Matta Broadcasting

[PHIL Z]

The Current Owner of WLFP 1550 Michael Meter Called it a "Cockamamie Station". Lets See!

8/1946 Matta Broadcasting Applies for 910 AM Braddock Pa.
11/18/1946 Matta Applies to Change From 910 to 1550 1 Kw Daytime.
12/9/1946 Change to 1550 Approved.
2/3/1947 Mod of CP for 5KW day and Night Using DAN.
6/9/1947 WLOA 1550 1 KW day on the AIR.
11/8/1948 Matta Granted FM 96.9 20 KW Pittsburgh. [WLFM]
2/15/1952 Matta Broadcasting Applies for Channel 4 Braddock PA, Channel 61 Akron Ohio And Channel 52 Atlantic City NJ.
Too Bad They did not get the 5kw Signal. Or keep 96.9 Licensed to Pittsburgh. But they Hit The Ground Running.

 

[Boss Radio]

What?

 

[PHIL Z]

My Point, It Might be a "Cockamamie Station" with a Poor Signal But The Original Owner and Builder Had Big Plans.And Took Chances.

 

[Boss Radio]

In 1952, there was merit in taking chances with bad AM signals. In 2012, it's a cockamamie station.

 

[cingram]

Matta's application to allocate channel 4 to Braddock was rejected because 170-mile separation was
required, and Braddock was only 169.39 miles from channel 4 in Columbus, Ohio. Eventually, channel
4 was allocated to Irwin, and later allowed to license/identify as Pittsburgh.

C.

 

[Parttimer]

What the original owner did 60 years ago has very little to do with the current value of the facility.....

 

[FreddyE1977]

Relatives I presume to the Matta who used to be the Mayor of Duquesne, PA?

 

[hypwr]

I worked for Bill Matta in 1957 when they were a classical music station. They aired a live organ recital from Carnegie Music Hall every Sunday afternoon.

When no one was interested in FM, they applied for a CP and picked up one of the 3 Westinghouse 10KW RF amplifiers stored at the KDKA xmtr. Somewhere they found a Federal 3 KW xmtr and used it as a driver. It worked. erp 68 KW if I remember correctly.

 

[Savage]

Probably all horizontal polarization too, right, hyp?

 

[secondchoice]

Probably all horizontal polarization too, right, hyp?

Most likely, according to:

http://www.astronwireless.com/topic-archives-antennas-polarization.asp

vertical polarization did not come about until the 1960's when automobiles had vertical "whip" antennas.

 

[hypwr]

Probably all horizontal polarization too, right, hyp?

Yes. I think they had an 8 bay Jampro antenna which was similar to the original Andrew unit.

 

[PHIL Z]

Tal Weimer WNUF GM Discribed it as Home Radio Horizinal Power, Vehicle Radio Vertical Power.

 

[filenz]

Tal Weimer WNUF GM Discribed it as Home Radio Horizinal Power, Vehicle Radio Vertical Power.

Does anyone know about Tal Weimer, I worked for him in the 70's, I've asked many people an nobody seems to know.