WAZN Nighttime Signal

[Laurence Glavin]

For the last week I've been staying at a house in Harwich Port
on the Cape that I got at below-market rates (still too
high-priced considering the days of rain, mist, and/or fog).
On the whole I was a bit too busy (or blotto, lots of time
to imbibe, and at Clancy's their drinks are H-U-G-E, I
don't know how they get away with it) to indulge in
radio geekery, except to note that the WOMR-FM antenna
is atop a WATER TANK, and not a tower.  But I got into true 
radio mode on the way home Friday night (to beat the
Saturday AM traffic)...as I neared a close-in South Shore 
community, I checked out the nighttime signal of WAZN-AM 1470, 
COL Watertown, MA, transmitter location the WTTT towers in 
Lexington.  First of all, I could hear a fairly strong signal
from WLAM in Lewiston, ME that continued under WAZN all the 
way through Hingham, Weymmouth and Quincy. WAZN became fairly 
dominant right at the Entering Boston sign, but was tenuous right 
up to the tunnel.  After I emerged from the tunnel at the Zakim
Bridge, WAZN was quite strong for several miles until the Entering 
Stoneham sign, a few miles south of Rt. 128, and there it
was almost completely gone.  So it appears that Watertown was chosen
as the COL because the best interference-free direction from Lexington
is virtually due east.  This is the night pattern remember (WAZN
has a very odd day/night configuration: NW days, ENE nights);
there's a fairly large Chinese cohort in Quincy I understand,
but their signal is probably just so-so at night, and
subject to splatter from WBET-AM 1460 in Brockton by day.
It's interesting that WAZN, along with its sibling WLYN airs
a number of English-language PSA's around station ID.
There was also a message from management (in English"
about advertsing on WLYN/WAZN.  I'm not sure that even after 
all this work, AM 1470 provides a reliable full-time signal
for their target audience.

Laurence Glavin
Back in Methuen again where it's just as wet)

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