WIBG's changing footprints

[earshot]

I was listening to a 1958 WIBG aircheck and decided to look it up on Wikipedia. According to that site, 990 AM changed its tower configuration in 1986 (when it was WZZD) and again in 2007 (as WNTP) to improve its signal to the north and west.

I found this related thread: http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=74986.0

Do any maps exist with the original WIBG patterns for a visual comparison to it's current coverage area?

Steve Eberhart once maintained a KLIF history website (doing a quick Google search, I can't find it today), which included day/night coverage maps before and after a pattern change. KLIF had a mean nighttime pattern. I've always found (AM) station efforts to improve their signal patterns over desired areas interesting...especially in competitive metros.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

I have no pattern sites available here, Earshot, just recall.

In the mid 60's, I believe WIBG was 10000 watts day ; I forget the nighttime power.
But they certainly didn't send much of it northeast, day or night. I had a pretty good radio on western Long Island which could 'pick it', and get up that close to blowtorch WINS 1010 and hear WIBG. But they were very weak, if steady, during the day.
Their nighttime signal was no better. One morning about 4AM I heard this station on a frequency check/transmitter test burying WIBG for a half an hour. The testing station was another Pennsylvania station, WVSC from Somerset. That's southwest of Johnstown, and, as I said, was giving the much-closer WIBG a spanking.

An old National Radio Club logbook -- 1967 or so -- lists WIBG as 50,000 day and 10,000 night, 'U-4'. That U4 means directional day and night but with different patterns. A 10,000 watt nighttime pattern is different from a 50,000 daytime pattern even if both are on the same bearing. Chances are that, at power change/sunset, WIBG just powered down to 10,000 watts without changing that much else in the direction.
Others here, on the Philly board, most likely will know more than I.

Fwiw, in 1975 or so a radio buddy of mine was DXing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina one afternoon, and he sent me a written log of his catches. One log I remember distinctly : 990 - WIBG .... So THAT'S where it all goes!'

Actually, my pal was getting the station via generous water-path, peculiar to high-powered signals, hugging the coast. The main beam of WIBG's nighttime pattern, so says the National Radio Club's Night Pattern Book, actually seemed to be aimed more at Atlantic City.Perhaps the daytime pattern was aimed generally that way, too.

(Btw : WNOX Knoxville, also on 990, had a very similar nighttime pattern to WIBG's ; it ALL went southeast).

I hope this helps!

 

[DG02816]

Steve,
Exactly right about what's called sea gain. It isn't just for big power signals either. A few years ago, I went on vacation to Duck, NC, on the Outer Banks. I was hearing the Atlantic City AM's on 1400, 1450, and 1490 and Rick Brancadora's 1020 like locals during the day there. While still in RI in 1983, I was chief engineer of a 500 watt daytimer on 1370. It could be heard out to Harwich on Cape Cod during the day.

 

[DG02816]

And another point; The 990 in Providence RI used to send its signal to the SE with a tight 6 tower pattern to protect WIBG.I'd hear both WIBG and WVSC after the then-WLKW would sign off for the night.

 

[rtetro]

I've got all of the old WIBG engineering files and included somewhere in them are the old patterns. When I arrived in 1981 we were still on the old WIBG five-tower antenna system. Daytime was 50,000 watts, nighttime 10,000 watts (sort of). The day pattern was somewhat oval shaped along an axis of 139.5 degrees -- aimed directly at Atlantic City. The night pattern was aimed in the same direction, but was much more narrow, almost cigar shaped. FYI...I say the nighttime was sort of 10,000 watts. In those days the commission would only license stations at standard power levels (i.e. 1000 watts, 5000 watts, 10,000 watts, etc). WIBG was able to make 5,000 watts fit into the channel allocation with no problem. 10,000 watts was not possible. The most WIBG could transmit to fit was 6500 watts. So, the design engineers (I believe it was A.D. Ring) inserted a large resistor network in the night phasor to bleed off 3500 watts. So yes, the transmitter did put out 10,000 watts. And the input to the phasor common point (where power is measured) was 10,000 watts. But just after the phasor common point, the resistor network was inserted dropping the power to 6500 watts. I remember that the network looked like a large array of toaster elements. I'm not sure if there are any pictures extant of the network.

In 1986 we dropped the fifth tower, and let both the day and night patterns out to better cover Montgomery, Chester, and Bucks Counties. This came about due to changes in the rules that regulate how much signal could be placed over the Canadian Border. (990 was/is a Canadian clear channel, with CBW Winnipeg being primary). Under the old rules we were not allowed to put almost any signal at all over the border. Under the new rules, we are only required to offer Canadian stations the same amount of protection that we would any other station.

