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WGST Power Change Questions

T

trusty

Does WGST follow the sunrise schedule when increasing power from 1kw to 50kw, or can they get clearance to go up at 6AM?

What about Critical Hours for them?
 
According to the FCC database, WGST is simply 50,000 watts from sunrise to sunset and 1,000 watts during the other hours. The station has no critical hours.
 
WGST cannot get clearance to power up before sunrise because it protect's KFI on 640 in L.A. which is still in it's nightime mode on the west coast. WGST does not have critical hours. 50,000 directional daytime and 1,000 non direction night.
 
amlover said:
WGST cannot get clearance to power up before sunrise because it protect's KFI on 640 in L.A. which is still in it's nightime mode on the west coast. WGST does not have critical hours. 50,000 directional daytime and 1,000 non direction night.
Click to expand...

Would it really affect KFI if they did power up? It's all the way on the other coast. There's two 50,000 watt d/n signals on 1090 (KAAY and XEPRS) that don't appear to have problems.
 
amlover said:
WGST cannot get clearance to power up before sunrise because it protect's KFI on 640 in L.A. which is still in it's nightime mode on the west coast. WGST does not have critical hours. 50,000 directional daytime and 1,000 non direction night.
Click to expand...

WGST is 50KW day using their north and south towers for a very lazy directional pattern.

At night, WGST remains two tower directional but uses the east west towers. The signal is pulled in slightly from the west to not interfere with the skywave of 640 KFI Los Angeles which is the dominant clear channel on 640.

When 640 was built in Atlanta, the other AMs operating on the east coast at 640 did not have to protect each other...there is one near Memphis, one at Fayetteville, NC and one in the Tri-Cities of Tennessee. Also, the stations did not have to protect the 50KW AM in Havana Cuba on 640 because at the time Castro and the Reagan administration were slinging radio signals at each other. Reagan built Radio Marti to beam over Cuba which Castro jammed and Castro, then still funded by Russia, pumped up a bunch of AM transmitters and flooded American Clear Channel AMs.

Finally it ended for the most part.

Now if WGST were to seek a power increase, it had to protect the other US stations on 640 at night..on the eastern seaboard and it also has to protect Cuba. They are grandfathered with the current pattern.

The same situation, with Cuba, allowed 550 WDUN in Gainesville to go from 500 watts with 3 towers to 2500 watts with 3 towers at night. In their case, they had to take down two towers and put them back up in slightly different spots to make the new pattern work. There were a few smart AMs around which took seriously the FCC decision to ignore Cuba and pumped up their nighttime before the window closed.

You can still request permission to make a change on a Cuban channel. The FCC discourages it but you can request they pass along the request to their international branch which then passes it along to an international telecommunications tribunal in Geneva. They will send the request to the Cuban government. If they respond yes, or just don't respond at all, you can get approval but the process takes a while and the FCC isn't too happy about it since you didn't take their advice to just protect Cuban under the rules of the old radio treaty set up in the 1930s. The US still operates under those rules, pre-Castro, even though Castro doesn't.

Despite having a better frequency at 640, most people believe that WGST actually had a better nighttime signal when they were 1000 watts non DA on 920. Everyone else on 920 had to protect WGST since they got to 920 first. The signal certainly covered more population since it was in midtown vs the present 640 site which is west of town. 920 also covered at night the area where news listeners lived better than 640 does. Of course, keep in mind that 640 actually began as an urban station but was quickly sold to WGST after it went on the air.
 
For a brief time after moving to 640 kc, WGST was allowed to continue broadcasting on 920 kc. Recordings made at night in various parts of the metro area, compared the signals. As Art says, 920 had a far better reach in key areas. In either case, neither frequency gave WGST the reach it had when it was simulcast on FM.
 
Art Sutton said:
Despite having a better frequency at 640, most people believe that WGST actually had a better nighttime signal when they were 1000 watts non DA on 920. Everyone else on 920 had to protect WGST since they got to 920 first.
Click to expand...

