Re: WXKS AM city of license

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

At 07:32 PM 12/10/98 EST, you wrote:
>> In a message dated 12/6/98 6:51:52 PM EST, sven@gord.isdn.lightning.net
>> writes:
>> 
>> << fortuantely you still have WXKS 1430/Everett  >>
>> 
>> Hi there...
>> 
>> When did WXKS AM change its city of license? It used to ID itself as WXKS AM
>> Medford....
>> 
>> David Iseman
>> 
>Tell it to Garrett, who lists WXKS as licenced to Everett in his Boston AM
>dial. That's where I got it from :)
>
WXKS (AM) is indeed licensed to Everett, and yes, it used to be licensed to
Medford, which is still the location of the studios and TX. The COL change
took place when the station went on the air full-time (my guess is 1985, but
it's purely a guess). The reason for the COL change is that the TX is on the
east side of Medford, near Everett and the night pattern sends most signal
to the east, away from Medford (to protect WENE Endicott NY and WNJR Newark
NJ). WENE in particular delivers a whopping nighttime signal into the Boston
area and WNJR puts a pretty decent signal up this way as well. With those
two strong interfering signals, WXKS's nighttime primary service is probably
limited to 100 mV/m. The interference-free coverage to the west (over
Medford) doesn't come remotely close to meeting the requirements for COL
coverage (interference-free service to at least 80% of the COL's land area).
Everett, on the other hand, is geographically compact, due east of the TX,
and separated from the TX by salt water on three sides. Hence nighttime
coverage of Everett is adequate for WXKS to claim the city as its COL.

Clearly, WXKS's night service was added to provide more time to sell to
national accounts that can't hear the station. The TX is in a great location
for the daytime 5 kW-ND operation. Despite the poor frequency, WXKS covers
the market pretty well. At night, however, the necessary protection to the
west takes the signal away from most of the market. However, if you're a
time buyer on Madison Ave, what do you know about directional patterns and
coverage areas? Adding night service was cheap. They moved one tower and
added a second, then hot-topped over the ground system and leased the land
to the neighboring sub shop for parking, thus partly defraying the cost of
the construction.

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

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

End of boston-radio-interest-digest V2 #255
*******************************************