The old WHEB 750

[newsbot2]

Too bad you couldn't have translators for AM daytimers back then like you can now - iHeart would have had another FM with city-grade service in Portsmouth!

 

[Oldie919]

The WHEB-AM tower is still standing in all its glory directly behind the studio building. The free-standing tower dissolved back in 1990 was the former FM tower. JIBGuy is correct. WSB in Atlanta was 35 miles shy of the distance necessary for WHEB-AM to operate night service. They tried locating the transmitter site up to York, Maine with no success. The NIMBY crowd wouldn’t give in. The former 750AM tower today serves as a utility dipole supporting the STL dishes for 95.3, 96.7, 107.1 and 100.3 only a few hundred feet away behind the neighboring shopping plaza. The former FM tower (which stood closer to Route One off to the righthand side of the brick portion of the building) had to be removed at the completion of the existing 459’ structure for WHEB main/aux service and WERZ aux service per agreement with the city of Portsmouth. Incidentally, further down the road, the two sticks for 1380 at Islington Street are now gone due to a loss of lease as is the old WBBX studio building; mothballing another station altogether.

WHEB-AM had a killer signal all the way up the coast of Maine. A buddy of mine in Portland used to listen to them in his work van back in the 80’s when he only had an AM radio in it.

Wasn't the tower moved from its original position in the salt marsh?
I remember a catwalk over the marsh, out to the tuning unit at the tower base......
That fantastic ground system (and low dial position) made the 1000 watts sound like 10!!
The last time I visited WBBX, Roger Wood was the News Director......he'd been with 'HEB....and later went to WOKQ.

 

[Deleted User]

holy Necro Thread Batman.... 15 year resurrection.

 

[newsbot2]

Well, everything old is new again with iHeart putting the Portsmouth facility (save the tower leasehold which was sold off previously) on the block.

Moody's CRE

www.newenglandcommercialproperty.com

 

[OlderRadioGuy]

Wasn't the tower moved from its original position in the salt marsh?
I remember a catwalk over the marsh, out to the tuning unit at the tower base......
That fantastic ground system (and low dial position) made the 1000 watts sound like 10!!
The last time I visited WBBX, Roger Wood was the News Director......he'd been with 'HEB....and later went to WOKQ.

I do believe that you are correct about the original AM tower being in the marsh accessible by catwalk, but I can't independently confirm it. Logic says that the self supporting tower behind the building was the original FM tower (and perhaps 2nd AM tower) and it was the marsh-located tower that was removed at the time the taller FM stick was permitted. When I saw the basement in the early 70s, both AM and FM transmitters were in the basement.

 

[Oldie919]

Both RCA transmitters were in the basement then....the AM was a BTA-1R1 --- the FM was a BTF-1D....both 1 kw units.
The Bauer 707 was a sort of "knock-off" of the BTA-1R1.....the same "4 tubes in the window" concept (2 4-400A's in the final, 2 in the modulator).
The engineer, Tony Vaccaro, was a true "Felix Unger"!!! You could eat off the floor of that basement --- the equipment was SPOTLESS! I can't remember ever seeing him without his signature pipe in his mouth!!
IIRC, the AM transmitter went to what became the "new" WWNH in Madbury (1340)....Where it is now is a mystery (1340 disappeared long ago.....). Never learned the fate of the FM rig......

 

[OlderRadioGuy]

Both RCA transmitters were in the basement then....the AM was a BTA-1R1 --- the FM was a BTF-1D....both 1 kw units.
The Bauer 707 was a sort of "knock-off" of the BTA-1R1.....the same "4 tubes in the window" concept (2 4-400A's in the final, 2 in the modulator).
The engineer, Tony Vaccaro, was a true "Felix Unger"!!! You could eat off the floor of that basement --- the equipment was SPOTLESS! I can't remember ever seeing him without his signature pipe in his mouth!!
IIRC, the AM transmitter went to what became the "new" WWNH in Madbury (1340)....Where it is now is a mystery (1340 disappeared long ago.....). Never learned the fate of the FM rig......

The BTF-1D likely had a BTE-10B exciter - a 40 lb monster with built in 'scope for adjusting multiplier stages viewing a lissajous pattern. One of those at another KQG station was so problematic that NK almost turned in the license. IIRC, that transmitter ended up out in the bushes - with the shell of the GE that proceeded it. Ah, memories.