Re: WXKS-AM & WJIB

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 10:58 PM 6/8/2003, A. Joseph Ross wrote:
>On 8 Jun 2003 at 13:03, Dan.Strassberg@att.net wrote:
>
> > Bob Bittner is no friend of Clear Channel, which owns WXKS, but CCU would
> > be well advised to try to strike a deal with Bob to use WJIB's tower for a
> > night- only synchronous transmitter.
>
>The thought of what kind of quid pro quo Bob might ask of Clear Channel to 
>make use of his
>facilities worth his while boggles the mind!

For that matter - I don't think it will work.  WXKS-AM requires a two-tower 
array to null to the southwest at night, WJIB is a one-tower solution and 
for those of you who haven't seen the surrounding area, there's not a 
chance in hell of a second tower ever being erected near WJIB's (there's 
just literally no room).

A better solution would be to try and diplex onto WBZ's tertiary backup 
tower in Lower Allston.  I don't know if there's enough room in the 
direction a second tower would need to be in, but I do know there's a fair 
amount of room very close to there on Harvard's fields...they might (or 
might not) be willing to cut a deal.  Business is business, even for 
Harvard, but the economics might blow the ROI to hell.

Of course, that pre-supposes that the local zoning boards will allow a new 
tower to go up in the middle of a urban area...I seriously doubt that'd 
ever happen.   And WXKS's towers sit on their own land right next to the 
studios, a nice plus for them in terms of rent and no STL needed (although 
it does make studio construction/maintenance a bit tricky).

I'd say it makes for entertaining conversation but WXKS-AM moving will 
never happen.  Unless...well, what about the whole WUNR thing?  I don't 
know enough about the engineering for that to know if it's 
feasible.  (although yours truly is planning on attending the land-use 
meeting at Newton City Hall (rm.222) about WUNR tomorrow/Tuesday night at 
7:45pm....I'll be staying quiet for a change, but I'm curious to see what 
will be said by the NIMBY'ers)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA