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Dangerously high levels of AM construction

It seems like the 6 tower nite array for WCPT 820 has been errected. Will we hear the dance factory on AM in the future?
 
Do you have any idea how long they've been up Link, or have any idea when they'll start using them? I'm actually
surprised, I didn't think they would build them.

Do you think once the AM is 24/7, that they will put something else on the FM's?
 
Just realized that WCPT had a CP to start broadcasting at night. In a word: that sucks. There goes WBAP and their normally decent nighttime signal! Not that anyone cares as I am not entitled to listen to it. Still, I'd rather hear than than most of the blather that's on WCPT. What a shame that this was allowed.

And, speaking of blather, what's up with RFK Jr.? I've heard his show on WCPT and the man sounds horrible. Like he is in dire need of a drink of water....it's just awful. Is AA that desperate for hosts?
 
Depending on how true the coverage will be, based on the radio-locator coverage, will keep the signal out of Indiana. So I'll either get splatter, or hear WBAP clearly. Even if the signal reaches Chicago, I expect WBAP to be heard over WCPT-AM. In certain parts of Downtown Chicago, I can hear another AM station over WBBM-AM. I could never make it out, but WBBM-AM (being local local) isn't immune to interference.
 
Dave said:
Depending on how true the coverage will be, based on the radio-locator coverage, will keep the signal out of Indiana. So I'll either get splatter, or hear WBAP clearly. Even if the signal reaches Chicago, I expect WBAP to be heard over WCPT-AM. In certain parts of Downtown Chicago, I can hear another AM station over WBBM-AM. I could never make it out, but WBBM-AM (being local local) isn't immune to interference.

That's because WBBM's tx site is out along I-290 in Elk Grove or Itasca or Roselle - one of those many 'burbs in that area west of O'Hare. So it's a little distance from downtown and perhaps prone to some blockage from buildings. Their hopped-up IBOC system can't help matters with analog reception either. Now, in my area NW of Chicago, NOTHING challenges WBBM (nor WGN) with interference.

Wish I had your confidence about WCPT not screwing up WBAP for me, but it's likely that it will to at least some degree. Just depends on whether I can null out their 1500 watt signal.
 
Agree that much of what's on WCPT is "blather". But same goes for WBAP, altbeit of a different type! As a politcal independent (and skeptic), I personally like having the availability of both types of blather. :)
 
It seems like the 6 tower nite array for WCPT 820 has been erected. Will we hear the dance factory on AM in the future?

Where is the tower site? Plugging in the Geographical Coordinates from FCC and radio-locator yields empty cornfields! Would Dance Factory even sound good on AM??? Perhaps WCPT-AM could run AM Stereo (C-QUAM, of course!)

I vote for the blather to continue on AM all night, and the music on FM! (or how about the music 24/7 on FM and a repeater in the loop on 92.7... "sure, dream on...")
 
cyberdad said:
Agree that much of what's on WCPT is "blather". But same goes for WBAP, altbeit of a different type! As a politcal independent (and skeptic), I personally like having the availability of both types of blather. :)

WBAP's "blather" has, if nothing else, superior production qualities. ;)
 
BRNout said:
cyberdad said:
Agree that much of what's on WCPT is "blather". But same goes for WBAP, altbeit of a different type! As a politcal independent (and skeptic), I personally like having the availability of both types of blather. :)

WBAP's "blather" has, if nothing else, superior production qualities. ;)
...so did Joe Goebbels ;D ...
 
stormy01 said:
It seems like the 6 tower nite array for WCPT 820 has been erected. Will we hear the dance factory on AM in the future?

Where is the tower site? Plugging in the Geographical Coordinates from FCC and radio-locator yields empty cornfields! Would Dance Factory even sound good on AM??? Perhaps WCPT-AM could run AM Stereo (C-QUAM, of course!)

I vote for the blather to continue on AM all night, and the music on FM! (or how about the music 24/7 on FM and a repeater in the loop on 92.7... "sure, dream on...")

According to Google Maps, the tower site is somewhere between Joliet & New Lenox. If the towers are actually up in the picture, then the site looks like it's in a triangle shape, with 2 towers in each point.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=41.54167,+-88.03417+(WCPT-AM)&om=1
 
Dang. If that's true, then it's the same angle toward Joliet/New Lennox as it is toward Dallas from my location.
I'll never hear WBAP again, except as a mashed-up warble. WBAP hasn't been the same to me since Bill Mack went to satellite.
 
Ultimajock said:
BRNout said:
cyberdad said:
Agree that much of what's on WCPT is "blather". But same goes for WBAP, altbeit of a different type! As a politcal independent (and skeptic), I personally like having the availability of both types of blather. :)

WBAP's "blather" has, if nothing else, superior production qualities. ;)
...so did Joe Goebbels ;D ...

