WFTU increase

[Ted Russell]

It looks like WFTU 1570 Riverhead has been granted a construction permit for a nice power increase. They can go from a 2 tower array to a 3 tower array. They can increase from 1 kW to 5kW day, and from 500 watts to 1500 watts at night. I hope 5 Towns College invests in replacing the entire antenna system and restores the ground system. That should help the signal out.

Its nice to see that the station is being run by a school rather than just being a by the way station from a cluster that nobody cares about. Nice job.

 

[Neal]

Hi Ted.
well thats good News.
I was the First faculty member to try and start a radio station for FTU way back when it was still in Seaford,NY
who was the consultant?
when we First tried for an FM station we used Charlie Hect. he found us I believe it was 103.1
It had to be located on the Fireisland Lighthouse. The school could not cut a Deal since it was a National Monument.
and gave up. Then I think it was Barnstable who Finally Built out 103.1 B103 at the Old WLIX 540 transmitter site in Islip. How they did that Ill never know.
again who was the consultant to get the Power increase. Very Cool.

who is going to do the Build-out?
do they have to Fight to add another Tower or 2?

Neal Newman
East Coast Regional Engineer-MRBI

 

[cspence]

Then I think it was Barnstable who Finally Built out 103.1 B103 at the Old WLIX 540 transmitter site in Islip. How they did that Ill never know..

The orig license was owend by a group of about 5 or 6 women . They in turn sold it to Barnstable.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

I wonder if it's possible to diplex off WRIV's stick....and obviously adding a second tower for the directional.

If WRIV lets them do this, that's a nice chunk of instant cash right there -- with the tower rental. I believe WRIV owns the field surrounding the tower.

 

[biggladman]

Stephanie -

Seeing that WRIV is omnidirectional, wouldn't it be impossible for FTU to diplex off of them if they need to maintain a directional pattern? Not sure, that's why i'm asking. Plus, I'd hate to see the combiner for that.

 

[Ted Russell]

Andy, It should be possible to diplex from the WRIV site, but as Stephanie pointed out they would have to add a second tower. Actually in this case they would have to add two towers because WFTU's CP s for a three tower array. WFTU would light up three of the towers, whereas WRIV would only light up one of them. I'm sure the combining system wouldn't be any more of a nightmare than the average Arthur Liu station. I believe that Five Towns College had purchased the land that the towers are currently on, so I would imagine that they are planning to stay put. And as Stephanie said, it would be wise for them to replace the entire antenna system. Then again, I can think of a few other Long Island AM stations that could also star in an episode of Extreme Tower Site Makeover.

 

[biggladman]

I nominate the WALK-AM facility....

 

[liradioprez]

I know I'm going to sound pessimistic here...but for those of you who know anything about WFTU, this won't be news to you. WFTU is off the air 80 percent of the time, and then if your lucky enough to catch it on air, you'll probably just hear carrier. The TX site is rotting away...the towers are looking more and more like the leaning tower of Paris every day..I bet if I leaned on one of them they'd fall over. There is literally no ground system, and parts of the transmission line is coming to surface. Then there's the TX shack itself. That building needs to be wrecked and re-built. It wreaks of Squirrel urine, and it's covered in animal feces. Five Towns College "maintains" the station as credentials. Because it owns 1570, it can say "Hey, look at us! We own a student operated 1Kw radio station! If you come to our school, you can be involved!". But...mark my words..within five years WFTU will either be up for sale (license only because the site will have totally rotted away by then) or it will be off-the-air completely. Very saddening because that site has great potential in the right hands.