Lotsa tower, not much power (AM)

[joebtsflk1]

While looking at the Quincy IL / Hannibal MO radio market in regards to the 1440 thread, there were three AMs that ran 5 kW-D / 1 kW-N. Making the 1 kW-N for Hannibal's 1070 KHMO is a six tower array that sends a focused pattern over Hannibal north to Quincy.

A six tower, 1 kW night array may have made sense in the late 40s even into the 60s, but today such an array might be in danger of being cut down.

Here comes another list: AM stations that run 1 kW or less into a pattern that uses five towers or more. Nominations are now open.

 

[cyberdad]

First one that comes to mind for me is KSTT/KJOC, 1170, in Davenport. 1kw day/night into six towers, if I'm not mistaken. As I posted several days ago in another thread, awesome night signal in Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. Invisible just about everywhere else outside of its close-in home market.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

I'm nominating 990 WRFM licensed to Muncie, Indiana.

 

[gr8oldies]

Down the road from Muncie, WLTI-1550 NewCastle has 4 towers at night and an east-west pattern going a little southeast, and I've heard them here in East Tennessee. Another 1550 isn't supposed to be running more that 29 watts at night but runs its full 250...and that's WDLR in Delaware, Ohio, which puts a huge signal into East Tennessee. WCVL, Crawfordsville IN used to run 4 towers into a tight eas-west pattern but elected to just go to flea power ND at night.

 

[schmave]

I know WDLR sounds good at night over metro Columbus, but wow, never figured that signal would get that far south. There are some areas of Columbus where Indians night games can be heard better on WDLR than on WBNS (1460), the Tribe's Columbus affiliate that is quite directional north and south at night.

 

[joebtsflk1]

Decided to start at 1000 kHz, as a 500 watt or 1000 watt signal night-time can still cover quite a bit of territory in the lower freqs., such as KHSE 700 Wylie TX , where 920 watts in the nightime 6 tower DA, in theory at least covers most the DFW metro area, if it isn't getting nailed by 700 WLW.

1020 WURN, Kendall FL. Night-time 980 watts into 6 tower DA, shotgun pattern covers south Miami metro and fishies off the coast.

1070 KHMO Hannibal MO as described in original post

1090 WCAR Livonia MI. Night-time 500 watts into 6 tower array. Covers northwestern Detroit burbs.

1090 KMXA Aurora CO Night time 500 w into 6 tower array. Covers Aurora west into central Denver

1150 WCUE Cuyahoga Falls CO Night time 500 w into 6 tower array

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

The 1520 situation in Michigan (and now one exclusively in Ohio) provides pretty good examples.

WKJR 1520 Muskegon was 9 towers at night with just 1000 watts. The station no longer exists.

WMLM 1520 St. Louis, MI is 6 towers at night with just 1000 watts.

WTTO...WNWT 1520 Toledo had a 6 tower day array in Temperance, MI, and a 6 tower night array in Perrysburg, OH with just 1000 watts. It is now 5 towers with 500 watts day and 400 watts night.

WCHB...WDRJ 1440 has two six tower arrays for day and night with 1000 watts.

But the best example is probably WEAW...WKTA 1330 with a six tower array for just 110 watts night. And that is a recently licensed separate pattern, not a PSSA daytime array pattern that already existed.

 

[joebtsflk1]

Here's a surprise: WQTT 1270 Marysville OH. 500 watts D into a 6 tower pattern pointed west towards Maryville, at night, 500 watts into a two tower pattern pointing SE.

More knowledgable folks can weigh in here, but my guess is that the daytime pattern has to deal with stricter daytime adjacent protection (?)

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

WXYZ 1270 and WIXY 1260 by any other name are probably two day considerations, and WNDE 1260. Nighttime probably fell under the umbrella of the old WXYZ night pattern, which went South as well as it did North.

 

[schmave]

Here's a surprise: WQTT 1270 Marysville OH. 500 watts D into a 6 tower pattern pointed west towards Maryville, at night, 500 watts into a two tower pattern pointing SE.

More knowledgable folks can weigh in here, but my guess is that the daytime pattern has to deal with stricter daytime adjacent protection (?)

There are a few things about WQTT, which for years was known as WUCO because Marysville is the county seat of Union County. I have never worked there, but I have listened to the station at least in its oldies formats since the early 1990s ...
* WUCO didn't even come on the air until 1983, so that pattern had to be shoehorned in. The daytime pattern you see is supposed to protect co-channels WXYT in Detroit and WILE out in Cambridge, Ohio, among other stations I am sure.
* The reason I say "the daytime pattern you see" is because for several years now, they have been running their night pattern at all hours.
WQTT puts an impressive daytime signal over Columbus as well as neighrboring area such as Delaware and London. They have positioned themselves as a "central Ohio" station (as in not just Marysville and Union County) for a while. If they were running the old pattern, they'd never be able to pull that off, so I tend to believe they'll never revert to it. I hope they don't.
I have personally heard WQTT and WILE's remnants fighting on 1270 as close to Cambridge as 10 miles west of Zanesville, which should not be happening.
According to this old thread, WQTT/WUCO has been running on its night pattern since early 2007 ...

http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?541812-WUCO-Night-Power

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Here's a partial list, primarily of nighttime signals...