Goebbels was a big government kind of guy. Not entirely dissimilar to those who host shows on WCPT. :eek:
 
Dave said:
According to Google Maps, the tower site is somewhere between Joliet & New Lenox. If the towers are actually up in the picture, then the site looks like it's in a triangle shape, with 2 towers in each point.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=41.54167,+-88.03417+(WCPT-AM)&om=1

Plugged in the Geographical Coordinates on bing.com and selected the 'Bird's Eye View' That is a Communications Tower, and the 6 things that are thought to be towers are the anchors for the guy wires (actually, cables) That aerial photo must be as out of date as the aerial photo for WRTO-1200. That's why we're not seeing the towers for either station online yet. There was some kind of station that was continuously playing Public Service Announcements one right after another around 11:00 p.m. last night, and one of the PSA's mentioned a phone number that started with 847- (and then of course the signal faded out or WBAP/CHAM drowned it out) I can't say 100% sure that it was WCPT-AM testing... The bearing on the signal with the PSA's sure seemed to correspond with WCPT-AM's New Lenox site with respect to my location.
 
BRNout said:
Ultimajock said:
BRNout said:
cyberdad said:
Agree that much of what's on WCPT is "blather". But same goes for WBAP, altbeit of a different type! As a politcal independent (and skeptic), I personally like having the availability of both types of blather. :)

WBAP's "blather" has, if nothing else, superior production qualities. ;)
...so did Joe Goebbels ;D ...

Goebbels was a big government kind of guy. Not entirely dissimilar to those who host shows on WCPT. :eek:

Wow. I thought this was an Ultimajock response.
I bet Goebbels was a big supporter of the "ReichsVolk" receiver, as permitted for use in Nazi Germany, with only THREE tubes, deaf as a post,
not capable of "outside" reception, but adequate for the Reich's multiple MW installations.

I made some comments, years ago, about how uncannily similar the present HD radio scheme reproduces the same "controlled" access to "markets"
so useful for information "control" I have since toned down such "paranoid" type postings.


I expect it will be like losing KSL when WJJD or whatever they were at the time getting 24. Can't hear 'em, but they sure broke my radio on xxx/x khz.
Some pipsqueak 820 in Maryland or Va ruined 820 for HALF the nation in the mid 80's and you couldn't make 'em out even 50 miles away.
Rant mode off.

"This program came to you from Chicago".
 
Dave said:
According to Google Maps, the tower site is somewhere between Joliet & New Lenox. If the towers are actually up in the picture, then the site looks like it's in a triangle shape, with 2 towers in each point.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=41.54167,+-88.03417+(WCPT-AM)&om=1

Actually, what you see in that photo is a pre-existing 2-way tower that is adjacent to the WCPT property. The WCPT towers are not in that picture...it's an old picture. It's going to be some time before a more recent picture of that location will be available.


In the meantime don't look for WCPT to be on the air from the new site until some time in early 2010. There is alot of work to do besides putting up towers.
 
Thanks to the link provided in this thread, I found the new WCPT night site in Google Maps. I also found Willow Springs, WCPT's new CoL. I am suprised at how far south of the CoL WCPT's new night Tx will be. I didn't try to measure the distance on the map but it looked to me like 20 miles or thereabouts. Willow Springs seems to be quite close to the pattern maximum (an inverse-distance field of 1054 mV/m @ 1 km). I know you folks have excellent soil conductivity in your area, but I assume that the NIF contour will just barely cover the CoL. Can anybody tell us what the NIF is supposed to be?
 
Dan, the NIF Contour is 15.5 mv/m which is very much only in the south west suburbs of Chicago. Years ago when I built the AM-820, WAIT, night array in Elmhurst, IL (for previous owners) the signal barely covered the north western city limits of Chicago. WBAP puts a gargantuan skywave into Chicago.

Even though, it was a sad day when that array had to come down and the station put into storage till it was sold....sniffle....sniffle.
 
Years ago when I built the AM-820, WAIT, night array in Elmhurst, IL (for previous owners) the signal barely covered the north western city limits of Chicago. WBAP puts a gargantuan skywave into Chicago.

I remember visiting the Chicago area around 1970. Back in those days, WAIT 820 was a daytimer transmitting from Elmhurst. (Can't recall whether they were allowed to stay on at full power until Fort Worth sunset, but that can't be much later than Chicago sunset.) Anyhow, I was picked up at O'Hare in the late afternoon (can't remember what season of the year it was) and we drove up to someplace in southern WI to spend the night before a visit to an industrial plant the next morning. WAIT was running a beautiful music format and we rode it all the way up to our destination. Wonderful clean signal and nice music too. No hint of WBAP (or WOSU) but it must have stll been daylight the whole way. 15.5 mV/m is certainly a believable NIF. If the distance from the new night site to the CoL really is the 20 or so miles I've guessed, it's hard to imagine that the signal in Willow Springs will be listenable every night. OTOH, with that great soil conductivity, maybe it will be.
 
I fount the WCPT application at CDBS. (I believe that the calls were WAIT when it was filed in 2005.) It shows Willow Springs to be well within the 15.5 mV/m NIF. That means that either my 20-mile estimate for the distance between the site and Willow Springs was too great or the soil conductivity is even better than I imagined it could be. I also looked up Elmhust in Google Maps and it seems likely that this new night site is a good deal further south than the old WAIT 820 site. If that's so, coverage of Chicago from this site will be better than from the old site. The somewhat higher night power (1.5 kW vs 1 kW) should help a bit. Still, it doesn't appear as though much of the City of Chicago will receive an officially interference-free night signal.
 
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