• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

"Original" Pre-Sunrise Authority (PSA) Question

B

BarryATL

I will call it PSA (pre-sunrise authority) because that is how it used to be listed in the Broadcasting Yearbook.

I am going to use WAOS, Austell as an example just because I know some of it's technical history. In the 1970s WAOS AM 1600 (then WACX) was authorized for 1000 watts NDD (non-directional day). Also, the station had a PSA power of 500 watts which allowed the station to sign on at 6AM at 500 watts and then raise the power to 1000 watts at official sunrise.

Now WAOS has a nighttime authorization of 67 watts. Did that "override" the PSA or does the PSA still exist? For that matter, do the old PSAs still exist? I know there was something about the FCC not having records and the station had to be able to produce the original paper authorization (usually in the form of a Western Union Telegram).
 
Weird. In the 70's I worked for KOGT AM 1600 in Orange, Texas. We were 1000 watts non-directional daytime, 500 nighttime, or we could go directional with our signal (which basically sent it into the Gulf of Mexico). I have no idea what they're doing now. :-\
 
BarryATL said:
I will call it PSA (pre-sunrise authority) because that is how it used to be listed in the Broadcasting Yearbook.

I am going to use WAOS, Austell as an example just because I know some of it's technical history. In the 1970s WAOS AM 1600 (then WACX) was authorized for 1000 watts NDD (non-directional day). Also, the station had a PSA power of 500 watts which allowed the station to sign on at 6AM at 500 watts and then raise the power to 1000 watts at official sunrise.

Now WAOS has a nighttime authorization of 67 watts. Did that "override" the PSA or does the PSA still exist? For that matter, do the old PSAs still exist? I know there was something about the FCC not having records and the station had to be able to produce the original paper authorization (usually in the form of a Western Union Telegram).
Click to expand...
Barry Joe...

To the best of my understanding, the PSA power and time period supersedes the nighttime power and time period. For example, WCEH/Hawkinsville is authorized for 500w-D, with a PSA of 500w and 126w-N. WCEH begins 500w operation at 6:00 AM.

The now silent 570-WACL/Waycross was really unusual. The station had 5000w-D and 1kw-DA-N, but also the PSA option of 500w non-DA at 6:00 AM. 500 watts non-directional covered better than 1kw-DA, so every morning at 5 o'clock, the station signed-on with 1kw directional, then lowered power to 500 watts non-DA at 6 o'clock, then up to 5kw at sunrise.
 
If you have 500 watts PSA, as most former "daytime only" stations on regional channels do, you can go to 500 watts at 6am local time, regardless of night power you may have been assigned when the flea-power nighttime power was being passed out.

Larry Fuss
 
BarryATL said:
If the FCC no longer has the records, what does a station do if they have lost the old telegram?
Click to expand...

You are stuck with "flea" or no power at 6AM till sunrise. Keep all the paperwork the FCC sends you. I have seen stations with a dozen or more licenses, renewals, even a construction permits and STL license all over the wall in the control room.
 
Someone on this board mentioned the lost records a long time ago. How can a government agency lose all of those type of records?
 
BarryATL said:
Someone on this board mentioned the lost records a long time ago. How can a government agency lose all of those type of records?
Click to expand...

The same way the VA "lost" a lot of veterans records in a "fire" during the early 1980's. The "loss" of these records including some (DD214s) has mess up a lot of veterans. If also opened the door to the "W" false claims of Bush not serving his national guard time. Only President Bush would have the records. (BTW I have never seen any copies which made public). His dad was VP at the time of the fire and at one time had CIA connections. But someone will read this and think I have some kind of political ax to grind. I don't. George W Bush admitted at that time he was "drinking" and has stated that he can not drink anymore without "problems". I respect that and I believe he just lost some of his records when he was drinking.
 
secondchoice said:
BarryATL said:
If the FCC no longer has the records, what does a station do if they have lost the old telegram?
Click to expand...

You are stuck with "flea" or no power at 6AM till sunrise. Keep all the paperwork the FCC sends you. I have seen stations with a dozen or more licenses, renewals, even a construction permits and STL license all over the wall in the control room.
Click to expand...
It would be worthwhile to make multiple copies of all such documents and store them in multiple locations. Heck, scan the documents and store them offsite or in the cloud, too--this is the 21st century, after all. I did that with a deed to a nonprofit's building and property that was quitclaimed to us by the state of Georgia, not trusting the deed recorders in the Fulton County courthouse....and THAT is how government can and does lose records, even in this day and age.

Even a few minutes with a Xerox machine and sticking them in your sock drawer at home will save you a lot of grief.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom