WRTO AM 1200 NEW TRANSMITTER SITE.

[radiotower40]

I drove past the new site Thursday night on my way home, and they were not running from there yet. It was dark
when I drove by, but, it appears(from what I could see) that the site looked pretty complete.

This had to be a really expensive site to build, especially in this economy, and for a station that virtually know one is
listening too. I believe they scored a 0.2 in the latest trend. I do hope, like someone else suggested, that they sell
the station when the new site is complete. IMHO this station is a waste of bandwith( theirs and that of their neighbors)
If they do sell it I really hope the new owner shuts off the I Block.

 

[[email protected]]

I believe WRTO was handed an "eviction notice" on their old site several years back and this new site was the best they could come up with. My understanding is that it is a bit over engineered, huge power generator, a small studio, bathroom and kitchen etc. These are items that are rarely part of current site build outs.

Anyway, it would not suprise anyone if the station was put up for sale after it was on the air for a while. If that happens I'm sure the new owners would dump the IBOC in a New York minute! :

 

[Link]

Iblock is off this weekend. Maybe they are working on the new site.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Anyway, it would not suprise anyone if the station was put up for sale after it was on the air for a while. If that happens I'm sure the new owners would dump the IBOC in a New York minute! :

Here in Boston, a very expensive AM project (five-tower triplex) in the tony, NIMBY Boston suburb of Newton was completed last summer. (Licenses to cover were issued in August, IIRC.) WKOX 1200 moved to Newton from Framingham and increased to 50 kW-U DA-2 (three towers day and night), WRCA 1330 changed CoL from Waltham to Watertown and increased to 25 kW-D/17 kW-N DA-2 (five towers D/four towers N) and WUNR increased to 20 kW-U DA-1 (five towers). All three of the stations were reportedly fully equipped for IBOC and two of the owners, CCU (WKOX) and Beasley (WRCA), have been very vocal IBOC advocates. I was therefore expecting at least these two stations, and maybe all three, to switch on IBOC the moment they had licenses to cover in hand. Didn't happen. Hasn't happened yet, either. Maybe will happen a year after the licenses were issued. I believe that will mark the end of the period during which the stations must remedy at their own expense all reasonable complaints of interference within the 1V/m contours that have been brought to their attention. There is a large sign at the site that indicates how to get in touch with the stations regarding interference. A special Web site for complaints has also been set up.

If there is no IBOC after a year, will it be because of the current financial situation (despite which, I suspect that WRCA and WUNR continue to make money; they are leased-time ethnic-formatted stations with a long record of profitability), or will it indicate the owners' flagging interest in AM-band IBOC?

I'd be interested in your insights.

 

[dave73]

Anyway, it would not suprise anyone if the station was put up for sale after it was on the air for a while. If that happens I'm sure the new owners would dump the IBOC in a New York minute! :

Here in Boston, a very expensive AM project (five-tower triplex) in the tony, NIMBY Boston suburb of Newton was completed last summer. (Licenses to cover were issued in August, IIRC.) WKOX 1200 moved to Newton from Framingham and increased to 50 kW-U DA-2 (three towers day and night), WRCA 1330 changed CoL from Waltham to Watertown and increased to 25 kW-D/17 kW-N DA-2 (five towers D/four towers N) and WUNR increased to 20 kW-U DA-1 (five towers). All three of the stations were reportedly fully equipped for IBOC and two of the owners, CCU (WKOX) and Beasley (WRCA), have been very vocal IBOC advocates. I was therefore expecting at least these two stations, and maybe all three, to switch on IBOC the moment they had licenses to cover in hand. Didn't happen. Hasn't happened yet, either. Maybe will happen a year after the licenses were issued. I believe that will mark the end of the period during which the stations must remedy at their own expense all reasonable complaints of interference within the 1V/m contours that have been brought to their attention. There is a large sign at the site that indicates how to get in touch with the stations regarding interference. A special Web site for complaints has also been set up.

If there is no IBOC after a year, will it be because of the current financial situation (despite which, I suspect that WRCA and WUNR continue to make money; they are leased-time ethnic-formatted stations with a long record of profitability), or will it indicate the owners' flagging interest in AM-band IBOC?

I'd be interested in your insights.

How many towers are on site of WKOX/WRCA.WUNR? I saw that all 3 stations are on the same site. That would mean that all 3 stations are diplexed. The only stations I know that are diplexed in Chicagoland (if Polnet has done it) are Polnet owned: WEEF 1430 Deerfield & WKTA 1330 Evanston, diplexed off the WKTA towers in Northbrook. WKTA uses 4 towers, while WEEF uses an additional 2 towers. Since I haven't been up near Northbrook in 6 years, I don't know if Polnet has added the additional towers. I do know they lost their old site for WEEF, which was why they decided to diplex off the WKTA towers.

 

[DanStrassberg]

How many towers are on site of WKOX/WRCA.WUNR? I saw that all 3 stations are on the same site. That would mean that all 3 stations are diplexed.

The answer was in my original post--five--and, as I said in that post, it's a triplex (not merely a shared site). There is no room for any more towers at the site AND the agreement between the radio stations and the City of Newton precludes ANY substantive changes. No additional stations are permitted. No power increases either.