In 2007, due to some other changes, we were able to let the day pattern out even further to the north and west. (Example: 1000 khz going dark in Hackettstown). The night pattern is the same as that installed in 1986. Consulting Engineer on the 1986 work was Ted Schober at RadioTechniques. Consulting Engineering for the 2007 changes was Carl T. Jones.

I will see if I can scan some of the old pattern or coverage maps and put them up on the web.

 

[rtetro]

Here are links to PDFs of the WIBG patterns.

The Day Pattern shown is the 50kw array that was installed in 1957-1958. The array ran until 1986.
http://www.radioveronica.us/WIBG_Contours/WIBG_Day.pdf

The Night Pattern show is the 10KW array that was installed in 1952. This array also operated until 1986.
http://www.radioveronica.us/WIBG_Contours/WIBG_Night.pdf

A couple of things to note for those who are not used to viewing pattern contours:
Despite the apparent similar size of the two patterns, note the scale on the SE side of the drawing. The maximum signal in the main lobe of the day pattern is about 3200 mV/m, while the maximum signal of the main lobe of the night pattern is about 1450 mV/m, or a bit less than half of the day signal.

 

[athegymtday]

I can remember going to the north of the tower sight in LaFayette Hills and would almost totally loose the station but could still see the towers. After seeing the charts I now know why I could barely pick up WIBG in Willow Grove at night but could here Hy Lit's Sunday night oldies show on the way back from the shore. Back then few cars had air conditioning and traffic was a hot long drive to the Tacony-Palmira bridge but everyone was tuned into Hy's Sunday night show, it came from every car in the hot dark summer nights.

 

[Savage]

Mr. Tetro, is the current WNTP/WIBG night pattern actually 10,000 watts now (more or less, with phasing system allowances) or is it still at 6.5kw?

I used to do nighttime remotes on WMID Atlantic City from locations in Ocean City/Somers Point and as far away as Wildwood. This was when The Jersey Giant was operating 250w at night. I would get my cues from a transistor radio held up to my ear...with NO problems (what's Wildwood, about 40 miles from AC?)

My roommate at Ithaca College was CE for a time at WERI, Westerly, RI (1230 kHz.) We would sometimes catch the Rhode Island station at night in suburban Ithaca - with co-channel WENY Elmira 25 miles down the road! Coastal AMs can perform amazing coverage feats...sometimes, even inland.

 

[Savage]

Steve Green, sorry to contradict you, but I was also program director of another major 990 kHz signal - WNOX Knoxville. The station never went "all southeast" at night as you claim. The array was a 4-tower parallelogram with major lobes to the southeast and south-southwest, plus a minor augmented lobe almost due north. Until WNYR moved from 680 kHz to 990 kHz in 1979-80 I could listen to WNOX clearly in Rochester at night while visiting family here.

WNOX's 10kw pattern was considerably different from WIBG's (and was nondirectional during the day.)

Weirdly, I eventually wound up working for WRMM Rochester when it simulcast its FM on 990 kHz, making for a THIRD 990 station during my on-air career. WRMM/WNYR's 6-tower broadside 2500-watt night array throws due east and could/can be heard in Providence, much to the distress of WLKW listeners at the time.

 

[DG02816]

Savage,

I did overnights at 990 Providence(then with the WEAN call)and can vouch for Rochester stepping all over us. There would be some nights when the then-500 watt night signal would get buried and we could hardly hear it in the air monitor.Funny you should mention WERI; that's where I started in this racket, back in 1977. ;D

 

[Savage]

Apparently WEAN/WALE/WLKW had a talk host for a while who was advising listeners to call us in Rochester to complain about Providence getting walked on by WRMM-AM. We would get call after call from nutjobs screaming at us for "interference" and in some cases, threatening various things from FCC complaints to bodily harm. The Providence calls were a source of advisory memos to night personnel back in the 1989-1991 period. WRMM 990 kHz was operating legally at all times...which I understand is more than can be said for "certain other operations on 990 kHz" in more recent years.

Back to WIBG/WNTP, the subject of this thread - I now have occasion to visit friends and family down in the Philly area and I am amazed at the amount of power line and traffic-light interference to AM around there. It has to be one of the noisiest, RF-dirtiest areas for AM. Even 50kw monster signals like KYW, WNTP and WWJZ get annihilated by buzz as you drive.

 

[wcradio2]

No techie stuff to contribute, just a childhood memory. I vaguely remember a TV ad for WIBG. The cartoon characters from the comic strip 'B.C.'
One of the cavemen picks up a stone from the ground and puts it to his ear... giving the impression that he's listening to Rock on WIBG.
Do I have that right? Does anyone remember that commercial?

