Re: Springfield Market......

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Rick Kelly wrote:
>>Interesting history.  WTXL was a starting place of several well known
>people, as I understand it.  I'd be interesting in hearing what their
>ratings were like in the late '60's.  I visited them in '72 or '73: their
>tower had the appearance of a telephone pole . . .
<snip>

        We discussed the antenna system of WTXL / WNUS / WACM here a few
months ago. The history of it seems to be (and I think Dan Strassberg
helped with this) that once upon a time when the 250w local-channel
stations were allowed to raise power to 1 kW daytime, WTXL was so
short-spaced with the Brattleboro station and/or the Torrington,
Connecticut, station that once was on 1490 (now WSNG, long ago moved to
610) and/or WKND, 1480, Windsor, Conn., that it had to use a DA antenna in
the daytime, so it actually had two towers. It was 1 kW D, DA, 250 w N,
non-DA. The second tower was a flimsy thing you describe as like a utility
pole. My recollection is that it was made of metal, however <g>. Today, the
station is 470 watts, non-DA, day and night, from a 215-degree tower. The
guesses floated here were that either the second tower fell down or the
owner decided that the reduced non-DA signal actually would be better.
Also, perhaps the change dates from when the graveyarders, in most cases,
were authorized to go to 1 kW nights.
        A question also was raised here recently about the current format
of WACM, with someone saying they believed it is Portuguese and I doubted
that. When I drove through Springfield last week in afternoon drive, it was
definitely Spanish. The English hourly ID used a liner saying the station
is "ethnic radio," suggesting that it is multi-lingual. This may explain
that little debate.
        And I can report that the two towers of the ancient, honorable and
historic WBZ / WBZA antenna atop the old Westinghouse factory in
Springfield are rusty but standing, as of last week. The antenna no longer
is strung between them, although some wires run up one of the towers to its
top. The building they are on and the main former Westinghouse building
next to it both look to be vacant or nearly vacant, with for-lease signs
posted. The plain-vanilla brick building with the antenna is boarded up.
The main building is in good condition on the outside, brick with ceramic
tile decorative inserts and the original Westinghouse Electric Company sign
in the facade above the main door. So, does the National Park Service have
a category of nationally significant radio geek shrines so I could apply to
have that place listed on it <g>?

------------------------------