• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Which AM Station Might Be Available to Family Radio?

I would guess 620.

It is already reportedly on the block.

Not the greatest signal, but it does cover a pretty good chunk of the market, plus clear into Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, part of LI and a fair part of NYC-adjacent NJ. I don't think anybody else would be interested in it except to do religion or foreign language and the price would be right (I presume).
 
I do not reside in the area, but 'SNR seems to have, on paper, a strong signal to about 128°, day and night with deep nulls everywhere else.
Why does/can the station not move their transmitter site to the north and/or east?
Such a move would give them a nice signal throughout the four contiguous boroughs.
 
Well, these days it's hard to find a large field in the NY-NJ area where you can put up new towers. How many does 620 need, for both day and night patterns? And then will the neighbors give you permission?

You could piggyback on an existing AM tower in the Jersey Meadowlands, where all your neighbors are industrial and marshland. Quite a few NYC AM stations are there. But would any of their towers fit your requirements? It was easy for 660 WFAN and 880 WCBS to share a tower before they were co-owned. They're both omni-directional stations that only need the one tower near City Island. But 620 has such a complicated signal, I'm not sure where they could re-locate.

Of course, Family Radio can't be too choosy. If 620, with its existing tower location, can be heard by enough of their existing listeners in the NY area, it will do.
 
The existing 620 array looks a lot like the old one in Livingston. 5 straight line towers with a taller center.

There were plans to move the antenna array out to the west by the junction of I-80 and I-280, but I believe they were abandoned due to cost, complexity, and environmental issues.
 
Why did 620 change things from the way it was when it was (the original) WVNJ? Was it a real estate issue, or did one of the later owners want a stronger signal in places like Brooklyn? I seem to recall that (the original) WVNJ came in "ok" in my section of Brooklyn, but not as good as 620 does now...
 
The real estate under the original towers in Livingston was worth a fortune, which is why 620 moved to the "temporary" site in the Meadowlands, where it still sits today.
 
Scott Fybush said:
The real estate under the original towers in Livingston was worth a fortune, which is why 620 moved to the "temporary" site in the Meadowlands, where it still sits today.
Click to expand...

The "temporary" site is apparently the ONLY one that could be found. There were several very elaborate proposals, at least one of which was granted a CP but could never obtain the necessary local permits. 620 must be the most tightly hemmed-in AM in the US! If you look at the applications to move from the "temporary" site, you will see what I mean. (I have no idea whether those applications can still be viewed on the Web, but somebody who reads this is likely to know.) There appear to be places along the north shore of Long Island Sound where the proposed patterns avoided prohibited overlap by only 100' or so. Lots of stations require protection and they are located nearly all around the compass. The signal from the five-tower almost-in-line array at the "temporary" site is dicey at best in much of the market. Phasing in the large arc of suppressed radiation to the northeast, north, northwest, west, southwest, and south renders the signal unlistenable in most of the market. I think the proposal to move to a site that abuts the east edge of the WBBR site was the last proposal to die. It would have placed seven 400' towers directly in front of the WBBR array--so close to that array that the two stations would have shared the land on which their ground systems would have been placed. As you might imagine, WBBR was less than thrilled. Had that site been built, however, WSNR would have been able to run 15 kW-U DA-2 with teardrop day and night patterns that sent a huge signal to the south-southeast over lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn and then out to sea.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom