Six 50,000 Watt AM Stations in Boston

[Gregg]

The Boston area now has six full-time 50,000 watt AM radio stations. That's more than any other U.S. market except NYC which has eight. Chicago and San Francisco have five. But the trouble is, three of those Boston stations really don't have great signals, despite all that power. And two more have good daytime signals but get lost in the atmosphere and noise at night, because they're on busy frequencies.

Boston's most powerful station is the oldest one... WBZ 1030. Even though the station uses a directional pattern toward the East, it covers New England very well. I've read that it could have gone omni-directional, being an original clear channel station, but chose to go eastward to better cover the metro area. You can hear it by day from Nova Scotia to Connecticut and often at night up and down the East Coast.

But Boston's other 50,000 watt stations range from so-so to poor. 680 WRKO covers a lot of New England by day, audible from Portland to Hartford. But at night, there are several other powerful 680 stations in the East, so its nighttime coverage isn't as good as the daytime signal. Same thing for 850 WEEI. The station has to share 850 with other stations in the East, so its coverage doesn't go too far beyond Boston and its suburbs, even though in the daytime it does pretty well.

The rest of the 50,000 watt stations may not be as good as some 5000 watt stations you know. WWZN 1510 has always been plagued by a poor signal. At one time it had to share 1510 with a station in Connecticut only 120 miles away. That station in Norwich is gone now, but WWZN barely covers Boston and its suburbs by day and does even worse at night.

Two newcomers are 830 WCRN Worcester and 1200 WXKS Newton. WCRN only got its full time 50,000 watt signal a few years ago and WXKS got its maximum power only a few months ago. WCRN's transmitter is west of Worcester, so listeners in Springfield may hear it better than listeners in Boston. It has to protect WCCO Minneapolis, the clear channel station on 830, but a look at its signal pattern on www.radio-locator.com shows it's hemmed in all sides.

1200 WXKS wasn't even there a few years ago. As recently as the 70s, there was only one station on 1200 in all of the U.S., WOAI San Antonio. Not even a daytimer was permitted to share 1200 with WOAI. Today clear channel stations don't have the same protections, so in the 90s, 1200 signed on with 10,000 watts licensed to Framingham. Clear Channel (the corporation) bought it, got a power boost to 50,000 watts full time and changed the city of license to Newton, much closer to the Boston city limits. And last month it moved all its Premiere syndicated talk shows including Rush Limbaugh from 680 WRKO to the new Rush Radio 1200 WXKS. On this board, many listeners say the 1200 signal has no where near the coverage of 680 and wonder if Rush's Boston ratings will be hurt being on a station with limited coverage, despite its full time 50 kW status.






Gregg
[email protected]

 

[Deleted User]

50KW on 1200 and 1510 is like 5KW on 590

 

[mleach]

As recently as the 70s, there was only one station on 1200 in all of the U.S., WOAI San Antonio. Not even a daytimer was permitted to share 1200 with WOAI.

Northern Virginia's now dark AM 1200 WAGE went on the air in 1958.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAGE_(AM)

 

[DanStrassberg]

Boston's most powerful station is the oldest one... WBZ 1030. Even though the station uses a directional pattern toward the East, it covers New England very well.

so in the 90s, 1200 signed on with 10,000 watts licensed to Framingham.

I get east and west mixed up too. WBZ is directional to the west.

WKOX was a 1 kW daytimer on 1190 licensed to Framingham for almost 40 years. It moved to 1200 with 10 kW-D/1 kW-N DA-N in August 1985. Almost immediately, one of its two new 440' towers was felled in a hurricane and the station was forced to operate ND at night with low power until the downed tower could be replaced. (Took four or five months, IIRC.)

I think it makes little sense to consider WCRN a Boston station. The signal is not very good in any part of the City of Boston day or night and none of Boston lies within WCRN's NIF contour. At best, WCRN could be considered a suburban-Boston signal; it covers MetroWest fairly well day and night. Actually, though, it is a Worcester signal--licensed to Worcester and the best AM signal in Worcester, even including WTAG.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

WBZ 1030. Even though the station uses a directional pattern toward the East, it covers New England very well. I've read that it could have gone omni-directional, being an original clear channel station, but chose to go eastward to better cover the metro area.

