Hi Madman...welcome to Radio-Info! The beast was up to 1000 watts when I was shoveling FET's and smaller devices into it. My time was during the Sunnyside Communications era. First thing I did was move the 970 studios from 800 S 4th street to Magnolia Lane in the early 90's. At that point, 1450 and 970 were both there. The 'real' engineer was the TV chief at WHAS 11, Bill Brown...the studio move was a 1 time shot--just me and Blair Trask. I was (and still am) the engineer at the Seymour stations (1390/92.7) which Sunnyside owned back then and Blair and his wife own now. The MW1 was my patience teacher...when I went in there, I knew that this would not be an easy fix and I might as well just pull up a chair and let the time clock tick. Let me state that the word hate is almost non existent in my vocabulary, but that (and all known) MW-1 comes mighty close. This was from the mid 2000's until Cumulus took it over and moved the studio across the river. I would have taken the engineering reigns earlier but at the time was nervous about living 80 miles away. Now I care for stuff over 200 miles way...I guess one's threshold of pain gradually rises with age.
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1450 Question
- Thread starter radiofan502
- Start date
I was working there when the tower was felled by vandals in the early 80s. We had a lady on overnight named Charlotte Augustus. She told us that she had heard a loud "BANG" and the building shook a little...and it was on a concrete slab! A while later the station went off the air. What had happened is that when the tower fell, it had hit directly on the corner of the building where the studio was and wrapped itself around the roof of the building. The SWR protection at whatever minimal power we were running took about 30 minutes to build up to automatic cutoff. The Operations Director then was Gil Daugherty, and he said it was quite a site when he came driving down toward the "Plantation" as we called the studio on Magnolia Avenue and saw the tower snaked over the building!
BobOnTheJob said:
I took care of WXVW and WAVG right after the move until right before CJ left and Blair took over all four stations as GM (that would be 91/92-95/96). The cart carousels brought over from 4th street were oh so wonderful :
, those got replaced by an Audisk maybe two months after the two stations got combined. I actually found a personal copy of the FCC filing a few weeks ago where Sunnyside filled to run as a duopoly on 1450/970 before the ruling had been passed (if only I could change history, I'd go back and oppose the NAB and FCC knowing what radio is today, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20). The MW1 was still there when I left, but Seymour had gotten a BE-AM1 (I remember the old tube xmitter on 1390, that had the "operating procedure" to "kick it" to get the plate relay to release to switch to day/night, and the hacks for pre-dawn). 970 had a BE-AM5 for 3 years (serial number 7, and that's after the five test one's that BE built so 970 got the second one made for production, and first on the air; it popped modules constantly for the first 6 months, BE found out they underrated everything for the real world, but that's a different story), and I was even then trying to get the money out of CJ to replace the MW1a with a BE1 @ 1450 (the MW1 wasn't that bad to me, but then again, I lived half way between Magnolia and the 970 Xmitter site both off Hamburg pike, so I didn't have to worry about travel; and I could open my refrigerator door and know 970 was on the air, the signal was so strong it made the compressor resonate to where you could understand the programming
)I actually first set foot into 213 Magnolia back in 1986, doing weekend board-op for the sports. I remember Charlie, Lisa, Ron C., Joe Fletcher, Mary Ann Day, Ted Throckmorton, Bob McIntosh, Gil Daugherty, Katy Frank, Blair too, and a bunch of others.
I also remember the spring after the 970 move, the STL kept dropping out. The shot uphill from Magnolia to Hamburg pike couldn't clear the trees when the leaves filled back in; and another 50 feet had to be added to the STL tower on Magnolia to make it. It's amazing how 10 Watts of 900 Mhz couldn't make it 3 Miles.
greg.hahn said:
You mean the one held up by an old Maxwell House Tin coffee can
, I know that was there when I got there, and still there when I left :-\ . The first time I was at the base of the tower and opened the door and saw that all I could do is laugh; I actually was going to fix it one day, but there was never an time or money, and it had worked for 10 years before I got there so why fix something that wasn't broke? I really expected it to fail, and that would be justification to fix it right, but it just never did. I know Don Backherms took the contract for a while, as well as Bill, and now know you Bob; who has 1450 and/or 970 now (engineer wise)?
I'm now in Indy, and working in a different business. I miss it at times, but then I snap back to reality ;D . I do drive by both sites when I'm down that way, hoping to catch someone home at either site, but have yet to see anyone. I've thought about making contact again. I know the corporate world leave no room for competition, but then again, radio engineers are a dying breed...
Bengalsfan said:
I actually went out to see if I could find out who was getting involved and found this...
Quite a sale price, but another sports format?
I know the automation has been replaced a couple times over, anyone know what if anything was left inside the building at Magnolia?
Decent coverage of the market? Maybe the market they were referring to is Jeffersonville.themadman said:
Quite a sale price, but another sports format?
I know the automation has been replaced a couple times over, anyone know what if anything was left inside the building at Magnolia?
I looked at the asset list. It had everything you needed to get up and running. Best thing on the list (& this is exacly how it was listed) "one crappy mic stand." Asking price was $270,000 or $275,000 and that included the building on Magnolia and several acers of property. Hell of a deal but it won't last with a sports format.
