Air America

[Dan Strassberg]

Many years ago (until sometime in the '60s, I think) WLIB's transmitter was
located in northern Queens. IIRC, you could see the tower as you approached
the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge from the Bronx side. The station operated with 1
kW-L ND-L L-WOWO. The signal was very poor in much of New York City. I grew
up on the northwest Bronx, not far from Yonkers, no more than about six
miles from the old WLIB Tx. Reception was abysmal.

Then WLIB moved its Tx to the Jersey Meadowlands and increased power to 10
kW-L DA-L L-WOWO using a three-tower array to protect WOWO during critical
hours and during the 45 minutes between New York sunset and Fort Wayne
sunset. The Tx is located right near WOR, WEPN, WBBR, and now also WSNR
(which moved in many years later). WLIB has one of the best-situated
transmitters in the New York market and the 10 kW day signal is adequate to
cover the market quite decently. WLIB is no WOR or WINS for sure, but it has
a solid signal in the five boroughs as well as close-in parts of northern
NJ, Westchester and Rockland counties, the eastern portions of Fairfield
County CT, and northern Nassau County.

When ICBC, the company that owns WLIB, succeeded in having WOWO powered down
at night, WLIB added night service with 30 kW. Believe it or not, though,
desipte reducing power from 50 kW to 9.8 kW and changing its night pattern
to further reduce its signal to the east, WOWO still delivers enough of a
night signal to metro New York to limit WLIB's NIF signal mainly to the five
boroughs--and only about 80% of their area--and parts of northern NJ. WLIB
must also protect the former facilities of CHTN, which moved from 1190 to
720 at least 15 years ago, but is still notified to the US on 1190. As a
result, WLIB's night pattern has a null over northern Queens and the south
Bronx. My guess is that reception of WLIB in that area is poor on most
nights.

ICBC, Salem Communications (which owns the former WGKA, a daytimer on 1190
in Atlanta), and the owners of WOWO have drafted an interference-reduction
agreement that would allow the Atlanta station to operate full-time, would
allow WLIB to modify its night pattern somewhat (decrease the severity of
the null toward Prince Edward Island), and would allow WOWO to increase its
night power to 15 kW  That agreement has been hung up for many years and
there does not seem to be much chance of its being implemented anytime soon.

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Weil" <kc1ih@mac.com>
To: <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>; "Donna Halper"
<dlh@donnahalper.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2005 11:25 AM
Subject: Re: Air America


>
> >     ...with suburban WLIB in NY (I used to
> >  work there-- I'm very familiar with the areas they cover, and the ones
> they
> >  don't).
>
> I grew up in the NY suburbs, and I never thought of WLIB as a
> suburban station.  I thought they were located in Harlem, in the
> "upper" part of Manhattan.
>
> We're not confusing this with WLIR, which was in Garden City, Long Island?
>
> --
> Larry Weil
> Lake Wobegone, NH