Wrong. WBZ's pattern is toward the west, so as not to waste its signal over the Atlantic Ocean. Its transmitter site is in Hull, and Boston is well within its primary coverage area.

680 WRKO covers a lot of New England by day, audible from Portland to Hartford. But at night, there are several other powerful 680 stations in the East, so its nighttime coverage isn't as good as the daytime signal.

WRKO protects KNBR/San Francisco at night.

Same thing for 850 WEEI. The station has to share 850 with other stations in the East, so its coverage doesn't go too far beyond Boston and its suburbs, even though in the daytime it does pretty well.

WEEI protects KOA/Denver at night.

WWZN 1510 has always been plagued by a poor signal. At one time it had to share 1510 with a station in Connecticut only 120 miles away. That station in Norwich is gone now, but WWZN barely covers Boston and its suburbs by day and does even worse at night.

WWZN must still protect WLAC/Nashville.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Northern Virginia's now dark AM 1200 WAGE went on the air in 1958.

WAGE was on 1290 until it moved to 1200 with 5 kW-D/1 kW-N DA-N at just about the same time as WKOX moved to 1200 (1985). The timing was not coincidence. The FCC had imposed a freeze on applications to move to the newly opened-up clear channels, of which 1200 was one. WKOX had filed to move to 1200 with 50 kW-U DA-N just before the freeze; it was the ONLY station to get in under the wire before the freeze. However, the pre-freeze application was tossed when the freeze was lifted because the proposed 50 kW night power was not originally allowed to the new Class IIB stations on Class IA channels. The new IIB stations were originally limited to 1 kW at night. This nighttime power limitation was lifted when the Rio treaty was signed later in the '80s.

The FCC designated WKOX and WAGE for a competitive hearing because their applications were originally deemed mutually exclusive. WKOX protected WAGE by virtue of its protection of WOAI but WAGE did not protect WKOX at night. Ultimately, WKOX agreed to accept a significant level of nighttime interference from WAGE and both apps were granted. I'm pretty sure that the two CPs were issued at the same time.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

WRKO protects KNBR/San Francisco at night.

The Big 68 also protects WCBM Baltimore, and in effect WPTF Raleigh
with the same null.

WCBM protects KNBR, WRKO and WPTF.

WPTF protects...well, you get the picture.

KNBR is what used to be called a class I-B station, the other three are
(were) class II.

 

[DanStrassberg]

The Boston area now has six full-time 50,000 watt AM radio stations. That's more than any other U.S. market except NYC which has eight. Chicago and San Francisco have five.

That may be technically correct, but Seattle would have five for all practical purposes if things hadn't gone seriously awry with the upgrade of KKOL 1300. KKOL holds a CP for 50 kW-D/44 kW-N DA-2. I defy any listener to tell the difference between 50 kW and 44 kW. But KKOL's transmitter site is located near Tacoma meaning that even with 50 kW, it doesn't put much of a signal into Seattle. The problems don't end there, however. KKOL has been forced to operate at half power during the day because its 50 kW directional signal caused arcing on ships unloading volatile chemicals in the Port of Tacoma, causing a significant hazard of explosion.

Even without KKOL, though, Seattle has 710, 950, 1000, and 1090, which are 50 kW-U and 770, 820, and 880, which are 50 kW-D and use lower power at night. 770 and 820 are 5 kW at night and 880 is 10 kW at night. 770 and 1090 are diplexed with each other; 820 and 950 are diplexed with each other. 820 is licensed to Burien; 880 is licensed on a hyphenated basis to both Seattle and a suburb on whose name I am blanking at the moment. The Seattle area also has 1380 licensed to Everett. 1380 would be running 50 kW-U by now if terrorists had not toppled several of the towers at its its brand new transmitter site about a year ago. The owner of 1380 has also applied to build a second station on 1520 at the 1380 site. The plan for 1520, which wilkl be licensed to Snohomish if it is ever built, is to increase it to 50 kW-U as well. So the Seattle area might one day have eight 50-kW-U AMs--the same number as New York. But whereas all of New York's 50 kW-U AMs except for WQEW have very good signals, the same cannot be said for all of the Seattle 50 kW-U AMs.

 

[DanStrassberg]

WRKO protects KNBR/San Francisco at night.

The Big 68 also protects WCBM Baltimore, and in effect WPTF Raleigh
with the same null.

WCBM protects KNBR, WRKO and WPTF.

