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AM Radio History Question

X

xmtrland

What’s the oldest AM station transmitter building location and tower? Is the station still using the same Calls and frequency?

The transmitter location, building and tower are 77 years old (maybe Older) of the station I’m thinking of. Only the transmitters have changed.

Originally licensed to Tacoma Washington, KVI began transmitting from Vashon Island in 1935 I want to say. I know they were defiantly using Vashon as a transmitter location in January of 1936. KVI has been using the same calls, frequency, tower and transmitter building since 1935. KVI is now licensed to Seattle and was once owned by Gene Autry. I’m trying to find if KVI had a transmitter location prior to Vashon but have not found one yet.

Looks like they started out as 1,000 watts and increased to 5,000 watts within a year or two. And they are ND, only one tower. So if there is a directional out there using an original tower that would qualify I guess. But KVI has not changed a thing to the original tower layout since it was built in 1935. They might be on their third or fourth transmission line going to the tower and added an STL dish on the tower in the late 80’s 90’s I think it was.

I know this is a question that has nothing whatsoever to do with digital audio or …HD (Oh thank you there are no HD am’s on Vashon Island…put prayer rug away). But what is the oldest station using the original calls, frequency, building and tower, when they started using the location as their transmitter site.

I was thinking about this as I was on the beach looking up at that tower, For KVI walking out to the base of the tower is really a walk on the beach.

See it here
http://vashonradio.com/towertour/kvi.html
 
Are any of those stations using the original Transmitter building or tower? That’s my question, who's got the oldest transmitter site in continuous operation, using the same calls and frequency.
 
The WSPD Toledo site was built in the thirties, but I don't remember exactly when. The original phasor was removed in the early 80's. The three Blaw-Knox towers, if I remember correctly, were replaced (or at least rebuilt) in the late 40's after a storm.
 
Just about everything on the AM dial shifted frequency in 1941...unless it was at 710 or below, like KVI.

WCCO in Minneapolis is still at the same transmitter site it began using in 1924. The frequency has changed (810 to 830 in 1941) and a new building went up around 1932 for the new 50,000 watt transmitter, but the original 1924 building still stands there as well.

Until it changed sites a couple of years ago, the 1230 station in Los Angeles (ex-KGFJ, now KYPA) was at its original 1927 transmitter site on a rooftop just west of downtown LA.

WSM in Nashville and WLW in Cincinnati are still at the transmitter sites built for them in 1932 - same towers, same calls, same frequencies, same buildings. WLW even still has the same transmitter it was using back then.

KFI in Los Angeles had a tower that dated back to 1931 - same calls, same frequency, same site. The tower was hit by a plane and collapsed a few years back, but it has rebuilt at the same site.

KVI is probably among the top 10 or 15 oldest surviving sites, though. Medium-wave transmitting technology was changing very, very rapidly in the 1930s, and many of the stations that built brand-new high-powered (5 to 50 kW) sites in the years between 1927 and 1935 ended up rebuilding them (often at different locations) between 1935 and 1950 as they switched from longwire antennas to the newly-developed vertical antennas, often directional, and as changes in FCC rules allowed 50 kW sites to be built closer to population centers.

KVI was lucky in being in that first wave of "new-style" facilities. Once it went up in 1935, there was really nothing that needed changing. Many of the sites that followed it in 1935-1950 still survive today as well; indeed, it's remarkable just how much of the radio infrastructure from that era is still standing, and how little of the previous generation survived.
 
KBPS Portland OR has broadcast from Benson Polytechnic High School since 1923 but changed to those calls in the late 20s. I need to check on KOAC Corvallis OR, dating back to 1922 and broadcasting on 550.
 
Here ya go.

http://archives.library.oregonstate.edu/exhibits/koac/chrono.html

If you ge the chance to visit the campus, go through the yearly financial reports of those early years.
Lots of details of equipment that was purchased. But that was 20+ years ago when I glanced at it.

1928
A new 1000-watt transmitter was installed in the new Physics Building Covell Hall) with studios immediately across the hall."

That transmitter's now locaed at the KBOI transmitter building. It was KDSH 950's first transmitter in 1947.
KDSH became KBOI in 1954.
 
In 1943 when WABC moved their transmitter site from Bound Brook to Lodi, NJ, rather than erecting a new tower, they took down and moved the Bound Brook tower, which had been originally installed in 1925. I know that at least as of 2005, that tower was still in use, and I haven't heard of it being replaced since then.
 
