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Old 92 ZEW "Antenna" Gone From Bank Building

Roof top broadcast facilities have always been somewhat of a fascination, each having its own unique set of challenges from several perspectives logistical and otherwise. I have many personal and handed down stories about the old WLAC-FM installation on top of the old Life and Casualty building in downtown Nashville Tennessee. Some cannot be told in front of good God fearing people!

Thread now high-jacked, absconded with, returned and derailed!

Best regards,
w/
 
J Alex Bowab said:
WWOM/WGNO was atop the International Trade Mart, renamed World Trade Center (really!) of New Orleans.
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You wouldn't want people to interpret this post incorrectly. The building at the foot of Canal Street in New Orleans was renamed the World Trade Center long before the 9/11 tragedy in New York City.

Was the revolving bar on the top floor of the New Orleans World Trade Center when they had a transmitter on the roof? If it was, the engineer would have loved going to work!
 
AM facilities located atop buildings are fascinating. 1340 Atlanta, back when it was WAKE, then WIGO, was atop a downtown Atlanta building. WTIX 1450, later WNPS, WWIW, was/is a second New Orleans AM atop a building, on Tulane Ave. The typical situation is a lower powered, maybe class IV, facility in a large city. Because of its limited coverage, it has to be located in or near the center of town, where real estate costs cannot justify the amount of land needed for a tower and full ground system... so they end up sharing the spot with a building. The 990 facility was built by George Mayoral, an eccentric engineer, who also owned one of the first FMs in the country (97.1 New Orleans) and one of the first UHF TV stations (WJMR ch 20).
 
Zach said:
I find roof top facilities fascinating, too. The old AMs atop hotels seem especially odd. How do they get a ground plane so far off the ground? And how does the hotel phone system not get overloaded with bleed over? :D
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Today it would not work with all of the computer networks and IP based communications system. Ground is a counterpoise and does not have to be on the ground to be effective. Elevator shafts, steel building frames, pluming can serve as the counterpoise. Now getting the FCC to approve something like that today would be a problem because the efficiency would have to be demonstrated by field measurements not to mention the human exposure if the power is high enough. The old phone systems were quite immune to rfi. Many started out on top of buildings as "flat-top" otherwise known as Marconi antennas predating the current insulated tower over 120 ground radials. The old towers that supported the WSB flat top-on top of the Baltimore hotel are still there in Atlanta.

w/
 
J Alex Bowab said:
I seem to remember there was one other use for the top of the FNB/Amsouth Bldg. after WBLX relocated its xmtr site to the WPMI tower. BLX studio was at 1204 Dauphin, in the Dauphinway Historical District, whose authority vetoed their request to erect an STL tower sufficiently tall to beam program output to the tower, probably 25 miles away ... so they had to double-hop the STL ... from a short tower at the studio to the bank building, and a second hop from there to the xmtr at Wilcox Road exit.
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So THAT's why they had that hop. I had always wondered why they just didn't build a taller tower at the studio, and now I know. WABB must be doing some sort of similar STL hop as well. Their STL tower looks too short (IMO) to reach the Spanish Fort area. (I could be wrong.)

And thanks for confirming KSJ's old tower location. That's been a longtime curiosity of mine. Speaking of KSJ and rooftop antennas..Remember when KSJ's studios were in the Executive Center (the two 5-story twin buildings on Airport Blvd. at I-65) and they had that really cool STL tower on the rooftop there? THAT was a cool-looking tower. It even had a spinning radar on top. (I believe Oldies 96/later Young Country 96 shared the facilities with them-And maybe one other station.) That was another rooftop tower I hated to see go.
 
I doubt WABB needs the double-hop STL ... they only have to go to Malbis, where the TV-5 tower is, whereas BLX's xmtr site is perhaps 8 or 10 miles more distant to the east toward Pensacola.
 
And yes, the Dauphinway Historical District Commission had a lot of authority back then (I dunno if they still do). In 1988 I looked at buying 1410 AM, which was at 1257 Spring Hill Ave (at 5 Points, where Ann and St Stephens Road also intersect). The building dates back to the 1800s, and was considered to be within the purview of that Commission. I found out I had to meet with them and seek approval before doing anything to the exterior of the building.
 
"I doubt WABB needs the double-hop STL ... they only have to go to Malbis, where the TV-5 tower is, whereas BLX's xmtr site is perhaps 8 or 10 miles more distant to the east toward Pensacola."

Double hop or not, accross that bay everybody needed extra fade margin. I can recall a morning in 1988 or 89 when the tropo at 950 MHz. was so bad, all the Mobile FMs that shot across the bay were off the air. I was in Pensacola at (then) WOWW and were were having deep fades on 950 MHz. to our xmitter site at Molino, FL.

