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710 WGBS HISTORY

ai4i said:
For the same reason that WRHC has been transmitting with these four invisible towers for well over a decade...LOL
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They filmed a scene from Miami Vice out there back in the day. I'm guessing WRHC ran on generator power? It was certainly an interesting place to have a transmitter site!
 
strangelove said:
I'm guessing WRHC ran on generator power?
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We switched between two 60Kw generators on alternate days and powered the tower lights and living quarters at night with a 21.5 generator.
I think they were all Detroit Diesels. We had a vibrating reed AC frequency detector which was way off,
so we simply plugged an AC electric clock in and kept in relatively on time with the speed controls.

Interestingly, to minimize the effects of the tides, we had two ground radial systems that were bonded together;
one was below the water at the lowest tide and the other was above the water at the highest tide,
so what happened between the two did not change the readings very much at all.
 
ai4i said:
We switched between two 60Kw generators on alternate days and powered the tower lights and living quarters at night with a 21.5 generator.
I think they were all Detroit Diesels. We had a vibrating reed AC frequency detector which was way off,
so we simply plugged an AC electric clock in and kept in relatively on time with the speed controls.

Interestingly, to minimize the effects of the tides, we had two ground radial systems that were bonded together;
one was below the water at the lowest tide and the other was above the water at the highest tide,
so what happened between the two did not change the readings very much at all.
Click to expand...
Fascinating. Was it staffed 24/7? Must have been like being a lighthouse keeper.
 
For anyone interested the FCC monitoring station was on State Road 84 (now 595) near what is now Nob Hill. It was the original 10KW location of WGBS, and all AM stations in the area had to restrict signal over the station, that was the reason WINZ was a DA Day. When we built Gannett Tower in 1984 the FCC was going to limit TV channel 33 at the new tower to protect the monitoring station; there was also some talk about limiting the 6 FM's (at that time) moving to the site. After an aggressive campaign with the FCC and Congress with help from our members of congress and senate, we got the monitoring station moved to Vero Beach, not the Keys. The best help was the local FCC people that wanted to move to Vero Beach. So we built Gannett Tower and applied and was approved for WINZ to go N-DA. We had a lot fo fun in those days.
 
Hey everyone, something is either invisible or missing over here!
 
dpfoto7 said:
It was 3 towers daytime, and 6 towers night time.
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The night pattern was so directional away from WOR, that a mile and a half north by north, north-east of the array at Pembroke Pines Memorial Hospital,
when the station was silent, Cuba and/or WOR would become audible. As soon as the audio resumed, it was pure, LOUD double sideband, suppressed carrier.
I experienced the same thing while driving northeasterly along I-30, away from the *dozen-element* array of (then) KLIF on 1190.
KFXR might not be that directional any more since WOWO downgraded for WLIB.
 
ai4i said:
I experienced the same thing while driving northeasterly along I-30, away from the *dozen-element* array of (then) KLIF on 1190.
KFXR might not be that directional any more since WOWO downgraded for WLIB.
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11~Ninety in Dallas is still 12 sticks at night with 5kw. Even when WOWO was downgraded at night, the cost to re-engineer the pattern made no sense..just cost a lot of cents (and dollars).
 
ai4i said:
The night pattern was so directional away from WOR, that a mile and a half north by north, north-east of the array at Pembroke Pines Memorial Hospital,
when the station was silent, Cuba and/or WOR would become audible. As soon as the audio resumed, it was pure, LOUD double sideband, suppressed carrier.
Click to expand...

IIRC, WGBS was also severely directional, as were several other Miami stations, to protect the FCC monitoring stations that was in Broward County.

An engineering "old timer" explained to me that this was the reason why WGBS was out to the NW, and why WFUN and WMIA were SE of downtown... all to cover the population back in the 50's and 60's when Broward was not part of the radio market and the population was growing in the center of Dade, not the north.
 
