Strongest licensed facility in the U.S.

[purpledevil]

May have been covered previously, but I didn't see it. What is the strongest legally licensed station in the country? Aren't there still a few stations that are transmitting higher than 100kW in the States on either AM or FM?

 

[ddsparxx]

WBCT 93.7 Grand Rapids, MI, 320 kW, the most amount of power that I know,
WOOD 105.7 also Grand Rapids, 260 kW
WSLQ 99.1 Roanoke, VA 150 kW
WRVQ 94.5 Richmond, VA 200 kW but on a short stick
WOMC 104.3 Detroit, Mi 190 kW may also be on a short stick
KVYB 103.3 Santa Barbara, CA 105 kW

These are the only US stations I know that operate more than 100 kW.

 

[stormy01]

AM would be the Radio Marti - Marathon, FL - 100KW TPO (the only exception) on 1180kHz directional, towards Cuba. Nothing higher than 50kW TPO in the U.S. ERP's of directional AM stations can be sometimes over 200kW...

As for FM, this list might be along the lines what you're looking for - http://www.w9wi.com/articles/grand_fm.htm The page says it was last updated Jan. 2001 so one might want to check the FCC database if in doubt.

 

[nd2023]

97.9 WNCI in Columbus is nearly 200kw+4kw HD from a building in downtown. If just a few thousand watts of RF on 96.7 in Stamford, CT causes a lot of reception problems, imagine how much worse it is in Columbus, OH.

 

[stormy01]

97.9 WNCI in Columbus is nearly 200kw+4kw HD from a building in downtown. If just a few thousand watts of RF on 96.7 in Stamford, CT causes a lot of reception problems, imagine how much worse it is in Columbus, OH.

If WNCI is running 4kW HD (I thought HD is authorized at 1% of analog power - are you sure WNCI is authorized for 2% digital power? It should be that the total digital power is for both sidebands, 1% of analog ERP. Even at 2kW ERP, that's a heck of a lot better than the Chicago stations on our 'scrapers, they would only be allowed 60 watts maximum at 1%! (since the most analog power permitted at the Chicago skyscraper heights is 6kW ERP) No wonder people are having trouble locking in to HD, especially when mobile...

 

[BRNout]

97.9 WNCI in Columbus is nearly 200kw+4kw HD from a building in downtown. If just a few thousand watts of RF on 96.7 in Stamford, CT causes a lot of reception problems, imagine how much worse it is in Columbus, OH.

They're at 175 kw horizontal ERP and 105 kw vertical ERP. So 1% HD would be 1.75 kw horizontal and 1.05 kw vertical; not 4 kw. Now, with the power increase, it will be up near 4 kw.

How in the world did WNCI get licensed for so much power? If you look at other Columbus FM stations, the next highest power is 40 kw for non-comm WOSU and none of the rest exceed 22 kw. Yes, Grand Rapids' WBCT is super-powered, but so is WOOD-FM and others around are 100 kw. (I almost always can pick up WBCT from my location north of Chicago, by the way - a good 120 miles). And it's not like there's a Sears Tower or Mt. Wilson there to equalize things. WNCI absolutely outpowers everyone else in that market. Very odd.

 

[fybush]

It's a simple matter of history: what's now WNCI applied for that level of power back when the FCC allowed it, and they were grandfathered in with it when the present power levels were established in 1964. Some markets had a lot of grandfathered stations, others had only one or two. Columbus had just the one. (Or was WOSU-FM grandfathered at one point? ISTR it was.)

Under the new HD power rules the FCC just announced, grandfathered stations don't get the power increase, so WNCI will be limited to 1750 watts of digital.

 

[BRNout]

It's a simple matter of history: what's now WNCI applied for that level of power back when the FCC allowed it, and they were grandfathered in with it when the present power levels were established in 1964. Some markets had a lot of grandfathered stations, others had only one or two. Columbus had just the one. (Or was WOSU-FM grandfathered at one point? ISTR it was.)

