Your favorite AM directional array patterns

[billmich]

I think it was Art Vuolo who said you could hear WJBK/WLQV in Norway but not Ann Arbor at Night. Not strictly true, because you could hear it occasionally at Night during Auroral events.

Art also was famous for commenting on WOHO/WLQR 1470 sending their signal from their four tower parallelogram into Lake Erie at Night, as "The fish love it".

Also famous for commenting on the old four tower parallelogram pattern of WTAC/WSNL 600, as "North to The Bridge (alternately Sault Sainte Marie), East to Buffalo, South to Toledo (alternately "The Line"), West to Bishop Airport".

In other news, it has recently been announced that Art Vuolo's collection of video tape airchecks, audio tape airchecks, and other radio memorabilia will be housed at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. Reportedly, a "new wing is being added to the museum" to house it.

I am very good friends with Art, and have assisted him through some physical challenges recently (knee replacements..etc).

I remember specifically in a Bob Talbert Freep column circa 1986 that 1130 Detroit was altering their night pattern, and then there was a crack about someone in Norway receiving their signal. I still to this day can't find any evidence of a mid-1980's alteration to the 1130 pattern, perhaps you could bring me up to speed. Maybe they were just "re-tuning it" to make sure it was within specs.

Does 600 have a much different pattern than it did when the comment was made, the new pattern looks to not have any severe nulls to the west

It is amazing how almost perfectly that lobe covers lake Erie on 1470 Toledo. That frequency is still a mess in the area, even with Kalamazoo now dark.

I still stand by my 710/730 CHYR statement from above

Pre- 1999ish, there was really only 2 Detroit AM stations that you would receive regularly at night in A2 (U-M Graduate here, spend a lot of time DX-ing in A2) and that was 760 and 950 (even that was a lil iffy) - 1270 had a null right from its 10 mile & Evergreen location towards A2 and was only 5 k. It is receivable today in Ann Arbor from the new location and 50KW. 910 is also listenable in A2, but that moved in around 2005. 680 is also listenable, but again, a newer station. same with AM 1200

I am also NOT counting the Windsor/Canadian stations which amazingly, about 5 could be heard at night in A2 back in the day (540/580/630/800/1550-----730 was kinda iffy, as was a 1K CFCO) - some better than others, but it wasn't too hard

The following "Detroit stations" could be heard in Ann arbor during the day, but not at night circa 1990 -
560 went dark at sunset, 1090 just too weak, 1130 directionalized due north, 1270 NULL towards A2, 1310 directionalized due north, 1500 directionalized due north

My greater point is that until relatively recently, Ann Arbor was not part of metro Detroit and was its own radio market. In addition with suburban sprawl, anything less than a MINIMUM 10,000 watts and a relatively non-directionalized signal will result in less than full market coverage in any major metropolitan area in the US. The hyper directionalized signals of 1130 and 1310 and 1500 meant no "full market" coverage after the population started to spread out. It is quite obvious that the magic bullet of high power day and night stations in the Detroit market was to have your towers down south of town, crank up the power, have a relatively tight northward beam, and let that excess blast into a relatively unpopulated portion of Canada

 

[davideduardo]

My greater point is that until relatively recently, Ann Arbor was not part of metro Detroit and was its own radio market.

Washtenaw County is still not part of the Nielsen Detroit MSA.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

WTAC/WSNL 600 protected/protects WKZO Days and WMT Nights to the West. If you noticed in your Washtenaw County travels, the old 4 tower pattern was pretty good once you were in Ypsilanti, and was really good toward Plymouth. It fell off West of Ann Arbor. WTAC 600 was listed on the first Ann Arbor Ypsilanti Radioguides. Bob Seger was close to the WTAC staff in the early days of his career, and they were the first to play and chart "East Side Story". WPAG 1050 played an acetate of a Bob Seger song in 1961 ONCE, but WTAC was the first to chart one of his records. I suspect that not only Art Vuolo, but Bob Seger and John Landecker listened to WTAC back in the day. One of John's first DJ jobs was at crosstown rival WTRX, where he was "Dow Jones", a fill in/late night/weekender in the Summer of 1966. I used to carry WTRX into Ann Arbor on a Delco car radio. I even rigged up an antenna for one of Dave Barber's childhood friends near the Gandy Dancer so he could listen to Dave on WTRX.

