WVJS Power Reduction

[radiorob2.0]

http://jakesdtvblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/cromwell-seeks-power-reduction-for.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JakesdtvblogcomYourSourceForLocalTvInfo+%28jakesdtvblog.com+...+Your+Source+for+Local+TV+Info!%29

It is my understanding keeping the directional array anywhere close to tolerance was cost prohibitive.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

http://jakesdtvblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/cromwell-seeks-power-reduction-for.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JakesdtvblogcomYourSourceForLocalTvInfo+%28jakesdtvblog.com+...+Your+Source+for+Local+TV+Info!%29

It is my understanding keeping the directional array anywhere close to tolerance was cost prohibitive.

The amazing thing is that there is still a company around with enough respect for FCC rules to do this. Sadly, many operators would just let it run out of tolerance & hope they were never caught. Kudos to Cromwell for taking the high road.

 

[DJOnAStick]

http://jakesdtvblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/cromwell-seeks-power-reduction-for.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JakesdtvblogcomYourSourceForLocalTvInfo+%28jakesdtvblog.com+...+Your+Source+for+Local+TV+Info!%29

It is my understanding keeping the directional array anywhere close to tolerance was cost prohibitive.

The amazing thing is that there is still a company around with enough respect for FCC rules to do this. Sadly, many operators would just let it run out of tolerance & hope they were never caught. Kudos to Cromwell for taking the high road.

Good point and I'm even more surprised that Cromwell had it in them to do it the RIGHT way. I've always thought that the Owensboro stations were a bit forgotten. Good for them!

 

[radiorob2.0]

Before we give kudos and applauds let's keep in mind Cromwell was a factor that lead to the demise of WVJS. Bud Walters arrived about twenty years ago selling inventory for less than ten cents on the dollar compared to WVJS. Local business gravitated to the cheap rates on FM while the revenue of WVJS bottomed out and that was the end.

Bud purchased WVJS about ten years ago. He'll brag about how WVJS is a "heritage station" but has allowed it to rot. It's a shame, but what do you do? It is what you expect from a walking Dale Carnegie seminar low life like Bud Walters.

If there are any kudos they go to Ed Thomas and Watt Hairston who actually tried to fix the problem but in the end was cost prohibitive.

 

[jry]

Before we give kudos and applauds let's keep in mind Cromwell was a factor that lead to the demise of WVJS. Bud Walters arrived about twenty years ago selling inventory for less than ten cents on the dollar compared to WVJS. Local business gravitated to the cheap rates on FM while the revenue of WVJS bottomed out and that was the end.

Bud purchased WVJS about ten years ago. He'll brag about how WVJS is a "heritage station" but has allowed it to rot. It's a shame, but what do you do? It is what you expect from a walking Dale Carnegie seminar low life like Bud Walters.

If there are any kudos they go to Ed Thomas and Watt Hairston who actually tried to fix the problem but in the end was cost prohibitive.

I take it that Ed and Watt are contract engineers or ?

 

[BudBayard]

WVJS has been out of compliance for a long time prior to Cromwell buying it. At the time it was bought WVJS was part of a bankruptcy. Cromwell has spent thousands getting WVJS into compliance and recently got it relicensed
to the new parameters. IN the interim an FM translator was added that rebroadcasts WVJS and that is now where most of the listening occurs. A recent lightning strike severely damaged the control points to the point where a complete re-build is required. JRY is correct in that Ed Thomas and Watt Hairston deserve great credit. They did the relicensing work and since the lightning strike recommended a rebuld is not worth the effort. The 980 watts using a tall tower will give a solid non-directioinal daytime signal about equal to the 5KW directional signal now licensed. The 20 watts non-directional at night signal is not far short of the 1KW 4 tower directional nightime signal now licensed. In all cases, the FM translator covers the county better than the currnet nighttime signal. Cromwell has built 4 FMs over the years so that Owensboro has more signals and program choices than before and it is more competitive as JRY points out. A new Nautel transmitter for WVJS is on order for delivery subject to FCC approval.

