Little Rock KAAY new modification application

[davideduardo]

When did the light finally start turning on in the heads of the nation's radio station owners that there was no bottom-line value in pumping a 50,000-watt signal over 30 states? Did DXers actually figure in business decisions before then? And why? Did advertisers back then actually want to reach listeners hundreds of miles away, or were station owners just assuming they did?

Just look at the ads in Broadcasting from the 30's and well into the 40's. Stations showed mail pull, maps and all kinds of evidence of listening in many states.

Even a few regional channel stations like KMA and WNAX ran ads showing extensive coverage of broad agricultural regions.

They ran those ads because much of America had no local night service, and some of those stations had star-power shows. The country music on stations in Shreveport, Wheeling, Nashville and the like got huge audiences and had waiting lists for advertisers.

 

[Kent]

That sort of thing actually happened to the old 1010 in Little Rock around 30 years ago. WINS in NYC pretty much paid it to go away so that the NYC nighttime directional signal could be loosened up a bit.

I was going to college in Arkansas when that was going on. I was mostly in Fayetteville but did do one semester in Little Rock. You basically have it right. I don’t think it made the news or was widely known the deal had happened. I know a few people noticed when its programming replaced KKYK at 103.7, but KKYK had been on the decline for some time and had already gone active rock as “103.7 K-Rock” after at least 10 years as a CHR. While the battle was usually closer than it's remembered and was usually a case of “they get a book; we get a book,” Zoo 98 was usually the dominant CHR in Little Rock, especially after Craig O’Neill left KKYK. I remember going to the Eureka Springs area between my sophomore and junior year of high school, watching a Little Rock station, and seeing an ad for B98.5 and being shocked because it had been Zoo 98 just a few weeks earlier. I also remember Kelly Boom, who was a longtime voice on the Little Rock airwaves, being on 103.7 K-Rock. I want to say that was one of her first radio jobs.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

WOW 590 Omaha and WDAF 610 Kansas City both ran 5000 watts Nondirectional Day and Night. WOW was so protective of their ground wave coverage beyond their Nighttime Interference Free Contour that they wouldn't let WKZO 590 Kalamazoo go to 5000 watts Night, claiming it wasn't eligible to be a Class III-A because it received too much interference from WOW 590. John Fetzer had actual field strength measurements of WOW 590 skywave made that claimed it wasn't nearly as strong as they claimed. In order to get authorized for 5000 watts Night, WKZO had to stay on Night pattern from 6 PM to 10 AM each following day, protecting WOW's contour well beyond the NIF during all Critical Hours and Drive Times in Omaha. That lasted until 1968. John Fetzer wasn't too upset about it because it allowed twice the Day signal into Grand Rapids, giving WKZO a de facto duopoly with WJEF Grand Rapids during Drive times.

 

[fybush]

I love when I learn something new here!

From WKZO's history cards, it looks like the 6 PM-10 AM DA operation lasted from 1944 until 1968, when WKZO was finally able to go ND at local sunrise and stay on ND until local sunset. This appears to have followed a brief period in 1967-68 when WKZO went ND at local sunrise at reduced power under pre-sunrise authority rules.

Any idea why WKZO was allowed to make the change at that point? WOW stopped fighting?

 

[gr8oldies]

WOW 590 Omaha and WDAF 610 Kansas City both ran 5000 watts Nondirectional Day and Night. WOW was so protective of their ground wave coverage beyond their Nighttime Interference Free Contour that they wouldn't let WKZO 590 Kalamazoo go to 5000 watts Night, claiming it wasn't eligible to be a Class III-A because it received too much interference from WOW 590. John Fetzer had actual field strength measurements of WOW 590 skywave made that claimed it wasn't nearly as strong as they claimed. In order to get authorized for 5000 watts Night, WKZO had to stay on Night pattern from 6 PM to 10 AM each following day, protecting WOW's contour well beyond the NIF during all Critical Hours and Drive Times in Omaha. That lasted until 1968. John Fetzer wasn't too upset about it because it allowed twice the Day signal into Grand Rapids, giving WKZO a de facto duopoly with WJEF Grand Rapids during Drive times.

A random childhood memory from our family vacations in Fremont, Michigan. Somewhere between Fremont and Kalamazoo was a billboard that said "For the next 300 miles. 59 WKZO."

