I used to have family in Miami, in fact right across from what I remember as Variety Hospital. I spent many happy hours listening to both WQAM and WFUN and I remember that the WQAM tower was in Biscayne Bay, behind the Miami Hearld. I was wondering if it's still there and still used by anyone. I undertsand that WQAM actually left the site years ago. Why? You won't find a better location than that!
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WQAM Tower
- Thread starter VeteranPD
- Start date
C
cd637299
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As to the reason, I'll throw that to ai4i or whomever else is in the know.
I *will* say, though, that WQAM has applied for 50,000 watts daytime & 25,000 nighttime. For that to work, they'll have to go directional (hello Bermuda) & add a tower array. I understand that it's supposed to share the array with the current 790's location (once WFUN....now that's irony).
BTW....if there is a target or start-up date set for the 50/25, I'd sure like to know.
cd
I *will* say, though, that WQAM has applied for 50,000 watts daytime & 25,000 nighttime. For that to work, they'll have to go directional (hello Bermuda) & add a tower array. I understand that it's supposed to share the array with the current 790's location (once WFUN....now that's irony).
BTW....if there is a target or start-up date set for the 50/25, I'd sure like to know.
cd
VeteranPD said:
That was a great site when the Miami market was just Dade County, but a terrible one when Broward was added to the MSA... the day signal was not all that great in the northern parts of Broward and the night signal is pretty thin.
cd637299 said:
That application was granted some time ago, but for 30kw day 25 kw nights. I don't know if they are building the CP, as the PPM numbers for WQAM have been quite low and the expense may not be warranted. There are 5 towers, separate day and night patterns. It would do a much better job of covering Broward in general, but particularly at night.
DavidEduardo said:
I forgot to add that the current site is on Virginia Key (the little hunk of land the Seaquarium sits on and near that shrimp place... which is as good as the Herald site. The QAM signal suffered when the Herald building was built and Virginia Key is at least less filled with big buildings. The issue remains that both sites are too far from Broward.
Let me add that WQAM shares the Virginia Key site with WKAT. I always thought the one thing both these stations have going for them is they are non directional.
I'd still like to know the answer to the original question. Is the old WQAM tower still there behind the Miami Herald Building? Is it being used for anything?
I'd still like to know the answer to the original question. Is the old WQAM tower still there behind the Miami Herald Building? Is it being used for anything?
According to Google Maps it is still there and based on the Street View option it looks like there is a two-way radio antenna side mounted near the top (unsure if used or not).
James Westerfield said:
I wonder why it is still standing. The maintenance for towers sitting in salt water or tidal basins is horrendous... frequent painting, inspections for below-the-paint corrosion, etc. when the AM was on the air, they had to replace the ground screen every few years, as it would simply disolve away.
I spent nearly six years working in the Miami Herald's newsroom on the fifth floor until April 2009. I loved looking out at that tower. Never saw any sign of activity or any indication of it being in use. It seemed pretty abandoned. I was a little unnerved when I'd be there as hurricanes came in, worried it would topple on to the building. I guess it's pretty secure.
I looked at the street level view of the old WQAM tower on Google maps and I swear it looks like there is an FM broadcast antenna at the top of the tower. Who could it be? Maybe an Aux site?
I checked the stations in R-Locator with Miami or MBch as CoL All (93.1,93.9,94.9,96.5,97.3,99.1,101.5 & 107.5) were in the farm @ 207th St. except 88.9, 89.7, 91.3 & 95.3 which were close by. Someone else can check the other CoL's if you get curious.
How tall is the old QAM tower anyway?
Wonder if it could be left over from WQAM-FM? Yes boys and girls there was a WQAM-FM a long time ago. It was on 94.9. I doubt the antenna could be from that far back but maybe...
Was there a studio building at the base of the WQAM tower? Or am I thinking of another Miami station?
When I worked at WQAM for Storz in the mid 80s the studios were at the old coast guard hospital on Aurthur Godfrey Blvd. Ceramic white tile all along the main hallway. The cool old self supporting tower was in the salt water behind the Herald building as has been stated. At the time they were in the process of building a lot of those high rise buildings, and during the day the GM kept getting nasty phone calls and various complaints from the construction companies claiming that their crane operators were suffering from annoying "burning" sensations as they moved their large cranes around. Several had to be hospitalized under a workmens comp claim that the statiohad to settle to assist with.
At one point the GM agreed to reduce the daytime power from 5k to 900 watts to not cause the RF burns. This really diminished the signal..so much so that our numbers tanked during one year that it was unrecoverable..but before that we were constantly getting kicked off thte air, as the cranes
moving about began to act as an ever changing directional array that the poor old RCA Ampliphase
could not handle..so they had to buy an automatic power minder to keep the varying wattage on the air.
At one point the GM agreed to reduce the daytime power from 5k to 900 watts to not cause the RF burns. This really diminished the signal..so much so that our numbers tanked during one year that it was unrecoverable..but before that we were constantly getting kicked off thte air, as the cranes
moving about began to act as an ever changing directional array that the poor old RCA Ampliphase
could not handle..so they had to buy an automatic power minder to keep the varying wattage on the air.
So that's what that building had been. There were stories that it had been a dental office or something because there were some lead lined rooms or something to that effect. Loved that long shiny hallway!
Yes the RF burns will get ya. There are stories of the tower crew at WLTO 1220 getting hit with RF while the station was off the air. 1220 is a harmonic of 610 and WIOD was not far away...wow!
I always thought WQAM had a Collins transmitter.
Yes the RF burns will get ya. There are stories of the tower crew at WLTO 1220 getting hit with RF while the station was off the air. 1220 is a harmonic of 610 and WIOD was not far away...wow!
I always thought WQAM had a Collins transmitter.
I thought QAM had a Continental when it was at the Herald site.......
Anyways, the pirate on 96.1 was purported to have been making use of the old QAM tower, which is still standing as of a few weeks ago when I passed by there.
Anyways, the pirate on 96.1 was purported to have been making use of the old QAM tower, which is still standing as of a few weeks ago when I passed by there.
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