WBIX 50kw

[Deleted member 64531]

I read the morning in the FCC CDBS the Alex Langer's WBIX has applied for a CP to upgrade both it's Daytime power and Critical Hours power to 50kw from the WAMG tower site. At present, only the Nightime 2.5kw signal transmits from there. If my memory serves me correctly, Mr. Langer mentioned the 50kw upgrade in his future plans when he regained control of the station a few years ago. No changes to Night power.

 

[DanStrassberg]

I read the morning in the FCC CDBS the Alex Langer's WBIX has applied for a CP to upgrade both it's Daytime power and Critical Hours power to 50kw from the WAMG tower site. At present, only the Nightime 2.5kw signal transmits from there. If my memory serves me correctly, Mr. Langer mentioned the 50kw upgrade in his future plans when he regained control of the station a few years ago. No changes to Night power.

Did you look at the application? I downloaded part of it (Section 12.1, 32 pages). I am amazed that there isn't massive prohibited overlap with WBZ. The signal toward Boston increases significantly. New area is covered in southern Mass (New Bedford and environs) but coverage in areas west, northwest, and north of the Ashland transmitter site, coverage is dramatically reduced. The new day/CH pattern is simply the very restrictive night 2.5 kW pattern with 20 times the night power. I suspect that the timing of this application--right on the heels of WEPN's site move had to wait for WEPN's move. There will be normally prohibited overlap with WEPN but the FCC is on record as accepting such overlap with New York City AMs in te area east of Naragansett Bay and all of WBIX's new coverage is east of Naragansett Bay.

When what was then WGTR first went on the air full-time in 1981, it operated full-time from the Ashland site (DA-2). Powers were supposed to be 25 kW-D/2.5 kW-N, but the FCC never authorized operation with the full night power and may never have authorized operation with the full day power either. No license was ever issued; the station operated under STA the whole time--until it went dark after about a decade. What is now WAMG took over the Ashland site and would not allow a diplex. Thus, Langer was forced initially to use the WKOX site for 1060 and 650 when he first returned them to the air in (I think) 1996.

I suspect that Langer has filed the current application because WBIX's day site is owned by Clear Channel. WKOX was there for decades before WBIX and WSRO 650 moved in. Now that WKOX is gone, CCU must want to sell the site and Langer likely figures that for the same or fewer $$$ than the cost of the WKOX property, he can move his stations to the Ashland site and reduce operating expenses because he will no longer have to pay to lease TWO sites for WBIX. He will lose the WSRO site, though, so look for an application to move WSRO to the Ashland site very soon. WSRO is licensed to Ashland, so presumably CoL coverage won't be an issue.

 

[DanStrassberg]

I am amazed that there isn't massive prohibited overlap with WBZ.

So I checked the V-Soft Zip-Signal Web site. Going by what I found there, during daytime and critical hours, there would indeed by massive overlap of the WBIX and WBZ 25 mV/m contours in Wellesley (Zip 02481). However, a close look at the maps provided in the application suggests that the soil conductivity east of the Ashland site is much lower than that given on the FCC's M-3 maps. I'm guessing that the Zip Signal data is based on the M-3 numbers. I did not find any material in the application to support this supposition, however. The data may be there, though, and I just didn't find it. Media Bueau Engineering will be the first to ask about it and the engineers who prepared the WBIX 50 kW app are real pros with a sterling reputation, so I suspect that the information is somewhere in all of the attachments.

I have seen a polar plot of the 1981-vintage 1060 25-kW day pattern. Radiation due east was way less than the maxima. The reduced radiation was most definitely limited to the east to protect WBZ and the fellow who was WGTR's CE at the time (the late Bob Lund) told me that the 25 mV/m contours came within a few hundred feet of each other in Wellesley. Maybe he was going on theoretical contour plots. Bob has been dead for well over a decade, so I can't ask him.

 

[mgpt6]

WGTR was day only when it first went on the air.

 

[Deleted member 64531]

WGTR was day only when it first went on the air.

Indeed it was a 1kw Daytimer and it ended each broadcast day with Led Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven" in it's early years.

 

[DanStrassberg]

WGTR was day only when it first went on the air.

