WUNR/WKOX

["Strassberg, Dan (Cahners)" <ednstrassberg@cahners.com>]

Well, WUNR's application to modify its facilities has _finally_ shown up in
the FCC CDBS database. WUNR, until now, had seemed to be turning a deaf ear
toward the plans of WKOX and WRCA to relocate to its site on Saw Mill Brook
Pky in the Oak Hill Section of Newton near the W Roxbury line.

Contrary to what you can still see in WKOX's listing in the FCC's AM search
pages, WKOX will use three towers day and night for its 50-kW DA-2
operation, WUNR will use 20 kW DA-1 from five towers--WKOX's three and two
new 200' towers that apparently will replace WUNR's two existing 350' towers
at what I believe is the same location, south of the three new towers. None
of the new towers will be iluminated, which should please the neighbors.
However, whether the neighbors will be pleased enough to not fight the
proposal indefinitely in the City and in the courts is another matter
entirely.

WRCA is also planning to move to the WUNR site, but the only application
that shows at the FCC Web site is for 17 kW nights only, from five towers of
mixed heights in different locations from those shown in WUNR's application.
WUNR's application makes it quite plain that the configuration of the five
proposed towers does not agree with those specified in WRCA's now-outdated
application.

I suspect that, like WUNR, WRCA will propose using all five towers. If so,
its patterns will probably be similar to WUNR's but a bit narrower. The
towers are electrically about 17% closer together at 1330 than they are at
1600, and reducing the electrical spacing tends to narrow the pattern. The
result should be quite a good signal in downtown Boston. But the good signal
to the northwest, which 1330 has enjoyed since it built its current antenna
system in 1977, may be a thing of the past.

To satisfy the FCC, WUNR had to reduce contour overlap with WSMN and the
result will be a poorer signal to the north-northwest. Waltham will lose its
city-grade signal, as will much of Arlington, including the part where I
live. If WRCA's patterns resemble WUNR's, this reduction will also affect
1330. In addition, the new site is at least five miles south of WRCA's
current site at 750 South St in Waltham. The additional distance will
further degrade the 1330 signal in the northwestern suburbs. Of course,
those suburbs are not home to many in WRCA's target audience.

Once we see a new application for WRCA, all three stations will be awaiting
FCC approval. Once the FCC grants the applications, you can expect the
wrangling to begin before the Newton Zoning Board, the Mass Department of
the Environment, and in the courts. Somebody wanna take bets on when, if
ever, the new facilities will be built?
--
dan.strassberg@att.net
617-558-4205
eFax 707-215-6367