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What Radio Station from what era would you bring back.

I still have an old WXXX "Triple X" T-shirt that I won in a drawing at Peps Point water park back in the late 70's. I actually cheated by stuffing the box. By this time, I believe WXXX was playing a lot of oldies. It switched to a christian format a few years later. BTW. what happened to WXXX? Why did'nt the owners sell the station instead of shutting it down. It looks like they could have gotten a little money out of it, instead of scrapping it.

Does anyone remember WCSP in Crystal Springs? It was for a while around 1520 AM but moved to 590 AM and added nightime coverage. I don't remember much about the station but i believe it played music for several years before running Chuck Harders "Peoples Network" for several years with lots of black helecopter type shows. The last time I heard the station on the air was back in the 90's and it was simulcasting WJXN in Jackson and WJNS in yazoo city when Edward St Pe had them. It went away shortly afterward. I'm guessing it died the same time WJXN did whenever Willis Broadcasting took over. Willis destroyed a lot of former good radio stations.
 
In Hattiesburg, WXXX 1310 and WHSY 1230 went silent and stayed that way. One can only assume that the owner couldn't find a buyer so pulled the plug. I could see shutting down a daytimer in this day and age. WHSY was a class IV fulltimer, and tho it didn't have much power, at least it was fulltime. If I had one of the other daytimers in town, like WBKH or WORV, I would have taken over the 1230 facility to get fulltime. But it didn't happen. Laurel has had its share of AMs going dark too... WLAU 1430 daytimer is gone for good isn't it?
 
I remember WCSP. It was owned by Ken Hollingsworth (air name Ken Holley) who worked at 1590 AM in the 70's and was at WRBC 1300 when my group took it over in 1978. WCSP was indeed on 1520 and did move to 590, which gave them wider coverage. Crystal Springs apparently wasn't big enough to support an AM station, when Hazlehurst already had an established AM/FM combo. Seem to remember Ken's very distinctive, very deep voice... and IIRC he married a lady who also worked at one of the aforementioned stations. I suspect WCSP started around 1980-81. I visited it when I was helping someone build the cable TV systems in Copiah County.

At WRBC in 1978, Ken was operating the automation system that executed their MoR format The Entertainers. When we (WKXI/WTYX) took it over, we were re-deploying the system for the TM Stereo Rock foromat on WTYX 94.7, and Ken taught me how to operate it.
 
It might be said I know just enough engineering to be dangerous. But the WCSP situation makes me wonder: what if you built an AM site for 1520, then got a CP to move to 590, and you decided to use the same tower ..... a 1/4 wave tower at 1520, which would be somewhere between 150 and 200 feet ... what would you have to do to such a stick to make it sing down at the bottom of the dial?
 
> what would you have to do to such a stick to make it sing down at the bottom of the dial?

There are ways to make it match the transmitter. That DOESN'T mean it's going to be very efficient.

There is no free lunch in antenna design.

DE
 
J Alex Bowab said:
It might be said I know just enough engineering to be dangerous. But the WCSP situation makes me wonder: what if you built an AM site for 1520, then got a CP to move to 590, and you decided to use the same tower ..... a 1/4 wave tower at 1520, which would be somewhere between 150 and 200 feet ... what would you have to do to such a stick to make it sing down at the bottom of the dial?
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At 590 kHz you would need at least 54 degrees or 250 feet and 90 degree ground system to meet the Class B minimum of 282 mv/m. Might be able to shorten the tower by a few feet by using top loading but that short they (FCC) might make you prove it works. As of two years ago I had to make two sets of field measurements with a test transmitter to make them happy. Same electrical height (54 degrees) at 1520 is 97 feet.
 
The 70's - WLS in Chicago, WNOE in New Orleans, KAAY in Little Rock and WRBC in Jackson
The 80's - B-97 in New Orleans, 97 Rocks (WABB) in Mobile

Nuff said!
 
I wonder if anyone back then ever looked into moving the old WCSP closer to jackson so It could claim to be a jackson station. A move up the road to Terry or Byrum may have done the trick. at 590 you can get out pretty good with very little power.
 
The pre-existence of 590 stations in Hot Springs Ark and Carrollton Ala would I suppose have precluded a 590 in Crystal Springs from moving any farther north, or increasing power. And it could not have become a Jackson-licensed station, lacking 40 khz separation from 620.

I realize this is a Mississippi forum, but WABB is mentioned as one of several out-of-state stations that reach portions of Miss. Wanted to pass on some significant info about my hometown station... WABB 1480 AM went into top 40 in 1959, and dominated the ratings until the mid-70's when it moved the format over to 97.5 FM and kept rocking. Those of you who recall top 40 legend stations from yesteryear know that all of them are gone ... changed calls, changed ownership, went to talk or religion, whatever. WABB 50 years later is still owned by the same Dittman family, still has the same call letters (AM and FM), has been the dominant Top40/CHR station virtually the entire time (except for a brief period in the late 70s when WKRG G-100 FM topped them, and WABB FM was AoR). The FM, now on a tall tower, shows up in Arbitrons of Biloxi, Mobile, Pensacola, and Fort Walton.

WAPE in Jacksonville is one of the few call letters around today that are the same ones that dominated its market 35 to 50 years ago, tho it is not under its original ownership. I don't think there is another situation like WABB anywhere in the country ... same calls, same owner, same format, consistent dominance for 50+ years. As big as they were back then, KHJ, WABC, WLS, WHBQ, KAAY, WNOE, WTIX, et al, are top 40 history now. WABB (am/fm) is truly a legend on the gulf coast.

Oh, and Bob Rall worked there in 1963.
 
I remember when they went up on their tall tower. I believe it was 1981. I was in the navy stationed in Pensacola. I could drive home to Hattiesburg on the weekend and listen to them all the way.
 
WABB 97.5 started about 1973 on a 500 ft tower in west Mobile. Then they put up their own tower about 900 ft high across the Bay in Spanish Fort to get Pensacola coverage (competitor WKRG FM was already located there on its 1000 ft TV tower). Around 1987, WKRG TV put up a 2000 ft tower; WABB FM went 1600 ft up that tower. Its old 900 ft tower was kept for auxiliary purposes and communications antenna rentals. The current facility gets into Miss. & Fla. quite well.
 
KY 107 Vicksburg --Early 80s
94 TXX Early mid 80s
Q99 Mid 80s
98 Rock WCKO Jackson
 
A friend of mine is the person that suggested the format of that station in the mid 80s and the owner ran with it...It was Z105 and switched to B104.
04.9/Centreville about 1984. In the middle of NOWHERE, but still not too shabby.
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WQST before American Family Association took it over. In the 80's they were a decent country station and it was a surprise when AFA took them over.

Another station they need to bring back is WMER. For the times they were a decent Contemporary Christian Station and in the 80's they were the only station East of Jackson that played Contemporary Christian Music.
 
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