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WIIN 780 on the air
- Thread starter flytrap
- Start date
The FCC is now proposing to require reporting of all off air intervals over 30 days in each renewal period, so they can determine if they should investigate further...in other words, operating a few days each year would no longer give you an automatic pass at renewal time. Will be interesting to see how this goes down. IMHO...the FCC wants to eliminate the AM band.. especially daytimers...thoughts?
I think they should eliminate some of these flea power AM stations that don't really have anything worth listening too, or ones nobody can pick up and free up the band so remaining stations can get a power increase. If it is a very old historic station I would like to see them stay around, but with a better signal.
Fly: Your thoughts are echoed by the old time AM's...BUT...there is no stated policy! This is the problem with government and regulators today...who knows what is next? I was taught that policy should be explained, then detailed, and then enforced after comment periods...this has all evaporated...now everything is a "What is next policy?" Does not work in personal relationships, business or government! No wonder the world in in the state it is....sad....JBI
jboyd said:
I don't buy that the FCC would intentionally eliminate the AM band altogether. Nobody else wants it.
Would they like to get rid of daytimers? I think they're sending mixed signals. They're certainly not interested in licensing any *new* daytimers. On the other hand, allowing daytimers to use FM translators -- and allowing them to operate the translators at full power at night even if the associated AM is on greatly reduced power -- or off the air altogether -- has probably rescued dozens if not hundreds of daytimers from oblivion -- but the AM signals are required to continue to operate.
If they wanted to eliminate daytimers, they wouldn't have allowed them to use translators, or at least would have required the translator coverage to not exceed the *nighttime* coverage of the AM.
I do think they need to tighten up operating requirements. I would support requiring a station to place a statement in their public file each January, certifying that the station met the minimum operating schedule regulations for at least 26 weeks in the preceding calendar year. Stations unable to so certify would lose their license.
Keeping "phantom" stations on the books unduly eliminates opportunities for stations that *do* want to operate to maximize their facilities.
Makes me think of those new expanded band stations that didn't have to surrender their original lower band license when the time came.
I would love to see daytimers and the graveyard locals migrate with say 1kw FM in the spectrum just below the non comms. This would be valuable to places where the AM station is the only game in town. I think there is more value in that than these franken fm's on Channel 6.
Of course there are lots of things I would like and I think but they aren't asking me.
I would love to see daytimers and the graveyard locals migrate with say 1kw FM in the spectrum just below the non comms. This would be valuable to places where the AM station is the only game in town. I think there is more value in that than these franken fm's on Channel 6.
Of course there are lots of things I would like and I think but they aren't asking me.
Michael, your idea has some strong backing in a report submitted to the FCC. Check out http://www.broadmax.org/our-proposal/ , in particular the pdf linked at the bottom of the article.
In the report's suggested table of assignments, JBoyd's AM would become the all-new Digital 78.1, with 5KW ERP @ 450' HAAT, and he would have a 100 KHz channel to broadcast whatever digital-audio algorithm wins out. Assuming 1 bit per Hertz (which I have seen FMExtra do when we tested it on WMPN), that's a 100 kb/s stream to split up as he pleases.
In the report's suggested table of assignments, JBoyd's AM would become the all-new Digital 78.1, with 5KW ERP @ 450' HAAT, and he would have a 100 KHz channel to broadcast whatever digital-audio algorithm wins out. Assuming 1 bit per Hertz (which I have seen FMExtra do when we tested it on WMPN), that's a 100 kb/s stream to split up as he pleases.
I think one thing that hurts 780 is that they have to go off the air at night to make room for WBBM-AM Chicago. I have nothing against WBBM, as they're one of America's radio powerhouses, but they have no interest in serving Jackson, MS, or any other place outside the Chicago area. Maybe WBBM should power down at night. I know it would perhaps mean not hearing those far-away AM stations at night, but why should smaller markets make room for the big cities?
Put Radio Disney or Music of Your Life on a daytimer. Kids and old people go to bed early. so you don't need to be on the air anyway. Plus during the summer it doesn't get dark until 8pm. And not that many people listen to AM radio past 8pm because they are watching TV or on the internet.
the golden boy said:
Thing is, doing that (requiring WBBM to reduce power at night and allowing WIIN to operate after sunset) would create massive interference issues *in Chicago*.
Firstly, Chicago is one of the geographically largest markets in the U.S.. WBBM *needs* 50,000 watts to provide reliable coverage of places like Joliet, Gary, and Waukegan. Requiring a power reduction will leave the station unable to cover the Chicago market, let alone anywhere else. Requiring a nighttime directional antenna instead of a power reduction would save the north and west suburbs but leave places like Joliet and Kankakee uncovered.
Secondly, stations -- especially AM stations -- cause interference over a much wider area than that at which they provide service. DX hobbyists notice this all the time, when lower-powered distant stations operate at daytime power during darkness[0] and can be clearly identified on frequencies where they wouldn't ordinarily make it above the dominant stations. Operating WIIN at a full 5,000 watts at night would cause *massive* interference to WBBM *in the Chicago market*. Probably pretty much anywhere in the market more than 25 miles from the tower. (which would include the downtown Loop)
At the end of World War II, there were around 1,000 AM stations authorized, and daytimers were rare. Today there are nearly 4,800 AM operations. There simply isn't enough spectrum to give every community a full complement of AM operations. That's what FM is for...
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[0] Day power at night:
Legally: -- when the "average monthly sunrise" in the station's license is earlier than actual sunrise -- or "average monthly sunset" is later than actual sunset -- and the station is allowed to operate at daytime facilities at night.
Illegally: -- when, as all too often happens, a station decides to ignore the day/night distinctions on its license.
I would love to hear The Music of Your Life. However, the station once did have that format - just before the station went bilingual. It came on a few weeks prior to the initial WLEZ-FM broadcasts - and was MUCH better. I had thought that one of the stations would depart, and I was shocked at which one it was!
w9wi said:
How about this: rather than WBBM reducing power at night, how about just using its daytime signal? WBBM (as well as WGN and WSCR-670) can get quite deep down into Illinois during the day. You can get get an audible signal (albeit quite scratchy) down to about the Marion/Mt. Vernon area, so it's not like the cities you mentioned would get left out of coverage. But going by what you said, could WIIN still cause interference at night? I'm not the most technically savvy when it comes to broadcasting technology, so it's kinda hard for me to grasp such concepts.
It was another time, fewer signals, etc. blah blah blah, but anecdotally there was a certain Jackson 5 KW AM which, for a short while, allegedly was going full day power at midnight. "Working on the transmitter", you know. And, anecdotally, they were getting requests from California.
I wasn't there, so I don't know first hand, but it makes a good story (depending on the statute of limitations).
I wasn't there, so I don't know first hand, but it makes a good story (depending on the statute of limitations).
It could actually happen accidentally,since those two switches behind the chair could be flipped wrong at power reduction time, causing the directional signal to stay at 5kw, and sending a solid signal into New Orleans,for example. Got a nice postcard from there once.robgrayson said:
The WIIN 780 Class-D facility near Ridgeland Ms falls well inside the 0.5 mv, 50% *sky wave* contour of WBBM Chicago. Current FCC rules state in §73.25 and 73.182 that no other night time authority can exist inside this contour. All medium frequencies are diurnal (different day and night) in their propagation characteristics. Different math is used to calculate interference levels for day and night respectively. In short, a relatively low power transmitter located hundreds of miles away from a high-power facility can indeed destroy the local coverage area of the class “A” facility. "what-ifs" outside of long-standing CFR is pointless....the golden boy said:
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