This reminds me of a visit to the Caracas origination station of the RadioVision network in Venezuela (the radio partner to more well known VeneVision TV). I was brought in to discuss taking the manager position and was given a tour of about 10 of the stations around the country.
The Caracas station, 100 kw on 950, had a brand new transmitter site. They had, however, selected what they called a "hilltop" which in most of the US we would have called a mountain top. They leveled the peak, and had to use drilling equipment to dig the 120 ground radial trenches... almost solid rock. They brought in truckloads of soil to cover the site so it looked nice and green. But 10cm underneath it was rock. Just rock.
They wondered why a station with 5 kw that was in a fertile valley covered the market better. They did not like it when I told them that they had wasted about $250,000 dollars so far. But seeing that kind of decision made me decline the position. In retrospect, a good decision given the political turn that the nation took 20 years later.
I'm still surprised to see how many AM stations were built on hills in the past. Perhaps the lower land was too costly or there were permit issues, but it seems absurd.
