Air America in Boston

[Eli Polonsky]

> > From: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross.com>
> CC: boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org
> To: Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>
> Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 00:43:11 -0400
> Subject: Re: Air America in Boston
> 
> On 26 Jun 2006 at 0:23, Donna Halper wrote:
> 
> > Fortunately, they've finally gotten permission to raise power,
> > so that ought to help.
> 
> When will the power increase happen?

This "power increase" (for WKOX 1200 only) is the controversial
new five-tower array which is finally beginning to be built in
the Oak Hill section of Newton, near the West Roxbury line.

This has been discussed here many times over the years. It's a
new five-tower site being constructed at the present two-tower
transmitter site of WUNR (1600), scheduled to accommodate power
increases for WUNR, as well as WRCA (1330) who will move their
transmitter from Waltham, and WKOX, which will move it's site
from Framingham. At a proposed and approved 50 kW, WKOX will be
the most powerful from the new site.

The FCC granted approval for this site a number of years ago,
but the City of Newton zoning board resisted approval due to
community opposition to the towers. Newton finally granted
approval last year, but it's going to take time to build the
towers and the complicated directional antenna systems for all
three stations. Dan Strassberg recently posted an essay here
addressing many of the potential time-consuming technicalities
of the project.

It's not known when this new site will be done, and on the air.
The earliest guesstimates and rumors have been for perhaps this
fall, though I don't know how likely that really is.

There is no power increase planned for WXKS 1430. I don't think
there's much they could do to augment their power or their very
directional night pattern on that frequency. And, that has also
sparked speculation about formatting. Assuming that Progressive
Talk (Air America, etc...) stays on WKOX 1200 following their
power increase to 50 kW (which seems likely but NOT necessarily
a given), then there would no longer be any use in simulcasting
on 1430. The new 1200 signal will cover everywhere 1430 covers.
If AAR, etc... stays on 1200, then some other format may end up
on 1430 (perhaps brokered ethnic).

EP