Under the new HD power rules the FCC just announced, grandfathered stations don't get the power increase, so WNCI will be limited to 1750 watts of digital.

Thanks for the clarification Scott - both on the history and on the HD status of WNCI!

I guess what caught my eye was how many orders of magnitude stronger WNCI is than anyone else in that market. There isn't usually that much of a gap between one station and everyone else.

 

[travisl5678]

KQED-FM in San Francisco runs at 120Kw

 

[Len14043]

AM and FM stations in Salt Lake City have a tremendous range because of the ground conductivity, the location of FM sticks on mountain tops, the lack of co-channel stations for hundreds of miles, and less lightning. On AM, graveyard stations go the distance and KSL gets out as good as the low-on-the-dial giants in the Midwest such as the Chicago clears, WJR, WLW, etc. KACP, a 50000 watt directional at 570 khz can easily be heard in Southern Montana and Northern Arizona during the day.

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KACP&service=AM&status=C&hours=D

For FM, most of their sticks are located on high mountain tops and are easily be heard 100 miles away. Because of the lack of co-channels on AM and FM, you get a true measure of how far they can be received when not impeded by other stations. Check out the contour for KSFI, which is typical of the Salt Lake stations:

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KSFI&service=FM&status=L&hours=U

Also, check out the number of stations in SLC:

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/locate?select=city&city=salt+lake+city&x=14&y=6&sid=

 

[davideduardo]

AM would be the Radio Marti - Marathon, FL - 100KW TPO (the only exception) on 1180kHz directional, towards Cuba. Nothing higher than 50kW TPO in the U.S. ERP's of directional AM stations can be sometimes over 200kW...

VOA / Radio Martí Progam Marathon is not licensed. It just is.

 

[w9wi]

It's a simple matter of history: what's now WNCI applied for that level of power back when the FCC allowed it, and they were grandfathered in with it when the present power levels were established in 1964. Some markets had a lot of grandfathered stations, others had only one or two. Columbus had just the one. (Or was WOSU-FM grandfathered at one point? ISTR it was.)

To elaborate a bit... From what I've read in 1950s copies of Broadcasting... is that between the end of WW2 and the 1964 rules, there were two classes of FM station. Class A stations were limited to 1kw at 100' (or was it 200'?); Class B stations to 20kw at 500'. However, Class B stations could apply for higher powers than 20kw and if the FCC felt they would serve areas not receiving adequate FM service -- and wouldn't interfere with anyone -- they'd grant it. There was no hard and fast limit. You could apply for as much power as you felt you could generate. The cited Grand Rapids station on 93.7 once ran 470kw.

 

[purpledevil]

To everyone, thanks for the information. This is exactly what I was looking for. I remember our local KQUE-FM/Houston being 250kW at one time, and wasn't sure that there were any of the "superpowers" left. Thanks again.

pd

 

[MR5229]

There's one in Los Angeles (KPFK) which is on 90.3 FM. They broadcast at 110 kW but the amazing thing is that their transmitter is at 5785 feet above sea level and their coverage area is the LA Basin and the Inland Empire.

 

[schmave]

It's a simple matter of history: what's now WNCI applied for that level of power back when the FCC allowed it, and they were grandfathered in with it when the present power levels were established in 1964. Some markets had a lot of grandfathered stations, others had only one or two. Columbus had just the one. (Or was WOSU-FM grandfathered at one point? ISTR it was.)

Under the new HD power rules the FCC just announced, grandfathered stations don't get the power increase, so WNCI will be limited to 1750 watts of digital.

Thanks for the clarification Scott - both on the history and on the HD status of WNCI!

I guess what caught my eye was how many orders of magnitude stronger WNCI is than anyone else in that market. There isn't usually that much of a gap between one station and everyone else.

Anyone wowed at WNCI's 175K wouldn't be if they came to this market. Surprisingly its signal does not outclass or distance everyone else's as much as you might think. The Houston FMs that go 100KWs in Missouri City put WNCI to shame.

