount had purchased WKOX instead, and that in an unrelated news story, that a different company had purchased 1090.

Very easy to get this all confused, as each change has happened within one week from each other.
 
Retro;6343326 said:
I thought that Blount had purchased WKOX instead, and that in an unrelated news story, that a different company had purchased 1090.

Very easy to get this all confused, as each change has happened within one week from each other.
Click to expand...

https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/199509/wild-boston-sold

RADIO BOSTON BROADCASTING, INC. is selling Silent daytimer WILD-A/BOSTON to WILLIAM A. and DEBORAH C. BLOUNT's BLOUNT MASSCOM, INC. for $80,000.

Again, I thought 1090AM had lost their TX site, and had serious transmitter/array problems that prohibited them from getting back on the air.
 
In the case of WKOX 1430 Fybush noted on Aug 31 that the new owners are a Salem offshoot and they will diplex off an antenna used by another Salem AM. As for 1090:
"and that’s contingent on getting an STA for an alternate transmitter site should WILD have to move from the existing location in Medford."

https://www.fybush.com/nerw-20200831/
 
1090 IS on the air with religious programming right now, 10:00 AM Monday.

I didn't catch the ID, so I don't know if the call is still WILD.

The signal is strong where I am in Somerville, just a couple of miles from Medford.

I don't know whether the signal is still coming from the tower with WKOX, or if they arranged or rigged up something else, but it sounds nearby.
 
One of the sales ( I forget which one) had a requirement that the station be off the tower behind the old Kiss108 studios, now the home of Total traffic by a certain date.

I would bet money that Vertical Bridge, the company that owns that broomstick masquerading as a tower is ready to give up the lease and take the tower down.

I know on the last WILD sale, the new owners had assumed massive debt owed to Vertical Bridge for overdue tower rent, IIRC it was hundreds of thousands of dollars

Where WILD is daylight only, with a pre sunset power reduction, it should not be a huge issue to find a tower that will cover the C.O.L., the issue becomes can they find a stand alone for reasonable money, or a Di-plex that the combiner is not going to cost them a fortune for design, construction, and installation.

Others have opined that the current combiner they had made to be on the 1430 tower, from way back when their previous tower was taken by eminent domain (it was between Wellington Station and Malden Station in that newly developed Rivers Edge area that was supposed to be Ed Markey's crowning achievement "Telecom City" (17 years and 35 million taxpayer dollars wasted on that one) will not work on another tower. AM Combiners are way beyond my level of expertise so if someone wants to chime in to correct me feel free.

PS supposedly there was a one time deal short wave broadcast from the old WILD tower before it came down, anyone have any info on that?

PSS the FCC website is showing WILD as being "dark" on a STA since 11/4/19, so that one year clock is ticking, maybe they had to get back on to re-set the clock on the STA
 
MRBIboredop said:
AM Combiners are way beyond my level of expertise so if someone wants to chime in to correct me feel free.
Click to expand...

A diplexer or "combiner" is relatively simple in theory.

Each station is tuned to the tower to match its frequency. Each station has a rejection network to keep the other station out of their transmitter.

So if you have two stations, one on 600 and one on 900 kHz, the 600 kHz station tunes the tower to that frequency and rejects the 900 kHz signal. The other station's tuner does the opposite.

A different tower will not work with the same combiner; it might be re-tuned or it might have to be redesigned, depending on how different the new tower is. And if either stations changes frequency, redesign and tuning has to be done again.

It gets harder when you put three or four stations on a single tower. That is what they are doing in Cuba with all AMs now. And two or three to a tower is common in Honolulu, too.
 
