Re: Boston Globe Online / Sports / WWZN cuts staff and programming

[dan.strassberg@att.net]

Non-critical daytime hours are almost a non-issue. WWZN's signal out the back 
of the current array is almost equal to 50 kW from a minimum-height (about 55-
degree) stick. They just need to get close enough to the most distant part of 
Boston to put 5 mV/m over the whole city. BUT, critical hours day IS a problem 
and nighttime gets REALLY complicated.

During critical hours, the signal toward WLAC can't exceed the equivalent of 
roughly 1 kW ND. On 1510, you won't find a location, including N Quincy, from 
which 1 kW ND delivers 5 mV/m to the whole City of Boston. And the requirement 
for COL coverage during CH is the same as during midday--at least 5 mV/m over 
the entire land area of the COL.

At night, the signal toward WLAC is the equivalent of only about 15 or 20W. The 
station COULD become a daytimer, I guess. As such, it would not have to deliver 
a specified signal anywhere, but it WOULD have to deliver 5 mV/m to the entire 
COL during CH. The WJIB tower would probably be the best place to run 15W 
nights on 1510. Moreover, I have a feeling that, for the right owner, Bob would 
charge a lot less than $25,000 per month. But the coverage wouldn't come close 
to what WJIB gets with 5W on 740.

If you were to reduce WWZN to a daytimer and try to operate from Soldiers' 
Field Rd, you'd have to find a new COL--and there isn't one--unless the FCC 
were to allow Brighton despite the fact that Brighton is not a political 
entity. We all know that plenty of stations are licensed to "communities" that 
are not political entities, so this might be possible.

But WWZN's value as a daytimer with limited CH power would be pretty low (my 
guess is maybe $500k tops). Remember that in December CH starts at 2:15 PM and 
in the morning in January it lasts until 9:15 AM. There goes AM and PM drive in 
the winter. Of course, if 1510 were to move to the WJIB tower, a COL of 
Somerville or Belmont might work--once the FCC opened an AM filing window. For 
$500k, Bob might even be interested ;>). Somehow, though, I think Rose City 
Radio (WWZN's legal owner) would be more receptive to an offer of $11 million 
from ABC than to an offer of $500k from Bob (or anybody else).

But there you have it: WWZN Somerville, 1510 kHz 35 kW-D, 1 kW-CH, 15W-N, ND-U. 
I'm not impressed. Because it's a full 10 kW CH, even WNTN has better 
facilities. Of course, since Nashville is west of Boston, the 1510 station 
would be eligible for a PSSA, so it could run maybe 500W for the first hour 
after sunset and maybe 100W (I'm guessing) for the second hour. And no doubt a 
PSRA would also be possbile. I'm still not impressed.

--
dan.strassberg@att.net
617-558-4205
eFax 707-215-6367
 
> AM is a black art to me...so I don't know how well WWZN's existing contours 
> could work from a single tower in Allston...but they'd have one hell of a 
> downtown signal from there even at 5kW.