This morning, I noticed That WAZX has been playing a continuos loop of "Guantanamera". My guess is that 1550 will soon be en Espanol.
I realy enjoyed the mix of music that was played since August. My brother Jesse worked there in the 1980's
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WAZX(AM) Stunting!
- Thread starter frdeaconjosephz
- Start date
This morning, I noticed That WAZX has been playing a continuos loop of "Guantanamera". My guess is that 1550 will soon be en Espanol.
I realy enjoyed the mix of music that was played since August. My brother Jesse worked there in the 1980's
They were playing oldies all day when I checked. Good signal for me in Gwinnett. The NEW tower site I believe is in Powder Springs between AM-590 and AM-1160. They are less then 200 feet as they do not have tower lights. They are not 500 watts at night anymore. Dropped nighttime power and now very low wattage.
BRENT said:
That is the way it is set up. They have some interference around sunrise and sunset (critical hours on some stations but not WAZX ). The new pattern: http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WAZX&service=AM&status=C&hours=D
looks like it is trying to several protect stations: http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bi...mat=&dx=3&radius=200&freq=1550&sort=freq&sid=
secondchoice said:
Their old day pattern covered DeKalb (except Dunwoody) very poorly. The new day pattern is better, but not by a lot.
I'm still surprised that someone has not tried to borrow one of the tower arrays west of ATL (WDWD, WCFO, WAZX, WDCY, probably others) to throw a powerful but tight directional night signal eastward over Atlanta.
Their signal is too good in the Roanoke, VA area as late as 11AM, to the point that they are interfering with the local 1550AM, WKBA...
HadYourPhil said:
The high end of the AM band can skip in the middle of the day. I remember listening to 1510 WLAC Nashville TN in Western Mississippi in the early 1970’s at 1 or 2 PM on Interstate 20 heading home while on leave in the service. They are not directional in the day time. Just “skip” could have carried them that far. The Ground Conductivity is poor in Middle Tennessee and in large parts of the Southeast. WSB a 50 KW in Atlanta has a hard time going over 100 miles. There is a law of Physics that says you can’t destroy energy. Most directional patterns will have some of the signal going “extra good” in at least one direction. You can’t cancel it all out all of the waves.
All true, but when they almost wipe out a 10kw signal, that's a bit much.
For a couple of million, I could fix this and make several million. Buy or work with WKTF and WHTB: find them another channel (they are basically daytimers with light bulb power at night), or take them dark. Change the C.O.L. of WAZX so you can go up around Rome or Cartersville GA and build an array with a super null towards Huntsville AL similar to the 50 KW WFLI Lookout Mountain / Chattanooga protecting 1070 in Birmingham AL. A good engineering study should get a good signal day and night time to cover most of the Atlanta Market, especially the Northern suburbs which very underserved with local AM signals. Work a deal with one of the local TV stations to rent space in their building and pay a fee to use their local reporters and go all news, or News Talk. Give WSB a little completion.
They could, but they might lose the North side. IIRC 1550 is a” Canadian Clear” so you have to protect the north. There is a movement to move the Canadian AM stations to FM, and couple US and Canadian FM’s swapped frequencies in the Seattle area so it might possible to work with the Canadians. What ever is done it would be foolish to spend big bucks on any station that does not cover the “Big Three” 400, I 85 I 75, Corridors and all of Fulton, and DeKalb Counties. If you are going to compete with WSB, you can’t “give” them a one third population signal coverage advantage during Morning Drive during the winter months.
Agreed. Those existing arrays are probably a little too far south. Is there enough flat land in the Rome/Cartersville area that's not blocked by hills to build one?secondchoice said:
I saw where a couple of Canadian 50kWers just went dark (on 690 and 9-something?--not really on frequencies useful to ATL at first glance), and had heard about the Canadian government moving a lot of AM stations to FM.
But I do agree, if someone could go far enough NW, they ought to be able to throw a powerful directional signal over most of the ATL metro except for perhaps the far northern exurbs (Dawsonville, Dahlonega, Gainesville). They could also use a day pattern that is more lenient towards northward broadcasting to pick those up part of the time as well.
I also agree that having a proper night signal is essential to compete with WSB. Otherwise, you are dead during both AM and PM drive, during the winter. That's why Hannity is still on WSB despite Premiere/CC having some say over who gets him.
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