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What's the latest on WGHC?

Mike Sheridan

Mike Sheridan

What's the latest on Charlotte's new AM870. There is at least one person here who knows....but will he tell????
 
I'd like to see an oldies station even if it was a daytimer....but fat chance of that!
 
Critical hours are usually two hours before sign off and two hours after sign on where the station runs at half power. The sign on and off times are local sunrise and sunset as usual.
 
ncradioeng said:
Critical hours are usually two hours before sign off and two hours after sign on where the station runs at half power. The sign on and off times are local sunrise and sunset as usual.
Click to expand...

Critical hours only applies to stations operating on Class A Clear Channels such as 870 kHz. In the case of the Mt Holly station, it could operate with up to 8700 watts during critical hours without interference to WWL. However, it's power is limited to less than 8700 watts (looks to end up with about 5000 watts) due to first adjacent channel stations. It won't have to operate with reduced power during critical hours.
 
I just looked it up...198 foot tower? Kinda short not even quarter wave is it?

I know why, don't have to light it or paint it.

Non directional...a good idea for lots of reasons.

Question: Ever load a HF tranceiver into a 198 foot vertical with a good ground system?
 
Mike,

Yep, a broadcast antenna works REALLY well on 160 in the wintertime. The tower is less than 200' so no lighting is required. It is somewhat shorter than 90 electrical degrees.

de W1WBT
 
Mike Sheridan said:
I just looked it up...198 foot tower? Kinda short not even quarter wave is it?

I know why, don't have to light it or paint it.

Non directional...a good idea for lots of reasons.

Question: Ever load a HF tranceiver into a 198 foot vertical with a good ground system?
Click to expand...

We just increased the size of the ground system to make up for the shorter tower so the efficiency of the antenna system meets FCC requirements.

As you suggested, the maintenance on a non painted and non lighted tower is much much less.

Also, it's easier to get them built when it comes to zoning purposes although the property we are buying for the transmitter site is zoned industrial and that meets Charlotte tower ordinances as long as set backs from adjacent property lines are met.
 
Art Sutton said:
Mike Sheridan said:
I just looked it up...198 foot tower? Kinda short not even quarter wave is it?

I know why, don't have to light it or paint it.

Non directional...a good idea for lots of reasons.

Question: Ever load a HF tranceiver into a 198 foot vertical with a good ground system?
Click to expand...

We just increased the size of the ground system to make up for the shorter tower so the efficiency of the antenna system meets FCC requirements.

As you suggested, the maintenance on a non painted and non lighted tower is much much less.

Also, it's easier to get them built when it comes to zoning purposes although the property we are buying for the transmitter site is zoned industrial and that meets Charlotte tower ordinances as long as set backs from adjacent property lines are met.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the info and best of luck. Do you have a timetable as to when the station will go on the air?
 
I think it will be second quarter 2007 at the earliest. The site has to be prepared and that won't begin until the CP is final. Also, this CP is tied to our 1370 license in Clayton, GA. We have filed for a new station in Clayton on 1400 but I messed up and used the present 1370 tower for the 1400 site. Since the 25 MVM of 1370 and 1400 can't overlap, I have to move the license for the 1370 in Clayton so it clears the present tower where we will use 1400. In Clayton, we will drop from 2500 watts on 1370 to 1000 watts on 1400 but we will add nighttime which we don't have now. Sort of like the old days of radio when stations would leave a lower daytime channel to get full time at a higher spot on the dial. Even though we own 1370 and the 870 at Mt Holly and filed for the new station, the FCC says we could end up not building the Mt Holly CP which would leave 1370 in Clayton and then 1400 couldn't exist on the 1370 tower. They don't want to create a precedent which I can understand albeit frustrating to fix this on paper simply so we can sign 1370 off one day and sign on the next at 1400 in Clayton.
 
Someone pointed out to me that you are the only one who can get 1400 in Clayton because 1370 is so close in frequency.

I was surprised the FCC would allow you to effectively "move" from Clayton to Mt. Holly. I wonder why you couldn't just move from 1370 to 1400 and put the new station in Mt Holly on 870. I'm sure there is some legal reason for this....

I don't see this being as bad as all the FM that abandoned their smaller towns to move to the big city. Clayton will get a full time AM in the deal. 1400 with 1kw isn't bad at all and being on at night really helps. You know this of course! it will be interesting to see how it all works out.

As you might guess, I'm still a fan of AM radio.

Mike
 
The FCC does not allow for new daytime-only stations. So, the only way to get a new daytime-only signal in Charlotte (or any other city) is to move an existing daytimer. It's a sneaky (but legal) way around the rules. In many cases, these rural daytimers are struggling, so it's a way that the current owners can sell them for much more than they were ever worth. Look through the last AM auction, and you'll see a bunch of these proposed moves.

For Clayton residents, this will simply be seen as a change of frequency, since I presume the WGHC calls will be transferred to the 1400 license. New signal in Charlotte, night service in Clayton, and a nice payoff for Art Sutton if he sells 870, make it a win-win for all.
 
I forgot about the no new daytimer rule from the FCC.

It would be nice to have a daytimer in Charlotte run by the city, or a school with a student staff. Even a broadcasting school like Carolina School of Broadcasting.

Chances are it will turn out to be Religion or Spanish maybe even Spanish Religion!
 
Neil Griffin said:
The FCC does not allow for new daytime-only stations. So, the only way to get a new daytime-only signal in Charlotte (or any other city) is to move an existing daytimer. It's a sneaky (but legal) way around the rules. In many cases, these rural daytimers are struggling, so it's a way that the current owners can sell them for much more than they were ever worth. Look through the last AM auction, and you'll see a bunch of these proposed moves.

For Clayton residents, this will simply be seen as a change of frequency, since I presume the WGHC calls will be transferred to the 1400 license. New signal in Charlotte, night service in Clayton, and a nice payoff for Art Sutton if he sells 870, make it a win-win for all.
Click to expand...

..I don't think this is a sneaky move. There is nothing underhanded, secret or mean spirited about it. (those are the words used to define sneaky). There wouldn't be a 870 in that area since nighttime won't work there even if you had 20 towers up.
 
Neil Griffin said:
The FCC does not allow for new daytime-only stations. So, the only way to get a new daytime-only signal in Charlotte (or any other city) is to move an existing daytimer. It's a sneaky (but legal) way around the rules. In many cases, these rural daytimers are struggling, so it's a way that the current owners can sell them for much more than they were ever worth. Look through the last AM auction, and you'll see a bunch of these proposed moves.

For Clayton residents, this will simply be seen as a change of frequency, since I presume the WGHC calls will be transferred to the 1400 license. New signal in Charlotte, night service in Clayton, and a nice payoff for Art Sutton if he sells 870, make it a win-win for all.
Click to expand...
Technically an 870 frequency wouldn't be new, but it has been 14 years since Fred Whitley had to call off his move to Carolina Mall in Concord (when he was evicted from his building for an Italian restaurant).

Talk about poor technical quality! But the daytime-only signal was great and the music was great--well, it could have been better, but he probably only had a few records compared to Mix 106 today. And he had "Big Band Jump" on weekends.
 
Art, I meant sneaky in the sense of being a clever. I certainly didn't mean to imply anything negative about your move. Probably could've chosen a better word. :)

You're certainly not the first to do this type of move, and to your credit there will be no loss of service to Clayton with the new facility on 1400 (actually a net gain since there will be a night signal). From what I've seen, your stations do a good job serving their local communities.
 
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