AM Nighttime Only

[Dan Strassberg]

If any more AM share-time arrangements exist in the US, there is only
one--in the Chicago area--and that one may have ended within the past year
or so. I am unclear on the current status. Scott Fybush knows, I'm sure.
IIRC, two stations, WVON and WCEV, licensed to Cicero IL, had been sharing
time on the 1450 graveyard channel. One of them (WVON?) entered into a
long-term LMA to operate Clear Channel's 1690 Ex-band facility licensed to
Berwyn (ex-WRLL, I think). AFAIK, the WVON calls are now on 1690. That
doesn't have to mean that half of the 1450 time-share is dark, though.
Several possibilities exist: The owners of the former WVON 1450 might have
retained the facility and put new calls (WRLL?) and different programming on
it; they might have LMAed the facility to WCEV, which now, in effect, might
be operating a full-time station (although, to be legal, it SHOULD ID with
calls other than WCEV during the dayparts when WCEV is not licensed to
operate); or they might have sold--or be in negotiations to sell--the
facility to someone else entirely. An interesting wrinkle in the WVON/WCEV
story is that the stations shared a tower but had separate transmitters. If
WCEV is operating the former WVON under LMA, does it use the WVON Tx during
WVON's hours? The two fransmitters were in separate buildings, both adjacent
to the tower base. Scott surely must know what's going on there and I would
appreciate it if he would enlighten us!

A few noncommercial FM time shares exist and FCC rules suggest the
likelihood of more in the not-too-distant future.  Unless I have the story
wrong (and I could), one of them is imminent in our own back yard. As I
understand it, WAVM in Maynard and U Mass Boston (WUMB et al) were just
granted CPs to build time-shared stations on 91.7 in Maynard and (I thnk)
Stow respectively.

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>
To: "Dan Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>; "Russ Butler"
<songbook2@comcast.net>; <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 7:19 AM
Subject: Re: AM Nighttime Only


