Why Did KLAC "fail" During World Series' Final Game?

[TomásEstefan]

The irony in all this is the switch of the game to KFI, which was the Dodgers' outlet in L.A. from the team's arrival in 1958 though the 1974 season. Then Cox, having bought the station from Earle C. Anthony, dumped live sports (not only the Dodgers but the Kings and Lakers as well), which took those teams out of the after-dark ears of countless listeners at least as far east as Chicago when clear channels were really clear.

It's good to know what happened.

When I was a kid we spent parts of the summer most years at Yosemite-and thanks to KFI we took the Dodgers with us!

 

[yeoldeschool]

When I was a kid we spent parts of the summer most years at Yosemite-and thanks to KFI we took the Dodgers with us!

Wow. Live Vin Scully classic Dodgers served up via the magic of noise-free, pre-NRSC hi-fi skywave while communing in nature's cathedral. Could you have been any luckier? Don't tell me: you also heard them win the '65 world series while watching the firefalls.

 

[davideduardo]

Well, the answer is in:

Dodgers Radio Pivots After Transmitter Site Break-In During World Series - Radio World

In this letter to the editor, Doug Irwin responds to the story "Dodgers Win! Let’s Hear Some Kudos for Dodgers Radio."

www.radioworld.com

A nutcase who was being tormented by radio waves went in and detuned the antenna circuitry for KLAC. The station engineer got there, saw the extent of the detuning and called the great Bert Weiner. They waited until the game was over and reset the tuning. KLAC was never off the air; they were on reduced power at around 1kw during the game and then the team went to work retuning the system.

The "perp" was caught at the site. He was transported away by the police and then the technical folks went to work.

 

[TomásEstefan]

Well, the answer is in:

Dodgers Radio Pivots After Transmitter Site Break-In During World Series - Radio World

In this letter to the editor, Doug Irwin responds to the story "Dodgers Win! Let’s Hear Some Kudos for Dodgers Radio."

www.radioworld.com

A nutcase who was being tormented by radio waves went in and detuned the antenna circuitry for KLAC. The station engineer got there, saw the extent of the detuning and called the great Bert Weiner. They waited until the game was over and reset the tuning. KLAC was never off the air; they were on reduced power at around 1kw during the game and then the team went to work retuning the system.

The "perp" was caught at the site. He was transported away by the police and then the technical folks went to work.

I mentioned in a previous post that KFWB was off the air for several hours very late one night recently, but I wasn't sure whether or not it was the night of the World Series. Now I'm thinking that it probably was. For those who don't know KFWB 980 and KLAC share the same antenna system

 

[grich]

Most transmitters today have protection. "Smart" transmitters will scale back power until tolerable of shut down.

Very old... mostly plate modulated tube models.... transmitters will see the final tubes suffer due to "power" coming back into the plate circuit (I am trying to use "lay" language) which is the high power "side" of the Radio Frequency tubes and can cause them to severely overheat and, eventually, die. Even many of the older rigs have some kind of protection since a high SWR can be caused by things like a lightning hit hurting the antenna tuning unit, etc. Not just vandalism will cause the problem.

One thing that can happen in a detuned array is that capacitors in the phasor can be subjected to excess current from the reflected power and fail. BTDT, and not long ago, when a contact on a roller inductor got flaky after 54 years in service. Luckily for KLAC, the transmitter backed off power to a point where this apparently did not happen.