 

[TheOtherRadioRob]

I can assure you WVJS is far from its "demise."

 

[K4WRF]

Many thanks for the kind remarks Bud!

WVJS is a unique situation being also co located with a 435' CATV tower with many attendant transmission lines and antennas (an un-fed 5th tower if you will). It was impossible to keep it de-tuned despite a lot of expensive and time consuming work. The feeder, sample lines and contactor control system is well over 30-years in the ground and its just not practical to change out one line and not replace the rest of them; indeed a major excavation and installation project. Add to this, the Collins transmitter would have to be replaced as many of its components are simply no longer available. As a result of the downgrade, the day-time signal loss in two directions where the lobes are will be about 6db, due north and south and over mostly unpopulated areas. In the directions of the most population, there will be no loss and even a small increase to the east and west. In the end, Bud would have cumulatively more money invested in the directional antenna system than what he paid for the station. As for night time, the station NIF is really high and many deep nulls making it much worse. That little 200 watt translator can be heard well outside the NIF contour (about 14 mv/m IIRC). After the night array was brought into proper adjustment, the signal was really worse in most directions. Prior to late last year WVJS had operated on parameters at variance STA's for years. Ed Thomas was spending much more time working on the WVJS array than all the rest of the CGI station in the region.

Not always pleasant but at some point you have to cut your losses and move on....

Best regards,

w/

Good or bad, going forward, we will be seeing a lot more of these class "D" grades....

 

[DJOnAStick]

Before we give kudos and applauds let's keep in mind Cromwell was a factor that lead to the demise of WVJS. Bud Walters arrived about twenty years ago selling inventory for less than ten cents on the dollar compared to WVJS. Local business gravitated to the cheap rates on FM while the revenue of WVJS bottomed out and that was the end.

Bud purchased WVJS about ten years ago. He'll brag about how WVJS is a "heritage station" but has allowed it to rot. It's a shame, but what do you do? It is what you expect from a walking Dale Carnegie seminar low life like Bud Walters.

If there are any kudos they go to Ed Thomas and Watt Hairston who actually tried to fix the problem but in the end was cost prohibitive.

I totally agree. Ed Thomas is an amazing engineer! Watt is amazing as well. Hats off to both of them for the work they've done.

 

[TheOtherRadioRob]

I am happy to say that WVJS is going to be my new afternoon drive gig starting January 2. I started there as a 16 year old and am glad to have an opportunity to be live and local there again.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

The WVJS array was never compliant truth be told. I recall getting the word when logging out of compliance readings (every 3 hours) over 30 years ago. The land that the station sits on is not owned by Cromwell. The logistics that led to this and the bankruptcy when the cable and radio companies were co-owned seems implausible. Surely the due diligence brought this to the table when it was purchased.

Most AM stations are adding translators and forgetting the AM. I hear the translator over 40 miles at times, over a licensed full power in it's 60dbu contour. I would wonder if this might be brought up at license renewal. If coverage was limited to Owensboro and the county it would be seemingly acceptable. I have spoken with the WVJS translator interference generator engineer personally and there seems to be no interest in protecting the full power station it is interfering with.

 

[NoMoreMornings]

WVJS has been out of compliance for a long time...IN the interim an FM translator was added that rebroadcasts WVJS and that is now where most of the listening occurs.

Now when are you going to repair that translator that is out of compliance too? You can listen to it on the Pennyrile and as the Temptations said in Papa was a Rolling Stone, "and that ain't right".

 

[radiorob2.0]

The WVJS array was never compliant truth be told. I recall getting the word when logging out of compliance readings (every 3 hours) over 30 years ago. The land that the station sits on is not owned by Cromwell. The logistics that led to this and the bankruptcy when the cable and radio companies were co-owned seems implausible. Surely the due diligence brought this to the table when it was purchased.

It wasn't compliant when I worked there in the early nineties.

