Re: 590 Re: Alex Beam column

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

>Dan Strassberg wrote:
>I'm not sure how long ago it happened, but with the
>replacement of the NARBA treaty with the Rio De Janeiro treaty, the old
>classes of AM stations became history. All Class II and Class III full-time
>stations (that is, those that operate at night with an rms field strength of
>141 mV/m or more--equivalent to 250W into an antenna having the minimum
>efficiency for the class) became Class B stations.
<snip>

        I think it was in the mid-ish 1980s, wasn't it? It was when the FCC
changed the classes of AM stations from the Roman numerals to A, B, C, D.
Basically Class B combined Class II and Class III. The Class B stations
have the operating power limits of the old Class II stations. This, in
effect, gave all the old Class III stations the possibility of up to 50 kW
fulltime, if  they could engineer it, of course, and made all the old
regional channels open to power that high.
        As Dan pointed out, a bunch of stations have managed to get power
increases as a result. There's more of it in other parts of the country,
where the stations are not jammed together so much. In fact, are there any
in New England? The closest one I can think of is WWRL, NYC, 1600 kHz,
which was 5 kW and now is 25 kW days, 5 kW nights. And it had to buy out
four other stations on 1590 and 1600 in RI, Conn., NY, and NJ, and do away
with them to get that.
        In addition to WTMJ, Milwaukee, a big increase in a big market was
KJR, 950 kHz, Seattle. It used to be 5 kW, DA-N. It was able to go up all
the way to 50 kW, DA-N. The venerable KFWB, 980 kHz, LA, which has been 5
kW, non-directional (one of the small number of mostly very old 5 kW former
Class III stations that had no directional pattern), has had a CP for 50
kW, DA-1. I don't know if it's on yet. The former WRC on 980 in Washington,
D.C., is now 50 kW day, but with the same old 5 kW night pattern.

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