The most powerful stations in Florida on the AM band all seem to be Class Bs. I find that rather odd that no station in Florida was ever given Class A status.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Are there any Class A AMs in Florida?
- Thread starter livingfruitvirus
- Start date
livingfruitvirus said:The most powerful stations in Florida on the AM band all seem to be Class Bs. I find that rather odd that no station in Florida was ever given Class A status.
I just checked and there are indeed no Class A stations in Florida.
I count 32 Class A stations. (I'm probably off by one or two, and I'm only counting in the US. There are more in Canada and Mexico.) These stations are in 18 states. So it's more likely than not that a given state will NOT have any Class A stations.
Remember that the fundamental channel assignments date back to the late 1920s - by 1930 the basic layout of the AM band was complete and most if not all of today's Class A stations were already on the air and among the nation's biggest. Remember also that Florida was a MUCH less-populated state then.
You see something similar in the West, with states like Arizona, Oregon, and Washington having no Class A stations whatsoever. When they were handing out the channels these states didn't have enough people to justify a Class A - by the time they *did* have enough people (say, by the late 1950s) there were no class A channels left.
You also see it in many Southern markets with FM. The South was far less urban when the channels were handed out, so the channels got spread around the smaller outlying towns. There are, for example, only six commercial FM stations in Atlanta. (all other "Atlanta" stations are actually licensed to suburbs and other outlying towns) There are only five in Nashville, and only four in Charlotte. Huntsville, Alabama grew even faster than its larger neighbors, and ended up with only two commercial FM assignments. (and only one TV; the other four Huntsville TV stations use channels that were assigned later in the 1950s/1960s or moved in from other Northern Alabama cities)
w9wi said:Remember that the fundamental channel assignments date back to the late 1920s - by 1930 the basic layout of the AM band was complete and most if not all of today's Class A stations were already on the air and among the nation's biggest. Remember also that Florida was a MUCH less-populated state then.
At http://www.davidgleason.com/Radio_Archives.htm I have posted the Radex lists of US stations from 1929 (pre Federal Radio Act), 1933 and 1940 (pre NARBA channel reassignment). You can see the frequency by frequency lists of the entire AM band.
I fail to understand why Class A's cannot be moved from one location to another within a country to which they are assigned. We realign congressional districts all the time. If a hypothetical Class A AM in Florida is
short spaced to a station in some other country (probably Mexico or Central/South America), additional towers could beam the signal back toward the heart of the continental U.S. A Miami Class A wouldn't lose much beaming its signal from, say, Homestead back up I-95. Florida is the most populous state without any Class A's.
short spaced to a station in some other country (probably Mexico or Central/South America), additional towers could beam the signal back toward the heart of the continental U.S. A Miami Class A wouldn't lose much beaming its signal from, say, Homestead back up I-95. Florida is the most populous state without any Class A's.
smedge2006 said:I fail to understand why Class A's cannot be moved from one location to another within a country to which they are assigned. We realign congressional districts all the time. If a hypothetical Class A AM in Florida is
short spaced to a station in some other country (probably Mexico or Central/South America), additional towers could beam the signal back toward the heart of the continental U.S. A Miami Class A wouldn't lose much beaming its signal from, say, Homestead back up I-95. Florida is the most populous state without any Class A's.
The FCC sees a Class A signal as something that's no longer necessary, but it seems they don't want to force stations to drop them, so the best they can do is just lock them in place. Class A licenses are no longer distributed, and if a station ever drops its Class A status, it can never get it back.
I don't think they can be moved simply because of potential station interference. There are a lot of little AMs around the country that no one knows about. With most Class A frequencies, you won't see another AM on that frequency for hundreds and hundreds of miles. In 1995, WOWO in Ft. Wayne downgraded to Class B so that 1190 WLIB in New York could broadcast at night.
