Interference In MD, Similar To What Newton Could Experience?

[Dan Strassberg]

I am under the impression that if an AM station upgrades its facilities, it
must satisfy, at its own expense, for a period of one year from the date
that the FCC licenses the new facilities, all complaints of interference
from people who reside within the 1V/m contour. The article implies
otherwise--that is, that the requirement exists only for major changes.
Hardly any changes, other than COL changes and frequency changes of more
than 20 kHz, qualify as AM major changes anymore. I wonder if the relaxation
of the meaning of minor change has had the effect of letting stations off
the hook on interference. If so, the baby has clearly been thrown out with
the bath water. Neighbors' opposition to facility upgrades has multiplied
many-fold over the past decade. Removing stations' responsibility for
recitfying complaints of interference just adds fuel (lots of it) to the
NIMBYs' case. Considering the militancy of the Montgomery county populace
and the cleverness of WMET's upgrade, it is amazing to me that the station
isn't going out of its way to satisfy complaints. (The station used to
operate on 1150 with 1 kW-D/500W-N DA-2 from five towers. By moving to 1160,
WMET was able to increase to 50 kW-D/1.5 kW-N DA-2 using the SAME five
towers. The daytime power increase brings substantially all of the district
of Columbia into WMET's daytime 5 mV/m "city-grade" contour. Like the Oak
Hill NIMBYs, the Gaithersburg crowd was not going to allow ANY change that
involved ANY modification to the towers. By finding a way to use the
existing towers, WMET was able to get its way despite the neighbors'
objections. This doesn't seem like the time to behave in a high-handed way
that allows the whole deal unravel--even if the FCC rules allow the station
to ignore the complaints. But then, the long-time money-losing station's
lengthy series of management teams has apparently never won any awards for
intelligence.)

----- Original Message -----
From: Laurence Glavin <lglavin@lycos.com>
To: <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2004 5:04 PM
Subject: Interference In MD, Similar To What Newton Could Experience?


> Here's a link to a story about the interference residents
> near Gaithersburg, MD are experiencing from an AM
> station's upgrade to 50KW.  As of now, the residents
> of Oak Hill Pahk in Newton (yea I got it right this time)
> have nothing to fear, unless CCU appeals AND
> greases the palms of the right politicians.
>
> http://www.gazette.net/200430/montgomery/news/227051-1.html
> --
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