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WASB 1590 AM

1600 in Geneseo..... Who was trying to set that up? Was it Morris Levy? Morris was a DJ at WADD in 1970-72 era. He was an older fellow, probably aged 45 or so at that time. Anyone know why 1600 in Geneseo was never built? (aside from the fact that it was a smart idea not to?)
 
WLMO 1600 Geneseo was authorized about the same time the original Non-DA daytime-only WYSL 1030 was, circa 1986. The applicant indeed included Morris Levy, who also apparently worked at WACK, and Lowell Conrad, the owner of a Geneseo appliance store and chairman of the Livingston County Republican Party.

WYSL was on the air a little more than four months after issuance of the CP. I think that factor combined with the projected costs of building the 3-tower DA-2 disabused Lowell, who was the money guy behind the project, from the folly of actually trying to build WLMO. Lowell has been a friend and advertiser on WYSL over the years and we've had several conversations about his flirtation with radio broadcasting. I got a copy of his CP which we reviewed decades ago. While Bill Sitzman did a heroic job pulling WLMO's contours away from WASB and shoehorning the Geneseo pattern in among Simcoe, Ontario, Brockport, Horseheads, Salamanca, Auburn and Oneida, the facility would have been a horrible one. The deep nulls required would have nixed general coverage even in the home county and even in daytime hours, with putative WLMO listeners driving into and out of lobes traveling to nearby communities like Dansville, Caledonia, Lima, etc. That would have made attracting even a local audience and advertisers extremely difficult. The only advantage the 1600 would have had over WYSL 1030 would have been fulltime operation, but since the 625-watt DA-N signal would realistically cover only Geneseo, that advantage would have been a slight one.

Not to speak for Lowell, but I believe he's glad to this day he never did it. It would have amounted to the equivalent of Son Of WASB - in an even smaller community.
 
I forgot: you may recall that WDNY operated as a nondirectional daytimer from the time it went on in 1978, until 1981 or 1982 IIRC, with 500 watts on 1600 kHz. Measurements to WYSL 1400 Buffalo allowed them to move to that frequency with reduced power - I think it was a nominal 381 watts daytime NDA, with the station actually powering UP at sunset to 1kw.
 
WLMO: Is that short for "LMAO"?? ;D
I guess the L was for Lowell and the M was for Morris, and the O for the second letter of each of their names.

One thing about Rochester that always amazed me... and that is how there never was a good 5kw full-time powerhouse on the low end of the AM dial. Every city had one or two. Even some small towns had one. But being on the lake with Toronto on the other side, and Buffalo and Syracuse close by, there never was room for such. Even now, there's nothing in Rochester from 540 thru 940.

Wouldn't WLMO have been better off taking 680 with 250 watts daytime? -WNYR's old spot. Would have been better than that 1600 DA-2 abortion. One stick for 680. Of course, CFTR would come bombing in, but not quite as bad as when it used to hit WNYR-680. And why not 670, 690, 700? My western New York AM-dial knowledge is dwindling with age.
 
We started WDNY on October 20, 1978 at 1600 KHZ as a non-directional daytimer. There was no presunrise for the first few months. In December that meant signing on at 7:45 and signing off at 4:30. Can you imagine doing that today? But the station received great acceptance from the community back then. By January, 1979 we had presunrise authority. I think it was in 1980 that we switched to 1400 KHZ. We had 700+ watts daytime and as Bob mentioned the station did actually power up to 1000 watts at night, not that it made any difference.

One of the neat things we did was to carry Larry King all night with no one at the station. This was back when the FCC required someone to be at the point of control of the station at all times. So, with the help of the local cable company we ran a cable down the street across Clara Barton Street to the Dansville Police Department. The police had a remote ontrol for the station at the dispatcher site. It worked great.
 
Sweet! So anyone who was seeking employment at WDNY as a board operator was denied because the station was more interested in letting the local police department run the station. As if the police had nothing better to do!
 
qman said:
Sweet! So anyone who was seeking employment at WDNY as a board operator was denied because the station was more interested in letting the local police department run the station. As if the police had nothing better to do!
It was probably the police-fire dispatcher. How I got into radio: dispatcher with a broadcast endorsed third working for a cab company in Ashtabula. From 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. we took transmitter readings for a rimshot AM that ran set it and forget it pray for pay off the bird.
 
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