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Is WSB Taking the Weekend Off Too?

R

RoddyFreeman

Late last night, WSB-AM was off the air. This morning, they're back on but so faint that they're barely audible. And I live 6 blocks from the transmitter.

Wherever that faint trace of a signal is coming from, it's not Northlake. A few years ago, they were going to add a 10KW backup transmitter at the WGKA site. But this is no 10KW signal.

Does anyone know what's up?
 
I believe the backup site is am 1340's tower in Marietta. They never struck a deal with WGKA which would be a better site but would involve massive retuning of the tower farm there with am 790,970,1190 and 1690.
 
amlover said:
I believe the backup site is am 1340's tower in Marietta. They never struck a deal with WGKA which would be a better site but would involve massive retuning of the tower farm there with am 790,970,1190 and 1690.
Click to expand...

Interesting. There's no mention of a backup site at fcc.gov. Do you know what the backup power is?

I went by the Northlake Festival site this morning, and there was no sign of anything unusual. I'm pretty sure the main site has a backup transmitter. If this is just an issue of maintenance, why wouldn't they be using it?
 
They may have had a problem with the antenna matching network, transmission line, or switching systems. Or it could have been other issues which required all RF energy to be off at the site.
I think they do have a site ay 1230 in Marietta although I'm not sure - I've never seen it. You should still hear the signal throughout Atlanta metro with no problem - I think it is 10,000 watts.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
Late last night, WSB-AM was off the air. This morning, they're back on but so faint that they're barely audible. And I live 6 blocks from the transmitter.

Wherever that faint trace of a signal is coming from, it's not Northlake. A few years ago, they were going to add a 10KW backup transmitter at the WGKA site. But this is no 10KW signal.

Does anyone know what's up?
Click to expand...

It was a Sunday morning, so it sounds like the time they do maintence. They probably thought no one was listening on the Sunday of Labor Day.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
amlover said:
I believe the backup site is am 1340's tower in Marietta. They never struck a deal with WGKA which would be a better site but would involve massive retuning of the tower farm there with am 790,970,1190 and 1690.
Click to expand...

Interesting. There's no mention of a backup site at fcc.gov. Do you know what the backup power is?

I went by the Northlake Festival site this morning, and there was no sign of anything unusual. I'm pretty sure the main site has a backup transmitter. If this is just an issue of maintenance, why wouldn't they be using it?
Click to expand...


The backup site is on the 1340 am tower, a short stick and runs 10,000 watts and was installed last year I think. They do have two DX-50's at the main site in Nortlake but like Tom mentioned may have had other issues to deal with at the main site.
 
1340's transmitter is near Clarke-Atlanta University and 1240 is in Marietta. In this thread it is mentioned that each of the two is the backup site for WSB-AM. Which is it?
 
I was thinking it was 1230, WFOM, Marietta's tower. That tower is about half the height of the Northlake Tower WSB normally uses so the 1230 tower would probably be in the neighborhood of a quarterwave tower at 750 kHz. It should provide a respectable signal throughout the metro with 10Kw. Something else must have been wrong if the signal was barely audible 5 blocks from the tower.
I'm guessing WSB Radio engineering has better things to do than post on Radio-Info.....
 
taylorengineer said:
I was thinking it was 1230, WFOM, Marietta's tower. That tower is about half the height of the Northlake Tower WSB normally uses so the 1230 tower would probably be in the neighborhood of a quarterwave tower at 750 kHz. It should provide a respectable signal throughout the metro with 10Kw. Something else must have been wrong if the signal was barely audible 5 blocks from the tower.
I'm guessing WSB Radio engineering has better things to do than post on Radio-Info.....
Click to expand...