Dr. Bob
 
All the TV stations have the same situation - studio in Mobile, transmitter in Baldwin County. Probably has to do with temperature inversion in the atmosphere ... great time for DXing on TV/FM, but not good for business.
 
Don't think so. It hasn't been in use since perhaps 1990, and I can't remember exactly where it was on Pollard Road.

I just got the latest issue of MOBILE BAY MONTHLY. On the cover is a picture collage (montage?) of downtown Mobile buildings ... and the old WZEW/WBLX pole is in the pic. That may be the last photographic record of it having been there.
 
Do you remember if they had their own tower, or did they share it with someone? The reason I ask is because 660 AM's 3-tower array is just off of Pollard, and I'm wondering if it could have been side-mounted on one of those towers?
J Alex Bowab said:
I just got the latest issue of MOBILE BAY MONTHLY. On the cover is a picture collage (montage?) of downtown Mobile buildings ... and the old WZEW/WBLX pole is in the pic. That may be the last photographic record of it having been there.
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True. I think about the poor graphics people at the TV stations and magazines in Mobile. They must have to re-do the graphics for the city every few months. First it was the building of the RSA tower, then the crowning of it, then the crowing of the hotel downtown, and now the Pole on the RSA tower is removed. They must be thinking "give us a break!" :D
 
Zew did not share tower with the 660 AM site. Their original xmitting facility, 1965, was side mounted on one of the WABF 1220 AM towers in Fairhope, then moved to Daphne to get closer to Mobile... then upgraded A to C3 and moved to the bank building.

The 660 site was originally 2 towers for WMOO 1550 50 kw DA-D, built in early 60s but not turned on until 1964. It was a NW by SE figure-8 pattern. Around 1987 they went from 1550 to 660 to get night operation, adding a third, taller, tower.

The 1550/660 site is off County Rd 64, and on Friendship Road, not Pollard - isn't it?
 
Should clarify ... 92.1 came on originally as WABF-FM about 1966, companion of WABF AM 1220 ... it was sold to WGOK Am 900 and was once WGOK-FM (a feeble attempt to ward off the new WBLX) ... then it became WHSP, an independent religious station (With Holy Spirit Power), then WZEW, which now celebrates 25 years from the origin of those call letters, though it was not a continuous 25 years (at least one other set of calls resided on 92.1 during that quarter-century).
 
The 660 site is just south of CR-64 and you can get to it by Friendship or Pollard. Pollard continues south of 64, turns east and right by the tower site becomes Jonesboro Road, which intersects with Friendship. I've got a map link and a few Google street views on my site.
 
J Alex Bowab said:
[...] WZEW, which now celebrates 25 years from the origin of those call letters, though it was not a continuous 25 years (at least one other set of calls resided on 92.1 during that quarter-century).
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I remember this... back in the 1990's 104.1 dropped Classic Rock (I believe this was when Clear Channel bought 104.1?). Almost immediately 92.1 took on the classic rock format and WGCX call letters. That didn't last long... and they briefly flipped to a a satellite Alternative format (but I don't know what call letters they used as an Alternative station). Finally they went back to AAA, WZEW, 92-Zew... where they belonged all along.
 
Correct, the WGCX calls did migrate from 104.1 to 92.1, albeit briefly. Before that, ZEW's numbers were not fantastic, but the intense loyalty in its listener base resulted in a great outcry when it was put to rest (you can probably find several articles about it in the newspaper archives). Small wonder that it was reincarnated. I believe the O'Rear ownership ended the Zew, and the K Johnson ownership brought it back.
 
J Alex Bowab said:
Correct, the WGCX calls did migrate from 104.1 to 92.1, albeit briefly. Before that, ZEW's numbers were not fantastic, but the intense loyalty in its listener base resulted in a great outcry when it was put to rest (you can probably find several articles about it in the newspaper archives). Small wonder that it was reincarnated. I believe the O'Rear ownership ended the Zew, and the K Johnson ownership brought it back.
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The WGCX calls were also on 95.7 in Navarre, FL (now WKFP) when it was a CP originally licensed to East Brewton, AL. 95.7 had the WZEW calls for a while before they were swapped with 92.1 and went back to their original home.
 
And WGCX stood for...? Those called just replaced WIZD on 104.1 and had no "heritage", so why were they snapped up by two different local groups after Clear Channel let them go?

I can understand someone grabbing WZEW as soon as they became available... but WGCX going from Classic Rock to Christian Contemporary? I don't get it.

I wonder why no local station took the WOWW call letters when they flipped from Alternative to Oldies? Now those were some great call letters that would work well with any format.
 
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