RE: WBZ Reception Is Worsening

[dan.strassberg@att.net]

And certainly Entercom's Boston and Worcester AMs can 
operate ND at reduced power from their existing sites in 
the case of work on the towers. But, aside from WVEI 
days, which of those stations can operate at anything 
like their full licensed power if some of the towers are 
unavailable?

Tell me when you plan to install phasors that would 
allow WRKO and WEEI to operate with anything close to 50 
kw using two towers. I imagine that such could be 
designed and would allow probably 25 kW-D and 10 kW-N 
using either towers 1 and 2 or 2 and 3. Using 1 and 3 
would seem to be so unproductive as to be not worth 
considering.

In fact, though, there's a more intriguing possibility. 
Each station could operate at full power from the 
other's site. At first blush, the WRKO towers appear to 
be too far apart for 850. If memory serves, the towers 
are 165 degrees apart at 680, which puts them 206.25 
degrees apart at 680. However quite a few arrays whose 
towers are nominally half a wavelength apart have tower 
spacings significantly greater than half a wavelength 
and produce quite acceptable patterns. Thus, my guess is 
that quite a good pattern could be designed for WEEI 
using the three existing Burlington towers.

I think it's not at all unlikely that WRKO and WEEI 
could diplex from the Burlington site. The propagation 
characteristics to both Cape Cod and New Hampshire are 
enough better than those from Needham that the signal 
improvement alone should arouse the company's interest. 
The savings in real-estate taxes would be a big plus and 
the revenue from the sale of the Needham site would be 
the be the biggest plus of all.

I bet you'll tell us that such a move was considered but 
that it did not appear to be worth the expense. Frankly, 
that seems hard to believe.

> Then you would suspect wrong.  When the cost of being off the air  for more than 
> a few minutes (i.e., lost revenue and lost audience share) exceeds the cost of 
> the aux transmitter, the decision to buy a backup is a no-brainer....and in 
> Boston, as in every major market, being off the air for about half a day (which 
> is not unusual if something major goes wrong) makes up that cost and then some.