Ahh, yes. Being there first. I remember when the only two stations on 640 were KFI and WHIO in Akron (or Dayton), Ohio, and I thought 640 would be a great signal in Atlanta (except for the Cuban hash), and maybe, if Atlanta had gotten it sooner, the other 640's that sprang up since deregulation would have to protect it.

Anyway, thanks for the info. But, the comment about 920 being 1kw at night raises another question: I noticed in radio-locator that, even though 920 has increased daytime wattage, it is now 490w at night. When and why did they drop nighttime power like that?
 
They only operate with 490 watts/night because around 20 years ago they increased the height of the tower which made the tower radiate the signal more efficiently. This was, in effect, a power increase. The night power could not be increased so the output power was reduced to keep the same "coverage."
 
I remember a rumor quite some time ago that Clear Channel aquired KFI, in part, so that they could make changes at WGST. Since both were on 640 and KFI was 3,000 miles away, they were going to make some engineering changes that would have allowed WGST to increase power. I guess no truth to that?
 
Art Sutton said:
Now if WGST were to seek a power increase, it had to protect the other US stations on 640 at night..on the eastern seaboard and it also has to protect Cuba. They are grandfathered with the current pattern.
Click to expand...

Something tells me there's little interest in protecting Cuba. WMEN in West Palm Beach, which operates on 640, was recently granted a special temporary authority to operate at 50,000 watts at night. Considering stations down there are still getting hit hard by Cuban stations, I don't think they'll be dropping their STAs in the future.
 
Maybe Tom or one of you can tell the story about the origins of 640. Why it was briefly an urban station. Did someone play the race card with the FCC to get the CP. Who the intended operator was to have actually been.

I have also been told over the years a few tales about why the building looks the way it looks, the sidewalks to the atu's and why they are larger than my first apartment.
 
I'm not sure exactly how the license for 640 was issued. I remember it was an African-American who owned an airline....can't call his name(Senior moments come very frequently these days)
Walt Taylor (no relation to me although I would be honored to have him as a brother)was THE reason the site was built the way it was. Walt is one of the finest radio engineers on the face of the earth and can build a FINE technical plant. Jefferson Pilot already had an agreement with ????to buy 640, and JP specified the construction. Management told Walt to build it "the way it should be done" and Walt proceeded to do just that.
640 was built exactly the way any engineer would want his site to built if given an unlimited budget!
The WQXI calls were even done in tile, on the floor, at the building entrance! Air conditioned dog houses at the base of each tower (for equipment needed at the bottom of any AM tower) sidewalks to each tower....there were many "special" touches Walt gave the site which only an engineer would/could appreciate.
As most of you know, the deal with JP went sour, and Jacor ended up with the facility. The WQXI calls were removed, and Walt got blamed for the "over-built" 640 site.
But if you do understand the technical side of the business, and you get a chance to tour the site, you will see a very well done site and truely appreciate the engineering talent and hard work .
 
You guys can help me, but if I remember correctly, here is what happened with 640:

--640 had no stations on the frequency nationwide as it was the civil defense frequency. Radios used to have that frequency and another frequency in large print. Something about stations were supposed to change frequency or something so missles could not home in on the transmitter.... I am fuzzy on that part as it was being phased out when I was a kid (am 45 now).

--640 was opened up and minorities were encouraged to apply. I think the minority applications were given preference however it was not a slam dunk as some incumbent stations moved to 640 in other parts of the country.

--As I understand it, 640 in Atlanta did not have any competing applications (and that is from a very fuzzy memory).

--As the previous poster said, the station was built to be sold. I think the owner had to keep it on the air for a year and then could sell.

I hope that helps.... and please remember that was many years ago and I am using my old faulty brain. :)
 
Voicedude said:
I seem to recall the original owner of the 640 freq as being Michael Hollis who was the owner of Air Atlanta at the time.
Click to expand...

The followinbg is quoted from THIS ARTICLE
"A year after Air Atlanta fell, he regenerated WPBD, a 50,000-watt AM radio station he had acquired from the FCC in 1982. But by September of 1988, Hollis had sold Atlanta's only black AM station for $4.3 million to WGST. At least 14 liens were reportedly filed for nonpayment against Hollis by companies that helped build the WPBD station."
 
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