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WSB's 95th Birthday

Mike_Rafone said:
"Trusty",
Did you mean 64-65 for WQXI-TV? And what was the original call for Channel 46?
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Nope. WQXI was on channel 36 in '54 and channel 11 in '68.

I believe that's when they wanted to show how "hard working" their ch. 11 news staff was by showing their anchors in shirtsleeves. Too busy to suit up.

Also, the camera moved during chroma key shots with the effect of their anchors flying around whatever was on the screen. It was planned that way - VERY unprofessional ("Hey, Mom. Look what we can do with our new chroma key toy!"). It didn't last very long.

In 1954, WQXI/36 had one camera and shared the old house in Buckhead with WQXI radio. They programmed old movies and shots of the DJ playing records. It lasted 6 months.
 
WXIA was the first to have a chopper in the air circa 1981 or so. And they installed a CP (circular polarization) antenna at about that time, too. Another market first.
 
kf4rca said:
WXIA was the first to have a chopper in the air circa 1981 or so. And they installed a CP (circular polarization) antenna at about that time, too. Another market first.
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I remember when they installed the new antenna/transmitter back in 1981. Channel 11 had a third rate news team but their picture was, by far, the best in the market. Very sharp and vibrant colors...Ch2 and Ch5 looked blurry and dull when compared with Ch11. If you were one of the few who had a TV in your limo, Ch11 was the only watchable signal in a mobile environment.
 
When did WXIA become "11 Alive?" In 1976, WPIX in New York adopted the same branding. Who was first?
 
secondchoice said:
here is the FCC history cards on WSB:

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/p...ortletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=66984&.pdf

they take a little time to download.

I believe the address was 4111 Lavista Road Tucker then in 1930 they had a CP to move to the corner of Chandler and Glenwood roads. I am not sure if LaVista go renumbered. Some counties renumbered almost everything when they did 911.
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I believe, 4111 LaVista rd, Tucker, is the location of the present tower, sitting in the parking lot...has been there the 47 years I lived nearby.
 
HippieGuy said:
I believe, 4111 LaVista rd, Tucker, is the location of the present tower, sitting in the parking lot...has been there the 47 years I lived nearby.
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It is, and on Wednesday around 1:30AM when I was driving home from the airport, all of the lights on the tower were out. I guess I should have left a message for Charles Kinney.
 
Years ago, when I asked WSB's chief engineer about the effects of Northlake Festival's buildings and asphalt on the antenna's ground plane, he told me the ground system had improved with the construction of the shopping center.
 
Kemosabe said:
Years ago, when I asked WSB's chief engineer about the effects of Northlake Festival's buildings and asphalt on the antenna's ground plane, he told me the ground system had improved with the construction of the shopping center.
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My first tour of that site was given by the late John Talbert, then WSB's chief engineer. He said people had theorized the shopping center had hurt WSB's signal but that there was no evidence that was the case; that no actual measurements had been taken to compare pre and post-construction. He added that some AM's have their towers on land with a lot of trees and vegetation, and that hurts signals as much as anything else.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
My first tour of that site was given by the late John Talbert, then WSB's chief engineer. He said people had theorized the shopping center had hurt WSB's signal but that there was no evidence that was the case; that no actual measurements had been taken to compare pre and post-construction. He added that some AM's have their towers on land with a lot of trees and vegetation, and that hurts signals as much as anything else.
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Ground conductivity is the lowest in the entire United States with the exception of Birmingham, Alabama. It probably doesn't matter. The ground system includes every building in the center so RF interference would not cause problems.
It was the classic case of the real estate being worth more than the signal...even back in the 1980s, when the shopping center was built!
 
wavo said:
Ground conductivity is the lowest in the entire United States with the exception of Birmingham, Alabama. It probably doesn't matter. The ground system includes every building in the center so RF interference would not cause problems.
It was the classic case of the real estate being worth more than the signal...even back in the 1980s, when the shopping center was built!
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I remember John Talbert telling me that when the shopping center was built, management thought the station's best days were behind it. They weren't expecting WSB to move back to the top of the ratings in the mid-90's and remain there.
 
wavo said:
Ground conductivity is the lowest in the entire United States with the exception of Birmingham, Alabama.
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Close.

