WBOQ reach in to Boston

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Mon, 19 Jun 2006 22:40:09 -0400, "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross.com> said:

> WBOQ used to get a better signal into some parts of Boston.  I 
> believe that a few years ago, they increased their power, but went to 
> a directional antenna that beams away from Boston.

Not surprising.  WBOQ as it stands is short-spaced to 105.1 Providence
and 104.7 Orleans.  Orleans is not an issue, because all the
interference takes place over water, but Providence definitely is, and
WBOQ from its current site is limited to 1.3 kW in a broad arc towards
Providence (which, of course, is also towards Boston from Gloucester).
It's also within inches of full spacing from co-channel WLKZ up in
Wolfeboro, N.H.  Given the current constraints, WBOQ's signal is about
as good as it can be.

Here's how to fix WBOQ.

First of all, you need to convince Entercom to reallocate WMKK to
Gloucester.  (This just barely fits.)

Then WBOQ is no longer "first local" to Gloucester, and can thus be
reallocated to Ipswich (which can theoretically be served from the
current transmitter location, although not with the current 3-kW
facilities.  But because WBOQ is currently fully-spaced with respect
to WLKZ, it could send 6 kW in that direction, so it all works out.
There's probably no need to actually build this facility.

>From a tower located near exit 55 on I-95, 104.9 is fully-spaced to
both Providence and Orleans, although this now makes it short to
WLKZ.  This does work as a 73.215 with a directional antenna (and
probably not much of one thanks to the terrain).

The result: you upgrade to a full 6 kW, get rid of that pesky null to
the southwest, and a 54 that encompasses the entire North Shore (and
can't be encroached upon thanks to WWLI and WKPE-FM) and most of the
Merrimack Valley.

OK, allocations wizards: tell me why this doesn't work.

-GAWollman