The site was used for more than 50 years by WUNR alone. (OK, WUNR has had several other call signs over the years--WVOM and WBOS (AM) at least.) The previous setup had two towers that were, IIRC, 210 degrees at 1600. Those towers were more than 300' tall and both were illuminated, although I think that when the FAA changed its regulations maybe 20 years ago, the illumination could have been shut off on one of the towers had WUNR applied to make such a change. The new towers are just under 200', are not illuminated, and are pretty fat relative to their height. I assume the width was selected to make broadbanding of the arrays possible, because I'm pretty sure that, given the frequency spacing (especially 1200 to 1330), broadbanding was necessary for IBOC to perform acceptably (that is, if you admit to the possibility that AM-band IBOC can EVER perform acceptably).

 

[radiotower40]

Anyway, it would not suprise anyone if the station was put up for sale after it was on the air for a while. If that happens I'm sure the new owners would dump the IBOC in a New York minute! :

Here in Boston, a very expensive AM project (five-tower triplex) in the tony, NIMBY Boston suburb of Newton was completed last summer. (Licenses to cover were issued in August, IIRC.) WKOX 1200 moved to Newton from Framingham and increased to 50 kW-U DA-2 (three towers day and night), WRCA 1330 changed CoL from Waltham to Watertown and increased to 25 kW-D/17 kW-N DA-2 (five towers D/four towers N) and WUNR increased to 20 kW-U DA-1 (five towers). All three of the stations were reportedly fully equipped for IBOC and two of the owners, CCU (WKOX) and Beasley (WRCA), have been very vocal IBOC advocates. I was therefore expecting at least these two stations, and maybe all three, to switch on IBOC the moment they had licenses to cover in hand. Didn't happen. Hasn't happened yet, either. Maybe will happen a year after the licenses were issued. I believe that will mark the end of the period during which the stations must remedy at their own expense all reasonable complaints of interference within the 1V/m contours that have been brought to their attention. There is a large sign at the site that indicates how to get in touch with the stations regarding interference. A special Web site for complaints has also been set up.

If there is no IBOC after a year, will it be because of the current financial situation (despite which, I suspect that WRCA and WUNR continue to make money; they are leased-time ethnic-formatted stations with a long record of profitability), or will it indicate the owners' flagging interest in AM-band IBOC?

I'd be interested in your insights.

How many towers are on site of WKOX/WRCA.WUNR? I saw that all 3 stations are on the same site. That would mean that all 3 stations are diplexed. The only stations I know that are diplexed in Chicagoland (if Polnet has done it) are Polnet owned: WEEF 1430 Deerfield & WKTA 1330 Evanston, diplexed off the WKTA towers in Northbrook. WKTA uses 4 towers, while WEEF uses an additional 2 towers. Since I haven't been up near Northbrook in 6 years, I don't know if Polnet has added the additional towers. I do know they lost their old site for WEEF, which was why they decided to diplex off the WKTA towers.

On the WKTA/WEEF tower site, they did build the two new towers, I'm not sure how long they've been up, but
they were up in September, when I drove by there. The two new towers were built in between the 4 original towers,
and they are shorter than the other 4.

On the WRTO site, The IBOC was off and the station was sounding somewhat louder than usual, Friday night. I was not
sure if it was because the IBOC was off or they were testing the new site. It did sound somewhat stronger than the 1kw
nightime signal pre- I-BLOCK, yet it has been so long since I was actually able to hear it at night due to the self interference,
which made the signal unlistenable. I was also able to hear stations on 1210 and 1190. This was at about 5 AM, and at about
6:10 AM the old site popped on with the 10kw and IBOC. I was then able to tell for sure they were using the new site,
because they didn't turn off the new site until 7:15 AM. I was able to hear it faintly underneath the daytime signal. Their
were two female host's on, and I was able to hear what they were saying about 7 seconds earlier, albeit very faintly,
on the new site, than on the old site due to the HD delay.

I checked again on Saturday night and they sounded the same as Friday, somewhat stronger, audible and no HD.
I then turned them on Sunday around 1PM and they were very strong with no HD, so I'm assuming they are on
the new site now. Even with double the signal and the new site being a little closer to me than the old one, I was
still able to hear AM 1180 WSQR, and AM 1230 WJOB sounded louder than it has since RTO installed the jammer.

I do have a question about the HD equipment. Can they move it from the old site to the new site, and hook it up
there? I believe that the HD equipment at use at WRTO was removed from WIND when they swapped with Salem.
Do you think the buzz will be back on WRTO soon?

 

[[email protected]]

IBOC Gear in some cases is portable, that is it can be moved from one transmitter to another. BUT...not always....so there is a chance that IBOC could be implemented on the new WRTO site.

Univision is a strong proponent of HD/IBOC radio so I would expect it to return...though I wish it wouldn't.

 

[Link]

Hopefully they will keep the block off for the year they have fix complaints. That would be a nice Christmas present.

 

[audioguy]

While driving around Wheaton and Glen Ellyn today I tuned to 1200 and noticed that they were coming in with a strong, clear signal with no IBOC. I tuned over to 1180 and was able to enjoy listening to "Timeless Favorites" for the first time in years without having that nasty screech in the background. When it is present, that noise really bores a hole in my brain after a couple of minutes of listening.