End of the FCC AM freeze--and the return of the _UNDEAD_

[dan.strassberg@att.net]

Too bad hallowe'en is over for this year; it would have 
been the perfect date for the FCC to unthaw its latest 
AM freeze. Despite the repeated pronouncements of the 
death by AM by several on this list (you out there Steve 
O and Mike T?), we are seeing an apparent resucitation 
of the UNDEAD. The latest issue of the National Radio 
Club's DX News lists many curious applications for new 
AMs. (I didn't count 'em, but DXN said that the issue 
listed several hundred and that the next couple of 
issues will each list additional apps in roughly equal 
numbers.) Few of these apps are likely to become CPs 
and, given the prohibitive cost and Brobdignagian 
environmental hurdles involved in securing TX sites--
even in rural areas--still fewer are likely to be built.

Many of the apps apparently fail to recognize the 
existence of stations that could not co-exist with the 
applied-for facilities. DXN pointed out the conflict 
between WNNW and the app for 1120 10 kW-D/1-kW-N DA-N in 
Salem NH, but failed to note the conflict of the same 
app with WBNW. Actually, I think this app began life as 
an unsuccessful filing to move what is now WNNW to 
facilities that were ultimately granted to what is now 
WBNW. Since WBNW (originally as WADN) has been on the 
air for over 11 years and received its orignal CP at 
least four years earlier, I think this is a case of an 
app that should have been purged from the database over 
a decade ago, but never was.

I've never known Bob Bittner to lose his fabled cool. 
More than likely he won't lose it this time either, but 
DXN lists an app for 720 1 kW-D/500W-N DA2 in Billerica. 
This bizarre application, which at one time had actually 
become a CP (the station was to beam northwest during 
the day to protect WJIB and east at night to protect WGN-
-providing hardly any serive area that was common to the 
day and night operations) was deleted over five years 
ago. Forgetting the near impossibility of finding a site 
for the five towers, this app is in conflict with Bob 
Vinikoor's existing CP for a 50 kW-D/500W-N DA-2 station 
in Hanover NH. That CP is itself hung up over 
environmental impact.

Other impossible apps I noted include one in northern 
Maine for a full-time station on 650. Given the number 
of unbuilt 650 CPs in eastern Canada that are notified 
to the US (which means that the FCC must treat the CPs 
as if they have already been built even though none is 
likely ever to be built), this one looks technically 
unfeasible.

Another app that caught my eye is for an 840 station in 
Modesto CA. There's a 10 kW-U station in Modesto that 
has applied for and may hold a CP to increase to 50 kW-U 
(35 kW-CH) DA-N from two sites.

Meanwhile, the latest M Street Journal shows a grant to 
WKOX of a CP to move to the WUNR site on Saw Mill Brook 
Pky in Newton and to change COL from Framingham to 
Newton. WKOX proposes to share the five new 240' towers 
with WRCA, which has applied to increase to 17 kW and 
change COL to Watertown. Has anyone kept count of the TX 
sites that WKOX has applied for or tried to apply for 
for its proposed 50-kW-U operation? I can remember the 
WNTN site for days coupled with the current Mt Wayte Ave 
site for nights; the Unisys property on Route 117 in 
Sudbury; the Dow Chemical site in Cochituate; and the 
current site (again), this time full-time. The last of 
these is the site for which a CP had actually been 
granted. I suspect that I'm missing at least one 
proposed site.

And speaking of Watertown, M Street Journal shows that 
Alex Langer's application to change WSRO's COL from 
Marlboro to Watertown and move the station's TX site 
from Hudson to the WAMG site on Concord Ave in Lexington 
has been accepted for filing. My earlier research showed 
this app was for 1 kW-D/3.4 kW-N DA-2. M Street Journal 
reported the day power as 1.4 kW. Either way, the day 
signal would be directionalized to the northwest (away 
from Boston) to protect first-adjacents WBET and perhaps 
also WSAR.

A good use for this bizarre signal finally came to mind--
assuming he actually gets the CP, Langer should LMA or 
sell the facility to Clear Channel, which could turn 
WXKS (AM) into (in effect) a whole station. The 1470 day 
signal would complement WXKS (AM)'s decent 5-kW ND day 
signal, which starts to get a little fuzzy in Lexington. 
The 1470 night signal would provide generally acceptable 
coverage of Boston at night. WXKS's 1 kW DA-N signal is 
directionalized to the east from a site east of the 
city, and given the very high level of co-channel 
interference on 1430, really covers only Everett, the 
COL, at night. I wonder if the WXKF calls are available.