Maybe using the tower of WEZE 590; map linked to that station's radio-locator page puts that around Medford between Fellsway and Rt 16 (Revere Beach Pkway).Note Fybush quote above...spinoff company from Salem using a tower of one of their AM stations.
They sold off 1150 and 1260 but still have
WEZE 590 and WROL 950 (stick off Rt 107 marsh area nr Saugus, Revere, Boston)

I also noticed the 1090 signal being on, Sat., and the mention of WILD and WVNE.
 
raccoonradio said:
Maybe using the tower of WEZE 590; map linked to that station's radio-locator page puts that around Medford between Fellsway and Rt 16 (Revere Beach Pkway).Note Fybush quote above...spinoff company from Salem using a tower of one of their AM stations.
They sold off 1150 and 1260 but still have
WEZE 590 and WROL 950 (stick off Rt 107 marsh area nr Saugus, Revere, Boston)

I also noticed the 1090 signal being on, Sat., and the mention of WILD and WVNE.
Click to expand...


I think you are more likely to find 1430 on the Salem tower, as WKOX has a C.O.L. of Everett IIRC and any modifications will require the night pattern cover it.... which gets us to another issue, will the day and night patterns of 1430 play nice with the pattern of 590?

I was looking at the WROL predicted pattern and it is a very close match for 1430, and it would cover Everett and Medford without a C.O.L. change, so a 1430 move to the Lynn Marsh Rd may be a better move.

Speaking of the real estate being worth more than the radio station, the 590 tower site is a classic example....
 
raccoonradio said:
Maybe using the tower of WEZE 590; map linked to that station's radio-locator page puts that around Medford between Fellsway and Rt 16 (Revere Beach Pkway).Note Fybush quote above...spinoff company from Salem using a tower of one of their AM stations.
They sold off 1150 and 1260 but still have
WEZE 590 and WROL 950 (stick off Rt 107 marsh area nr Saugus, Revere, Boston)

I also noticed the 1090 signal being on, Sat., and the mention of WILD and WVNE.
Click to expand...


Where are you hearing 1090? No sign of it here?
 
johnster said:
Medford.
Click to expand...

You must've tuned in at exactly the wrong time, or after they signed off for the night. I've heard them on the air in the last couple weeks with no issue. Seems to me that both 1430 and 1090 are still using the same transmitter site. They must've worked out some kind of temporary deal to use it until they find new sites.
 
iHeart 3 680, 1030, 1200
Salem 2 590, 950

760 and 1090 are Blount Masscom.
As I mentioned WXKS 1430 is owned by a Salem offshoot (Delmarva)

>>WKOX, meanwhile, was donated to a Salem offshoot and will end up diplexing with one of Salem’s AMs at a different location, eventually.)

I was hearing 1090 in the daytime around Bolton MA heading toward 495. I think I then switched to 760 and indeed heard same program.
 
MRBIboredop said:
I was looking at the WROL predicted pattern and it is a very close match for 1430, and it would cover Everett and Medford without a C.O.L. change, so a 1430 move to the Lynn Marsh Rd may be a better move.

Speaking of the real estate being worth more than the radio station, the 590 tower site is a classic example....
Click to expand...

WROL is non-directional and has no "predicted pattern," though - its uneven coverage is just a non-DA circular radiation pattern affected by the dramatic difference in ground conductivity between rocky New England soil to the west and salt water to the east.

1430 is non-DA by day in its current incarnation, and a cardioid at night aimed NE to protect 1440 in Worcester and 1430 in Binghamton NY. If I were a betting man, I'd bet that if it has to leave the current site, it won't try to rebuild a night DA anywhere else, but will drop to class D status with minimal nighttime ND power, at which point COL coverage of Everett (or whatever COL it ends up with) won't be a factor anyway.
 
fybush said:
1430 is non-DA by day in its current incarnation, and a cardioid at night aimed NE to protect 1440 in Worcester and 1430 in Binghamton NY. If I were a betting man, I'd bet that if it has to leave the current site, it won't try to rebuild a night DA anywhere else, but will drop to class D status with minimal nighttime ND power, at which point COL coverage of Everett (or whatever COL it ends up with) won't be a factor anyway.
Click to expand...

Maybe they could at least run a 24/7 FM translator from that, if they can find a frequency.
 
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