WKFD 1370 Ri (deformatted)

[Scott Fybush]

Laurence Glavin wrote:

> It's amazing that an operation in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
> would have to worry these days about first-, second-, and even
> third-frequency separation over dozens and dozens of miles, while
> WAZN-AM 1470 blithely plops itself down in the midst of what was once 
> the reasonably decent coverage area of the former WBET-AM 1460 in Brockton!
> I know WAZN is uber-directional, but still...

One more thought on this before I head into WXXI and try to invent some
news for afternoon drive -

The AM dial as it now exists is the result of more than 80 years of rule
changes (some wisely thought out, some less so), grandfathering and,
above all, politics.

Some of the best advice I ever got on understanding AM allotments was to
carefully study and memorize the dial as it appeared just before the
NARBA shifts of 1941.

The signals that existed then are the ones that are most useful
today[*]. Everything else has been jury-rigged into an increasingly
crowded dial in the years since, generally requiring complicated DAs and
compromises in terms of full-market coverage.

s

[* - Allowing, of course, for the growth of markets in directions
unforeseen in 1940, as witness DC or Charlotte, where there are no
full-market AMs, and allowing as well for short-sighted owners who've
given up decent signals and sold the land under the towers, as witness
630 in Minneapolis or 570 in DC.]