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680 The Fan Going After WSB

R

RoddyFreeman

I would have thought 92-9 The Game would be the lowest-hanging fruit for 680/93.7 The Fan to grab listeners from. But college football season is coming, and WSB has the Bulldogs.

The Fan has been running promos that say, "Why trust a station that brags about its traffic and weather for college football coverage?"

Well, UGA fans are going to be listening to WSB for the games (if they're listening on radio). And I would bet they will tune to WSB's pre and post-game coverage. I doubt The Fan will be able to lure them away. And the only other college football programming on WSB consists of the Bulldog Brunch on Sunday mornings and the call-in show with Kirby Smart on Monday evenings.

Not sure what The Fan hopes to accomplish by running the promos, but someone may disagree.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
I would have thought 92-9 The Game would be the lowest-hanging fruit for 680/93.7 The Fan to grab listeners from. But college football season is coming, and WSB has the Bulldogs.

The Fan has been running promos that say, "Why trust a station that brags about its traffic and weather for college football coverage?"

Well, UGA fans are going to be listening to WSB for the games (if they're listening on radio). And I would bet they will tune to WSB's pre and post-game coverage. I doubt The Fan will be able to lure them away. And the only other college football programming on WSB consists of the Bulldog Brunch on Sunday mornings and the call-in show with Kirby Smart on Monday evenings.

Not sure what The Fan hopes to accomplish by running the promos, but someone may disagree.
Click to expand...

Bulldogs Live (Football Coach Edition) with Kirby Smart is actually on Thursday nights during the months of September-November during college football season. As for Bulldogs Live (Men’s Basketball Coach Edition) with Mike White, it’s still on Monday nights during the months of December-March during men’s college basketball season.
 
MrRadio said:
Here's an idea for WSB: "680 The Fan. When you want a radio station that sounds like a weed eater."
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Actually during the daytime they have a lobe or two going thru some very high income zipcodes. In Pickens county (in the PPM) daytime they have a stronger signal than 750. Since GA power buried most of the power lines in Jasper both stations will stop when I push scan.

I am not an expert on modern AM reception but back in the day (before everything went computer) if you heard a "weed eater" you were: under a power line, the distributor or spark plug wiring had "leaks", or you had generator dying. At one time they use to sell a "kit" at Radio Shack to filter out crappy alternator noise.

Nighttime the 680 pattern did OK about 30 years ago. To much urban sprawl and crappy soil conductivity for any AM station in the market except possibly 750 to be viable and it duplicates 95.5.
 
secondchoice said:
Actually during the daytime they have a lobe or two going thru some very high income zipcodes. In Pickens county (in the PPM) daytime they have a stronger signal than 750. Since GA power buried most of the power lines in Jasper both stations will stop when I push scan.

I am not an expert on modern AM reception but back in the day (before everything went computer) if you heard a "weed eater" you were: under a power line, the distributor or spark plug wiring had "leaks", or you had generator dying. At one time they use to sell a "kit" at Radio Shack to filter out crappy alternator noise.

Nighttime the 680 pattern did OK about 30 years ago. To much urban sprawl and crappy soil conductivity for any AM station in the market except possibly 750 to be viable and it duplicates 95.5.
Click to expand...
Even the 750 signal is not what it was 30 years ago. I am guessing, but I think all of the AM stations in the market suffer from aging ground systems. When I got interested in radio (mid-70s) I knew of several stations that would upgrade and repair their ground systems as they aged. I don't think anybody is investing in the transmitter plant, including WSB 750. WSB has a unique situation in that their ground system is tied to the grounding for the buildings on top. However, what is the condition of the copper straps after being under they parking lot all of these years?
 
secondchoice said:
Actually during the daytime they have a lobe or two going thru some very high income zipcodes. In Pickens county (in the PPM) daytime they have a stronger signal than 750. Since GA power buried most of the power lines in Jasper both stations will stop when I push scan.

