1280 khz in 1950's NYC area

[alok]

When 1280 was shared by WOV & WHBI in the 1950's were they using the same transmitter site ?
If not were was WHBI's 1280 site ?
Was WOV's 1280 site in the 50's , the same site used today by WADO 1280 , in Carlstad,NJ ?

Al

 

[fybush]

The WOV 1280 site on Paterson Plank Road was indeed the present Carlstadt site. It's actually one of (and possibly THE) oldest AM site in the market now, having been built in the early 1930s for one half of the WAAM/WODA 1250 sharetime that then evolved into WNEW in 1934. It was WNEW 1250 through the rest of the 1930s, went to 1280 in NARBA in 1941 and then swapped pretty swiftly with 1130 to become WOV. The old WOV/WADO towers came down more than a decade ago when WADO powered up to 50 kW with a new array at the old site.

WHBI used a different site in Newark, a wire antenna atop the Hoyt Brothers, Inc. warehouse on Sherman Street that gave the station its callsign.

 

[davideduardo]

It was WNEW 1250 through the rest of the 1930s, went to 1280 in NARBA in 1941 and then swapped pretty swiftly with 1130 to become WOV.

And, IIRC, those both were Arde Bulova's two-AM duopoly before the FCC put an end to multiple ownership in the same market. Bulova's may have been the last to be split up, as it did not have any network affiliation issues such as KECA / KFI or the two Plain Dealer stations in Cleveland did.

WOV shared time, but WNEW was a fulltimer. They apparently did not share studios, with one being at 501 Madison and WOV being on 5th.

 

[Ai4i]

...the FCC put an end to multiple ownership in the same market.

You're making me cry.
We loved the 1/1/1, 7/7/7 ownership cap.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Don't mean to detour the thread ; perhaps someone can eMail me.

Back in the 60's, there were four lit towers near the Bronx shore of the Whitestone Bridge. I remember them as being self-supporting.

And as recently as the late 70s there was a similar array, inland from Sunrise Highway, several miles east of Patchogue.
Lol -- girlfriend and I were looking for that site one day, out in the Pine Barrens, and not getting anywhere near it. One dead-end dirt road after another. We'd get back on SRS Highway or some other secondary road, and there would be the green signs for Bellport, Mastic, etc.
And at one such approaching green sign, she cut off one great line, from the passenger seat.
'Towers,' she said, puckishly, indicating a left turn.
But we still never found them to check what they were.

Anyone know what those two sites may have been?

 

[disney fanatic]

That's a good question. I only have an aircheck of WOV back in 1957 or 1958 where "The Blue Rocket" where he was filled in for Jocko. This is the only surviving aircheck I have, because I got this at a flea market back in 2007. It has lots of R&B and doo-wop music for its time and some DJ's talking since it was cut out throughout this whole aircheck. I'm going to repost it soon.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Back in the 60's, there were four lit towers near the Bronx shore of the Whitestone Bridge. I remember them as being self-supporting.

Four relatively short self-supporting towers in a square array, right? Probably the aircraft navigation of its day. I'm pretty sure that such arrays were around starting sometime in the '30s and continuing throughout WWII until probably well into the '50s. If I try to give details from memory, I will mess up the explanation, but somebody who reads this ought to be able to help.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Back in the 60's, there were four lit towers near the Bronx shore of the Whitestone Bridge. I remember them as being self-supporting.

Four relatively short self-supporting towers in a square array, right? Probably the aircraft navigation of its day. I'm pretty sure that such arrays were around starting sometime in the '30s and continuing throughout WWII until probably well into the '50s. If I try to give details from memory, I will mess up the explanation, but somebody who reads this ought to be able to help.

Such an array might have been for the old "A/N" aircraft navigation system used on longwave decades ago. A morse code "A" would be transmitted on two lobes 180 degrees apart, while a "N" was sent on two lobes 90 degrees from the "A" lobes. When exactly 45 degrees from either lobe a listener would hear a continuous tone ("A" and "N" are the negatives of each other in morse) which would indicate the correct flight path.

I believe the "A/N" system died out in the 1960's, replaced by more modern methods on VHF. Of course the standard morse code non-directional beacons on longwave continue on to this day, although those have been disappearing over the last 20 years.

I've monitored longwave from time to time since the mid-1960's but have never heard one of the "A/N" stations.