STL is a great AM tower market

[317C50KW]

That's a given.

So as the Mrs. and I wrap up a visit to STL, I noticed 2 thin, possibly unpainted towers just NW of the St Louis Mills mall.

I know the 1460 in St Charles is in the vicinity, but according to the maps on FCC-Info this isn't 1460.

Do these towers belong to anyone?

 

[mbatchelor]

This is the former nighttime site for 1460 AM. They used to maintain a seperate 500 watt nighttime signal from that site until problems with the previous owner Bronco Broadcasting caused the station's nighttime authorization to get yanked by the FCC for not switching power to the site at night which is in an area that floods fairly regularly. Don't know exactly what happened there.

1460 has resumed nighttime service under the ownership of Covenant Network with just 85 watts, which covers the St. Charles/St. Peters area and Northwest St. Louis County by night, obviously nowhere near as well as the 500 watts from the MO Bottom site did...

 

[317C50KW]

Thanks for the info.

 

[busterluck]

The information about the former KIRL night time site is incorrect. The array was a 4 tower array with the major lobe directed towards St. Louis, Miissouri with a minor lobe over the City of St. Charles. The ownership of KIRL decided for economic reasons to abandon the night time operation at 500 watts due to financial considerations. Night time operation did not produce any kind of revenue that the owners had expected after building the rather expensive separate night time site. It is true they got a FCC fine for pattern out of adjustment and for fence violations, but the FCC did NOT revoke the night time permit. It was dropped by the station owner. The Harris 1KW night transmitter was moved to the daytime transmitter/sudio site to replace the Raytheon RA-1000 standby transmitter. Shortly thereafter, a new BE-6 AM transmitter was purchased to use at the 5KW main transmitter, while the trusty old Collins 21E rig was put into auxiliary service as a standby. Several years later KIRL was sold and the call sign changed to KHOJ. Now you know what really happened. The 4 tower array still is standing unused. The Collins 21E was one of the best sounding rigs of it's day, and had some interesting modifications done to it over the years it was in operation. Back in 1972 the day time 3 tower system was broadbanded way before the days of AM stereo.

 

[317C50KW]

Thanks for that also. Back in my Saluki days in the early 70's we could hear KXOK on day pattern in Carbondale, never KIRL of course due to their pattern. On visits to STL we always noted that KIRL with it's take on the Top 40 format was a more interesting sounding station, no doubt due to the transmission quality. IIRC KIRL was still a daytimer then.

 

[mbatchelor]

The information about the former KIRL night time site is incorrect. The array was a 4 tower array with the major lobe directed towards St. Louis, Miissouri with a minor lobe over the City of St. Charles. The ownership of KIRL decided for economic reasons to abandon the night time operation at 500 watts due to financial considerations. Night time operation did not produce any kind of revenue that the owners had expected after building the rather expensive separate night time site. It is true they got a FCC fine for pattern out of adjustment and for fence violations, but the FCC did NOT revoke the night time permit. It was dropped by the station owner. The Harris 1KW night transmitter was moved to the daytime transmitter/sudio site to replace the Raytheon RA-1000 standby transmitter. Shortly thereafter, a new BE-6 AM transmitter was purchased to use at the 5KW main transmitter, while the trusty old Collins 21E rig was put into auxiliary service as a standby. Several years later KIRL was sold and the call sign changed to KHOJ. Now you know what really happened. The 4 tower array still is standing unused. The Collins 21E was one of the best sounding rigs of it's day, and had some interesting modifications done to it over the years it was in operation. Back in 1972 the day time 3 tower system was broadbanded way before the days of AM stereo.

Thank you for the correction, Buster. I agree that 1460 used to have the best sounding AM audio I ever heard. The BE has nowhere near the warmth of tone and depth of the old Collins! Kinda miss KIRL the way it used to be - I really enjoyed listening to Jazz many nights on 1460, and was sad when nighttime service went away.