I never said it wasn't. I did not say what you think I said. What I said was, "When WGTR first went on the air full-time in 1981...", which doesn't mean it was full time when it first went on the air. When WGTR first went on the air (at all), it was November 1972. The station ran 1 kw-D (with a PSRA for 1.6W(!) from a single 56-degree (140') stick on Kendall Ave in South Natick near the Framingham and Sherborn lines. The original application (also for 1 kW-D) specified a transmitter site at the foot of Oak St (south of Route 9 in E Natick). The studios were at 24 W Central St in downtown Natick (an old Victorian-style house that Garabedian had had converted to studios and offices). During the summer of 1981, the transmitter moved to the massive five-tower array at the end of Sewell St in Ashland (just east of Route 126). The CP was for 25 kW-D/2.5 kW-N DA-2. The 25 kW was to be achieved by running two 15 kW transmitters in parallel through a combining network. I don't remember the name of the transmitter manufacturer but I think it was located in New Jersey. The idea was that the station could run at half power with either one of the 15 kW units, thus avoiding the need for a backup unit. Like so many other things at WGTR, the idea of a "live" backup didn't work because the two transmitters weren't sufficiently alike. Garabedian wound up suing the manufacturer. I know my WGTR history damned well--particularly the technical part. Maybe better than anyone still alive--even people who worked at the station. OK, maybe John H himself and Blair Hardin (both of whom are still alive, AFAIK) know more about the station's technical history than I do. But Bob Lund, who was CE during the time when the Sewell St plant was under construction, was only about 40 when he died of a massive heart attack about 15 years ago. He was a very nice guy.

 

[RustyShacklefordSr]

I know my WGTR history damned well--particularly the technical part.

Most of us realize Dan, that you think you can walk on electrons, but when someone resorts to that sort of vocabulary in an attempt to make a point here, it sends up a red flag concerning their credibility. Lighten up.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Most of us realize Dan, that you think you can walk on electrons

Umm, all of us walk on electrons and protons and nutrons. They are part of the atoms that make up the molecules that are the building blocks of our muscles, bones, blood, and skin. So maybe both of us need to lighten up!

 

[DanStrassberg]

I don't remember the name of the transmitter manufacturer but I think it was located in New Jersey.

I think the transmitter manufacturer was CCA in Gloucester NJ.

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

Speaking of projects Alex Langer has cooking on one burner or another:

Does anyone have any updated infromation on the Construction Permit he holds for a Providence market AM on 1140?

 

[DanStrassberg]

Speaking of projects Alex Langer has cooking on one burner or another: Does anyone have any updated infromation on the Construction Permit he holds for a Providence market AM on 1140?

If the CP has not been tolled, I think it has lapsed. Nevertheless, last time I visited RadioStationsforSale.net (a few weeks ago) the CP was still listed. 1140 kHz 27 kW-D/1.4 kW-N DA-2 six towers. CoL: Greenville RI--already home to RI's only 50 kW AM, the most powerful station that nobody can hear, WALE 990. WALE also has a six-tower array and it appears to be situated and oriented satisfactorily for the 1140 station, although the tower configurations are different: 1140--a classic 3x2 parallelogram; 990--a less common 2x3. I believe that the 3x2 is more common because it is easier to get deep minima on the sides of the pattern, which 1140 needs--especially at night, to protect WRVA.

Anyhow, there is reportedly a toxic-waste problem at the 990 site, which might expose anyone involved with the site to liability for horrendous clean-up expenses. So Langer was most likely warned off of the idea of a diplex from the 990 site, which otherwise just might have been workable for 1140. His apparent lack of interest appears to have deprived Greenville of the opportunity to become home to the two most powerful AMs that nobody can hear.

 

[chrish]

The WGTR units were two combined Sparta 15 Kilowatt transmitters one of which is still is or was (when they were still on the air) being used as the WAMG auxiliary. It is in very rough shape but still works as a backup to the Harris DX-25
The other unit is in a storage container behind the old WKOX site on Mt Waite Ave in Framingham, don't know where the combiner ended up.

 

[DanStrassberg]

I think the transmitter manufacturer was CCA in Gloucester NJ.

From what Chris Hall posted, my info about the Tx manufacturer was incorrect. Sorry.

I was also wrong about the night power of Alex Langer's 1140 CP in Greenville RI. 1200W, not 1400 as I incorrectly stated.

 

[JIBGUY]

Most of us realize Dan, that you think you can walk on electrons, but when someone resorts to that sort of vocabulary in an attempt to make a point here, it sends up a red flag concerning their credibility. Lighten up.

Dan has probably answered more technical questions posed by others on this board than anyone else... So, IF he's walking on electrons, let him do so.

 

[chrish]

Dan, don't sweat the small stuff, you are the resident genius for the real 411 on complex AM allocation and signal info, your detailed knowledge is amazing.

CH

 

[radio zombie]

Bob Lund, who was CE during the time when the Sewell St plant was under construction, was only about 40 when he died of a massive heart attack about 15 years ago. He was a very nice guy.