What I said, Tom, was that it was barely audible 6 blocks from the Northlake site, leading me to believe it was coming from somewhere else. If that was 10,000 watts coming from near Franklin Road in Marietta, it's the poorest 10,000 watts I've ever heard.
 
taylorengineer said:
I was thinking it was 1230, WFOM, Marietta's tower. That tower is about half the height of the Northlake Tower WSB normally uses so the 1230 tower would probably be in the neighborhood of a quarterwave tower at 750 kHz. It should provide a respectable signal throughout the metro with 10Kw. Something else must have been wrong if the signal was barely audible 5 blocks from the tower.
I'm guessing WSB Radio engineering has better things to do than post on Radio-Info.....
Click to expand...

From another engineer buddy named Taylor,(well last name anyway) that worked for WSB for a time told me the backup tower was 1340. It was in the works when he was there. My guess is it will rarely be used anyway.
 
From another engineer buddy named Taylor,(well last name anyway) that worked for WSB for a time told me the backup tower was 1340. It was in the works when he was there. My guess is it will rarely be used anyway.
Click to expand...

The 1340 tower is not in Marietta; it's on the Clarke Atlanta University campus near downtown.

I called Charles Kinney this morning and asked what happened. He said he doesn't comment on matters inside the station. I'm not sure what the big deal about this is, but that was his response.
 
I too woke up Sunday morning to listen to Day1 at 7 am and thought my radio had been mistuned, but I finally found the very faint signal (I'm in Midtown). 640, 920, everything was coming in clear except for the clear channel voice of the South.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
I called Charles Kinney this morning and asked what happened. He said he doesn't comment on matters inside the station. I'm not sure what the big deal about this is, but that was his response.
Click to expand...

Usually, Cox is very open. Someone there must have f'ed up something, which would make it a personnel issue.

If they were doing maintence - early Sunday AM sounds like the perfect time to do it. If not - there may have been technical problems (and if it affected paid programming - WSB-AM managment may not be happy).

Charles Kinney may be nervous about talking to people outside of Cox about whatever happened, and taking the "no comment" road. I would contact someone else.
 
Kabrich knows Charles Kinney. Maybe he can get us the scoop......
 
If they were doing maintence - early Sunday AM sounds like the perfect time to do it. If not - there may have been technical problems (and if it affected paid programming - WSB-AM managment may not be happy).

Charles Kinney may be nervous about talking to people outside of Cox about whatever happened, and taking the "no comment" road. I would contact someone else.
Click to expand...

I doubt it was maintenance. WSB seemed to be off the air totally late Saturday night, and Sunday morning they were on with that faint signal. If the issue was transmitter maintenance, they probably would have switched to their backup transmitter unit, which sits near the current one at the main site.

You could be right that someone screwed up. I could probably find out through other contacts, but I'm going to respect Mr. Kinney's wishes.
 
It sounds like a conspiracy..... Maybe Taylor Engineer knows someone over there. Inquiring minds want to know....
 
Come on guys.....nobody screwed anything up. WSB has one of the best engineering staffs in the nation.
1.Dick Bryd, 40 years in the business - 20 of those as chief of Z93.
2.Bob Hellsbush, 40 years experience - 22 of those as chief of 96 Rock.
3. David Jones, 30+ years experience - I think all of those at WSB.
4. Charles Kinney - don't know how many years Charles has in the biz but he goes all over the country helping the engineering staffs of the other Cox stations. Knows Maestro better than practically anyone in the industry. Next in line to be Director of Engineering of Cox Radio.
This is the cream of the crop folks. One reason you have engineers is to fix those things that "go poof in the middle of the night." And I don't care how good the equipment is.....or how talented the engineering staff is.....things will go "poof" in the middle of the night - or sometimes morning drive.
Don't read anything into Charles not commenting. I know he sometimes gets an earful from the sales weasles and board-ops that read this board and probably knows not to open that Pandora's box.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
Late last night, WSB-AM was off the air. This morning, they're back on but so faint that they're barely audible. And I live 6 blocks from the transmitter.

Wherever that faint trace of a signal is coming from, it's not Northlake. A few years ago, they were going to add a 10KW backup transmitter at the WGKA site. But this is no 10KW signal.

Does anyone know what's up?
Click to expand...

Yes, they we're all hung over from a dawg day afternoon in Athens, GA
 
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