A point of order, WVJS along with WSTO were not part of the bankruptcy. Alan Brill owned those station outright, he leased them back to his company Brill Media. As his empire approached the waterfall, Brill made a deal with South Central to sell them WSTO if Brill Media went under. If he was able to save the empire the station remained his. Brill Media went over the waterfall into "Debtor in Possession" and WSTO became a South Central property. Meanwhile, Regent purchased the former Brill Media. Regent had thought WVJS was part of the deal, but it wasn't. Brill sold WVJS to a college friend Bud Walters. Bud paid a quarter mil for the license, a 1977 Power Rock, phasor cabinet and not much else but problems.

The lease situation was because of Alan Brill. When he purchased WVJS and WSTO the tower site at Highway 60 West and Hebbardsville were set up as a lease from former owner Century Communications. Both sites transferred over to Adelphia when they purchased Century. South Central eventually purchased the WSTO tower site while the WVJS tower farm is owned by Time Warner. Since the lease is cash flow the RF issues around the cable plant is tolerated.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

The point is that the original sale without land wasn't a bankruptcy sale. Each sale from the start was without the land. A quarter million without land seems excessive given the pattern.

Every time I see a station sold without land I note the futility. Most times I note they should get the land as it is usually worth more than the station.

When the translator came on I could see the wholesale transfer to fm. The interference from this to a licensed full power seems ridiculous when the victim is a 6 kw station at 300 feet. Readings on the translator have it well outside the WVJS contour. Again, interference within the 60dbu of the victim fm have been taken. Talks with WVJS engineering has gone nowhere. Seems to be a threat of "what will you do to get us to stop?"

 

[TheOtherRadioRob]

As of this morning, towers 1, 3, and 4 are on the ground. I watched as crews pulled them down.

 

[radiorob2.0]

As of this morning, towers 1, 3, and 4 are on the ground. I watched as crews pulled them down.

End of an era.

It’s worth noting that those towers were part of a cross town urinating contest between WVJS and WOMI. WOMI was using a simple quarter wave guyed radiator. WVJS signed on with originally three self supporting towers; non directional days and directional nights. Tower 2 was 208 degrees and used during the day. The other two towers, about 100 degrees, were on line at night. WOMI decided to one up WVJS and build a monster of a self supporting tower that was a sectionalized 5/8 radiator for 1490. The insulators were at the 75 foot level of each leg. The two stations fought it out on-air and in printed material on who had a better signal with WOMI pointing out that they were non-directional at night which made them better than WVJS. The signal rivalry at one point became a contest where an engineer of each station, with a member of clergy as an observer, did field strength readings. WVJS won but just barely. WVJS increased to 5kw days in 1962 with a directional pattern adding tower four at the same time WOMI upgradded to 1kw daytime.

The owner of WOMI pulled the plug on live programming about thirty years ago and ten years later decided the tower was worth more as vertical real estate as was the ground around the tower. Skirts were attached to each leg of the tower for WOMI while the rest of the tower filled up with various antennas and the ground system is under asphalt. A set of cell antennas are in the middle of the skirts. WVJS pulled the plug on live and local programming in 1995. Both stations have been a ghost ship with some form of life on occasion but otherwise neglected.

As I said, end of an era.

 

[TheOtherRadioRob]

As of this morning, towers 1, 3, and 4 are on the ground. I watched as crews pulled them down.

Both stations have been a ghost ship with some form of life on occasion but otherwise neglected.

As I said, end of an era.

I don't think I would go that far with the ghost ship reference. Live and local is back on weekday afternoons on WVJS.

 

[radiorob2.0]

As of this morning, towers 1, 3, and 4 are on the ground. I watched as crews pulled them down.

Both stations have been a ghost ship with some form of life on occasion but otherwise neglected.

As I said, end of an era.

I don't think I would go that far with the ghost ship reference. Live and local is back on weekday afternoons on WVJS.

