Too bad you (or someone else) couldn't have snagged those legendary call letters before the building was demolished. Nurse Jeff and I were thinkin' they could've gone for a tidy sum on eBay. But having Archie Bunker's chair in your office is beyond the stench that must come from it!
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WMVP AM 1000 Transmitter
- Thread starter John B
- Start date
Now I want one of the elements of the original ESB FM antenna that the New York CIity SBE is selling!
Where the Nautel NX50's moved one at a time from Downers Grove to Joliet or did the old site still have the Harris DX 50 to fall back so both NX50's could be moved at one time?
For what? A lawn ornament?
The Story of the Alford Antenna on the Empire State Building | Blog
The Story of the Alford Antenna on the Empire State Building
www.smithandfisher.com
The NX50's were moved 1 at a time across maybe a month or two. Not sure if the downers grove site was energized with the single NX50 for some time or if the new site was fully transmitting with the single NX50 they had there for the time being. As for the Harris DX50, I think it was moved out to the WLS AM Tinley site after the cleanup of the Downers Grove site to remove the carcass of the old RCA BTA-50F possibly around 2008 (judging the timing off of Fybush's article about the site).
I live in Columbus, OH. I have newspaper articles of when WBNS AM built the existing transmitter location with Blaw-Knox tower and held an open house to view the grounds and transmitter building. Sometime in the 30’s. Thousands showed up. Same for the dedication of the WRFD studio in the early 50’s. I sincerely doubt you’d get a hundred to show up for similar events today. People just aren’t fascinated by radio as much ch any more.
You could say that for a lot of things. There are old newspaper photographs of lines to get into the grand opening of a new Kmart or Montgomery Ward location. But the "grand opening" is pretty much a thing of the past now.
But in those days, radio was a big thing. Almost magical. Now? Old school. It just no longer excites.
And of course you saw what happened to KMart and Wards when the public lost interest and the brands failed to excite.
KMart was self infected. Lack of investment in infrastructure.
KMart and Sears had been declining for years, but then vulture capitalist Eddie Lampert came in and bled them dry:
It Was Vulture Capitalism that Killed Sears
Don’t blame Amazon or the internet. The culprit was a predatory hedge fund.
prospect.org
K-Mart and Walmart had a model which was a "bigger store" than Sears and Montgomery-Ward. They used brand names at a discount rather than their own brands that were the staple of Sears, for example.
When Walmart moved out of just rural locations, it used much larger stores, taking advantage of the availability of unknown Asian brands to be able to sell at "better prices".
Remember, Walmart was a "modernization" of Woolworth's "Five and Dime" stores. And K-Mart was the big box brand of Kresge's. Bigger, more stuff. And that model replaced little town stores where customers had to ask for the merchandise which was behind counters.
In every step of this retail transformation the old guard has not been able to transform and found that their brand was hampered by an image of being old and less attractive.
David Eduardo wrote: "In every step of this retail transformation the old guard has not been able to transform and found that their brand was hampered by an image of being old and less attractive."
Which is how Amazon wiped K-Mart/Sears out. Walmart seems to be nimble enough online, plus scale in actual stores, to make it.
Which is how Amazon wiped K-Mart/Sears out. Walmart seems to be nimble enough online, plus scale in actual stores, to make it.
And that is the next generation. The only one seeming to be making a transition from brick & mortar is Walmart.
It only takes a trip or two to stores only to find nothing like what you need to see that Amazon not only has it, but they have a half-dozen options and pretty quick delivery.
My first job after college was Kmart while I was battling thoat issues. Even in 1980 each store had an individual accounts with most of their domestic venders. So venders had the expense of doing over a thousand individuals shipments to each store instead of loading truck loads of pallets to a warehouse. You can get a better price when buying by the truck loads versus shipping to over a thousand locations. We had to check each shipment against the invoice. Most of the stores had 2 or more full time employees just pricing and processing invoices. The Kmart distribution system was geared for only one delivery per week per store. In the Southeast they only one warehouse 45 minutes south of the Atlanta airport. It was a day and a half trip to South Florida counting unloading. Seasonal goods that arrived early were stored at the store's backroom which was bigger than it needed to be to handle shipments with a couple weeks or months merchandise instead of getting a truck every day. Warehouse space is cheaper than retail space.