990-WRFM Muncie, IN -- 1 watt, 6 towers
1190-KQQZ Desoto, MO -- 22 watts, 5 towers
1440-WRGM Ontario, OH -- 28 watts, 6 towers
910-KINA Salina, KS -- 29 watts, 5 towers
1330-WKTA Evanston, IL -- 110 watts, 6 towers
850-KEYH Houston, TX -- 185 watts, 5 towers
1380-KMUS Sperry, OK -- 250 watts, 6 towers
1520-WNWT Rossford, OH -- 400 watts, 5 towers

500 watts, 6 towers:
1090-KMXA Aurora, CO
1090-WCAR Livonia, MI
1150-WCUE Cuyahoga Falls, OH
1520-KFXZ Lafayette, LA
1600-WHIY Huntsville, AL

500 watts, 5 towers:
620-WAKY Louisville, KY
970-KNIH Paradise, NV

890-KJME Fountain, CO -- 580 watts, 6 towers
780-KCEG Fountain, CO -- 720 watts, 6 towers
580-WKTY La Crosse, WI -- 740 watts, 5 towers
1430-WEEF Deerfield, IL -- 750 watts, 6 towers
820-WVSG Columbus, OH -- 790 watts, 6 towers
1520-KOLM Rochester, MN -- 800 watts, 6 towers
700-KHSE Wylie, TX -- 920 watts, 6 towers
740-KVOX Fargo, ND -- 940 watts, 6 towers
1020-WURN Kendall, FL -- 980 watts, 6 towers

1000 watts, 6 towers:
670-WWFE Miami, FL
790-WSGW Saginaw, MI
1070-KHMO Hannibal, MO
1160-KVCE Highland Park, TX
1170-KBOB Davenport, IA
1440-WMKM Inkster, MI
1470-WVOL Berry Hill, TN
1520-WMLM St. Louis, MI
1540-KEDA San Antonio, TX

1000 watts, 5 towers:
560-WHBQ Memphis, TN
650-WNMT Nashwauk, MN
710-KFIA Carmichael, CA
1030-WCTS Maplewood, MN
1070-WKOK Sunbury, PA
1270-WHLD Niagara Falls, NY

I haven't checked the daytime listings. I think radio-timetraveller (Bill) has a program he can use to find things like this quickly. I found a list he had given me of signal strengths at my location, which included all nighttime skywave US & Canada signals as of 9-14-2014. The daytime signals only included 5 µV/m and higher groundwave signals, though, which eliminates many of the AM stations across the USA. I imported it into LibreOffice Calc, eliminated all stations outside the scope of the OP (over 1 kW, fewer than 5 towers), then looked up the facility IDs on the FCC to make any necessary callsign updates.

 

[joebtsflk1]

WILE has an FM translator on 107.9 which might explain why the WQTT night pattern during the day continues to be the case. Plus, WILE also has two co-owned class A FMs at Cambridge.

Maybe the owners of WILE and WQTT had a talk, and everyone concerned has agreed to look the other way....

 

[joebtsflk1]

Another entry, KMUS 1380 Sperry OK...6 towers with 250 watts night primarily covering city of Tulsa. Basically the same 6 tower DA during the day but with 7 kW.

 

[joebtsflk1]

WEEF Deerfield IL 1430, 1.6 kW - D, .75 kW - N...6 towers for both day and night, covering a chunk of Chicago metro.

WMKM Inkster MI 1440, 1 kW fulltime, different 6 tower DA pattern for day and night. Day lobe points at 65 deg, night at 45 deg.. covering a chunk of Dearborn and Detroit.

 

[cyberdad]

WEEF Deerfield IL 1430, 1.6 kW - D, .75 kW - N...6 towers for both day and night, covering a chunk of Chicago metro.

And an even bigger chunk of Lake Michigan! LOL (At least in the daytime).

 

[joebtsflk1]

Here's a partial list, primarily of nighttime signals...

Thanks for your great list...I was simply perusing FCC Query with a list of class B signals, looking for listing of 6 towers (OK I cheated, I know I said 5 towers in OP) or more. Wasn't too organized in my search so it took a while.

