WPAD 1450, WKYX 570 & WDXR 1560

[oxford777]

I know we're just thinking out loud here, and, as somebody who went to grade school in Paducah and grew up listening to 630-KXOK's monster daytime signal, I've enjoyed playing along. But KXOK wasn't the only monster daytime signal. 550 (then KSD) was even better, and they each covered as much daytime ground--if not more--than KMOX. Point is, Saint Louis is not only "over-radioed" as Vacuum Tube said, but several of those frequencies are monster signals, at least daytime. By the time the FCC would have allowed changing the COL to Saint Louis, AM was in decline. I think Rob is right: it likely could be done with creative engineering and a "who cares about interference" FCC, but who'd make that kind of investment these days to get a 1.5 rating? I know a 1.5 is a lot of ears in Saint Louis, but you're talking a huge initial expense.

 

[Nomoradio]

Back down the thread, someone mentioned WDXR's move from those "beautiful" studios in the old building shared with TV29 to the Ritz Hotel in the late 1970's. I assisted the engineer there with the move of the studio and STL equipment. It was done almost entirely in one evening. We moved the STL audio to phone lines that afternoon, hauled the STL antenna and transmitter to the Ritz and mounted it on the roof. To the best of my recollection, we pulled the plug on the old air studio around 10:00 PM that evening and began cutting wires. The station stayed on the air from a new production studio at the Ritz. We moved the entire air studio and had it back on the air before sunrise the next morning. The creepiest moment of the entire evening was when we had to venture into the old TV29 studio to retrieve some equipment stored there. Lots of ghosts floating around in there. It was definitely a long night and to make matters worse, I had to be back in Benton by 5:00 AM to do my daily sign on shift at WCBL. By then, WDXR and WCBL had become unofficial "cousins" as the WCBL owner (Shelby McCallum) had (with FCC approval) married WDXR owner Sara McKinney-Smith, the widow of E. Weeks McKinney-Smith. We shared the engineering staff (one guy), but not much else.

 

[oxford777]

I had to be back in Benton by 5:00 AM to do my daily sign on shift at WCBL.

As I recall, WCBL had a really good signal..at least daytime..that blasted into Paducah back in the day. Pretty good for a fairly high dial position. Much better in Paducah than the 2 Mayfield stations. Any secrets to the WCBL signal you'd like to share?

Speaking of Mayfield, they had 2 AM's back then. One, 1320 AM, is still there. But I think there was another that went dark in the late 50's or early 60's. Anybody remember that? And is it true that "WNGO" stood for "Wingo"?

Just curious.

 

[vacuum tube]

I would expect WCBL to have a more than twice as much field strength in Paducah as either Mayfield station, since they are 5kw and the Mayfield stations are only 1KW (all NDA in the daytime). Looking on a map the towers are about the same distance from Paducah. They are also fairly close in frequncy 1290, 1320, 1430, however 1430 receives a consider amount of sidband splatter from 1450 in Paducah and vice-versa. Checking the FCC data WCBL has nearly a half wave tower, while WNGO is slightly taller than a quarter wave and WYMC is less than a quarter wave. This explains why WCBL has better coverage in the Paducah area. At one time WCBL, WDXR, WPAD, and WMOK shared the same engineer. I wonder if Earl is still around!

 

[Nomoradio]

I worked at WCBL from the fall of 1974 to early 1978...so I can only speak up to that point. One reason we had such a good signal was that we had a great chief engineer, Paul Whitney. Paul convinced ownership to spend the bucks for a new Collins 5KW transmitter, top line audio processing gear, new Collins control boards, etc. I learned much of what I know about electronics working with him. He also talked them into replacing the 200 ft shunt fed tower with a 300+ ft tower to get the 3kw FM (then at 102.3) antenna out of the KY bottom land hole the station sat in. I think the tower was electrically closer to 5/8 wave on AM. It was an extremely "hot" tower...which became apparent when we kept burning up the insulators in the ERI isocoupler that the FM ran through. After hauling it back to Indiana a couple of times, we had to replace it with ERI's model designed for 50kw AM towers! It looked like the Fat Man atomic bomb. WCBL was a fun place to work back then. One thing I really miss hearing these days is the reverb we used on the mic channels at CBL.

On the comments about the Mayfield stations, I had heard WNGO was originally put on the air by a preacher, and the call letters stood for We Need God Only.

I am assuming the "Earl" you mention is Earl Abernathy....Uncle Earl to us. He was a great guy and always treated me nice. He maintained WCBL and the station I started at in 1971, KMIS in Portageville, MO. McCallum also owned KMIS. He talked me into attending Murray State so I could work during the school year at WCBL and summers at KMIS. I don't know if Uncle Earl is still around, but if he is please tell him Mike Shaw says hello!