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Laurence Glavin
Guest
According to Allaccess.com, WDCD-AM 1540 has applied to go silent at least for a while until they can come up with a viable format. How about goping away so 1540s in Exeter, Nh or Newport, RI could go 24/7.
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Strange Crawford couldn't keep the simulcast going if it's only a format question. More money problems? Perhaps 1540 will be sold.
Don't rule out the possibility of an ethnic or another religious broadcaster buying 1540, remember 
But the frequency must be saved, it's a heritage signal for the Albany area...
But the frequency must be saved, it's a heritage signal for the Albany area...The electric bill on this powerhouse is literally thousands a month and is the sure reason for silence which makes it very hard to turn a profit. The price tag on the station is also ultra high because the owner won't sell it alone without the real estate surrounding the property which makes it a very costly venture for anyone that might be interested. It's sad but the station might just go away.
Tower 1240, I think we might say that 1540 is a white elephant. It is too bad that when the station was built in the forties that the transmitter site was not about 5 to 8 miles SSW of where it is now. The directional pattern would have covered more of the capital region better and it would not be sitting on such valuable real estate. Not only is the electric bill high, but I'll bet the tax assessment and resulting tax bills are very high on the property.
Laurence Glavin said:
Think big. Philadelphia has a 50kW daytimer on 1540 (WNWR, currently running English-language programming from China Radio International). Could that be made into a viable fulltime signal if WDCD were downgraded or shut down? (Technically viable, that is. Financially viable is always another matter.)
THE_KNICKMAN said:
I've read some of the history of WPTR and it signed on in 1948 at 10kW. Soon after, the owner claimed it was not possible to provide the FCC required "city-grade" signal in all parts of Albany due to poor ground conductivity in Colonie. That led to increasing power to 50kW. A Tx site 5 to 8 miles further away would have made the signal problem in Albany even worse at 10kW, maybe to the point of not being able to secure the construction permit.
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Laurence Glavin
Guest
W2JUV_AL said:
If you view a photo of the three WDCD-AM towers at necrat.us, you'll see a bird just about to fly between two of them. One second later, that bird was vaporized.
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I've read some of the history of WPTR and it signed on in 1948 at 10kW. Soon after, the owner claimed it was not possible to provide the FCC required "city-grade" signal in all parts of Albany due to poor ground conductivity in Colonie. That led to increasing power to 50kW. A Tx site 5 to 8 miles further away would have made the signal problem in Albany even worse at 10kW, maybe to the point of not being able to secure the construction permit.
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I am sure it would have fine at 50KW, at a location like I mentioned. I did hear that they started out at 10 KW and had coverage problems, and went to 50KW.
I've read some of the history of WPTR and it signed on in 1948 at 10kW. Soon after, the owner claimed it was not possible to provide the FCC required "city-grade" signal in all parts of Albany due to poor ground conductivity in Colonie. That led to increasing power to 50kW. A Tx site 5 to 8 miles further away would have made the signal problem in Albany even worse at 10kW, maybe to the point of not being able to secure the construction permit.
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I am sure it would have fine at 50KW, at a location like I mentioned. I did hear that they started out at 10 KW and had coverage problems, and went to 50KW.
DG02816 said:
I was in Philadelphia in the early 90s...and late at night after (than) WPGR-1540 signed off at around midnight...WPTR was clearly audible there....mixing with KXEL and CHIN Toronto....the main two signals which are audible on 1540 here...when WDCD is off the air...which...I guess it will be constantly...soon...
Crawford has few creative ideas beyond paid religion and infomercials. On the rare occasion that they do have a good idea, it is poorly executed, not given enough time to succeed, and generally turns into a huge farce. I would love to see this company sold to Hubbard, or some other competant operator.
Sad what has happened to this once prestigious radio station. I remember going away to the Maine coast as a kid and being able to pick it up at night. It was top 40- late 70's. What a treat to be a teen away from your friends and hearing a station from back home. If I had gone to camp in Schoharie, 35 miles to the Southwest, I would never have heard it.
WADK's has a single tower, basically in downtown Newport. As I understand, at the time, RI-DOT offered to buy the land the tower is on at a nice price because it is at the foot of the Verrazano Bridge (Newport) and they wanted to continue with a four lane road. Moving the tower to an area that could cover Newport with 1000 watts was tricky as you can imagine none of the uppities want the tower near them. Move it too far away, and you lose city coverage in the hours before dawn and dusk. The costs because too much for a daytimer that more than likely would never have gotten a power increase.
Now with the Casino next door to the tower, and little interest in continuing the roadway through to Main Street, the tower site is pretty safe for now!
