WGST Signal

[trusty]

None taken - especially when you add insult to injury: CUBA.

 

[TheRealOtherNeil]

Hey look, WGST is number one!

And they did it without local programming. Take that all you naysayers!

(I finally got a chance to do this.) Hopefully, this cluttered chart answers why WGST can't do anything to increase it's power.
Print it out.

STATIONS ON 640 AM

Call Specs Distance/Dir City

WGST 50kwD,1kwN,DA-2 3.2 mi./273° Atlanta, GA
WXSM 10kwD,810wN,DA-N 221.4 mi./030° Blountville, TN
WCRV 50kwD,480wN,DA-N 325.1 mi./287° Collierville, TN
WFNC 10kwD,1kwN 325.2 mi./072° Fayetteville, NC
WVLG 930wD,860wN 365.5 mi./156° Wildwood, FL
KTIB 5kwD,1kwN,DA-2 468.3 mi./237° Thibodaux, LA
WHLO 5kwD,500wN,DA-2 528.4 mi./016° Akron, OH
WMEN 7.5kwD,460wN,DA-2 541.0 mi./152° Royal Palm Beach, FL
WMEN(CP) 50kwD,25kwN,DA-2 545.0 mi./155° Boca Raton, FL
WMFN 1.2kwD,230wN 632.1 mi./353° Zeeland, MI
WWJZ 50kwD,950wN,DA-2 687.1 mi./048° Mount Holly, NJ
CFMJ 50kwU,DA 704.6 mi./021° Richmond Hill, ON
WWLS 5kwD,1kwN,DA-2 753.4 mi./282° Moore, OK
WOI 5kwD,1kwN,DA-N 761.6 mi./321° Ames, IA
WNNZ 50kwD,1kwN,DA-2 860.4 mi./044° Westfield, MA
CFOB 1kwU,DA-N 1127.6 mi./338° Fort Frances, ON
XENQ 10kwU 1275.8 mi./226° Tulancingo, Mexico
XENQ1 50kwD,10kwN,DA 1282.4 mi./226° Tulancingo, Mexico
XEWM 1kwU 1283.3 mi./206° SouthCristobal de Las C, Mexico
XEWM1 1kwU 1283.9 mi./206° SouthCristobal de Las C, Mexico
XEJUA 500wU 1289.4 mi./270° Cd.Juarez, Mexico
XEYQ1 5kwD,1kwN 1336.9 mi./241° Fresnillo, Mexico
XEHHI 25kwD,1kwN 1353.3 mi./255° Hidalgo del Parral, Mexico
XESRD 10kwD,100wN 1397.1 mi./250° Santiago Papasquiaro, Mexico
XEHDL 1kwU 1379.8 mi./220° Huajuapan de Leon, Mexico
KGVW 10kwD,1kwN,DA-2 1638.7 mi./308° Belgrade, MT
CBN 10kwU 1893.8 mi./050° Saint John's, NFo
KFI 50kwU 1922.6 mi./280° Los Angeles, CA

 

[jal41]

The CP for WMEN Boca Raton is going to rule out any upgrade possiblities for WGST at night. Forget the Cuban propaganda station or KFI.

I would suspect WGST will head to FM full-time soon, and 640 AM sold or leased out. Keep in mind WGST is doing much better than the Bull, so I would look out for WGST-FM 94.9 in the next couple of years.

 

[RTibbs]

How does one calculte that GST is doing better than the bull. Also people rag on Coletues but have you listened to GST? I think they fired the wrong person?

 

[ajhenderson]

There's nothing wrong with WGST's daytime signal. I've picked it up clearly far from Atlanta.

Nighttime is a different story, when WGST decreases its power by 50 times. It's listenable inside the Perimeter but does struggle in the northeast quadrant.

All things being equal, 1kW is a little less than 1/7th (sqrt 50) the power of 50kW.

 

[JR1967]

When traveling to Daytona Beach years ago, I received WGST's daytime signal as far south as Valdosta, along with 680 The Fan and WSB 750. However, when you travel north of Atlanta, WGST's signal does not get as far, possibly due to the mountainous terrain and the fact that there is another daytimer on 640 in Tennessee.

 

[trusty]

The CP for WMEN Boca Raton is going to rule out any upgrade possiblities for WGST at night.

Why? WMEN is nulled to the north to protect Wildwood. New tower throws its signal to the East.
???

 

[jabba17]

I'm just wondering what kind of practical opportunity there is for WGST to increase their night signal,

Believe me, they've tried and tried, and they can't.

Call the CE at Clear Channel/Atlanta--it's probably still Mike Loring--and ask him if he thinks it would be possible. Then report back to us.

Anything's possible, given the application of enough money. I'm just wondering what's possible given a reasonably large checkbook (both disregarding ROI and not).

 

[jabba17]

The CP for WMEN Boca Raton is going to rule out any upgrade possiblities for WGST at night. Forget the Cuban propaganda station or KFI.

I would suspect WGST will head to FM full-time soon, and 640 AM sold or leased out. Keep in mind WGST is doing much better than the Bull, so I would look out for WGST-FM 94.9 in the next couple of years.

Methinks that this is the only way that WGST will stay viable long term, and not just due to the crappy night signal. You could make the case for a "semi-daytimer", but 1) that still doesn't help winter AM and PM drive and 2) WCFO and WGUN (to name two other stations with 50kW days) would probably be able to garner a 1.5 share each if it truly didn't matter.

WGST isn't doing better than the Bull, but not much worse either. I wonder if CC would chance moving Viva to 94.9 to see how it does on 100kW, and simuling WGST on 105.7 again.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

...Plus, KFI is in the middle of a tower rebuilding project. All they have to do is change the facility to directional at night, add the needed tower so the signals aims towards the Pacific Ocean protecting WGST.

Ain't gonna happen. CC has had enough grief* trying to rebuild the one
KFI stick. They're not about to go through more zoning and NIMBY hoops
in order to put up one or more additional sticks (even if there was space
in the industrial park for it). And I think they like having skywave reach
throughout the West at night, and enough millivolts per meter throughout
the entire SoCal area to fight the ever-increasing AM interference. Now if
they'd only get rid of the I-CRAP... :

*: While I normally hate Cheap Channel as much as the next poster for
how they've helped to destroy radio, when it comes to engineering
and getting KFI back to their historic 50-gallon 1-A status, I fully
support the effort.