Much of the Atlanta area is 1.0

Long Island, NY, is a 0.5 and so is the Coachella Valley in CA as well as parts of Northern Vermont and all of the northernmost part of New Hampshire.. There are other areas that have been found to have 0.5 conductivity based on station measurements done to show that the broad geology-based FCC tables are inaccurate in many areas. There are areas of 1 in NW Idaho, much of northern Maine, most of the FL panhandle and the area from Central NH and VT down through Springfield MA and Torrington, CT, down to the Sound.

Birmingham is a 4.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Close.

Much of the Atlanta area is 1.0

Long Island, NY, is a 0.5 and so is the Coachella Valley in CA as well as parts of Northern Vermont and all of the northernmost part of New Hampshire.. There are other areas that have been found to have 0.5 conductivity based on station measurements done to show that the broad geology-based FCC tables are inaccurate in many areas. There are areas of 1 in NW Idaho, much of northern Maine, most of the FL panhandle and the area from Central NH and VT down through Springfield MA and Torrington, CT, down to the Sound.

Birmingham is a 4.
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If you go out and run the radials you will find the eastern Atlanta area is a 0.5 as is most of NE Georgia. Some parts of Northern Georgia are somewhat better but not by much.
Birmingham also has an iron composition to the east, northeast of the city that affects conductivity and is not reflected in the FCC chart.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
I remember John Talbert telling me that when the shopping center was built, management thought the station's best days were behind it. They weren't expecting WSB to move back to the top of the ratings in the mid-90's and remain there.
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WSB, as a brand/product remains very valuable. WSB AM, as a signal, has lost much of it's value as have most AM stations. WSB AM receives interference in much of the Atlanta ADI.
 
The day that WSB began to simulcast was the end of AM in Atlanta. After 750/95.5, 680 added 93.7. 790 faded into the past. There are only one or two AM stations that show in the PPMs anymore.

Yes, ground conductivity sucks here. That has not helped. 1.0 is quite optimistic.
 
wavo said:
WSB, as a brand/product remains very valuable. WSB AM, as a signal, has lost much of it's value as have most AM stations. WSB AM receives interference in much of the Atlanta ADI.
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There have been no ADI's since Arbitron stopped measuring TV in 1993. In any case, ADI's were the "Area of Dominant Influence" for TV stations and included areas well outside OTA coverage based on cable carriage.

Radio had MSAs and TSAs. Total Survey Areas do not exist now in PPM markets, which only survey the Metro Survey Area definitions. TSAs exist for some diary markets.

The Atlanta radio MSA is this list of counties. Fulton, Cobb and Gwinett have almost exactly 50% of the population.
Barrow, GA
Bartow, GA
Carroll, GA
Cherokee, GA
Clayton, GA
Cobb, GA
Coweta, GA
De Kalb, GA
Douglas, GA
Fayette, GA
Forsyth, GA
Fulton, GA
Gwinnett, GA
Henry, GA
Newton, GA
Paulding, GA
Pickens, GA
Rockdale, GA
Spalding, GA
Walton, GA
 
wavo said:
If you go out and run the radials you will find the eastern Atlanta area is a 0.5 as is most of NE Georgia. Some parts of Northern Georgia are somewhat better but not by much.
Birmingham also has an iron composition to the east, northeast of the city that affects conductivity and is not reflected in the FCC chart.
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One of our radials for the WERC night pattern was to the NE towards Gadsden and another to the east towards Talledega. There was no noticeable attenuation on those radials for the theoretically symmetrical WERC pattern. To the contrary, the signal was slightly more attenuated in the matching radials to the NW and West.

As I mentioned, many stations... back when it was worth it to improve an AM facility... did tests for conductivity using temporary experimental permits and many proved lower conductivity and were able to let restricted nulls out in some cases, at least in the daytime. My only point is that Atlanta is not unique in having low conductivity. There are many areas around the country with pockets of < 1 conductivity so it is not unusual of itself
 
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