 

[deepstblu]

Steve Green, sorry to contradict you, but I was also program director of another major 990 kHz signal - WNOX Knoxville. The station never went "all southeast" at night as you claim. The array was a 4-tower parallelogram with major lobes to the southeast and south-southwest, plus a minor augmented lobe almost due north. Until WNYR moved from 680 kHz to 990 kHz in 1979-80 I could listen to WNOX clearly in Rochester at night while visiting family here.

Around 1974-75 WIBG was signing off during the early Monday morning hours, and I recall catching WNOX once or twice in South Jersey while WIBG was silent.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Savage corrected me, Rick. I was going from memory, since the 990 nighttime page I sought was missing. Long ago I got copies of the CRTC maps, but on separate pages, and a few of them are missing somewhere. So I misspoke about WNOX's night pattern. (Was pretty sure of WIBG's, though :- )

And on a few occasions when WIBG was off, I too caught WNOX while listening on Long Island. Their air staff was called 'The Ninety-Niners' at the time. A car trip I took in 1970 or so, passing through the Carolinas at night, was serenaded by WNOX. It seemed to be the only thing on the AM dial that was a) loud and b) good listening. So I a s sumed they had a similar pattern to WIBG.

 

[DG02816]

Savage,

The talk host would have been in the WALE days as WLKW and WEAN were music stations.

 

[earshot]

Here are links to PDFs of the WIBG patterns.

The Day Pattern shown is the 50kw array that was installed in 1957-1958. The array ran until 1986.
http://www.radioveronica.us/WIBG_Contours/WIBG_Day.pdf

The Night Pattern show is the 10KW array that was installed in 1952. This array also operated until 1986.
http://www.radioveronica.us/WIBG_Contours/WIBG_Night.pdf

A couple of things to note for those who are not used to viewing pattern contours:
Despite the apparent similar size of the two patterns, note the scale on the SE side of the drawing. The maximum signal in the main lobe of the day pattern is about 3200 mV/m, while the maximum signal of the main lobe of the night pattern is about 1450 mV/m, or a bit less than half of the day signal.

Thank you for being so good as to finding those in your files and uploading them.

I've really enjoyed everyone's contributions to this discussion. Very fascinating history with the frequency in the eastern U.S. and about AM characteristics in general.

Related to AM characteristics, I always forget...is it the western U.S. that tends to have better AM ground conductivity? Or is it more localized with "hot spots" all over the country?

 

[DG02816]

The Midwest has some of the best ground conductivity in the country, New England and Long Island have some of the worst.

 

[Don Niles]

I am originally from Wayland,New York but spent some time in Chester County as a teenager...I recall being around parts of Philly and noticing areas where WIBG was iffy reception wise..I think I can also recall being within eye sight of the towers and barely being able to hear it...After sunset Forget WIBG in Chester County and WFIL for that matter.

Since Rochester also is in this discussion,In Wayland,WBBF at night was barely audible...I remember being in Chester County,Pa. and being able to sometimes pick up BBF at about 2 A.M. considerably better than I could in Wayland...Blew my mind at the time especially with WPEN just 35 miles away.

At about age 12,I was given a Remco Caravelle for Christmas and picked 990 as the best available frequency for a "station" in Wayland,NY..And As this was about 1963,it was until WIQT Horseheads signed on at 1000...It would be years later when 990 would become a Rochester frequency...I on rare occasion could pick up WIBG in Wayland but it was usually WNOX that would interfere with my little Remco Caravelle "station".

 

[Savage]

Greetings from one Philly/Rochester region hybrid to another. It's astonishing you could ever get WIBG in Wayland. As the original Big 99 (see rtetro's post) had to protect the entire Canadian border, very little power was radiated north - I seem to remember one monitor point near Ambler, PA, and IIRC the power radiated on that radial was less than 50 watts. Back in '69 when I was first on-air at WIBBAGE, my parents in Livonia, NY, tried to catch WIBG (my dad was quite the DXer) and could only read WILK 980.

You never should have been able to get WBBF in Wayland since one of the stations they protect is WPEN. Their 1kw, DA-2 is very tight on both patterns, sucked in deeply east-west daytime to protect 950 in Utica, NY and 930 in Buffalo, 70 miles away. At night it's a cardioid 3-tower inline aimed almost due north right over Rochester into Lake Ontario, with very little southern radiation. You must have been getting BBF in Chester by the round-the-earth route!

 

[DG02816]

Very little went north from from the Providence 990 array as well. I remember help wanted ads in the Providence Journal during the early WALE days for sales people, claiming the station was audible in Boston. This same thing was used later to induce people to buy time, under the heading of, "Have your own radio show!". Sad.