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NH CP Helps WKAF?

L

Laurence Glavin

Guest
An application by WSNI-FM 97.7 to change its City of License from Winchendon, MA to Swanzea, NH and move its antenna practically into Keene itself will probably reduce interference to WKAF in the northwest. Of course, all Entercom cares about is its coverage in Boston.
 
Laurence Glavin said:
An application by WSNI-FM 97.7 to change its City of License from Winchendon, MA to Swanzea, NH and move its antenna practically into Keene itself will probably reduce interference to WKAF in the northwest. Of course, all Entercom cares about is its coverage in Boston.
Click to expand...

Right, WAAF 107.3 already covers fine anywhere that might benefit WKAF 97.7 when WSNI moves, which is the area north and west of Route 128.

WKAF is intended to cover metro Boston within 128 (and toward the south) where WAAF has problems, and WSNI moving won't make any difference in that area.
 
Perhaps, but with WSNI further away perhaps WKAF could increase power. They're already about as high as they're going to get, being on the WGBH tower on top of Blue Hill. And they're already omni in pattern. But they're only using 1700 watts.

Granted, an increase in power probably means a change in class, which may or may not be a big deal depending on what the spacing is to adjacent stations like WJFD 97.3fm. I have no idea how that would work out (or not work out).

But I do know that it's an "expand or suffer" world when it comes to signals. If there's any way for Entercom to build out WKAF more - they will do it. If for no other reason than to protect 97.7's fringe. Plus, let's pretend that they could increase power to, say, 6000 watts. Combine that with WMKK 93.7 and you've got a decent FM coverage over all of metro Boston. Downtown penetration could be better, but it won't be hideous. That's a marketable alternative for Entercom to shift the Sox games off of WRKO if Sox brass get antsy for an FM outlet again. Or for Entercom to sell both signals in order to raise the cash to buy a single Pru or FM-128 signal (something they currently lack).

Obviously that's all wild speculation and its merits are debatable. But there's almost always value in eeking every last watt you can out of an allocation.
 
webcastboy said:
Perhaps, but with WSNI further away perhaps WKAF could increase power. They're already about as high as they're going to get, being on the WGBH tower on top of Blue Hill. And they're already omni in pattern. But they're only using 1700 watts.
Click to expand...

WKAF is 1700 watts ERP. Doesn't their Class A status mean that it is the equivalent of 6000 watts (due to antenna height, etc)? None of the Class B stations on the Pru or 128 are putting out anywhere near 50,000 watts ERP, but their height and other factors make their signals considered equivalent to 50 kW.

webcastboy said:
Granted, an increase in power probably means a change in class, which may or may not be a big deal depending on what the spacing is to adjacent stations like WJFD 97.3fm. I have no idea how that would work out (or not work out).
Click to expand...

WOKQ 97.5 Dover, NH would most likely object to anything more from WKAF going north. I'd imagine that if Entercom can somehow get anything more out of 97.7 going toward Boston, they'll do it.
 
Yeah, Class A's are limited to 6000 watts at 100 meters HAAT, or whatever the equivalent is if you go over that HAAT. The formula's more complex than this, but a rough estimate is that for every doubling of your height, you must reduce your ERP by 75%.

With non-comm's, if you increase your HAAT/ERP to a point where it's a different Class, it's not such a big deal since everything's allocated by contours anyways. But with commercial allocations it's a different ball of wax since you've got minimum distance issues between different classes AND you've got contour protection to worry about. Plus I think (emphasis on "think", as opposed to "know") the FCC tries to keep so many regional-service Class B's and C's and so many local-service Class A's within a given area.

So it's entirely possible that WKAF is already at the maximum ERP for a Class A station, and there's no way to change to a Class B (or a subclass of Class B) without encountering minimum distance problems. Of course, Entercom can always file an application anyways if they can demonstrate that no objectionable interference will occur. That's a big "if", though.

FWIW, WOKQ is about 128km from WKAF, so yeah...if WKAF were to attempt to become a Class B or B1 they would not meet the minimum distance. WJFD, at about 76km away, would also be a close shave. Directional antennas could probably get around that...but it also means it's questionable whether it'd be worth the expense at that point; a directional antenna that can handle 5000+ watts ERP is NOT cheap.
 
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