I was just curious though. Florida, in all honesty, doesn't really NEED a Class A. The populations around Florida are very centralized, so Class B stations are still effective, unlike other parts of the country. It would be nice to have "Florida's AM radio station," but not necessary.
smedge2006 said:I fail to understand why Class A's cannot be moved from one location to another within a country to which they are assigned. We realign congressional districts all the time. If a hypothetical Class A AM in Florida is
short spaced to a station in some other country (probably Mexico or Central/South America), additional towers could beam the signal back toward the heart of the continental U.S. A Miami Class A wouldn't lose much beaming its signal from, say, Homestead back up I-95. Florida is the most populous state without any Class A's.
Mexico, Canada, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and the US have a radio agreement stemming from NARBA back in 1941 (which included Cuba). Other countries do not protect the US, and we do not protect them.
Even with most Florida metros hemmed in by the ocean, the nighttime interference free coverage areas of even the largest Class B AM's are so small that they cannot adequately cover their given metros.
No Jacksonville AM covers its city of license because of nighttime interference. All CP's for nighttime service since 1968 have had to ask for waivers to the 80 percent coverage rule because it simply cannot be accomplished with current levels of interference. No Tampa AM at night reaches all of the fast-growing northern suburbs up the Suncoast Parkway which have been part of the metro since 1985. WTBN 570 comes closest because its six sticks are actually right next to the highway in Pasco County, a bit of serendipity since they were constructed 14 years before the roadway. Orlando's oldest signal and the one with the lowest NIF, WDBO, has trouble in northern Seminole County (part of its metro). If Lake County is ever brought into the metro, forget about it.
Other than WFTL with its new 24 kW signal on 850, no Florida AM covers 100 percent of its home metro at night with an interference-free signal, with the possible exception of WQAM before Cuban interference became problematic several years ago. Even the pre-WAQI WGBS on 710, 50 kW DA-N with no Cuban interference, could not cover Broward after dark. That's part of the reason it was sold to a Hispanic broadcaster.
I know about Old Gringo's "10 millivolt" rule of thumb, but Class A's would still have value even in the digital universe. They will likely receive less interference from IBOC in their home service areas, simply because their NIF's are so low to begin with.
Either let the Florida stations buy out interfering stations and expand their NIF's, or expect what's left of the AM band to die first in the Sunshine State before any other large state. The same pattern occurred in Florida with AM music stations in the seventies. WLOF, WLCY and WGBS were lame ducks long before WABC and WLS.
No Jacksonville AM covers its city of license because of nighttime interference. All CP's for nighttime service since 1968 have had to ask for waivers to the 80 percent coverage rule because it simply cannot be accomplished with current levels of interference. No Tampa AM at night reaches all of the fast-growing northern suburbs up the Suncoast Parkway which have been part of the metro since 1985. WTBN 570 comes closest because its six sticks are actually right next to the highway in Pasco County, a bit of serendipity since they were constructed 14 years before the roadway. Orlando's oldest signal and the one with the lowest NIF, WDBO, has trouble in northern Seminole County (part of its metro). If Lake County is ever brought into the metro, forget about it.
Other than WFTL with its new 24 kW signal on 850, no Florida AM covers 100 percent of its home metro at night with an interference-free signal, with the possible exception of WQAM before Cuban interference became problematic several years ago. Even the pre-WAQI WGBS on 710, 50 kW DA-N with no Cuban interference, could not cover Broward after dark. That's part of the reason it was sold to a Hispanic broadcaster.
I know about Old Gringo's "10 millivolt" rule of thumb, but Class A's would still have value even in the digital universe. They will likely receive less interference from IBOC in their home service areas, simply because their NIF's are so low to begin with.
Either let the Florida stations buy out interfering stations and expand their NIF's, or expect what's left of the AM band to die first in the Sunshine State before any other large state. The same pattern occurred in Florida with AM music stations in the seventies. WLOF, WLCY and WGBS were lame ducks long before WABC and WLS.
In all the years I lived in Miami, I never seemed to have a problem receiving WIOD at night.
- Status
- This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.