WJIB

[markwa1ion@aol.com]

A two-stick array (nulling towards Toronto) for 740 might allow up to 1 
kW to be run at night from a transmitter site placed at / near / 
between the present 1150 (Lexington) and 1510 (Waltham) sites.

This would poke a decent lobe into the Allston-Brighton sections of 
Boston and its streetcar western suburbs (Arlington, Belmont, 
Cambridge, Somerville, Watertown, parts of Newton / Brookline) to 
override Toronto much of the time (certainly better than the existing 5 
watts night power can).  That's a decent number of people with money to 
spend.

Or, with WHEB long gone from 750, why not a bigger power (5 kW or more 
?) operation on that lower-interference frequency, with suitable 
nulling towards Leicester (760) and Atlanta (750) ?  A site in the 
Newton or Waltham area (or co-located at 850 in Needham, also a decent 
site) might do the trick.  Much farther west would mean poorer Boston 
coverage and more difficulty with/for WVNE-760.

On the downside, WJIB morphing into something with much better coverage 
would probably wind up making it some crummy format instead of Bob 
Bittner's delightful and unique present-day offerings.

For its little 250 watts, WJIB gets out pretty well during the day.  I 
heard it with no problem at midday on a car radio from Clark's Harbour, 
Nova Scotia: something like 250-300 miles.  On Cape Cod it does OK 
except along the southern and western sides where it takes quite a 
beating from the Huntington, LI, NY station.

Mark Connelly - Billerica, MA

<<
I've forgotten what the calls of what is now WJIB were before Bob
owned the station, but whatever the calls were, the station held a CP
for 2.5 kW-D from what is now the WAMG/WBIX-N array in Ashland. With
those tall towers 2.5 kW would have produced quite a signal and the
pattern was quite narrow to the east, protecting WVNE. In fact, with a
separate night pattern, Class B operation might have been possible,
although the CoL would probably have had to be changed to Sherborn
because given WJIB's NIF, which I estimate to be around 65 mV/m, and
the low power that might have been granted, Needham is just too far
away. But it would have been a losing proposition. The initial cost
would have been very high (maybe $1 million) and the ongoing costs for
the lease of the Tx site would have been a killer for a small station.
Moreover, the site--way west of the center of the market--would have
canceled out most of the gains from the higher power. If 250W were
possible at night (and that seems optimistic to me--but with the tall
towers, the station wouldn't have needed that much power to be a Class
B--just an RMS of 140.85 mV/m), the population served would still be
less than that served by 5W from Fresh Pond Circle.

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