RE: Globe on John Garabedian

[dan.strassberg@att.net]

With all due respect--and I'm sure that Don Kelley will be able to confirm this-
-the idea that Garabedian started planning WGTR sometime in the 1970s is pure 
nonsense. He had filed the application YEARS before the station signed on in 
November 1972. My guess is around 1965. The FCC granted a CP quite promptly 
(unusual even then) but had to rescind the grant not long afterward. Another 
applicant had filed at the last moment and claimed that the FCC had not 
properly considered its competing application.

The legal battle went on for years. Garbedian hired top-notch attorneys. 
Ultimately, there was some sort of settlement between the applicants and 
Garabedian got the go-ahead to construct, but the technical details changed. 
WGTR's orignally proposed site (and I believe the site that was specified in 
the original CP) was at the foot of Oak St in Natick, which is south of Route 9 
on the east side of town. The site would have provided better coverage of 
places like Wellesley, Needham, and parts of Newton but inferior coverage of 
Framingham, the major community in the MetroWest market.

As part of the settlement, Garabedian obtained the competing applicant's 
proposed site in S Natick near the Framingham line. However, that site 
presented an interesting technical challenge; it was several miles closer to 
Philadelphia and 1060's dominant Class I station, KYW. In those days--before 
the advent of pick a power--any power, the site would work only if WGTR limited 
its radiation efficiency to 175 mV/m at 1 mile, the minimum for 1-kW Class II-D 
stations. The next step would have been a power reduction to 500W. The solution 
was WGTR's very short tower (140'), which was 54 electrical degrees at 1060--
just enough to meet the minimum 1-kW radiation requirement but not enough to 
exceed it.

The new site showed its value almost immediately after WGTR signed on, however. 
Because the site was outside of KYW's 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour, WGTR was 
able to obtain a PSRA, albeit with only 1.6W. However, the station could sign 
on year round at 6:00 AM local time, something its competition, WKOX, couldn't 
do. And with the fortuitous location, the 1.6W proved adequate to provide a 
listenable pre-sunrise signal to significant parts of Framingham, Natick, 
Sherborn, and Ashland.

--
dan.strassberg@att.net
617-558-4205
eFax 707-215-6367
 
> John H. was fed up and started planning for a free channel on the dial, and
> alas, WGTR (Garabedian's Terrific Radio) was born a few years later at 1060,
> at times fighting WBZ with the FCC.