WPTF protects...well, you get the picture.

KNBR is what used to be called a class I-B station, the other three are
(were) class II.

Not exactly; you're a bit off on the chronology--and hence a bit off on who protects whom. KNBR protects nobody. WPTF protects KNBR. WPTF's protection of WRKO in incidental; WPTF became a full-time station on 680 before WLAW (predecessor of WRKO) did. WRKO protects KNBR and WPTF. WCBM was tucked into the WRKO null that protects WPTF (and WPTF's incidental null that protects WRKO).

Of course, nowadays, this is a bit of an academic argument because all existing protections are grandfathered. So if, say, KNBR wanted to increase its tower height, thereby radiating more signal toward all of the 680s in North America, it could not do so because it would not be allowed to increase its night signal toward any station, including the ones that are decades newer than KNBR. But KNBR is not about to apply to increase its tower height. It's in the glide path to San Francisco International Airport and uses a sectionalized antenna in an attempt to meet Class A minimum efficiency with a tower that is physically only about 125 degrees (500').

 

[oldiesfan6479]

880 is licensed on a hyphenated basis to both Seattle and a suburb on whose name I am blanking at the moment.

KIXI Mercer Island/Seattle.

Since it's listed that way in the FCC AM Query, I guess they have to ID
Mercer Island before Seattle, then Tacoma, Everett, Puyallup, Timbuktu,
Pound Ridge...

 

[IndigoCoyote]

We could have 15 50KW AMs and it wouldn't matter...the ground conductivity is just awful out here in the PacNW, and I suspect that may also be an issue in your neck of the woods as well??? I think you got a lot of that glacial till in the last ice age just like us. AM doesn't like glacial till very much!

AM does like salt water, though. A lot. We have one station out here that literally is in Puget Sound, it's at the power end of the dial (570), and there's no way in heck you could get it built today. But I have heard of KVI being heard clear up in Alaska during the day...800+ miles...pretty good for 5kw! Does the Boston area have any "salt-water" stations like that?

 

[FM AM]

WBZ has by far the best signal of any of them. It is audible all over New England as well as Eastern New York state by day, and I have pulled it in in Oklahoma and South Florida at night. WRKO has the next best over all signal. It is actually audible from New york City to Bangor, Me and in to Eastern New York state by day, (mixing with WINR, Binghamton) although it has trouble getting past Rte 495 at night. WEEI is the third best of
the Boston 50,000 watt AM stations...It covers Eastern Ma, well during the day and is reasonably audible in Southern Me during the day as well...

 

[DanStrassberg]

We could have 15 50KW AMs and it wouldn't matter...the ground conductivity is just awful out here in the PacNW, and I suspect that may also be an issue in your neck of the woods as well??? I think you got a lot of that glacial till in the last ice age just like us.AM doesn't like glacial till very much! AM does like salt water, though. A lot.

I leave it to you to decide whether the soil conductivity in southeastern New England could be THIS bad, but the FCC believes it! A CP was recently granted to WBIX 1060 Natick MA. Natick is a Boston suburb about eight miles west of Route 128. Currently, WBIX runs 40 kW-D/22 kW-CH DA-2-D from two 189-degree towers in Framingham (one town west of Natick). These towers originally constituted the night array of WKOX (now WXKS (AM) 1200), which recently moved from the Framingham site to a triplex in Newton--which adjoins the city of Boston. At night, WBIX runs 2.5 kW into a five-tower in-line array (205.5-degree towers) in Ashland, which is just south of Framingham.

WBIX will be moving its daytime operation to its night site, which is diplexed with WAMG 890 licensed to Dedham, and will be running 50 kW D (no CH power reduction or separate CH pattern). The Ashland site is about 26 miles almost due west of the site of WBZ 1030 in Hull. So maybe the first seven or eight miles of the path from WBZ to the WBIX night site (which, when the CP is built out, will become the WBIX full-time site) is over salt water. Remember, WBZ is an ex-Class IA with half-wave towers and a cardioid pattern aimed due west--right toward WBIX. WBIX could have applied to use as its day pattern a slightly relaxed version of its incredibly tight night pattern, a five-tower teardrop aimed due east, but the engineers decided that the small additional coverage west of Ashland would not justify the delays and costs of proofing a separate day pattern, so the new D/CH pattern will be identical to the night pattern, but will run at 20 times the power (50 kW-D/2.5 kW-N).

