> WROL has had a CP to go directional at night with 5 kW,
> using a 3 tower setup.
> Dan Strassberg, any extra you can add??
>
> Dave Gardiner
>
> WVCH 740
>
> Chester/Philadelphia
>
It's an application--not a yet CP as far as I know. But I don't see a reason why it shouldn't be granted. It's a major change because the COL has to change and so the application couldn't be accepted for filing until the FCC opened an AM major-change filing window (last January--or was it January 2004? Time flies when you are having fun ;>) Given that WROL's NIF contour will be 37 mV/m, there is no site from which a 5 kW signal on 950 could cover close to 80% of Boston. That the NIF should be so high makes no sense to me; the current 90W night signal is almost perfectly audible where I live, and the signal here when WROL is running 90W at night is only about 1 mV/m. When WPEN moves to the WWDB site at night, WROL's NIF will drop somewhat, but not materially. Anyhow, WROL's application specifies the new COL as Revere and the proposed new night site is the current day site. The app calls for adding two towers, one 90 degrees northwest of the present tower and one 90 degrees southeast. The pattern will be almost a carbon copy of that of co-owned WTTT 1150. It will throw virtually everything out to sea--toward Provincetown and Bermuda. There will be no change whatsoever in the day operation. If there were any change, WROL would have to markedly "ratchet down" its daytime coverage to eliminate prohibited overlap with first-adjacent WFGL.
I thought that the WTTT site would make a much better night site for WROL than would the WROL day site. From WTTT's Lexington site, the NIF contour would cover land and people, not salt water and fish, but Salem doesn't own the WTTT site; American Tower Systems does, and Rene' Tetro of WNTP/WFIL says that Salem hates paying rent to others for its AM sites. In addition, WTTT is already a diplex--with WAZN 1470--and adding a third station would be technically challenging and prohibitively expensive. But if you look at the orientation and spacing of WTTT's towers, they ought to work just fine for WROL at night using Belmont as the COL.
Rene' thinks there's a possibility that Salem might eventually move WTTT to the WROL site to save on the rent. This is his own speculation; he says he has heard ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about this from inside the company. With its much lower NIF, WTTT could operate from Saugus while retaining Boston as its COL, but days could be a BIG problem. WTTT could use WROL's two new end towers by day to produce a nice modified figure-eight pattern (like WEZE's except aimed northwest instead of east). This would protect second-adjacent WFPB in Orleans on Cape Cod. However, it's almost a straight shot over salt water from the WROL site to Saint Johns NB where, decades ago, there was an AM 1150 that is still notified to the US even though the station is dark--having moved first to 700 and now to FM. As long as that 1150 allocation remains, this plan can't work. And WMRD in Connecticut could also be a problem. Interestingly, though, Salem may have some pull with Industrie Canada. There was an unbuilt application for 1160 in North Bay ON, which Salem got Canada to delete to allow the 50 kW night increase of Salem's WYLL Chicago.
