New "Jay" in Town

[Dan Strassberg]

Any protection of CFTR by WRKO is coincidental--the result of a pattern
designed to protect other stations (mostly ONE other station 3000 miles
away). CFTR is something like 40 years newer on 680 than is WRKO--when you
include (as you must) WRKO's predecessors, WLAW and WNAC. WRKO's night
pattern was designed to protect KNBR (then, KPO) and WPTF. All of the other
680s in the US and Canada are newer. As for WRKO's night pattern being an
anachronism from the days when the station was licensed to Lawrence, I
suppose you might think of it that way, but, aside from WBZ, no AM has a
pattern or coverage better suited to this market. Not only does 850 not have
the coverage of New Hampshire that 680 has, it also doesn't cover Cape Cod
nearly as well, thanks to the fact that the 850 signal reaches the Cape over
rocky New England soil and the 680 signal gets there via a path that is at
least 2/3 salt water. Entercom should move 850 to the greatly superior 680
site. Due to the greater electrical spacing of the towers at 850, WEEI's
patterns would be slightly narrower versions of WRKO's. Besides the cost
(probably well north of $1 million, but ultimately defrayed by the proceeeds
from selling the Needham site and not having to pay real estate taxes on
it), the only downside of such a move that I can think of is a poorer night
signal in (affluent) towns, such as Needham, Wellesley, Weston, and Wayland.
Rumor has it that the poorer signal in the western suburbs at night was what
deterred ARS from making such a move back when it owned 680 and 850. Or
maybe the Town of Burlington refused to allow any digging at the site, which
sits atop the town water supply. Digging would be required to install
additional transmission lines, which would probably be necessary for the
diplexed operation.

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

----- Original Message -----
From: SteveOrdinetz <steveord@bit-net.com>
To: Cooper Fox <fox893@yahoo.com>;
<boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 7:54 PM
Subject: Re: New "Jay" in Town


> WRKO's night pattern has a pretty deep null to the west, protecting (I
> beleive) CFTR.  In the 70s I worked in Littleton (Mass) and WRKO was all
> but inaudible when they were on their night pattern.
>
>