On paper each store was a separate entity. Store remodeling and updating expenses could have a very negative impact on the local manager's bonus. The management bonuses where good as I bought my first new car (Ford Fiesta) with one.
It really wasn't a single company. Ladies Wear (dresses) had their own management and warehouse. Kresge did buy out this vender but is was still ran separately. Shoes was partnership with Melville (Tom McCann). Milinary (wigs and umbrellas etc.) was a totally different company. Sporting Goods and Automotive was Fisk latter they bought the partnership out to have KMart Enterprises. They later sold the automotives to Penske which sued them for breach of contract when they started closing stores. Mensware had been bought out but still had thier own distribution system. The difference color price tags with a Key # determined which company got credit for the sale.
Here is a great article on the WMVP move from the Downers Grove site to the Joliet site:
www.radioworld.com
WMVP(AM) Engineer Explains Its Transmitter Move to Joliet - Radio World
Scott Clifton, currently senior engineer at Good Karma Broadcasting, which owns the 50 kW 1000 WMVP(AM), says its Joliet site has improved its signal.
www.radioworld.com
Just south of Downtown Chicago the WMVP signal is slightly weaker than WLS during the day with 50kW and at night it appears to be slightly stronger even with the power reduction to 37kW. He's probably correct about the improving the signal in SW DuPage, Kane and North Will County at night. The northern suburbs are getting a weaker signal with fading because of the shorter 298Ft towers in my opinion.Here is a great article on the WMVP move from the Downers Grove site to the Joliet site:
WMVP(AM) Engineer Explains Its Transmitter Move to Joliet - Radio World
Scott Clifton, currently senior engineer at Good Karma Broadcasting, which owns the 50 kW 1000 WMVP(AM), says its Joliet site has improved its signal.
Back in the day with the older self supporting towers, WCFL put a rock crushing signal over the City of Chicago. It's weak areas were the SW DuPage, Northern Will and Kane Counties with the null toward Oklahoma City and a null towards Seattle with the night pattern.. The newer guyed towers while improving the signal in the northern and NW suburbs, created a deeper null towards the SW with its night pattern than what the old self supporting towers did. The signal over Chicago was no longer rock crushing but very good.
The other issue the Downers Grove guyed DA was that it was narrow banded something the older self supporting towers never did. I've read in previous posts that Disney decided to shunt feed the 2006 DA to save on cost.
Bottom line all of these DA designs have trade offs. Maybe Good Karma felt fixing the night signal where the previous null existed was a bigger advantage for them vs a weaker north suburban signal. Saved on paying 10 million for the Downers Grove site. Wonder if Disney didn't want to sell the site or Good Karma did not want to pay for the cost of the site.
A uniform cross section tower and a broader base self supporting tower should have no difference in coverage if they are the same electrical height and have the same ground system at a site with identical conductivity.
However, if a station moves it will have to conform with new standards and that may mean a slightly different pattern. A different location and an existing set of towers will nearly always. Have slight differences in the pattern,
Shunt feeding is actually quite effective if tower es are high enough. At one time, all the 50 kw and over stations in Mexico City were all done that way.
And it is pretty easy today with computer generated antenna specifications to be broad enough for permitted AM fidelity.
I understood that the site was valued well above the value of the station.
Exactly. Surrounded by homes in a well-to-do suburb, the value of the former farmland for future million-dollar homes was well above what it was for radio transmission.
I never disputed the value of the land vs. keeping the transmitter site there. Just questioning if Good Karma had the opportunity to buy the site or was it Disney who insisted of selling the site for profit. Read that M/I homes purchased the land for 9.8 million from Disney.