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WFME tower is had been sold

'If' has to be one of the shortest hit song titles ever -- the one by Bread.

But it's always loaded with a huge interpretation. And it's so in this case. I'm speculatively taking about *mono* power ......

For you engineering folks here : Let's say an FCC STA allows the 1560 license an omni probation for a while. Stick the tower somewhere within the Five Boroughs ..... atop the Statute of Liberty ..... the peak of some derelict ferris wheel or on one of those 600' Verrazano Bridge towers.
What would you estimate the peak power day and night 1560 could go, 'omni' ?

* * * * * *

Scott would know whether or not WICC in CT ever broadcast off a longwire stretched between their two towers for any length of time. If that were so (there's that word 'If' again) then some kind of directionability could have have been achieved. Could WFME put up one of those? IIrc, a quarter-wave of 1560 would be about 150 feet. That's nothing. They could tell the residents that it's only a high-tech washline.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Could WFME put up one of those? IIrc, a quarter-wave of 1560 would be about 150 feet. That's nothing. They could tell the residents that it's only a high-tech washline.
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Where would they do this? From what I can see, the only location they have in NYC is the one they sold. I've checked all of their FCC papers, and, unless I'm missing something, they have no NYC office. The station was basically a repeater for its national programming. Now that they've sold the Maspeth site, they have no place where they'd hang an antenna. That's why Tom Ray says the transmitter is going into storage.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
The strange thing is is that there is a null toward Manhattan (and toward KPMC/WNZR) in the Night Pattern. That pattern change happens at Sunset in Bakersfield. It would have to be at least 10 kW Day and Night to retain Class A status. From the NJ Meadowlands, if they shoot the pattern toward NYC, if it's close to 50 kW, they may actually have a better signal after Sunset in Bakersfield. I don't know if they would be allowed that grandfathered pattern change time from a new location though. They would probably be better off a few miles away from the WWRL array being 40 kHz away. WMCA 570 and WNYC 820 diplex. WNYM 970 Hackensack and WWRV 1330 diplex. Maybe they could diplex with WADO 1280? Maybe an array with more Night power for WADO as part of the deal?
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There are no spacing requirements for stations 40 kHz apart; they could be co-located if it were technically practical, which of course it is not.

There are a few other spacing issues that would affect a NJ location for 1560, but that's something for the real AM experts to figure out.

As a general matter, construction of a new tower site is a prohibitively expensive exercise in metro NY (or any major metro) these days. Zoning and permitting and construction would push it out past the one-year deadline pretty easily. A longwire STA might keep the license alive, but isn't going to give much real-world coverage.

That's why there's some reasonable speculation (and again, I know nothing specific, so don't take this as any specific information about WFME) that for an operator in Family's situation, sitting on a very large pile of cash from a windfall sale of the transmitter site, the more cost-effective practical option might be to simply buy another existing signal to maintain operational continuity, allowing any move of 1560 to be stretched out longer, if it happens at all.

Beyond that... those who really know aren't in a position to be saying much of anything, and won't be until/unless something is actually filed with the Commission.
 
As a practical matter, however, stations circa 40 kHz apart are normally have TLs at least a few miles from each other to avoid tuning interactions and more so when they have DAs . There are cases (WYSI 1480 and WYNZ 1520 Ypsilanti for instance, which created a huge problem when they signed on nearly contemporaneously) where this has caused lore remembered to this day. In the area where WMAQ/WSCR 670, WGN 720, and WBBM 780 TLs are located, they had to coordinate maintenance sign offs simultaneously to do impedance measurements individually when necessary. You probably know exactly how far apart WINS 1010 and WHN...WEPN 1050 are. I would have to look it up and do some calculations.
 
RadioInsight states that WFME AM will be signing off tomorrow, Feb. 12. I would guess that WLIB AM, which has been for sale for a considerable period of time, is another candidate to replace WFME AM.
 
Barry said:
RadioInsight states that WFME AM will be signing off tomorrow, Feb. 12. I would guess that WLIB AM, which has been for sale for a considerable period of time, is another candidate to replace WFME AM.
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I'll take the Kahn box!

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
WFME AM, is no longer carrying the regular Family Radio programming. They are instead broadcasting a continuous loop with a statement from Family Radio's president, and some "samples" of Family Radio fare.
I wonder whether there will be an additional message just before they leave the air, or they will simply shut down abruptly.
 
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Is there attribution on the delay of the WFME signoff until Monday? Can you share an announcement from Family Stations? Thanks.
 
I'm listening now (at 2:56 p.m. EST Friday). It's still on and still running that 11-minute loop. Which reports are saying it's off?
 
BrendaJ said:
I'm listening now (at 2:56 p.m. EST Friday). It's still on and still running that 11-minute loop. Which reports are saying it's off?
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Couple guys on Facebook (yes I know that's not reliable). Maybe it popped off for a little bit, no way of knowing from Tennessee and there doesn't seem to be an SDR in local coverage area
 
Just checked my radio. The message still states WFME AM will be signing off "in a few days." No specific date was provided.
 
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