I am not an expert on modern AM reception but back in the day (before everything went computer) if you heard a "weed eater" you were: under a power line, the distributor or spark plug wiring had "leaks", or you had generator dying. At one time they use to sell a "kit" at Radio Shack to filter out crappy alternator noise.

Nighttime the 680 pattern did OK about 30 years ago. To much urban sprawl and crappy soil conductivity for any AM station in the market except possibly 750 to be viable and it duplicates 95.5.
Click to expand...
680 has a monster day signal for being directional. If they wanted to pay for all of the engineering, they might be able to tweak their night signal a tad since Sylva has moved to a different frequency and pick up some better coverage over Gwinnett, but they still have to protect Raleigh, so the juice might not be worth the squeeze.

I wonder if Cox even bothered to replace the ground for 750 before the shopping center went in. Probably wouldn't be cost-effective to do it now.
 
jabba17 said:
680 has a monster day signal for being directional. If they wanted to pay for all of the engineering, they might be able to tweak their night signal a tad since Sylva has moved to a different frequency and pick up some better coverage over Gwinnett, but they still have to protect Raleigh, so the juice might not be worth the squeeze.

I wonder if Cox even bothered to replace the ground for 750 before the shopping center went in. Probably wouldn't be cost-effective to do it now.
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So, this is very fuzzy memory, but I knew Dick Bird back in the day when he also was the Chief Engineer for 1600 AM WACX Austell. I was a teen at the time. Dick told me that WSB had a textbook ground system which is why it did so well even with the poor ground conductivity. There were upgrades/refreshes done to the ground system when Northlake Festival was built. It had to as there would have been no way to build buildings without disturbing the ground system. The foundations of the buildings would have to be deeper than the original copper straps. I do remember Dick telling me that WSB had copper straps every 1 or 2 degrees around the tower. Most stations laid copper wire and sometimes cheated by not putting them in every degree or two. If my memory is wrong on the technical details I apologize. I was 16-18 at the time I was gleaning this information. :):)
 
When I first toured the WSB transmitter facility, the chief engineer at the time, the late John Talbert, told me that the ground system went just to the curbs of the shopping center. So I suppose it could be repaired/replaced if it had to be. Whether CMG would invest the dollars is another matter.

I know Charles Kinney and his staff meticulously maintain that site, and that they recently invested in a new transmitter. I’m guessing they have a good idea of the ground system’s condition.
 
BarryATL said:
Most stations laid copper wire and sometimes cheated by not putting them in every degree or two. I
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Generally, stations put in 120 radials that extend to the limits of the property. That is one every 3°. I'm not familiar with any station doing more, as it seems that there is no gain at over 120 radials. I have seen stations with restricted pieces of property with fewer radials and shorter ones, and they can still comply with engineering standards.

There are even rooftop antennas with a counterpoise system; that is "radials on the rooftop" or suspended over the rooftop. Even on smaller buildings, it still worked.
 
davideduardo said:
Generally, stations put in 120 radials that extend to the limits of the property. That is one every 3°. I'm not familiar with any station doing more, as it seems that there is no gain at over 120 radials. I have seen stations with restricted pieces of property with fewer radials and shorter ones, and they can still comply with engineering standards.
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120 in-ground radials is a practical maximum. Actually, in most cases, 32 radials would be OK (about a 10% reduction in signal strength), but I'm not sure what the FCC requires.
davideduardo said:
There are even rooftop antennas with a counterpoise system; that is "radials on the rooftop" or suspended over the rooftop. Even on smaller buildings, it still worked.
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In theory, a few elevated radials will work as well as lots of in-ground radials... as long as they are resonant. On the broadcast bands, it might be workable at the top of the dial, but I can't see it on the three-digit frequencies. Loading coils would be required, and again, I'm not sure if the FCC allows such things on the AM band. I have to ass-u-me that the FCC requires 120 in-ground radials for Ancient Modulation stations. I can't think of any stations that don't use them.

