1200 from Meffa

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

I spent a few minutes with a map over the weekend checking this out. If it's
possible at all, the result would be one of those _really dumb_ DA-2 AMs
whose day and night coverage areas just barely overlap. (Kind of like the AM
720 that never got built in Billerica.) At least in this case, the
population within the small area of overlap would be sizeable. To protect
WESX, WKOX would have to directionalize strongly to the west during the day.
And at night, the pattern would have to be reversed, with a deep null to the
west and the signal all going east (mostly over the ocean). Since Class C
AMs, such as WESX, do not have protected nigttime service areas, if there is
any nighttime protection requirement at all, it is likely that WKOX not
deliver 25 mV/m to the WESX TX site in Marblehead. I didn't check to see
whether that would be a problem with 50 kW pushed east from Wellington Circle.

With 50 kW, WKOX could not directionalize _that_ strongly to the west during
the day. Even with WGNY off 1200, there would likely be problems with other
AM 1200's such as the one in central New York State (WTLA?) Also, there
would likely be daytime-skywave interference to WOAI. So WKOX would require
a rather complex day pattern--most likely one that would require four or
five towers rather than the two or three that the original post on this
topic suggested. The day pattern would require a deep null to the east and a
signal to the west limited to the equivalent of 10 kW or so. The 10 kW
number comes from the current CP, which for some reason (can't be WGNY;
might be WLIB) restricts the daytime signal to the west to a bit less than
its current 10 kW-ND value. There would then be strong lobes to the
north-northwest and south-southwest. The daytime signal in Newton and
Burlington (for example) would be excellent. But at night, those places
would not receive a listenable signal. Morevoer, if WLIB really is a problem
for WKOX, this scenario might not work at all.

WKOX would, of course require a change in COL, most likely to Malden, but
perhaps to Somerville. I reiterate what I said in one of my posts on this
topic last week. The prospective buyer of WKOX should instead be talking to
One-on-One Sports about sharing the WNRB site in Waltham. That site is far
enough from WESX that the technical problems would be much more easily
resolvable. The COL could be any number of communities--Watertown, Belmont,
Arlington, Somerville, and probably others. I can't imagine that the cost of
remediation of interference in the Waltham-Belmont area would differ that
much from the cost of the equivalent effort in Medford, Everett, Malden, and
Somerville. Nor can I imagine that Salem Communications is willing to lease
the WEZE site for a whole lot less than One-on-One would charge for sharing
the WNRB site. Lastly--and this is a HUGE plus for the WNRB site--no new
towers would be needed; at the WEZE site, WKOX would require two new towers,
So use of the WNRB site would eliminate environmentally motivated law suits,
the most serious cause of cost overruns and delays on project of this sort,

- -------------------------------
Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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