Fw: WOWO

["Dan Strassberg" <Dan.Strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

 Now that WOWO has received the license to cover for its downsized 9800W
 nighttime operation, the station has filed to increase night power to
 15000W. The proposal involves removing the east tower of the present
 three-tower night array (same towers that were used for the former 50 kW
 night operation) and constructing two new towers well to the south of the
 remaining pair. The setup would be close to a parallelogram, but the
 spacing between the two new towers would be less than that between the
 existing pair. Like the old towers, the new ones would be half wave.
 Besides increasing the RMS field from 1144 mV/m to 1503 mV/m, the proposal
 significantly alters the night pattern. Instead of having main lobes more
 or less to the north and south (as in the present pattern), WOWO's
 radiation maxima would be to the northeast and southeast, surrounding a
 null to the east to protect WLIB. Coverage of much of the COL would be
 significantly improved--perhaps even enough to give WOWO a listenable
 signal in Fort Wayne at night once again. The proposed pattern suggests
 that the new owners of co-channel WGKA Atlanta (Salem Communications) and
 possibly the owners of KOOO Dallas (Infinity/CBS) might be paying for the
 upgrade. This change would significantly reduce interference to WGKA,
 making it much more practical for the station, which is currently a
 daytimer, to operate full time.
 
 Note that WOWO's nighttime RMS field would go from 1144 mV/m@1 km to 1503
 mV/m, which, on paper is equivalent to an increase from the current 9800W
 to 16.9 kW, not 15 kW. However, the 1503 number is probably much more
 realistic than the 1144 number. It appears that 1144 is the number that
 corresponds to the minimum RMS field strength of a Class A AM (which WOWO
 used to be) operating with 9800W. No doubt, this number was used to show,
 on paper, low enough interference to WLIB that WLIB's "interference-free"
 nighttime service could be shown to cover 80% of the land area of New York
 City, without requiring WOWO to use an even more restrictive night
 pattern. Such a pattern might have prevented WOWO from (on paper)
 delivering the requisite nighttime signal to Fort Wayne. From what I've
 heard, WOWO's night signal in much of Fort Wayne is indeed far from
 interference-free on many nights. 
 
--

Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
Phone: 1-617-558-4205, eFax: 1-707-215-6367