In the interest of accuracy, Bob Lund, who indeed was a very nice guy, died in July of 1996
at age 45. To the best of my knowledge, he died from an aneurysm. I worked with Bob back
in the late 60's and later had an oppurtunity to use him for some engineering work. I know this
history isn't central to the story, but since he was John Garabedian's engineer from day one at
1060 AM, I thought I'd add this bit of information. Dan, thanks for remembering one of the most
talented guys I ever met in my broadcasting career.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Dan, thanks for remembering one of the most talented guys I ever met in my broadcasting career.

I first met Bob at about 3:30AM one day in the late spring of 1981 in the Tx building at the base of tower #3 at the Sewell St site. He was there along with Blair Hardin (I believe) trying to adjust the array. When I noticed a carrier on 1060, I had sprung from bed, gotten dressed, and driven out to Ashland from Arlington to see what I could find out! John H and others were out at null points with FIMs as Bob tried one combination of settings after another--to no avail. This could not have been an attempt at the final tuning either, because the night array was way too finicky for final tuning during the wee hours when skywave signals were bouncing in. I was amazed when Bob broke away from the phasor controls and ran into the other room to fetch a book that contained, among other things, polar plots of the patterns. He showed me both of them. I remember the radiation maximum of the night pattern (at an azimuth of 90 degrees) was 840 mV/m @ 1 MILE (the FCC wasn't yet using kilometers). If you convert the maximum radiation of the current design to mV/m @ 1 mile, you find that, as you would expect, the somewhat narrower pattern has a somewhat greater maximum (about 930 mV/m @ 1 mile). I also vividly remember Bob characterizing the 25 kW day pattern as looking like a pregnant banana. There was a lobe to the east whose maximum at 90 degrees was well below those of the relatively narrow maxima at around 15 degrees and 165 degrres. IIRC those two maxima were about 2200 mV/m @ 1 mile. The care with which the day pattern was designed to cover Boston to the maximum possible extent yet limit radiation toward WBZ is why I find the subject of this tread so curious. In the almost 29 intervening years, there has been no change in the third-adjacent contour-overlap rule (no overlap of 25 mV/m contours), yet now, Mr Langer and his engineers believe they can double to power and use a pattern that throws everything toward the east without causing prohibited overlap with WBZ.

 

[radio zombie]

I first met Bob at about 3:30AM one day in the late spring of 1981 in the Tx building at the base of tower #3 at the Sewell St site. He was there along with Blair Hardin (I believe) trying to adjust the array. When I noticed a carrier on 1060, I had sprung from bed, gotten dressed, and driven out to Ashland from Arlington to see what I could find out

Sorry, I've been away and couldn't respond to your post right away. What went unspoken in your quote above was that, although you were, (apparently), a stranger when you met Bob in the middle of the night, he was willing to share what he was doing with you. I am far from being an engineer, but in my experience with Bob and others in his field, this type of camaraderie among those with similar interests, even though strangers or even working for a competing station, was not unusual. I'm sure that Bob probably sprang out of bed in the middle of the night as teenager during an event like you described at a station near his home to investigate some sort of engineering situation. (More than likely it was the three tower array of WORC-AM in Auburn, MA). We don't often hear about the fraternity of engineers, but I'm willing to bet the above scenario has played out in many a radio market across the country.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Speaking of projects Alex Langer has cooking on one burner or another: Does anyone have any updated infromation on the Construction Permit he holds for a Providence market AM on 1140?

I know I answered that question recently on this board and I thought I did so in this thread but I can't find the post in this thread so it must have been in another thread. I would say damned if I know which one, but I guess that would anger a certain poster, so darned if I know which one.

Anyhow, unless the CP has been tolled, it has died as a result of failure to construct. I did see a listing at radiostationsforsale.net recently, however, suggesting that the CP has been tolled. 1140 kHz, 27 kW-D/1200W-N, six towers, CoL: Greenville, same CoL as RI's only 50-kW AM, WALE 990, the most powerful station that nobody can hear. Although both WALE and Langer's CP (the listing at stationsofrsale says it has been granted the call sign WRDG) use six-tower arrays and the patterns are rather similar (basically teardrops pointing southeast), Langer proposed a different site from WALE, about four miles closer to Providence. Although the WALE site might work for WRDG, it reportedly has a serious toxic-waste problem that could expose anyone connected with it to huge cleanup costs. So my guess is that Langer is too smart to allow himself to get sucked into that mess. I doubt whether WRDG will ever be built.

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

Dan:

You actually first answered the question regarding the status of the probably never-to-be-built Providence market AM 1140 back in Reply #10 of this thread.

As another poster said previously......Don't sweat the small stuff. Middle age isn't agreeing with me either!