With all due respect, as much effort as you give that one shift doesn't return WVJS to what it was. Andrew Tow and the idiot hierarchy he created at Century Cable (then owner) financially suffocated WVJS. Then came Bud Walters and his dollar a holler rates causing revenue to migrate to WBIO on FM and finally the end of live around the clock programming. Century sold to Brill Meida who corkscrewed WVJS further into oblivion. Finally Bud get a hold of WVJS from Brill for no other reason than bragging rights and call letter drops at KBA conventions.

WVJS is still on the air but it lacks soul. A recorded "Community Happenings from the Cromwell Radio Network" doesn't replace live dynamic programming nor do boring satellite jocks trying to be generically relevant. It used to be Joe Lowe in the Morning on WVJS, today it's what's his name and a recorded set of call letters to give the illusion he's local. WVJS was a station with Jim Parr and an amazing news department, today we have The Cromwell News Network that rely on what they steal from the Messenger Inquirer, PSA's and news releases that have nothing to do with Owensboro along with other irrelevant information. The day Owensboro announced the new downtown hotel the Cromwell News Network newscast had two news stories. The top story was the Ohio County Airport (think crop dusters) was installing a new weather sensor. The other story was about a new appointment in Indiana state government that probably didn't warrant coverage on WIBC but the Cromwell News Network called it news and neither story had anything to do with Owensboro.

Rob, you and I are part of a fraternity that gives a damn about 1420 WVJS. I even tune you in from time to time since you do put forth an gallant effort to make it sound like it suppose to instead of lifeless. Besides you have one advantage we didn't have twenty years ago, FM.

Sidebar story, when 94.7 was just a construction permit owned by Ruth Steele. There had been talk at the former OOTA about approaching Ruth Steele to purchase or some kind of a lease of the frequency and moving WVJS to FM. The rules had been relaxed so Century could own WSTO and another FM service but the idea fell through.

 

[TheOtherRadioRob]

I have thought a whole week about how to respond to this, even considering not responding at all. Instead of spout out emotion-laden comments, I will state a few facts.

The Cromwell News Network is led by Mike Chaney with help in the mornings by Cathy Carter. The last time we even remotely used the paper as a source, it was before the creation of the current team when I was pulling double duty in programming and news. We're talking late nineties and early 2000's. We do have a partnership with 14WFIE, but mainly that is for weather information currently.

I prefer to look at a company for the efforts in effect now, not for something that happened some 17 years ago. If I held onto wrongs done to me by a company, I would have enough about a certain Corbin outfit in the early 90's to write a book. I got over it. I moved on.

I'm not skilled in corporate-speak. I don't even work with numbers or sell ads. I am a radio guy from day one who wants the best product on the air I can deliver. I work for a station that turns 65 this year. I don't go around bragging or "call letter dropping" about it. I have pride in the station I have had the chance of coming back to and helping to run. Yes, I am proud to work where I do. Are we perfect? No. No one is.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

I have thought a whole week about how to respond to this, even considering not responding at all. Instead of spout out emotion-laden comments, I will state a few facts.

The Cromwell News Network is led by Mike Chaney with help in the mornings by Cathy Carter. The last time we even remotely used the paper as a source, it was before the creation of the current team when I was pulling double duty in programming and news. We're talking late nineties and early 2000's. We do have a partnership with 14WFIE, but mainly that is for weather information currently.

I prefer to look at a company for the efforts in effect now, not for something that happened some 17 years ago. If I held onto wrongs done to me by a company, I would have enough about a certain Corbin outfit in the early 90's to write a book. I got over it. I moved on.

I'm not skilled in corporate-speak. I don't even work with numbers or sell ads. I am a radio guy from day one who wants the best product on the air I can deliver. I work for a station that turns 65 this year. I don't go around bragging or "call letter dropping" about it. I have pride in the station I have had the chance of coming back to and helping to run. Yes, I am proud to work where I do. Are we perfect? No. No one is.

I have zero experience/knowledge of any of the outfits you speak of, but in an ideal world, everyone would reply in such a well thought out, non-inflammatory, 'love thy neighbor as thy self' way. I believe you have 9 posts to your credit so far...here's to many more from TheOtherRadioRob.