Re: WKBR-AM on 1240

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

>John Bolduc wrote:
>I recall a radio historian telling me ages ago that there was a moderate
>amount of "re-farming" done in 1959 of many stations, including WKBR from
>1240 to 1250. This led to the formation or  standardization (so I was told)
>of what I call "Graveyard" frequencies of 1230,1240, 1400,1450 and 1490.

        I'm not familiar with whether or not there was some type of
systematic shuffling of stations around 1959 connected with the local
channels (graveyard channels). But, the allocation of the six local
channels (you skipped 1340) goes back to the NARBA treaty that went into
effect in 1942, like almost all the structure of the AM band until the
ex-band was added. The treaty designated the clear channels, regional
channels and local channels for the North American region.
        The new agreements made in the last 15-20 years left the categories
of clear, regional and local alone, pretty much, but allowed a lot more
flexibility in assignments on channels other than local. The U.S. used this
flexibility to cut back on the protection to Class A (former I-A and I-B
stations) and put more secondary stations on the clear channels.
        It also got rid of the 5 kW power limit on the regional channels,
which other countries already had given up, by grouping former Class II and
former Class III stations together as Class B and allowing up to 50 kW. In
the old days, Class II was secondary stations operating on clear channels,
some with power up to 50 kW (i.e., WRKO, WEEI/850). Class III stations
operated on regional channels (i.e., WEZE/590, etc.)
        The Northeast is so crowded with stations that we have not seen
much of the power increase trend on the regional channels, but there are
some stations that have raised their power as high as 50 kW fulltime (one
in Seattle, I think) and a bunch that have gone to 50 kW daytime (WTMJ in
Milwaukee and the former WWRC in Washington are two). I've seen speculation
on this group that WNFT might be able to get a power increase to 10 or 25
kW, perhaps from another site, but otherwise I have not seen talk of any
Boston-area, or even New England, stations on regional channels being able
to take advantage of this. The closest stations I know of that have put on
power increases above 5 kW on regional channels are the 1280 in NYC (that
actually may still be a C.P.) and WWRL/1600 in NYC.

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