When I visited Chicago a few years ago, on the way out of town I detoured through Tinsley Park specifically to see the WLS transmitter site. Upon arrival, I found the gate open, and decided I'll never be here again, so mustered the courage to walk up to the building. The chief engineer was there, waiting on a tower crew, and gave me a tour. One point of pride was the fact that the tower was the original steel that broadcast the Hindenburg disaster, which placed it already in service in the 30's. The station was part of the 1941 relocation, so the tower was designed for 870, but has operated at 890 for decades.

One reason the signal reached me so well as a kid in Mississippi tuned in during the Musicradio days, was that a feud between the station and the Cook County taxing authority all those years ago prompted them to place their tower just over the Will County line, to the south of the city (most other legacy AM stations sites were to the north).

So their installation might not be quite as old as KVI, but it's on up there.
 
The oldest that I know of is WJEJ in Hagerstown, Maryland.

The transmitter is still in the original building. It looks like a new building, but the new larger building was built around the existing building about 20 years ago after the studios were moved to the transmitter site.

They are still using the original self supporting tower that they signed on with 80 years ago in 1932.
 
satech said:
In 1943 when WABC moved their transmitter site from Bound Brook to Lodi, NJ, rather than erecting a new tower, they took down and moved the Bound Brook tower, which had been originally installed in 1925. I know that at least as of 2005, that tower was still in use, and I haven't heard of it being replaced since then.
Click to expand...

The Bound Brook site may have been in use as far back as 1925, but the tower was newer. I believe it went up around 1935. The first vertical series-fed, base-insulated radiators didn't come into use until about 1931. WABC (WCBS) at Wayne, NJ had one of the first ones, and so did WNAC in Boston. They predated WSM and WLW by a year or so. All of those early ones were Blaw-Knox "diamond" towers. The first uniform cross-section guyed tower may have been KFI.
 
WGBF was on air in 1923 at or near the same time as another famous station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGBF_(AM). I hate to use WIKI as my reference however the previous article used this as well.

The original operation developed into a share time arrangement with a cow bell to signal the other station was going off. The logs back to this time noted such things as an engineer was on site. Wonder if the books are still in the fallout shelter? The original transmitters were built on site. There is a 1952 Collins 10kw run at 5 (so the spare tubes are available) at the site still. Looked through the window and saw it and it's singing transformers a few years ago.

The station went on air at a bad time economically. Giving away loaves of bread was one contest. They later developed an AM transmitter in the Armstrong Band then converted it to the FM band we know. It was WMLL (Martin Liech). The minds behind this developed E.S.I. that we know now as E.R.I.(Electronics Research).

Only a pole or two remains of the old copper feedline consisting of 6 outer conductors (shield) with a single copper radiator inside (inner conductor). This was all a product of WW2 era thriftiness that lasted until after 2000. The site was refurbished during WW2.
 
It may not be the oldest, but definitely one of the older sites is WTIC's plant in Avon, CT. The building is the original 1929 building, and the original tower bases and tuning house for the T cage antenna are still there, while the station uses the two towers that were installed in 1939.
 
WSAJ in Grove City, PA was one of the very oldest sites until they gave up the AM license in 2006.

85 years at the same site. Scott had a great piece on them:

http://www.fybush.com/NERW/2006/060206/nerw.html

Another one of those very old wire antennas. The last of them were WSAJ (deleted 2006), KPPC-AM Pasadena, CA (deleted late 90s), and KGFJ/KYPA Los Angeles (moved from the wire antenna on the roof of the Odd Fellows Building in LA a few years ago).

I don't think there are any more ancient wire sites operating in the USA anymore, but Scott will know.
 
I believe KYPA in LA moved back to the Odd Fellow's Building since they couldn't cover their intended demographic from the new site.
 
I think the AM 990 tower (formerly WNOX now WNML, thanks to Citadel) in Knoxville is using the original site. The two self supporting are original but the buyer tower was installed later. I will try to get in touch with a local engineer to confirm.
 
KXA 770 Seattle used a longwire antenna until increasing power to 50 KW about 30 years ago. That's pretty late for one of those!
 
The KXA long wire was the former site for KIRO (1941) befor they moved to Vashon (which is where KXA moved to when they went 50kw). I actually got to see that site several times and worked in the building when Kidstar was around. KXA moved the transmitter to West Seattle (1kw) for few years before moving to Vashon.
 
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