Hello, Jerry? (was: Talk shows through the ages)

[Dan.Strassberg]

Exactly. And if you went south on Mass Ave across Harvard Bridge, the
signal wasn't clean until you were well into the South End.
Interestingly, back in those days, the formula for computing the NIF
contour did not take into account first-adjacent interference, so on
paper, though not in fact, WMEX was quite interference free. Around
1958, CJRS came on. It was supposed to protect WMEX but, where I was,
it was almost always quite audible underneath. Then came WNLC, which
didn't protect WMEX AT ALL during the day. It was 10 kW-D directional
TOWARD WMEX by day and only 77 miles from the WMEX transmitter in
Squantum! During what are now called critical hours, WNLC destroyed
WMEX in places like Hingham and Weymouth, but WNLC's six-tower 5 kW
night rig protected WMEX pretty well after dark. However, with or
without interference from WNLC, WMEX's signal was so bad in so many
places that it's amazing what kind of numbers the top-40 station was
able to pull. Until the day power was increased to 50 kW around 1972
(I think), the good signal was confined to areas along the coastline
and no more than a few miles inland from the South Shore to Cape Ann.
Yeah, the 5 kW day signal reached further inland by day than by night
because WKBW and WTOP were not much in evidence until dark, but I
guess the format was so unusual that kids would listen despite the
interference.

Then, when the transmitter was moved to Waltham in 1981, North Shore
listeners started to complain because the new 50-kW signal coming
across 15 or more miles of rocky New England real estate wasn't nearly
the equivalent of even 5 kW (let alone 50) coming over salt water from
Quincy. When it moved to Waltham (it was WITS by then), the station
should have gone to split sites--keeping the day site in Quincy but
moving the night site to Waltham. Keeping the day site in Quincy would
not have cost much, since the station owned the land.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@gmail.com>
To: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
Cc: "Bill O'Neill" <me@billoneill.us>; "Doug Drown"
<revdoug1@verizon.net>; <boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org>;
"Keating Willcox" <kwillcox@wnsh.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: Hello, Jerry? (was: Talk shows through the ages)


> My Mom was in Cambridge
> At our house WMEX was killed by WTOP and WKBW
>
>
> On 8/28/07, Dan.Strassberg <dan.strassberg@att.net> wrote:
>> In the Merrimac Valley (except maybe near the coast--Newburyport
>> and
>> environs), I would think so. Actually, I'm amazed that she could
>> get
>> WMEX at all at night if she was in the Lowell/Lawrence area. That's
>> probably true even now with 50 kW at night because, although the
>> day
>> patterns send a pretty strong signal to the north, the night
>> pattern
>> is nulled to the north to protect long-dark CJRS, which was due
>> north
>> of us.
>>
>> -----
>> Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
>> eFax 1-707-215-6367
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@gmail.com>
>> To: "Bill O'Neill" <me@billoneill.us>
>> Cc: "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>; "Dan.Strassberg"
>> <dan.strassberg@att.net>;
>> <boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org>; "Keating Willcox"
>> <kwillcox@wnsh.com>
>> Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:37 PM
>> Subject: Re: Hello, Jerry? (was: Talk shows through the ages)
>>
>>
>> >I remember my Mom saying WBBM came in better than WMEX. I seem to
>> > recall that he was on WTIC for awhile as well.
>>
>>