WBIX 50KW D CP Granted

[Deleted member 64531]

The FCC granted WBIX 1060 a CP for 50kw Daytime yesterday. They will be moving the day signal to their nightime transmitter location at the WAMG tower site and will eliminate Critical Hours operaton.

http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=1333627

 

[Don Juan]

The FCC granted WBIX 1060 a CP for 50kw Daytime yesterday. They will be moving the day signal to their nightime transmitter location at the WAMG tower site and will eliminate Critical Hours operaton.

http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=1333627

Isn't this like arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?

So...we will have a stronger signal, with no real content to speak of.

Would the station actually be worth more...in this day and age?

Seems like a waste of money at this point.

 

[JustinT]

Isn't this like arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?

So...we will have a stronger signal, with no real content to speak of.

Would the station actually be worth more...in this day and age?

Seems like a waste of money at this point.

They'd probably save on rent if they only need the site in Ashland. Does Clear Channel still own the Mount Wayte Ave. facility in Framingham, or did they sell it to Langer? - doesn't seem like CC'd have much use for it anymore.

 

[Deleted member 64531]

They'd probably save on rent if they only need the site in Ashland. Does Clear Channel still own the Mount Wayte Ave. facility in Framingham, or did they sell it to Langer? - doesn't seem like CC'd have much use for it anymore.

If I'm not mistaken, Alex Langer's WSRO 650 still uses one of the sticks at the Mount Wayne Ave. facility. When WBIX vacates, they would be the only station left.

 

[DanStrassberg]

They'd probably save on rent if they only need the site in Ashland. Does Clear Channel still own the Mount Wayte Ave. facility in Framingham, or did they sell it to Langer? - doesn't seem like CC'd have much use for it anymore.

I tried to find out but failed. Saving cost is clearly the primary objective. Being able to put 50,000 watts on the letterhead and the Web site are secondary objectives. Although WBIX will gain some daytime coverage in southeastern Mass, it will lose a lot in central Mass, southern NH, and even southeastern VT. And the dynamite daytime signal will essentially disappear from places like Lincoln and Concord. Also, the coverage of southeastern Mass will receive first-adjacent interference from WEPN because of the long salt water path along Long Island Sound. So, although 50 kW sounds good, as does having the same power and pattern all day long (no separate critical hours power and pattern), the main benefit will be a reduced break-even point.

I don't recall whether there is a 1060 near Quebec City. There used to be one IN Quebec but it went dark. Then another station applied for 1060 up there but may have landed on a different frequency. If there is a 1060 up that way, they should be thanking Alex Langer and the FCC for removing the critical hours interference.

 

[DanStrassberg]

If I'm not mistaken, Alex Langer's WSRO 650 still uses one of the sticks at the Mount Wayne Ave. facility. When WBIX vacates, they would be the only station left.

True. I forgot to ask about WSRO. I think there is a good chance that it will move to Ashland but one never knows. Because there will be two stations there with high daytime power, the cost of the move could be significant. Moreover, the former WKOX site is in a rather densely populated area. so despite running only 9W at night, WSRO still covers a lot of people. That would be less true if it were operating from Ashland. Still, I suspect that CCU would like to get the property off its books and get some much needed cash for it and I rather doubt that Alex Langer is interested in buying the site just so WSRO can reach a few hundred more people after dark.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

...I suspect that CCU would like to get the property off its books and get some much needed cash for it and I rather doubt that Alex Langer is interested in buying the site just so WSRO can reach a few hundred more people after dark.

Perhaps Langer could get a somewhat higher nighttime power for WSRO if he it moved to Ashland with a directional night pattern nulled to the southwest to protect WSM (and first-adjacents WNNZ and WFAN)?

 

[DanStrassberg]

Perhaps Langer could get a somewhat higher nighttime power for WSRO if he it moved to Ashland with a directional night pattern nulled to the southwest to protect WSM (and first-adjacents WNNZ and WFAN)?

I believe that at one time, Langer held a CP to move WSRO to Sewell St and run 2 kW-D (only) from the five tall towers with a pattern aimed eastward, much like WAMG's and WBIX's night patterns but not as deeply nulled to the west. The power limitation was, of course, WRKO, and there was no application for nights. Given that WBIX's daytime power increase is predicated on measurements that appear to show really horrendous soil conductivity in the area east and northeast of Sewell St and for many, many miles beyond (0.1 mS/m--a value that I used to believe was found only in paved-over areas, such as Manhattan Island), perhaps he will resurrect the unbuilt application. However, the situation on 650 in New England has gotten tangled and complex since then. There is a CP for a 650 station in Raymond ME (125 miles NNE of Sewell St; 500W-D, 2 towers/2 kW-N, three towers). That CP expires this coming September 26 but will almost certainly be tolled. The permittee, Stephen Wendell, is no favorite of the FCC's; he has a LONG history of AM CPs that have gone unbuilt but for which he has used every trick in the book to avoid surrendering--for years and years and years. The crazy thing is that these CPs are for places that are too small to support radio stations. Anyhow, even if the Raymond CP were to disappear, the cost of building a WAMG/WBIX/WSRO directional triplex at Sewell St would probably be prohibitive. I believe that it was that cost plus the technical challenges that caused Langer to return his earlier daytime-only CP for 650 at Sewell St.

Oh yeah; after he surrendered the WSRO Sewell St CP, Langer filed to change WSRO's CoL to Lexington with a transmitter site in--IIRC--Wrentham, of all places! Wrentham is about 40 miles south of Lexington but with 5 kW and a six-tower array that would have produced a very narrow teardrop pattern aimed north, he said he could deliver 5 mV/m to Lexington. This would also have been a daytime-only station. I can't recall whether a CP was ever granted but whether it was a CP or just an application, he ultimately asked to have it dismissed.