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WBBM AM to diplex with WSCR

Schroedingers Cat said:
The first time I heard about WSGW coming in in Chicago was around 1967. A friend of my relatives was taking us on a tour of the Chicago Circle Campus and talking about listening to Minor League PBP on a Saginaw station. It took a while to figure out it was WSGW. The lobe to the SW is equivalent to about 17 kW Daytime based on minimum Class III/Class B efficiency of 282 mV/m @ 1 km for 1 kW.
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Again, good to have you back...

The only times I've heard WSGW here northwest of Chicago has been when WBBM has been off. Which certainly is very rare. But when it has happened during the daytime, WSGW has been perfectly audible on a good radio. Albeit usually for only a couple of minutes.
 
How about the WGN site which is next to the WBBM one. I see construction on some new building going on right next to the WGN site, just north of their stick.
 
CADXER said:
How about the WGN site which is next to the WBBM one. I see construction on some new building going on right next to the WGN site, just north of their stick.
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Probably won't be addressed until after the Tribune Media sale is approved.
 
Kemosabe said:
How soon will Tinley Park become an uneconomic site for WLS?
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Two other Cumulus AMs (both former ABC stations) have already sold their original tower land at huge profit and moved to shared tower sites. I'm sure they'll get around to this one at some point too.
 
TheBigA said:
Two other Cumulus AMs (both former ABC stations) have already sold their original tower land at huge profit and moved to shared tower sites. I'm sure they'll get around to this one at some point too.
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While many are in smaller markets, like Albany, GA or Columbus, GA, there are lots of diplexing solutions being found today.

Another good example was KHJ, which is now on the triplexed KBLA towers in LA. The land went for $57 million, the station then sold for around 20% of that amount.
 
radioman148 said:
Wasn't the old KHJ tower site not too far from KABC's site?
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Yes, just a coupla' miles. Not an area I'd pick to live in (of course ALL of LA is pretty much unlivable now), but very high property values.
 
Dr Wayne said:
Where would one find a document that shows where all radio antennas are located in Chicago?
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I used to maintain a web page for the CADX (Chicago Area DX Club) that listed all the AM, FM, and LW antenna locations. I also have a pictures of the majority of the local radio station antennas. Unfortunately the CADX web site is no longer available. One of these days I am hoping to have the CADX archive available on the web again.
 
Dr Wayne said:
Where would one find a document that shows where all radio antennas are located in Chicago?
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The Chicago Tribune, in conjunction with Rand McNally, used to publish an annual Chicagoland Map that included transmitter sites.
 
"Where would one find a document that shows where all radio antennas are located in Chicago?"

Actually that might be a 'do it yourself' job. At one time (way back) I did it for LA. Asked the FCC data base for stations within a certain radius (I think I used 200 km). The lat and lon coordinates were given. Then I took a large area UGSG Topo map and plotted them up. Not automated by any stretch.
 
K6JHU said:
"Where would one find a document that shows where all radio antennas are located in Chicago?"

Actually that might be a 'do it yourself' job. At one time (way back) I did it for LA. Asked the FCC data base for stations within a certain radius (I think I used 200 km). The lat and lon coordinates were given. Then I took a large area UGSG Topo map and plotted them up. Not automated by any stretch.
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One could also use radio-locator.com.
 
WLS won't be moving anytime soon

TheBigA said:
Two other Cumulus AMs (both former ABC stations) have already sold their original tower land at huge profit and moved to shared tower sites. I'm sure they'll get around to this one at some point too.
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One of the reasons those Cumulus stations sold the land as they had alternate sites on which to move and diplex. That's not the case with WLS. More over, the site is in lower tax Will County in an area still largely rural. And it's worth much less than the WBBM site which is in a more densely developed area around O'Hare.

They do have signal issues. And a lot of very smart experts have been brought in with varying results. However after making many field measurements, the station has not technically lost field. The southern half of the signal is still just as good as it was 50 years ago. The problems are two fold. 1) The development of the area between the site and downtown has caused a significant falloff in ground efficiency. Especially between the site and 127th St. 2) The ambient noise floor all over has increased by at least 10dB in the past 15 years as the result of noisy power power supplies and other incidental emitters. There is no solution in sight. It's a plague on all AM stations.

RR
 
WMVP is the only station that puts an M-3 predicted 25 mV/m signal over all of the City of Chicago. WLS is weak on the North end of Chicago. It was even 50 or more years ago. It's surprising that WCFL didn't beat WLS in the ratings often in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Format, audio, DJs all about the same quality.
 
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Schroedingers Cat said:
It's surprising that WCFL didn't beat WLS in the ratings often in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Format, audio, DJs all about the same quality.
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Interesting observation. Super CFL also had Dick Orkin as production director. I wonder if the difference was marketing and TV cross-promotion.
 
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