 

[Mediafrog+]

WOW was so protective of their ground wave coverage beyond their Nighttime Interference Free Contour

The protective attitude of WOW went back to the 1940s, at least. In one of the biographies of Lyndon Johnson, the author has a section that deals with LBJ’s KTBC in Austin and it’s attempt in the early 1940s to greatly increase power by moving from a 500 watt operation on 1150 to a higher powered transmitter on 590. Apparently there was some dustup with WOW about possible nighttime (and daytime) interference from the Texas station. LBJ did some of his well-known arm twisting to get the move approved, with KTBC authorized for 5kw ND days and 1kw directional at night.

KTBC changed its call to KLBJ in 1973, shortly after Johnson’s death, as its sister KTBC-TV was sold to new owners. The AM still operates with the same parameters, though a recent CP to move transmitter sites and go to a 350 watt nondirectional night signal expired unbuilt a few months ago.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

I love when I learn something new here!

From WKZO's history cards, it looks like the 6 PM-10 AM DA operation lasted from 1944 until 1968, when WKZO was finally able to go ND at local sunrise and stay on ND until local sunset. This appears to have followed a brief period in 1967-68 when WKZO went ND at local sunrise at reduced power under pre-sunrise authority rules.

Any idea why WKZO was allowed to make the change at that point? WOW stopped fighting?

If you read a lot of History Cards, you'll find a lot of those Class III power reductions, apparently for 6 AM to Sunrise. I'll look to see what WKZO got. WFDF 910 got 4100 watts PSA, WILS 1320 got 1800 watts, I assume with Day pattern, with very shallow nulls. WFDF was DA-1 so it had to be Day pattern. That told me also that they should have gone to 5000 watts DA-2 long long ago, which would have allowed more Night power than 25000 watts, because they probably could have had just 10% reductions if they entered into the 50% NIF of any stations. WWJ 950 and WXYT 1270, both with 5000 watts DA-N, entered into a lot of 50% NIF computations, and they both got 50000 watts Night power. Many fulltime stations were able to use 500 watts PSA if it was advantageous. WPON 1460 Pontiac, MI was 1000/500 DA-N, and was able to go 500 watts nondirectional from 6 AM to Sunrise, so they served the populous areas of suburban Detroit to the South better. I think if Glen Clark's multinodal supercomputer had been available, WTMJ 620 could have had quite a bit more than 10000 watts Night by shifting the towers around a little, doglegging them slightly. WADO 1280 could have probably done better than 7200 watts Night by doglegging the parallelogram they have for Night.

Those PSA's were authorized in 1967.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

WADO 1280 Night pattern.

FCCInfo Results

FCC Info is a Radio and Television Station Search Engine provided by Cavell, Mertz & Associates, Inc.

fccinfo.com

 

[alok]

What it was...

The map you show, of KAAY 1090 nightime pattern . . . following - What it was...

where did you get that map? The site I use to go too that showed maps just like that, no longer works due to "googlemaps" issue and the person that was responsible for the site said they are unable to keep it going.
Again, what site did you get that map from?
Thanks, in advance.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

The PSA for WILS was actually 2000 watts.

I love when I learn something new here!

From WKZO's history cards, it looks like the 6 PM-10 AM DA operation lasted from 1944 until 1968, when WKZO was finally able to go ND at local sunrise and stay on ND until local sunset. This appears to have followed a brief period in 1967-68 when WKZO went ND at local sunrise at reduced power under pre-sunrise authority rules.

Any idea why WKZO was allowed to make the change at that point? WOW stopped fighting?

The PSA for WILS 1320 was actually 2000 watts. The WKZO 590 PSA in 1967 was 1640 watts. The WOOD 1300 PSA was 5000 watts, meaning they could go nondirectional at 6:00 AM nondirectional. WXYZ 1270 PSA was also 5000 watts nondirectional from 6:00 AM. It looks like WWJ never got authorized for PSA with 5000 watts ND, because of a history of complaints from WPEN and KPRC.

 

[JJFMJOCK]

That sort of thing actually happened to the old 1010 in Little Rock around 30 years ago. WINS in NYC pretty much paid it to go away so that the NYC nighttime directional signal could be loosened up a bit.

The LR 1010 is best remembered as KLRA, though it went through a few call letters changes in its final years. Put a listenable night signal into Central Texas in the 1960s.

I’ve long forgotten the particulars of that transaction.

KLRA, the Arkansas Traveler, was country music at 10,000 watts days and night (directional). Its pattern prevented KXEN 1010 Am in St. Louis (50KW) from adding nght service for many years. Eventually KXEN added in 500 watt nightime covergae but sold ist tower site and was downgarded on an STA to 100 watts or so, on a longwire. Call lettesr changed to KDHX, recently. Doubt they will ever rebuild ther 50,000 watt facility.