Florida didn't become a large state with several large markets until the 1960s. Area Code 305 served the entire state when they were first assigned around 1950.
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Miami/Fort Lauderdale WINZ 940 to flea power at night
- Thread starter NoMoreLurking
- Start date
Like Arizona, when the "good channels" were handed out, the biggest cities were not that big.
Look at Phoenix, AZ, where the best signals are 5 kw stations on 550 and 620 that don't cover the farther reaches of what will soon be a Top 10 US market.
Miami does a bit better, with so many powerful signals located in the Everglades and aming east over the market and out to sea. But most of the FL markets were too small to justify a clear channel frequency in the early 30's.
Phoenix probably has really bad ground conductivity too, being in a desert.
We do, but that's not the reason our AM stations don't cover the metro. The problem is that the metro, which was about 70K people in 1940, almost all within a 15 mile radius of downtown Phoenix, is now closing in on 5 million within a 60 mile radius of downtown Phoenix.
The only two stations that come even close to covering that much area are KFYI/550 (originally KOY, which moved there from 1390 in 1941) and KTAR/620, which moved there in around 1929, and built their current facilities on what was then farmland in 1938. That farmland has been a mall since the '50s, surrounded by a residential area. We have other stations that run 5 kW at night, but they're directional. Not good these days.
When the 50 kW clears were allocated and built in the '30s, there was no need for any in Phoenix. The metro outgrew the stations beginning in the '50s, when it was too late to allocate a Class A (or 1A, in that era) to the city. Now, they are no longer necessary.
Nothing unusual about that in any market. Look at Chicago. The original Class A facilities of WMAQ/WSCR (Bloomingdale), WGN and WBBM (Elk Grove), WLS (Tinley Park), and WCFL/WMVP (Downers Grove) were out in the middle of nowhere when they were built. Now, each site is valuable to developers who are willing to pay 7 figures for them. All five either have or will move to what really are lesser facilities, probably with almost no reduction in coverage of the Chicago metro area. Being received in 38 states and Canada no longer matters, as long as they still put good signals into the 8 county Chicago/NW Indiana metro. Outside that area? TuneIn and/or the stations' websites are your friends.
But here in Phoenix, there's nothing they can do. Ancient Modulation is pretty much dead in this market anyway.
BTW, I know this is the Miami board, but I haven't visited there in over 50 years. I would have to ass-u-me that South Florida is at least somewhat similar to Phoenix as far as growth is concerned.
Actually it doesn't. While the ground conductivity is nowhere near some parts of Texas or Kansas (so I've been told), it's actually pretty good for a city of its geographical size. Keep in mind that during its heyday, KRIZ at 1230 kHz could be heard at night not only throughout the then-city of Phoenix but as a moderately good signal in the closer suburbs such as Tempe, Mesa, Glendale, and Tolleson. And, if you travel west from Phoenix on Interstate 10 or southwest of the city on Interstate 8, you can hear the 5Kw stations KFYI, KTAR, and KKNT almost all the way to the California border. KGME at 910kHz would probably fall into that category too but it is hampered somewhat by Mexicali's XEAO on the same frequency. And, KFYI is somewhat hampered near Yuma, owing to KBLU on 560 kHz.
The big issue in Arizona for both AM and FM signals is the mountainous terrain both north and east of Phoenix. That geographical feature is not part of the Florida landscape and therefore does not hamper the AM frequencies, particularly the higher AM frequencies, the way it does in Arizona.
Sadly, while I disagree with the demise of AM (there were a lot of ways it could have been saved), that, for the most part, appears to be a fact for now and the foreseeable future in the U.S. Perhaps it is fitting as most other countries worldwide have abandoned the medium wave frequencies, but to me, AM by virtue of its nighttime capabilities using skywave, really has some excellent propagation properties that FM will never be able to match.
AM frequencies were not allocated. It was strictly "first come, first served".
And 540 for decades was a daytimer from Cypress Gardens... and the late Frank Berry was chief engineer there!
I can think of about 4,800 AM stations that wish skywave did not exist. They could then do things like reducing or eliminating directional systems, increasing power and improving fringe area coverage.
Think of how well AM radio could do on the moon. Essentially no atmosphere, no ionosphere, no skywave. Wonder what ground conductivity is like there.
Mars does have an ionosphere. From what I understand, it does refract radio waves similar to that of Earth, but there appears to be less variation throughout the Martian day/night cycle.
Venus and Saturn’s moon Titan also have ionospheres.