How Class A AMs Protected Each Other

[TheBigA]

So perhaps Wheeling, Waterloo and Fort Wayne had friendly senators lobbying on their behalf.

I think a part of it is having an owner who sought a bigger signal, vs having an owner who was satisfied with being a local station. There were owners who could see the power of reaching a national audience, and others who didn't. I think of KQV in Pittsburgh, that was started about a hundred years ago, in the same town with KDKA, and they never sought a power increase. Time went by, and they just became obsolete.

John Stroebel started WWVA in his basement in 1925. The big draw for that station was its early connection to the Capital Music Hall. They started the weekly Jamboree show in 1926, one year after the Grand Ole Opry on WSM in Nashville. I think the power upgrade to 50K happened in 1941, when they moved up the dial to 1170. By that time, they were incredibly popular because of the Jamboree show. The success of the radio show led to an annual festival called Jamboree In The Hills. It continued for almost 50 years until it recently shut down.

But it reminds me of the early days of the internet. If you were there when they started registering domain names, and were willing to risk a few bucks on a common name, you could register a domain that would be worth money once the internet became a big deal. You have to seize opportunity when it presents itself.

 

[DavidEduardo]

How much skywave coverage would a station have with 750kw? Nation-wide? Also, 1020 is an oddball frequency to me; KDKA in the east is a good start, but then you have KMMQ Omaha very directional to the west, then KCKN Roswell, again directional to the west, and finally KTNQ Los Angeles, super directional to the west. And the interesting thing? They are all a Spanish format. Also, sorry to hear about the FCC's denial of WIIQ's pattern. With them, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

Omaha, back when Roswell was authorized, was not fulltime. That was Todd Storz' first station, and the place where Top 40 radio was born in 1952.

Oh, Spanish is a language, not a format. There are many more formats to be found in Spanish than in English, in fact, if you look across Latin America vs. the US.

When WLW was 500 kw, it had daytime coverage that was useful up as far as Lima and Toledo and Ft Wayne, and deep into Kentucky almost to the Tennesee border. SE Indiana was very local, too. At night, with little man made noise, it regularly covered at least from the foothills of the Rockies to New England and down to southern AL and MS.

To double the coverage of a 50 kw station you need 200 kw. So 750 kw would barely double it again. Remember, too, that radio at night is not important and has not been since TV became dominant shortly after the freeze was lifted in the early 50's. So what is important today is daytime coverage.

Like all the secondary stations authorized in the 70's for the 1-A clear's frequencies, they all protected the heritage station. No matter which one you look at, they are all very directional away from stations like 1100 in Cleveland or WGN or WJR or WCAU or WSB or whichever more eastern station got duplicated.

1020 was an exception, with the FCC allowing Storer to build the Roswell station for the licensee so that southern NM and the surrounding West Texas area would have rural service. The Roswell station got the site built for them, and Storer got to go fulltime on 1020 but with a horrible night protection resulting in no usable signal with less than about 9.2 mV/m. Some nights we drove the signal and even areas calculated at 12 mV/m were ground up by Roswell.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Why is it that on FM, the FCC hand-picks a frequency for LPs, but not for full-power FM or AM stations?

FM has a table of assignments. If a channel is assigned, you can file for it when the FCC opens an FM window. You can propose an amendment to the table, but you have to wait for the window and then anyone can bid.

Anyways, you do have a point there; the lower MW band between 540 and 900 can be surprisingly useful at getting a signal out there, like how WIBW Topeka is audible Omaha to Wichita and beyond with just 5kw. One thing I should mention is that the old FCC (FRC at the time) was super finicky letting stations go above even 1,000 watts, nonetheless 50kw. However, today is not the 1900's, so I wonder if these places have a chance of getting an I-A, and how likely would be a frequency shuffle in modern times?

The laws of physics have not changed. Unless the FCC reduces the protection of skywave, as they did in the 60's for class IV "graveyarders", that will not happen. And I don't think anyone will want the expense of an expensive AM station today.

 

[ZantennaG1]

When WLW was 500 kw, it had daytime coverage that was useful up as far as Lima and Toledo and Ft Wayne, and deep into Kentucky almost to the Tennesee border. SE Indiana was very local, too. At night, with little man made noise, it regularly covered at least from the foothills of the Rockies to New England and down to southern AL and MS.

Neat! This definitely aligns with the old stories about a Denver resident tuning in WLW in the clear during its 500kw days.

To double the coverage of a 50 kw station you need 200 kw. So 750 kw would barely double it again. Remember, too, that radio at night is not important and has not been since TV became dominant shortly after the freeze was lifted in the early 50's. So what is important today is daytime coverage.

I wonder why it works that way. That would mean you need 4x the watts for 2x the skywave. I know, we're an unusual breed who still likes to listen to nighttime service from far away (you can bet I was listening to "the NFL on Westwood One" on WSCR Chicago for the fun of it), but I imagine Ohio has decent ground Conductivity compared to, i.e. Georgia.

1020 was an exception, with the FCC allowing Storer to build the Roswell station for the licensee so that southern NM and the surrounding West Texas area would have rural service. The Roswell station got the site built for them, and Storer got to go fulltime on 1020 but with a horrible night protection resulting in no usable signal with less than about 9.2 mV/m. Some nights we drove the signal and even areas calculated at 12 mV/m were ground up by Roswell.

Wow, what a coincidence, the same guy!

 

[DavidEduardo]

Wow, what a coincidence, the same guy!

Roswell was not owned by Storer, a public corporation at that time. The Roswell station was built by Storer in exchange for them letting KGBS in LA go fulltime with 50 kw. Subsequently, it became KTNQ.