I know the automation has been replaced a couple times over, anyone know what if anything was left inside the building at Magnolia?
I looked at the asset list. It had everything you needed to get up and running. Best thing on the list (& this is exacly how it was listed) "one crappy mic stand." Asking price was $270,000 or $275,000 and that included the building on Magnolia and several acers of property. Hell of a deal but it won't last with a sports format.
Decent coverage of the market? Maybe the market they were referring to is Jeffersonville.
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That's always been my problem with both 1450 and 1570. If you live in Louisville they are fair in the daytime, once the sun goes down forget it. You can't get any signal at all on either station (at least I couldn't out in Valley Station) and I was using good radios with nice AM tuners in them. For some reason those two frequencies just did not cover south of the river very well.
[/quote]
That's always been my problem with both 1450 and 1570. If you live in Louisville they are fair in the daytime, once the sun goes down forget it. You can't get any signal at all on either station (at least I couldn't out in Valley Station) and I was using good radios with nice AM tuners in them. For some reason those two frequencies just did not cover south of the river very well.
storrs19 said:
That's always been my problem with both 1450 and 1570. If you live in Louisville they are fair in the daytime, once the sun goes down forget it. You can't get any signal at all on either station (at least I couldn't out in Valley Station) and I was using good radios with nice AM tuners in them. For some reason those two frequencies just did not cover south of the river very well.
[/quote]I believe 1570 drops to something less than 100 watts at night, but 1450 stays at 1000 watts. Haven't checked it south but I do recall on I-64, 1450 died very quickly at night just past the Waterson Expressway. Gets out about like 1230 in Cincinnati did in the 60's at night...last audible gasp was about 7 miles out and that was all she wrote.
I think anyone with 1450 or 1570 should really hit J'ville-C'ville and New Albany and keep it at that! Clark and Floyd County..... Or, if the Floyd County or Clark County schools could get a hold of it (Clark is the one without the station, where New Albany and Floyd Central have 88.1).. Make it Southern Indiana local friendly and focus where they CAN make a dent into a subdued sub market with little local media...
Remember, 1450 is a regional channel. All the stations on that frequency broadcast with 1kW day and night. All the stations disappear into each other at night. 1570 is a Mexican clear. WNDA must protect XERF, so they drop to 230 watts at night.
Yes, 1450 kHz reception turns into a gray soup when you're not too far south of Eastern Parkway at night. They really start to fall off just outside the Watterson.
Since the Harris MW-1 transmitter was the subject of some of these posts, what are your opinions of their primary successor line, the Harris SX series (the first transmitter with digital pulse duration modulation)? I've had excellent results with the SX over the years, with impressive audio, lower-than-average power costs, resistance to wavering, unstable, dirty AC, and stable electronics. Also, I've married them to every brand of processor known and gotten excellent, clean modulation...it was the first totally solid-state AM transmitter I fully trusted!
The only one still in use in the area, I believe, is the one WNDA (AM) got though the long-running WDGS (AM) assets sale. I believe Argie Dale put it on the air in March 1985 on 1290 kHz, and it sat dormant from October 1987 when 'DGS went dark (and during which time, 1290 KHz was mysteriously deleted from New Albany, IN...hmmm) until abut 4 years ago when the mess Dale left was finlly untangled (The Smith Brothers had gained control of the studio building earlier to establish a base for their LPTVs). The standard main control board of the SX series acccommodated two frequencies, on-board switchable or remotely controlled.
Since the Harris MW-1 transmitter was the subject of some of these posts, what are your opinions of their primary successor line, the Harris SX series (the first transmitter with digital pulse duration modulation)? I've had excellent results with the SX over the years, with impressive audio, lower-than-average power costs, resistance to wavering, unstable, dirty AC, and stable electronics. Also, I've married them to every brand of processor known and gotten excellent, clean modulation...it was the first totally solid-state AM transmitter I fully trusted!
The only one still in use in the area, I believe, is the one WNDA (AM) got though the long-running WDGS (AM) assets sale. I believe Argie Dale put it on the air in March 1985 on 1290 kHz, and it sat dormant from October 1987 when 'DGS went dark (and during which time, 1290 KHz was mysteriously deleted from New Albany, IN...hmmm) until abut 4 years ago when the mess Dale left was finlly untangled (The Smith Brothers had gained control of the studio building earlier to establish a base for their LPTVs). The standard main control board of the SX series acccommodated two frequencies, on-board switchable or remotely controlled.
themadman said:greg.hahn said:
You mean the one held up by an old Maxwell House Tin coffee can
The Maxwell House coffee can was apparently before our time. It definitely wasn't there when Cox bought the station a few years ago. Since then the site has only gotten substantially better.
skippertthomas said:
I think that's a great idea. A station dedicated to IU sports along with Colts games (of course I can't listen to them this season they are so bad) and focusing on local high school sports as well. With so many traditional teams in Louisville I'm surprised no station carries Trinity and Saint X games. But then most stations are not locally owned any more and CheapChannel doesn't care about local sports.
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