Just now remembered the old KCJJ on 1560 in Iowa City, which was 1000 watts into a 5 tower in-line array 22 hours a day. In the beginning, around 1977 or so, KCJJ left the air for the first two hours after local sunset. While attending the UI in Iowa City during the early 80s, KCJJ had received authorization to broadcast the two hours after sunset with a power of 4 watts. And given that KCJJ's transmitter was several miles south of town, they needed all five of those towers for 4 watts to make a dent back in town. It was a little noisy, and it might have put a signal strength of maybe 1 out of 5 on the Technics receiver meter.

It goes almost without saying that during the 4 watt post-sunset hours, KCJJ would completely disappear within sight of the towers if you drove in the nulls on the south side of the pattern.

When I lived in Minnesota in the 90s, KCJJ was a regular visitor at night on 1560. That all ended in the fall of 1997 when KCJJ received their CP to move to 1630. Captain Steve wasted no time complying with the conditions that a diplexed 1560 wouldn't cause mutual interference with 1630. Since most pre X-band analog AM receivers of the time would tune up to 1630 and most digital AM tuners would go up to 1700, he had four of the five towers for KCJJ cut down, and ceased operation on 1560.

Too band the FCC hasn't gotten to KCJJ with their on-going History Card project. It would only show the first few years of operation in the 70s, but there would be the answer on what station KCJJ had to protect during the two post-sunset hours. More experienced people here probably know the answer to that question; I'm guessing it was the 50 kW class A (former I-B) 1560 at New York City, the old WQXR.

It might also show the long battle between the owners of 800 KXIC Iowa City and the upstart 1560 app at Iowa City. I'd looked through the extensive FCC Record volumes in the UI Law Library, and IIRC, that fight may have dated back to the 50s. But that investigation was nearly thirty years ago...

 

[cyberdad]

My belated thanks also to pianoplayer for the great list. I couldn't resist the smart (alec) comment about WEEF's pattern yesterday.

And thanks also, Joe, for the KCJJ history. Where I was, 48 miles south in Mount Pleasant, they had a fair-weak daytime signal on 1560. Still definitely listenable. I had no idea that there was a "donnybrook" involving them and KXIC. I presume that was all settled by the time Captain Steve reported for duty.

 

[joebtsflk1]

Cyberdad, I think there may have been several stations in the lists here that threw most of their puny signals into the water. There sure are a bunch of BIG signals on the coasts that do that same trick.

And yes, all of the wrangling between 800 and 1560 in IC was long over by the time Captain came to town. I'm not sure of this but I think KXIC's ownership in the 70s may have been behind some of the drama involving 93.9 C vs. 93.5 A being alloted to Iowa City which affected the motley young crew that put KRNA on the air, first on 93.5, then later gambled (successfully) the license to comparative hearings while seeking 93.9 which they got in 1979.

I don't think the future looks good for many of these over-towered/under-powered stations. Most of them seem to be suburban stations in major markets. They might be more economically viable than a similar small market station until the land under the towers gets too valuable. Or they decide to do what may be pending for another 1560, where WPAD Paducah has a CP to go ND with 1000 watts day, 35 watts critical hours and 35 watts night. A real craptastic signal, just to keep the FM translator going.

 

[gr8oldies]

Does WRFM even use that 1 watt into 6 towers? If so, what's the point?

 

[cyberdad]

Cyberdad, I think there may have been several stations in the lists here that threw most of their puny signals into the water. There sure are a bunch of BIG signals on the coasts that do that same trick.

And yes, all of the wrangling between 800 and 1560 in IC was long over by the time Captain came to town. I'm not sure of this but I think KXIC's ownership in the 70s may have been behind some of the drama involving 93.9 C vs. 93.5 A being alloted to Iowa City which affected the motley young crew that put KRNA on the air, first on 93.5, then later gambled (successfully) the license to comparative hearings while seeking 93.9 which they got in 1979.

I don't think the future looks good for many of these over-towered/under-powered stations. Most of them seem to be suburban stations in major markets. They might be more economically viable than a similar small market station until the land under the towers gets too valuable. Or they decide to do what may be pending for another 1560, where WPAD Paducah has a CP to go ND with 1000 watts day, 35 watts critical hours and 35 watts night. A real craptastic signal, just to keep the FM translator going.

I was originally thinking of WKTA when I made my wisecrack the other day about WEEF. Both stations actually throw most of their day signal into the lake, but not so much when they power down at night. I think they're actually diplexed off the same tower near where Radioman lives. WOKY is another station that comes to mind as throwing a major chunk of their day signal at the lake, although most of it still goes over land.

I also think you're absolutely that a lot of miniscule night signals exist as an "excuse" for translators. A semi-local here, WSQR on 1180, goes down to one watt at night. That results in a listenable signal for about a mile and a half. But they have two FM translators that cover their entire county very nicely

Finally, thanks for the further explanation of the KXIC-KCJJ history. As I said, I hadn't been aware of that. Although I do remember the fun story of KRNA's early days.