 

[SML]

There's one in Los Angeles (KPFK) which is on 90.3 FM. They broadcast at 110 kW but the amazing thing is that their transmitter is at 5785 feet above sea level and their coverage area is the LA Basin and the Inland Empire.

Actually, KPFK is on 90.7 mhz, and is 110 kw ERP atop Mt Wilson. There is video of the transmitter plant on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoKjRoCgXVU

And a discussion of the actual coverage area of KPFK here:

http://www.well.com/user/dmsml/secure/coverage.html

 

[w9wi]

Anyone wowed at WNCI's 175K wouldn't be if they came to this market. Surprisingly its signal does not outclass or distance everyone else's as much as you might think. The Houston FMs that go 100KWs in Missouri City put WNCI to shame.

- WNCI's antenna is only 171m (about 550') high. The extreme antenna height of the Houston stations really does make a big difference!

- The additional coverage "superpower" stations receive as a result of their extra power is not protected from interference.

WNCI is a Class B station. If it weren't grandfathered with the additional power, they would be limited to about 38,500 watts at their 171m antenna height. Class B stations are protected from interference to the distance at which they're predicted to deliver 60dBu of signal. At 38,500 watts, WNCI's signal would be protected from interference to a distance of 52km.

The additional power means their 60dBu signal is predicted to go 66km. However, that additional 14km of coverage is not protected from interference.

(FWIW, the 60dBu signal of KVYB, the most powerful U.S. station, is 104km.)

 

[trusty]

HERE is an interesting site that includes power levels of stations from 1950.

93.7 WJEF-FM Grand Rapids CP 550000
99.5 WAFM Birmingham 540000
105.7 KXEL-FM Waterloo 540000
107.7 KFSA-FM Fort Smith 497000
97.1 WTCN-FM Minneapolis 400000
94.1 WGST-FM Atlanta 345000
97.9 WRFD-FM Worthington CP 340000
93.1 WKAT-FM Miami Beach 324000
93.3 WTMJ-FM Milwaukee 322000
101.5 WJBC-FM Bloomington 311000

It also has a story about WBRC-FM in 1948, another station in Birmingham with 560,000 watts. (I'm not sure if either Birmingham station actually broadcast at such power levels; I do know their sticks were on top of Red Mountain.)

 

[BobOnTheJob]

It's a simple matter of history: what's now WNCI applied for that level of power back when the FCC allowed it, and they were grandfathered in with it when the present power levels were established in 1964. Some markets had a lot of grandfathered stations, others had only one or two. Columbus had just the one. (Or was WOSU-FM grandfathered at one point? ISTR it was.)

The cited Grand Rapids station on 93.7 once ran 470kw.

Indeed it did. My understanding of the reason for the power reduction was that when circular polarity was allowed, there was no combination of transmitter power and antenna gain that could produce 470KW H&V, forcing them to settle for less power or operate with Horizontal polarity only. In round numbers, a massive 12 bay circular antenna would have a gain of about 6, requiring over 78 kilowatts of transmitter power before considering the feedline loss. I could see where an 85KW FM transmitter in the 60's would have been hard to come by. Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen anything above 40-50KW output to this day.

 

[FreddyE1977]

WBCT 93.7 Grand Rapids, MI, 320 kW, the most amount of power that I know,
WOOD 105.7 also Grand Rapids, 260 kW
WSLQ 99.1 Roanoke, VA 150 kW
WRVQ 94.5 Richmond, VA 200 kW but on a short stick
WOMC 104.3 Detroit, Mi 190 kW may also be on a short stick
KVYB 103.3 Santa Barbara, CA 105 kW

These are the only US stations I know that operate more than 100 kW.

So the two most powerful FM stations in the country are both in Grand Rapids, Michigan?
And 3 of the top 6 are in the state of Michigan? I wonder why? Why did they initially think that
would be necessary? I have lived in Michigan and in most areas the ground is rather swampy,
leading to really great ground connectivity. I had much better luck with daytime DXing on both
AM and FM there than anyplace else I've been. I would think 320kW would be reserved for
places like Huntsville, Alabama where the ground conductivity is lousy.