 

[billmich]

Washtenaw County is still not part of the Nielsen Detroit MSA.

That's all well and good from an outsiders perspective, but there is a tremendous amount of people that live in one DMA and work in the other. the traffic on I-94 and M-14 can attest to that.
No matter what Washington DC says, Ann Arbor has become more of a Detroit suburb than it was 50 years ago.

 

[billmich]

WTAC/WSNL 600 protected/protects WKZO Days and WMT Nights to the West. If you noticed in your Washtenaw County travels, the old 4 tower pattern was pretty good once you were in Ypsilanti, and was really good toward Plymouth. It fell off West of Ann Arbor. WTAC 600 was listed on the first Ann Arbor Ypsilanti Radioguides. Bob Seger was close to the WTAC staff in the early days of his career, and they were the first to play and chart "East Side Story". WPAG 1050 played an acetate of a Bob Seger song in 1961 ONCE, but WTAC was the first to chart one of his records. I suspect that not only Art Vuolo, but Bob Seger and John Landecker listened to WTAC back in the day. One of John's first DJ jobs was at crosstown rival WTRX, where he was "Dow Jones", a fill in/late night/weekender in the Summer of 1966. I used to carry WTRX into Ann Arbor on a Delco car radio. I even rigged up an antenna for one of Dave Barber's childhood friends near the Gandy Dancer so he could listen to Dave on WTRX.

Point of information. I was born in 1968, so this 1960's stuff is great history, but I wasn't around to tune in

Grew up in Grosse Pointe, Attended U-M 86-90, long after 600 was worth tracking on my drive back to Metro Detroit (wasn't interested in format)

I have lived in Western Wayne county for the last 22 years within a mile of I-275. Northville/Plymouth/Canton/Westland/Livonia

 

[davideduardo]

That's all well and good from an outsiders perspective, but there is a tremendous amount of people that live in one DMA and work in the other. the traffic on I-94 and M-14 can attest to that.
No matter what Washington DC says, Ann Arbor has become more of a Detroit suburb than it was 50 years ago.

Ann Arbor is in the Detroit DMA... TV survey areas are generally much larger due to the reach of cable. ("DMA" is a TV term seldom applied to radio)

And the Nielsen MSA (Metro Survey Area) is not determined in Washington, but in Tampa where Nielsen resides. Washtenaw County does not meet the listening and commuting criteria necessary for it to be added to the Detroit MSA. Market definitions are revised every year, so if the criteria are met in the future and the subscribers approve, then the MSA will be expanded.

 

[billmich]

My point remains the same, Ann Arbor has become more of a suburb of Detroit over the last 30 to 50 years because of the expanding suburbs

 

[wrekfan]

Someone asked about patterns designed to max coverage over the market, I did 2 a few years back, the 570 DA in Tampa, and the 740 DA in Orlando. We used every ounce of available power over the populations and in both day and night let it out at night to get areas blocked by 1st and 2nd adjacent, the only exception was the 570 in Tampa day added protecting the soon to be acquired 740 in Orlando prior to the rule relaxation. If you look the patterns shape the market, Tampa to include Sarasota, and Orlando to cover the Space Coast...it was fun in those days when owners let you do things. I have to add I also had to deal with 1520 Port Hueneme when it was bought by the Miami people. That's about all I can say, what an interesting station. I think I know David Eduado???

 

[FreddyE1977]

Interesting. I did not know all of those Detroit stations had such a strong null to the west. When I lived in the
area I was to the north (Lapeer County-Flint suburbs) and they would all boom in there, day or night.

This station has been dark for some time, and is likely never coming back. But WKGE in Johnstown, PA
(the longtime WJAC-AM) has a 9 tower array and a distinct hourglass pattern that steers the signal north
into New York State and southeast. It squeezes down to a wasp's waist in the middle, so as to throw out
no signal to either Pittsburgh or Altoona, the two biggest population centers in the area. This was to protect
WKNR in Cleveland and WEEI in Boston.

This was a problem for the old EBS system, as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had set up a network of stations to relay
emergency messages from Harrisburg. KDKA was supposed to monitor WJAC, which could not be heard here.

I have heard that this station is off the air because one of the 9 towers has crapped out, and with the severe economic decline in
Johnstown the station can't bill enough to make repairs economically feasible.