stations that never were

[Savage]

I was one of the competing applicants for Channel 47 in Altoona - we had a group in the mid 80s consisting of an engineer, me as FCC counsel, a money guy in Buffalo and Elaine, a secretary who worked with Quinn, Cary Pall and I at 13Q and later at WTAE/HTX. We settled out of the proceeding with the Christian broadcasting people.

 

[cingram]

Was that the Elaine who manned the front desk at 400 Ardmore?

C.

 

[Savage]

It was. I know you meant "held," not "manned," particularly in Elaine's case. I've completely lost track of her over the intervening years, but she was General Partner in an entity - I think it was called "Altoona 47 Television Partnership" or some similar handle - which was lead applicant for the full-service signal. We also filed in the Virgin Islands and, IIRC, West Virginia. Other partners included my former law partner Tim Brady, consultant Ken Larkin and the Buffalo moneybags.

 

[kenhawk1160]

You are correct. WPLW was going to apply for 890 also, but with WLS to the West of Carnegie the winter hours would be rather short. Perhaps that's why the Bethel Park group didn't follow through.

Roy, that CP was for WQTW 1570 out of Latrobe. In the early 80's when Stan Wall bought it out of bankruptcy, he showed me the the CP for 890 and for the reasons you mentioned plus the commission was filling in night time power for certain Mexican and Canadian clears, I suggested that he hold on to what he had.

Good advice, Phil. It's just too bad he never really made money with it. I don't think anyone ever did, to be honest with you, if you look back at the history of ownership. Even WTRA, being the johnny-come-lately, was fairly consistent, and proved itself to be much more successful, even though they didn't get nighttime power until 1984, when the call letter change came about.

The market's just too small. Not to mention that John Longo's turned WCNS into the KDKA of Westmoreland County. He can raise the daytime power to 1,000 watts and double his coverage, now that 1470 Portage is out of the picture and 1490 is separated by Laurel Mountain too much to even matter in terms of protection. All he would have to do is file the paperwork.

 

[tce]

Question from someone outside the industry: Would increasing the power to 1000 W significantly raise the electric power costs?

 

[secondchoice]

From an electric bill angle, not that much difference, solid state transmitters are very efficient, most likely the tower light and AC for the studios will cost more. The old rule of thumb in coverage verses power on AM (assuming you stay on the same frequency and same tower) is a 4 times power increase doubles the coverage. In a well populated are this can really increase the number of listeners in the "city grade".

 

[FreddyE1977]

From an electric bill angle, not that much difference, solid state transmitters are very efficient, most likely the tower light and AC for the studios will cost more.

Worth investigating LED technology for the towers then.
They are lighting the entire top of the Gulf Building on 60 watts these days.

 

[dB]

Question from someone outside the industry: Would increasing the power to 1000 W significantly raise the electric power costs?

I don't think it would be a huge increase.

I don't know the current power level, so I'll just assume the current electric power costs to be $0.

1000W output =~ 2000W input to the final

2kW times 24 hrs = 48kWHr per day.

Power rates in WPa are about 10c per kWHr

48kWHr times 10c/kWHr = $4.80 additional electric power cost per day.

 

[secondchoice]

From an electric bill angle, not that much difference, solid state transmitters are very efficient, most likely the tower light and AC for the studios will cost more.

Worth investigating LED technology for the towers then.
They are lighting the entire top of the Gulf Building on 60 watts these days.

Yes LEDS are cheap to run, but there is a lot of expense, actual equipment, and installation. Plus befoer you do anything, the FAA has to approve it too. Will LED's "stay on" in a strong FR field. One of the tales in Nashville radio was one of the florescent lights at the WLAC transmitter building stayed on even when the power was off.

 

[F.M.Hertz]

What about WENN? Well, it was a radio station in Pittsburgh on AMC's "Remember WENN" in the 1980s.

 

[PHIL Z]

10/28/1946 Western Pa. Broadcasting Applied for 1490 Pittsburgh Pending the outcome of WWSW moving to 970. 3/1/1947 East Liverpool Broadcasting Also Applied Pending WWSW Moving. A Hearing Held in April 1947 gave 1490 to Eastliverpool.

Also in 1947 Eagle Printing of Butler Applied for 1230 Kc 250 watts Fulltime Butler Pa. Frank Smith Former President and GM of WWSW Applied for 1230 Beaver Falls. The Fcc Gave it to Beaver Falls Stating Butler had WISR Radio ,the Butler Eagle, And a Class A Conditional FM Grant. But Beaver Falls had no Prrimary Service. Or Else it would be 1230 WBUT Butler.

3/10/1947 Richard Cook Filled a CP for 1470 5 KW DA Fulltime

 

[kenhawk1160]

Question from someone outside the industry: Would increasing the power to 1000 W significantly raise the electric power costs?

I don't think it would be a huge increase.

I don't know the current power level, so I'll just assume the current electric power costs to be $0.

1000W output =~ 2000W input to the final

2kW times 24 hrs = 48kWHr per day.

Power rates in WPa are about 10c per kWHr

48kWHr times 10c/kWHr = $4.80 additional electric power cost per day.

Daytime power is 500 watts. This is one of those unique situations where the power is increased at night, rather than decreased. They had a CP to go 500 watts Non-DA around the clock, but I'm not sure what happened with that.