I base all this on my own antennas for the ham bands. I've built many of them in the last 50+ years. But we in the ham world don't have the restrictions in Part 97 that broadcasters have to deal with in Part 73.
 
i saw a video from Charles Kinney, WSB's chief engineer one night in the mall parking lot and saw the lights just continually flashing/blinking because of WSB
 
MrRadio said:
I still find it sad and yet oh-so-typical of Atlanta that its MLB franchise's flagship statin has a third-rate signal.
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Paying for the rights probably isnt profitable or worth it to other stations. Especially when an MLB broadcast isnt just the game, its pregame and post game too.. big interruption in regular programming
 
I recall seeing that WSB site back around 2020, I set in my car with my wife (she thought I was nuts), since I was fascinated by the site in the shopping center parking area with WSB tuned in on my car radio.
I was fascinated, more so as I walked around and saw the guy wire anchors right up to the stores.
I also checked out the 680 transmitter site. Nice looking site.
I still don't understand how 680 in Atlanta got squeezed in with WPTF knocking on their door. I guess Atlanta 680 is kind of in one of WPTF's null?
 
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MrRadio said:
I still find it sad and yet oh-so-typical of Atlanta that its MLB franchise's flagship statin has a third-rate signal.
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WSB had them on 750. Cox didn't make enough money to keep them. When the Dickey - Cumulus breakup happened after Lew and crew bankrupted the Cloud company, Cumulus dropped the Braves from 106.7. I am sure if it was cash positive for Cumulus, they would have continued since they were in bankruptcy and needed cash as all bankrupt companies need.

106.7 is one of only two full class Cs the market. 750 is Atlanta's only Class AM. The Braves have had their shot radio signal wise. Alanta has a huge transplant population. Those folks are loyal to whatever team they grew up with. Back in the bad old days at Fulton, and even at Turner you would often see more opposing jerseys and hats in the stands than Braves.


On of the stories some Turner employees often tell is: had Ted not bought the Braves, they would moved somewhere else. IMHO pre 1980 Atlanta didn't have the population or generations of fans to support a MLB team. If you are an Atlanta Braves Fan you should thank Turner and the Superstation that they stayed in Atlanta.
 
alok said:
I recall seeing that WSB site back around 2020, I set in my car with my wife (she thought I was nuts), since I was fascinated by the site in the shopping center parking area with WSB tuned in on my car radio.
I was fascinated, more so as I walked around and saw the guy wire anchors right up to the stores.
I also checked out the 680 transmitter site. Nice looking site.
I still don't understand how 680 in Atlanta got squeezed in with WPTF knocking on their door. I guess Atlanta 680 is kind of in one of WPTF's null?
Click to expand...
Haha. You and I have something in common, and the general population thinks we're nuts.

640 and the current 680 signal were both built at the same time in the late 80's.
 
Ain't that the truth? I have been here through it all ... The awful Braves, the stinky Falcons, the mediocre Hawks, and TWO hockey franchises.

The Braves on 750 was a magical time, despite the team sucking so terribly. Ernie, Skip, and Pete. Such fun!

When I was a kid, I used to roll my eyes at people who would say, "Things were so much better back then..." But I'll be damned if they weren't right!

secondchoice said:
Back in the bad old days at Fulton, and even at Turner you would often see more opposing jerseys and hats in the stands than Braves.
Click to expand...
 
That plus the Braves relied more on their huge radio network that literally covered every nook and cranny of Georgia and well into several other Southern states. In the 90s there were probably 20+ stations just in South Carolina. Now it’s only 6. People still do listen to games on radio. MLB’s app cut a lot of that out but in the small towns it still exists. There was one season recently Charleston dropped Braves games and there were dozens and dozens of complaints.

It’s still pretty far flung for what it is. Richmond, VA still has Braves games on their FM HD sports signal. I think Louisville too.
 


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