850 Transmitter Site

[Dan Strassberg]

WRKO's three existing towers would serve WEEI just fine. If memory serves,
the distance between the towers at 850 is 193.75 degrees, which is arguably
a better spacing for producing a modified-figure-eight pattern than the
155-degree spacing at 680. In my opinion, the Burlington site is inherently
superior to the Needham site because it allows much more efficient coverage
of the market; the greater "efficiency" outweighs the fact that, because of
the Burlington site's proximity to Hanscom Field, it is impossible to
increase the tower heights to the ~600' of WEEI's current towers. (Actually,
WEEI's towers are 640', 600', and 560'. It's a little-known fact that the
towers are of unequal height; the FCC AM database errs on this statistic.)

When the then WHDH moved to Needham in 1946, the FCC rules required that the
station deliver 25 mV/m to the "principal business district" of the COL
(that is, Boston). 850 does considerably better than 25 mV/m downtown, but
doing so necessitates a pattern that wastes a good deal of energy over
Massachusetts Bay. Instead of further spreading out to cover points north
and south, the signal goes straight ahead--toward Boston. WRKO, on the other
hand, actually has a broad, shallow null to the east-northeast--over the
North Shore, yet delivers an excellent signal throughout Essex County. In
addition, WRKO is nearly local on Cape Cod (because of the salt-water path
over much of the distance) and in Southern NH. (Remember that when the then
WLAW moved to Burlington, it had to deliver 25 mV/m to its COL, Lawrence.)

For WEEI, the downside of a move to Burlington would be poorer nighttime
coverage of affluent Wellesley, Natick, and maybe even Needham. WRKO's
signal in those areas at night is not fantastic, but is probably adequate.

All that said, I doubt that such a move is in the works. Entercom is most
likely simply restructuring the way it holds its real estate. The big
technical hurdle that an 850 move to Burlington might have to overcome is
the installation of a transmission line to feed a second 50-kW signal to the
towers. Since the property sits atop the aquifer for the Burlington water
supply, I think the deed contains restrictive covenants on ANY further
construction. My guess is that when the site was built (1940???) the
transmission line was elevated, as was the custom in those days. When WRKO
went DA-2 (around 1980--I think), I suspect that the transmission line was
buried. Perhaps someone had enough foresight to bury a backup line at that
time. If so, a line that WEEI could use is already in place. If not, despite
the site's suitability and desirability, the court battles that would allow
the installation of an additional line could be very expensive and time
consuming and a successful outcome could not be guaranteed.

Now, if Entercom were being sold to Clear Channel, I could imagine
considerable effort being expended on making a WEEI move to Burlington
happen. I suspect that WKOX's move to the WUNR site is dead. The perfect
replacement site for WKOX (and maybe WRCA, which is planning to share the
Oak Hill site with WKOX and WUNR) would be WEEI's Needham site. But WEEI's
towers are too tall and too widely spaced for WKOX and WRCA. If the WEEI
towers were to come down, however, Needham would probably permit their
replacement with shorter towers. However, Entercom is not likely to do
anything to help Clear Channel's WKOX compete with its WEEI or WRKO. If,
however, Clear Channel owned WEEI and WRKO, the situation would be
different.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
eFax 707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: Bill O'Neill <billo@shoreham.net>
To: 'Kevin Vahey' <kvahey@tmail.com>; 'Ron Bello' <RBello@belloassoc.com>;
<bri@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2004 10:56 PM
Subject: RE: 850 Transmitter Site


> Kevin:
> > Hmmmm 850 considering a move to Burlington????
>
> That would make for an interesting night array.  Moving that much further
> west, that is.  <Cue the organist and Dan S.>  Would the RKO array be
> sufficient in it's current tower array to support WEEI? Can't imagine the
> Town/City of Burlington enabling another tower (if needed).
>
> Bill O'Neill
>