Re: Let's Talk About Transmitters

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

Wow! Donna, This _IS_ a find!!! There are two important implications in that
item that need to be checked out (but how?). The easier one: "WAAB
_alternates_ with WNAC as key station of the Yankee Network" suggests (but
does not have to mean) that WNAC and WAAB shared time on a single frequency.
As you know, share-time arrangments were very common among AMs of that
day--especially in larger markets where, because of the lack of
directional-antennal technology, it was decided that the way to put lots of
the companies that wanted stations on the air was to have their stations
share time. (The first DA went on the air in 1931 at WFLA Tampa/WSUN St
Petersburg, which then shared time on 620. The antenna system was installed
to reduce interference from the Tampa Bay stations to co-channel WTMJ
Milwaukee.) Duopolies _were_ legal though, so one owner could (and often
did) own two full-time stations in a market. Sometimes, however, the owner
of a station that shared time would sell out to the owner of one of the
station's share-time "partners" (in many cases, "share-time sworn enemies"
was a more appropriate phrase), and the new owner would, for his own
reasons, continue to operate the two stations under separate identities. So
the piece's wording doesn't necessarily mean that, in 1931, WNAC and WAAB
shared time, but it could mean that. (We know for sure that, at least by
1943, when the duopolies were broken up, Shepard owned both stations and
they did not share time.)

The more arcane part is the part about four guy wires. That comment, plus
the part about the steel pole at the top that could be raised and lowered to
tune the antenna, almost certainly means that WNAC (or maybe WNAC and WAAB
as share-timers) had one of the first (_the_ first?) Blaw-Knox
square-cross-section "diamond" towers. If indeed, this turns out to have
been the first such tower (I'm skeptical), it would be a _very_ significant
historical note. BTW, the adjustable pole for "tuning" was used because not
enough was known about the vertical radiation patterns of half-wave
antennas. It apparently was already realized that greater height (up to
some maximum, which turned out to be 5/8 wavelength) could increase an
antenna's efficiency, but it was suspected, and eventually proven, that
above 1/2 wavelength, a lobe developed in the vertical radiation pattern
that could cause signal fading--especially in twilight--near the fringes of
the station's groundwave coverage area.

Anyhow, Donna, thanks so much for this information and if you can find out
the "rest of the story," that would be even nicer! (As my boss is wont to
say, no good deed goes unpunished. Although I suspect that you don't think
of researching such arcana as punishment.)

--

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>
To: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
<boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Date: Thursday, July 05, 2001 10:47 PM
Subject: Let's Talk About Transmitters


>This press release oughta make you guys nostalgic (or excited...):
>
>22 August 1931, from the files of Shepard Broadcasting Services
>
>"WAAB's vertical half-wave radiator at Squantum, Mass is the first antenna
>of this type in the world to be used by a broadcasting station.  The whole
>tower is the antenna and rests on a porcelain insulator tested to a
>compression of 1,000,000 pounds.  The four guy wires, each of which carries
>a strain of 50,000 pounds, hold the tower in place.  The steel giant is 430
>feet high and weighs 30 tons.  A 75 foot pole at the top can be raised or
>lowered in tuning the antenna.  Six insulators in each guy wire weigh 450
>pounds each.  Guy wires are moored to four anchors, each of which contains
>50 tons of cement.  The tower is 18 feet square where the guy wires are
>attached and one foot square at the base.  The cromium ball at the top of
>the mast is twice the size of a man's head.  An aviation beacon of 2,000
>watts power will flash from the top-most part of the fabricated structure
>which will also carry stationary aviation lights.  WAAB alternates with
>WNAC as key station of the Yankee Network."
>
>