Herald: Air America on WKOX, WXKS (AM)

[Eli Polonsky]

On 9/11/04 2:50 PM, "Dan Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net> wrote:

>> I dunno how well WKOX comes in in Brighton at night.

I tried it driving through there last night. It was audible, but weak,
with background noise from distant stations and adjacent station 10k
Heterodynes (not to mention all the electrical components in my car).

Spoken programming content can be clearly understood, but it's not a
pleasant listening experience with the background noise, and it's
unlikely that anyone who doesn't know exactly where to look on the
dial would stumble onto it randomly. It would be for the dedicated
listener at best.

It was actually a bit better than the night signal from WXKS-AM in
that area though, which though closer, was so nulled-out that it was
clobbered by 1430's from New Jersey and elsewhere.

>> The other potential problem is that WKOX's 3-kW (or so) night signal
>> from Oak Hill might not be interference free over 80% of Newton, which
>> is geographically quite large, so an FCC waiver of the COL coverage
>> requirements could be required. I believe that area near Newton Corner
>> would present the greatest problem.

Newton Corner would be about as far as possible from Oak Hill as you can
go practically due north, but you can go geographically a lot farther in
Newton to the northwest, the most distant location in Newton being the
area of West Newton near the Waltham line (informally known as "Nightcap's
Corner"), where Lexington St. Newton becomes Moody St. Waltham (near the
area of WNTN's studio and transmitter).

The Auburndale area out by Route 30 and 128 is also as distant, and a bit
more west. With the directional pattern required by that hypothetical WKOX
configuration at night, I think the more westerly extremes of Newton would
be more likely than Newton Corner to get a sub-grade signal from Oak Hill.

Eli