WADK's has a single tower, basically in downtown Newport. As I understand, at the time, RI-DOT offered to buy the land the tower is on at a nice price because it is at the foot of the Verrazano Bridge (Newport) and they wanted to continue with a four lane road. Moving the tower to an area that could cover Newport with 1000 watts was tricky as you can imagine none of the uppities want the tower near them. Move it too far away, and you lose city coverage in the hours before dawn and dusk. The costs because too much for a daytimer that more than likely would never have gotten a power increase.
Now with the Casino next door to the tower, and little interest in continuing the roadway through to Main Street, the tower site is pretty safe for now!
I stopped listening to them from Boston when they flipped off of "Top 40" years ago, and as time went on, the station became even more useless. I hope the turn it in, so I can keep enjoying WXEX radio in the morning without the preaching of Albany.
I once spoke to a jock back in the 70's from WPTR and he told me "This is the only station I ever worked at where I cannot hear them at my home only 8 miles from the transmitter".
Sunday nights in Boston when 1510 WMEX went off the air during the late 60's, WPTR and WKBW were two grat alternatives. Now two wasted blowtorches! :'(
I once spoke to a jock back in the 70's from WPTR and he told me "This is the only station I ever worked at where I cannot hear them at my home only 8 miles from the transmitter".
Sunday nights in Boston when 1510 WMEX went off the air during the late 60's, WPTR and WKBW were two grat alternatives. Now two wasted blowtorches! :'(
How about this for a possible scenario: Just like the owners of WLIB, NYC bought WOWO and reduced its night power as I understood it to get full time for WLIB, the owners of WNWR purchase WPTR and reduce its nighttime power so they might be able to get full-time at perhaps 5 to 10 KW. They (WNWR) are already directional favoring the east and probably might protect KXEL well enough to get approval? You engineering guys, would it fly?
I noticed that R/L doesn't even list WDCD 1540. It only lists WDCD 96.7 FM. Did R/L have the AM listed previously?
The people behind radio-locator appear to think that nobody wants information about stations that are licensed but silent. As soon as they determine that a station isn't currently off the air (and they're not always especially swift about it), that station essentially disappears from R-L's public listings, though it continues to exist somewhere in the database:
http://radio-locator.com/info/WDCD-AM
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WDCD&service=AM&status=L&hours=U
As for "pulling a WOWO," the reason it worked for Inner City and WLIB is that WOWO was a class A facility with protected skywave coverage at night. WLIB was within that protected coverage area of WOWO, and thus had no way to add night coverage as long as WOWO remained a class A.
The situation with 1540 is different on two counts. First, WDCD is not a class A license. It's a class B, with no protected skywave service. So a hypothetical WNWR night service could interfere with the incoming skywave from WDCD in the Philadelphia area, even without getting rid of WDCD. And second, 1540 is a Bahamian clear channel. In addition to KXEL, the only other class A station on 1540 is ZNS in the Bahamas. It would be exceptionally hard to put a meaningful night signal over Philadelphia from WNWR's site in Roxborough without sending impermissible skywave interference into the Bahamas. (WDCD has a deep null toward the Bahamas, which happens to null Philadelphia as well.)
http://radio-locator.com/info/WDCD-AM
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WDCD&service=AM&status=L&hours=U
As for "pulling a WOWO," the reason it worked for Inner City and WLIB is that WOWO was a class A facility with protected skywave coverage at night. WLIB was within that protected coverage area of WOWO, and thus had no way to add night coverage as long as WOWO remained a class A.
The situation with 1540 is different on two counts. First, WDCD is not a class A license. It's a class B, with no protected skywave service. So a hypothetical WNWR night service could interfere with the incoming skywave from WDCD in the Philadelphia area, even without getting rid of WDCD. And second, 1540 is a Bahamian clear channel. In addition to KXEL, the only other class A station on 1540 is ZNS in the Bahamas. It would be exceptionally hard to put a meaningful night signal over Philadelphia from WNWR's site in Roxborough without sending impermissible skywave interference into the Bahamas. (WDCD has a deep null toward the Bahamas, which happens to null Philadelphia as well.)
So Scott, if I read between the lines, WNWR would have to at least have a night time only site positioned such that a signal could easily cover Philly and place a null towards the Bahamas?
If it's going to have any kind of serious power, yes, it has to null the Bahamas - and Waterloo, Iowa, too. Remember that WNWR (then WPGR, I think) did have night authorization for a little while in the early 1990s, running from the Roxborough site and licensed to Bala Cynwyd. It was pretty minimal - 500 watts? - and didn't really usefully serve Philadelphia.
My gut tells me that anyone with the cash to even contemplate building a competitive night signal for WNWR would be much better off using that money to buy 950 or 610 or whatever else might be for sale.
My gut tells me that anyone with the cash to even contemplate building a competitive night signal for WNWR would be much better off using that money to buy 950 or 610 or whatever else might be for sale.
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