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WAJD Back on the air?

T

ThatGuyOnTheRadio

According to the FCC, a silent notice went through on July 7, 2009-- they resumed operations July 15, 2010. By my count, that was more than a year-- I'm surprised the FCC granted WAJD to back on the air.

Anyone heard anything or did Doug just crank out a 5 second Legal ID and start the clock again?
 
ThatGuyOnTheRadio said:
Was able to take a listen... sounds like they have a Beatles CD on loop.
Click to expand...


Yup. Beatles all the time. And at about 30% peak modulation, too. Very professional...... I listened across the top of the hour and never heard a legal ID, either, but I didn't give it more than about 15 minutes, so one might have been either before or after I listened.
 
Kmagrill said:
ThatGuyOnTheRadio said:
Was able to take a listen... sounds like they have a Beatles CD on loop.
Click to expand...

Yup. Beatles all the time. And at about 30% peak modulation, too. Very professional...... I listened across the top of the hour and never heard a legal ID, either, but I didn't give it more than about 15 minutes, so one might have been either before or after I listened.
Click to expand...

Kmagrill... Is WAJD back at full 5kw power? They were programming Radio Disney before going silent, so I'm wondering if RD will return to AM 1390.
 
Kmagrill said:
Yup. Beatles all the time. And at about 30% peak modulation, too. Very professional...... I listened across the top of the hour and never heard a legal ID, either, but I didn't give it more than about 15 minutes, so one might have been either before or after I listened.
Click to expand...

Sounds like they've come full-circle back to where they were in 1992: CDs being played on random shuffle from one of the old Pioneer 6 slot or Sony 10 slot "jukebox" units. Modulation was low then, too. Dead air between each song as the jukebox did it's thing. If you cranked the volume, you could actually hear the mechanical noise of the discs being swapped. LOL!
 
Magrill would know better-- but I'd say AJD is back at full power or pretty close. I could take it as far as 241 in Newberry yesterday before losing it.

Sounds about right for it's location and dial position.
 
They're on cut #9 from Sgt. Pepper's now. I did hear a station ID (not at the top of the hour) before they started the Beatles marathon.
 
Well, I'm glad they're playing the legal ID. At least that will make it easier for the FCC to know who's at fault when they come to investigate why WAJD is causing interference by operating at 5kW at night. I tuned them in at 11pm and they're coming in at my house, on the north side, like they're next door. Still tracking that Beatles album.
 
Kmagrill said:
Well, I'm glad they're playing the legal ID. At least that will make it easier for the FCC to know who's at fault when they come to investigate why WAJD is causing interference by operating at 5kW at night. I tuned them in at 11pm and they're coming in at my house, on the north side, like they're next door. Still tracking that Beatles album.
Click to expand...

Is WAJD still running full power at night?
 
It looks like they are off the air again. Why don't they sell the thing if they aren't going to to anything with it? It's been off the air so much it's probably not worth much so that might come out better donating it to a church or some non-profit for a tax deduction.
 
It looks like they are off the air again. Why don't they sell the thing if they aren't going to to anything with it? It's been off the air so much it's probably not worth much so they might come out better donating it to a church or some non-profit for a tax deduction.

(corrected)
 
Jeff said:
It looks like they are off the air again. Why don't they sell the thing if they aren't going to to anything with it? It's been off the air so much it's probably not worth much so they might come out better donating it to a church or some non-profit for a tax deduction.

(corrected)
Click to expand...

They've spent quite a lot of money on WAJD, including about $50k for a brand new transmitter in the last 5 years, but they never do anything about the basic design of the site which has always been a serious problem. Until the design is modified, WAJD will always be a black hole for money. I suppose Doug is holding on to WAJD hoping that the AM will someday be worth something, perhaps when IBOC becomes more common.
 

they never do anything about the basic design of the site which has always been a serious problem. Until the design is modified, WAJD will always be a black hole for money. I suppose Doug is holding on to WAJD hoping that the AM will someday be worth something, perhaps when IBOC becomes more common.
[/quote]

Out of curiosity...What kind of site modification would it need?

This seems like a catch 22, because an operating station is generally easier to sell than a silent one.
 
The FCC needs to retire or relax nighttime rules. Just let everyone go 500 to 1KW locally and be done with it. There is so much noise and hash at night you can barely listen to the 50KW stations for more than 10 minutes.

With the migration to FM. The average listener will not tolerate fadeout, and noise. If you want to DX go to shortwave. It is time to kill the power restrictions in local markets now. If we want to save AM.
 
Alan McCall said:

Out of curiosity...What kind of site modification would it need?

This seems like a catch 22, because an operating station is generally easier to sell than a silent one.
Click to expand...



I believe Doug has no intention of selling WAJD, unless it's part of a deal to sell both AM & FM.

To fix WAJD would require moving the building away from the tower. Currenly, less than 10' exists between the building & the tower. The rf field is so high that I've stood in the bottom of a 6' equipment rack and drawn an arc by touching the top of the same rack. An AM optimod wouldn't work in the room because of rf feedback. It's an amazing environment. Because of the high field and circulating currents, stuff is very prone to damage out there. So, there are several things that I would do, and some are more expensive than others, but they could do a lot by just moving the building away from the tower base. So far, they have wasted a lot of money replacing equipment when they could have spent money once and fixed the source of the problem. Given that Doug bought a new transmitter a few years ago, I'd guess it would have been cheaper, maybe a lot cheaper, to have replaced the building and done the installation right. Most likely, they could have retained the old Continental transmitter and come out a lot cheaper and also still have been on the air all this time.

Until something is done, these issues will continue.
 
They are back on the air again with that same Beatles CD and a random EAS tone thrown in for good measure.
 
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