Only a few close stations were impacted, including WGBS, WINZ, and WSRF and all those stations were restricted to placing no more than 33mv/m at the monitoring station.
My timeline could be off, but I think WGMA raised their power and went directional after "Uncle Charly" vacated the old WGBS site.
I believe that WGBS's null allowed WSBR to come on the air and 710 has been protecting them ever since.
 
DrAkbar said:
11~Ninety in Dallas is still 12 sticks at night with 5kw. Even when WOWO was downgraded at night, the cost to re-engineer the pattern made no sense..just cost a lot of cents (and dollars).
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And the Radio-Locator coverage maps of the KFXR (onetime KLIF) night pattern are way too generous. The station still protects Portland at night, and over the years I've discovered there is no night reception of KFXR in Sachse, Plano, Denton, or many other northern DFW suburbs. Even in the supposed main lobe to the WSW night reception in western Tarrant County is no better than the skywave coming in from WOAI 10 kHz up.

Old joke about the 1190 array was that it was so directional that someone driving down Elm Street in downtown Dallas got a good signal, but were they to drive up on the sidewalk the station would disappear.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
And the Radio-Locator coverage maps of the KFXR (onetime KLIF) night pattern are way too generous. The station still protects Portland at night, and over the years I've discovered there is no night reception of KFXR in Sachse, Plano, Denton, or many other northern DFW suburbs. Even in the supposed main lobe to the WSW night reception in western Tarrant County is no better than the skywave coming in from WOAI 10 kHz up.
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The night pattern was shoe horned in to get the Mighty 11~Ninety into Ft Worth. Many obstacles had to be overcome, starting with co-channels WOWO and KEX. Then you have all the first, second and third channel stations to be protected - powerhouses like WOAI, WHAM, WCAU, KVOO, WGAR. But McLendon got Ft Worth...at the expense of losing coverage in fast growing suburban North Dallas.

So what's the connection with Storer's WGBS? umm..well, at one time 11~Ninety in Dallas had the KGBS call letters, which George B Storer used on 10~Twenty in Los Angeles.
 
ai4i said:
Only a few close stations were impacted, including WGBS, WINZ, and WSRF and all those stations were restricted to placing no more than 33mv/m at the monitoring station.
My timeline could be off, but I think WGMA raised their power and went directional after "Uncle Charly" vacated the old WGBS site.
I believe that WGBS's null allowed WSBR to come on the air and 710 has been protecting them ever since.
Click to expand...

Wow the old WGBS site which was actually the old WFTL 710 site to confuse matters even more. I'm speaking of the first WFTL of course that started back in 1939, was bought by Storer and moved to Miami. The second WFTL started in 1946 and today continues on 1400 as WFLL. The WFTL call letters today live on what used to be WEAT in West Palm Beach. Even with the use of the WFTL call letters I don't believe they have been very successful in capturing an audience in Broward County.

WGMA went from a 1kw daytimer to 5kw separate patterns day and night in 1967. I believe the FCC had a monitoring station in the area well into the '70's at least.

At one time WSRF had the craziest pattern I've ever seen. Looked like a clover with many nulls in it. I remember at night going up the Davie Road Extension and hearing the swish of the WSRF signal like someone was tuning the radio. 10KW day and 5KW night on 1580 amd they needed every watt. Hopefully they have a simpler pattern today as they share a site with WAVS.
 
DavidEduardo said:
IIRC, WGBS was also severely directional, as were several other Miami stations, to protect the FCC monitoring stations that was in Broward County.

An engineering "old timer" explained to me that this was the reason why WGBS was out to the NW, and why WFUN and WMIA were SE of downtown... all to cover the population back in the 50's and 60's when Broward was not part of the radio market and the population was growing in the center of Dade, not the north.
Click to expand...

WGBS had a 6 tower directional signal at night all going mostly in the water. As you know David we had a great signal in Cuba as some of the Miami residents who used to live there told me. They had to listen on the sly otherwise they could get in trouble.

Three towers during the day and pretty good coverage to the middle of the state.
 
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