Given WBZ's power, directional pattern, half-wave towers, and the fact that WBZ's signal travels over salt water between Hull and Boston, and given WBIX's power, antenna height, and directional pattern aimed almost right at WBZ, there would seem to be almost a certainty of significant prohibited overlap of the 25 mV/m contours of these two 50 kW third-adjacent-channel stations. (WBIX's inverse-distance field at 1 km along its 90-degree--due east--radial will be more than 6700 mV/m.) But WBIX's engineers have data that shows no such overlap. The reason is that the soil conductivity measures 0.1 mS/m for approximately 15 of the 26 miles between WBIX and WBZ.

Now, I thought that 0.1 mS/m was a value found only in the downtown districts of major cities--for example, in the granite and limestone canyons of Manhattan (not including Central Park). However, most of the 15-mile stretch in question is in grassy upper-middle-class Boston suburbs where the M-3 map says the conductivity is ~2 mS/m. WBIX's measurements were made with one of the first samples of the new Potomac Instruments FIM 4100 field-intensity meter. This sophisticated $13,000 instrument is supposed to be so foolproof that it makes essentially impossible the kinds of errors that plague measurements made with older-model FIMs. Moreover, the engineering firm involved in making the measurements and preparing the application has a sterling reputation.

 

[Don Juan]

WRKO has the next best over all signal. It is actually audible from New york City to Bangor, Me and in to Eastern New York state by day, (mixing with WINR, Binghamton) although it has trouble getting past Rte 495 at night.

You should say "Rte 495 to the West at night". WRKO has not trouble getting past 495 to the North (and South?).

 

[Gregg]

I always wondered how WBIX got to run 50,000 watts daytime on 1060 when 50 kw 1060 KYW Philadelphia is only about 250 miles away. Yes, KYW is nulled to the north to allow it to co-exist with 50 kw 1050 WEPN NYC. That's also amazingly short-spacing for adjacent channel 50 kw stations, despite their directional antennas.

But to have two 50 kw 1060s in the Northeast seems fairly unusual, especially since WBIX is only about 20 years old and KYW had Class I-B status. It has to protect Mexico City but KYW existed well before 1050 signed on in NYC or another 1060 signed on in the Boston area, both with 50,000 watts.


Gregg
[email protected]

 

[DanStrassberg]

I always wondered how WBIX got to run 50,000 watts daytime on 1060 when 50 kw 1060 KYW Philadelphia is only about 250 miles away. Yes, KYW is nulled to the north to allow it to co-exist with 50 kw 1050 WEPN NYC. That's also amazingly short-spacing for adjacent channel 50 kw stations, despite their directional antennas.

Since Westinghouse owned both third-adjacent WBZ and co-channel KYW, John Garabedian knew he would have to do battle with a major player in US radio to realize his dream of building a major-league signal in the Boston area. Nevertheless, that's what he tried to do with WGTR, which eventually became today's WBIX, albeit not under his ownership.

There were major legal skirmishes with Westinghouse regarding WGTR's upgrade from 1 kW-D ND from Kendall Ave in S Natick to 25 kW-D/2.5 kW-N DA-2 from the huge array on Sewell St in Ashland, and after years of playing, Garabedian sold the CP for the station whose calls had already changed multiple times. I say sold the CP because Garabedian was never able to get the night array to perform in spec--and therefore was never granted a license to cover the full-time facility.

The specs to protect KYW were incredibly tight. Meeting those specs took Alex Langer, who brought in some engineering big guns to straighten out the technical problems. They totally rebuilt the plant--replaced everything but the towers themselves. It's a very long story and if I tried to tell all of it, I'd surely get important parts wrong. Still, I do know that the key to bringing the pattern in spec was detuning a high-voltage AC transmission line that runs from north to south just east of the Sewell St site--right in front of the pattern. As you would expect, there was a major re-radiation problem from that line AND since 890 had moved to Sewell St, the line had to be detuned at two frequencies--a MUCH harder job than detuning it at one frequency. And detuning the line at one frequency could not have been a piece of cake. A plot of the skywave situation on 1060 in the northeast can only leave one dumbfounded. Little spurs of WBIX's 25 microvolt/meter 10% skywave contour are neatly interdigitated with KYW's protected 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour all over Nassau County, just east of New York City. Just amazing!

