Re: Let's Talk About Transmitters, part 2

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

Donna: There was no basis for WLAW's claim of being _the_ most powerful
station in New England. Besides WBZ, WTIC also ran 50 kW-U. Even on the
basis of the arcane parameter of inverse-distance field at 1 mile, WBZ won.
With their more efficient half-wave towers, both WBZ and WTIC were, in
effect, more powerful than WLAW. WLAW's towers were only 109.5 degrees and
hence, on an equivalent-power power basis, no more than 75% as effiicient as
WBZ's and WTIC's. (And I assume that the top section of the center tower was
still in place. It was later removed for a top-mounted FM antenna and never
replaced when the FM--on 93.7--went dark.)

And then, there was WBZ's claim that, in combination with synchronized WBZA
Springfield, it was America's only 51,000W AM station. Later, WBZ recognized
that WBT Charlotte NC on 1110 also had a 1 kW synchronous TX (in Shelby NC).
The Shelby TX, which did not have separate calls as WBZA did, operated at
night only for null fill-in.

Although WBT's Shelby TX is, like WBZA, long dark, KKOB (770) in Albuquerque
NM, which also runs 50 kW-U, still operates a 1 kW synchronous TX in Santa
Fe NM. Like WBT's synchronous TX, KKOB's synchronous TX operates at night
only for null fill-in and does not have separate calls. The KKOB synchronous
TX diplexes with one of the full-time stations licensed to Santa Fe. So
America still has one "51,000W" AM.

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

----- Original Message -----
From: Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>
To: <boston-radio-interest@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu>
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 3:01 AM
Subject: Let's Talk About Transmitters, part 2


> From my massive bunch of old files, comes this mid-April 1947 photo
> caption (I have the photo somewhere too) when WLAW moved from River Road
in
> Andover to a new and improved site in Burlington...
>
> "WLAW IS NEW ENGLAND'S MOST POWERFUL RADIO STATION
>
> Above is shown the new 50,000 watt transmitter at Burlington,
> Massachusetts, 11 air miles from Boston. With three towers, 440 feet high
> each, the transmitter covers approximately 100 acres of land.  It is of
> modernistic design, embracing all of the latest scientific developments,
> including those resulting from war-time research."
>
> The photo didn't look especially modernistic-- it looked just like a
> transmitter shack to me... Also, given that WBZ had 50,000 watts too, I
> wonder how they felt about WLAW's claim of being New England's most
> powerful station... The 1948 Radio Annual listed WLAW as an ABC affiliate,
> 680 kHz, with an FM at 93.7 mHz, and studios in both Boston and Lawrence.
>
>