> Speaking of WILD signals, WILD-AM "Praise 1090" has started
> running IBOC HD.
>
Have you noticed that the new 1.9 kW CH signal from 99 Revere Beach Parkway seems noticeably weaker than the old 1 kW CH signal? Seems so to me. Even the somewhat lower efficiency of the WXKS (AM) towers compared with the old WILD tower wouldn't explain that. Had anyone been interested in bothering (apparently nobody was), WILD could have gotten permission to use 1.58 kW CH from its old site.
The "secret" in all this is that WILD's old non-CH 5 kW day power predated the current pick-a-power rules. The old 5 kw was really 4.0 kW. The tower was efficient enough to meet the minimum field-strength requirements for 5.0 kW with an antenna-input power of only 4.0 kW, so WILD must have used a radiation-limiting resistor to keep the antenna input-power at 4 kW with a transmitter-output power of 5.0 kW. (Powers between 2.5 kW and 5.0 kw weren't allowed.) Now, they just use 4.8 kW-D to get the same signal strength they used to get with 4 kW antenna-input power, which was produced by 5.0 kW transmitter-output power. The old 1.0 kW CH power would require 1.2 kW from the new site, but WILD was allowed 1.9 kW CH from the new site, so the CH signal should sound stronger--if you are in a place where the difference is noticeable. Instead, the signal sounds weaker. I don't understand that.