> Are there still any stations around that share a frequency, or
frequencies,
> within a given area, as was not uncommon years ago?  WFAA and WBAP in
> Dallas/Fort Worth come to mind.  I believe they shared 570 and 820
together.
>
> -Doug
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dan Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
> To: "Russ Butler" <songbook2@comcast.net>;
> <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
> Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 10:07 PM
> Subject: Re: AM Nighttime Only
>
>
> > Aah--there were lots of specified-hours AM licenses--and one or more may
> > still exist; Scott Fybush is likely to be able to answer that one. But
the
> > specified hours did not vary month-by-month as a nighttime-only license
> > would require. I can imagine the courts having to settle the issue about
> > whether a "specified-hours" station that specified only nighttime hours
> > would conform to FCC rules and precedents. I doubt whether the courts
> would
> > resolve that issue in my lifetime or in the lifetime of AM as a viable
> > broadcast service. And I can't possibly imagine that the current
licensee
> of
> > WVBF has the financial resources to pursue the issue in court for the
> > inevitable decades.
> >
> > Maybe if the native-American tribe (actually, I think "American Indian"
> > recently returned to the politically correct lexicon) that wants to
build
> a
> > casino in Middleborough were to buy WVBF and plow all of the casino
> profits
> > into the legal fight, they might pull it off. But then, the Indians are
> > probably not interested in serving Taunton. If the casino is built,
there
> is
> > likely to be more than enough business in Middlebrough to support the
> > station.
> >
> > That could put WVBF in the position of applying for a split-frequency
> > operation (1530 days with 2.2 kW-D/1 kW-CH and 1570 nights with 227W or
> > thereabouts) a la WNZK Dearborn Heights MI, the only split-frequency AM
in
> > the US. The FCC has repeatedly asserted that split-frequency operation
> makes
> > the very well engineered WNZK substandard from a technical point of view
> and
> > that position has survived several attempts by broadcasters to use it as
a
> > precedent for split-frequency operation of other stations. Moreover,
> WNZK's
> > day and night operations are on first-adjacent channels--not fourth
> > adjacents!
> >
> > Canada once had a split-frequency operation on 710 days and 1290 nights
in
> > Gravelbourg SK, a Francophone enclave in the western prairie, but Canada
> > considered each of its two split-frequency AMs (the other was in
> Leamington
> > ON) to constitute two stations. Both operations have been dark for many
> > years. Each used different calls day and night; Gravelbourg was
CFGR/CFRG;
> > Leamington was CHIR/CHYR. However, since Canadian stations need mention
> > their calls only once a day, call letters were almost a non-issue.
> >
> > --
> > Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
> > eFax 707-215-6367
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Russ Butler" <songbook2@comcast.net>
> > To: <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>;
> > <dan.strassberg@att.net>; "Russ Butler" <songbook2@comcast.net>
> > Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 5:38 PM
> > Subject: AM Nighttime Only
> >
> >
> > > Reading Dan Strassberg's b-r-i post about AM nighttime-only stations
> > > reminds me of KPPC 1240AM in Los Angeles..... "the little radio
station
> > > that could and did!"
> > >
> > > Beginning on Christmas Day, December 25, 1924 as a 50watt station of
the
> > > Pasadena Presbyterian Church by church volunteers, as a non-profit
> > > station with studios in the church's basement (unofficially people
later
> > > called an "underground station") with it's transmitter on top of the
> > > church on Colorado Boulevard.  (The church is still there today.)  It
> > > went on the air after the first Christmas Day services.only for Sunday
> > > church services 11am to Noon, then shut down 6 days.
> > >
> > > It had a "specified hours" FCC license to broadcast in 1938, Sundays
9am
> > > to 1 pm and 6:45pm to 9pm and on Wednesdays 7pm to 9pm again only for
> > > church services.
> > >
> > > In the 1970's and 80's it went up to 22 hours a week,  after 1985 with
> > > 250 watts it was broadcasting only at night weekdays and all day
> > > Sunday.  (Guess this would be sort of a nighttime-only station?)
Again
> > > in 1996, KPPC 1240AM only went on the air Sundays for the church
service
> > > 11am to Noon, then shut down for 6 days.
> > >
> > > KPPC originally shared 1210AM in it's long history with a station in
San
> > > Bernardino, there were also LA-area AM stations at 1220 Pomona, at
1230
> > > and 1260 in Los Angeles causing major interference with the 1240
> > > signal.  The church also started an FM station (KPPC 106.7FM in 1962
> > > selling it in 1968, now KROQ).
> > >
> > > The license still allowed for the transmitter to be turned on each
> > > Sunday morning for one hour, then turned off when the church service
> > > ended. KPPC had come full circle during its last year on the air in
> > > 1996!! It went off the air forever in September, 1996 after 71 years
and
> > > 9 months.
> > >
> > > Its sole purpose from the beginning once again was to broadcast the
> > > Sunday church services of its founder from the site where the station
> > > first went on the air Christmas Day of 1924. The station remaining
> > > silent the other 6 days of the week.
> > >
> > > When I was looking for the KPPC studios in 1998, no one in the church
> > > office I met remembered the station or it's history.  I asked around
the
> > > neighborhood and found that they had left the church basement for a
> > > Colorado Boulevard (that's where the Rose Parade is held every year)
> > > storefront. "KPPC 1240AM" was in small letters on the front door and a
> > > type-written note saying that the studios were being used to broadcast
> > > nighttime, Latino religious programming on the Pomona station.  It was
> > > dark, but peering inside the window, there were mics and Latino
signage
> > > everywhere, so, in a way, KPPC founded by the Presbyterian church did
> > > have a religious life thereafter!
> > >
> > > (Thanks to Jim Hilliker for some KPPC background history)
> > > KPPC-FM is now in Pocatello, Idaho. There is no AM call.
> > >
> > > =Russ Butler songbook2@comcast.net
> >
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