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WCBS-880's 50th Anniversary of All News

The first news story was the destruction of the WCBS-AM/WNBC-AM tower and explaining why they were broadcasting on WCBS-FM. Never a good thing when your own station is the headline story of the day.
 
The former host of CBS Sunday Morning Charles Osgood was the first Host of WCBS 880 as All-News except that was on 101.1FM for a few hours though.
 
BarryATL said:
The first news story was the destruction of the WCBS-AM/WNBC-AM tower and explaining why they were broadcasting on WCBS-FM. Never a good thing when your own station is the headline story of the day.
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When was the "was the destruction of the WCBS-AM/WNBC-AM tower? I believe that in 1967 WNBC and WCBS each had their own site
 
The format change certainly was a wise one. Despite having to split the market with WINS, all news has kept WCBS viable and relevant.
 
My question has always been...why not postpone the all-news format for the week that it took WCBS-AM to get to a backup site?

I doubt they had anybody chomping at the bit to start a second all-news station in that week. It just seems pretty bizarre to put it onto a FM at that time unless it was some sort of weird union staffing issue...

Lastly, a goofy aside, but anybody who stayed at Walt Disney World in the 80's and 90's remember WCBS-AM being on the cable system down there along with the local NOAA station? IIRC, it was a picture of the Manhattan skyline with "WCBS-AM Newsradio 88 New York" inside a contour of Mickey Mouse's head. FM quality sound. Pretty sure it was just the WDW cable system that provided CBS AM...my parents cheaped out one time and we stayed at what is now a Wyndham across I-4. No 880 on cable there...by the time I was old enough to cough up the dough in 2005, it was gone from WDW cable.

Radio-X
 
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Radio-X said:
My question has always been...why not postpone the all-news format for the week that it took WCBS-AM to get to a backup site?

I doubt they had anybody chomping at the bit to start a second all-news station in that week. It just seems pretty bizarre to put it onto a FM at that time unless it was some sort of weird union staffing issue...
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The new format had been heavily promoted in all media in advance of the start date, so it would have been foolish not to start it when they said they would, even if it had to start on another band. Besides, the all-news format was literally willed into being by CBS chairman William Paley, who was a news junkie and despaired of having to listen to a competitor (at that time) to get his news fix. He reasoned that CBS, with its (at that time) unparalleled news operation, ought to be able to do a better job than Westinghouse's WINS. When the big boss wants the format change, you kinda have to go along.
 
I think the place that became a Wyndham has closed down completely, if it's the place I'm thinking of.

Pretty cool that they found a way back then to have a local station for New Yorkers.
 
dumber than a box of hair said:
August 27, 1967. 660 and 880 have shared the High Island tower since 1963.
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Across the pond, it was the day of (some will argue) the beginning of the end of the Beatles: the death of Brian Epstein. About 110 miles SW of Black Rock in Chester, PA, that day was also my 6th birthday (my last birthday before my parents' divorce).

Moving back towards the topic - where were 660's and 880's sticks before they consolidated on High Island?

ixnay
 
ixnay said:
Across the pond, it was the day of (some will argue) the beginning of the end of the Beatles: the death of Brian Epstein. About 110 miles SW of Black Rock in Chester, PA, that day was also my 6th birthday (my last birthday before my parents' divorce).

Moving back towards the topic - where were 660's and 880's sticks before they consolidated on High Island?

ixnay
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I know 880's was on Columbia Island across the sound before moving to High Island. I'm presuming this was a sandbar that was built up to be a suitable island to slap a transmitter building on...

660's was located at Sands Point, Long Island right on the water. Legend has it Perry Como was negotiating a new contract with NBC and as part of the contract, asked for (and received) the piece of property that WNBC transmitted from to build a new house.

Who knows why they were compelled to move in together...at the time, the Meadowlands was known as that place with a bunch of landfills, completely unprotected and had much land for the offering. Why they didn't choose to set up shop there with most of the other big AM stations is beyond me.

Radio-X
 
Radio-X said:
Who knows why they were compelled to move in together...at the time, the Meadowlands was known as that place with a bunch of landfills, completely unprotected and had much land for the offering. Why they didn't choose to set up shop there with most of the other big AM stations is beyond me.
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Most of the stations that went to the Meadowlands are directional, and needed to be to the west of Manhattan and the boroughs to cover what was the bulk of the market when they were originally built. That applies to 710, 570, 620, 1050, 1010, 970, 1280, 1130 and most of the stuff higher up on the dial.

660 and 880, being non-directional, picked sites that were on salt water due to the conductivity enhancement that it gives. Since the Hudson is a tidal estuary up to near Troy, the area around High Island is definitely surrounded by salt water. Another advantage of the site is that it spills less signal over the Atlantic, as it is to the north of Manhattan.

They were not compelled to move to High Island... it is truly the dream site for both stations.
 
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So I wonder why then-WQXR 1560 (now WFME), chose Maspeth, Queens, for its directional 50,000 transmitter? It must protect the other Class A station on 1560 in Bakersfield CA, so it has to null its signal to the west. And yet Maspeth is east of Midtown Manhattan.

So why not follow the other directional AM stations and locate in the Meadowlands? Unless management figured Maspeth is close enough to Manhattan that it won't really matter. It still is heard in the nearby NJ suburbs.
 
Gregg. said:
So I wonder why then-WQXR 1560 (now WFME), chose Maspeth, Queens, for its directional 50,000 transmitter? It must protect the other Class A station on 1560 in Bakersfield CA, so it has to null its signal to the west. And yet Maspeth is east of Midtown Manhattan.

So why not follow the other directional AM stations and locate in the Meadowlands? Unless management figured Maspeth is close enough to Manhattan that it won't really matter. It still is heard in the nearby NJ suburbs.
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Gregg, were you perchance the Bright and Early host on the foregoing frequency?
 
Gregg. said:
So I wonder why then-WQXR 1560 (now WFME), chose Maspeth, Queens, for its directional 50,000 transmitter? It must protect the other Class A station on 1560 in Bakersfield CA, so it has to null its signal to the west. And yet Maspeth is east of Midtown Manhattan.

So why not follow the other directional AM stations and locate in the Meadowlands? Unless management figured Maspeth is close enough to Manhattan that it won't really matter. It still is heard in the nearby NJ suburbs.
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The daytime pattern is directional towards the south and covers east-west quite well.
At night the pattern is a figure eight going northeast to southwest with the northeastern lobe larger than the southeastern lobe. East/southeast and west/northwest coverage is nulled out so it wouldn't matter if they went west of Manhattan...they send no signal east or west.

https://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/1670022-126248.pdf
 
wavo said:
The daytime pattern is directional towards the south and covers east-west quite well.
At night the pattern is a figure eight going northeast to southwest with the northeastern lobe larger than the southeastern lobe. East/southeast and west/northwest coverage is nulled out so it wouldn't matter if they went west of Manhattan...they send no signal east or west.]
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But if they did go to the Meadowlands, they could modify the pattern. The only significant protection is Bakersfield.
 
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