WBIX is not, however, the only station so close to an ex Class IB AM. There are a couple of full-time stations on 1520 in Ohio that are at least as close to WWKB as WBIX is to KYW. Note that both KYW and WWKB are DA-1. Still, WBIX runs a lot higher power--even at night--than either of the Ohio 1520s.

 

[KB1OKL]

The Boston area now has six full-time 50,000 watt AM radio stations. That's more than any other U.S. market except NYC which has eight. Chicago and San Francisco have five. But the trouble is, three of those Boston stations really don't have great signals, despite all that power. And two more have good daytime signals but get lost in the atmosphere and noise at night, because they're on busy frequencies.

Boston's most powerful station is the oldest one... WBZ 1030. Even though the station uses a directional pattern toward the East, it covers New England very well. I've read that it could have gone omni-directional, being an original clear channel station, but chose to go eastward to better cover the metro area. You can hear it by day from Nova Scotia to Connecticut and often at night up and down the East Coast.

But Boston's other 50,000 watt stations range from so-so to poor. 680 WRKO covers a lot of New England by day, audible from Portland to Hartford. But at night, there are several other powerful 680 stations in the East, so its nighttime coverage isn't as good as the daytime signal. Same thing for 850 WEEI. The station has to share 850 with other stations in the East, so its coverage doesn't go too far beyond Boston and its suburbs, even though in the daytime it does pretty well.

The rest of the 50,000 watt stations may not be as good as some 5000 watt stations you know. WWZN 1510 has always been plagued by a poor signal. At one time it had to share 1510 with a station in Connecticut only 120 miles away. That station in Norwich is gone now, but WWZN barely covers Boston and its suburbs by day and does even worse at night.

Two newcomers are 830 WCRN Worcester and 1200 WXKS Newton. WCRN only got its full time 50,000 watt signal a few years ago and WXKS got its maximum power only a few months ago. WCRN's transmitter is west of Worcester, so listeners in Springfield may hear it better than listeners in Boston. It has to protect WCCO Minneapolis, the clear channel station on 830, but a look at its signal pattern on www.radio-locator.com shows it's hemmed in all sides.

1200 WXKS wasn't even there a few years ago. As recently as the 70s, there was only one station on 1200 in all of the U.S., WOAI San Antonio. Not even a daytimer was permitted to share 1200 with WOAI. Today clear channel stations don't have the same protections, so in the 90s, 1200 signed on with 10,000 watts licensed to Framingham. Clear Channel (the corporation) bought it, got a power boost to 50,000 watts full time and changed the city of license to Newton, much closer to the Boston city limits. And last month it moved all its Premiere syndicated talk shows including Rush Limbaugh from 680 WRKO to the new Rush Radio 1200 WXKS. On this board, many listeners say the 1200 signal has no where near the coverage of 680 and wonder if Rush's Boston ratings will be hurt being on a station with limited coverage, despite its full time 50 kW status.






Gregg
[email protected]

WBZ does not come in well here near Worcester especially since they hooked up the channel hogging noise emitter called IBOC.
WWZN comes in as well as WRKO during the day here (fair) and almost as well at night.
WCRN is obnoxious here being very close to the transmitters.
WXKS don't know, will check it today.
WEEI comes in fairly well here, better than WBZ.

 

[FM AM]

WRKO has the next best over all signal. It is actually audible from New york City to Bangor, Me and in to Eastern New York state by day, (mixing with WINR, Binghamton) although it has trouble getting past Rte 495 at night.

You should say "Rte 495 to the West at night". WRKO has not trouble getting past 495 to the North (and South?).

You are corrrect....I should have been clearer about that point. WRKO is nulled to the West at night, but has a very good North/South signal at nignt.........................

 

[DanStrassberg]

WEEI comes in fairly well here, better than WBZ.

You're in Worcester or Leicester, right? I can believe that, during the daytime, WEEI comes in better there than WBZ does. I could even believe that WRKO might do the same even though it's somewhat further from you than WEEI is. But I don't believe that WEEI comes in better there at night than WBZ does. At night, WEEI has a very deep minimum to the west to protect KOA, whereas WBZ blasts an inverse distance field of ~1000 mV/m @ 1 km directly at you 24/7. The problem is that WBZ is about 85 km from you--~2.5 times as far as WEEI.