Subject: Voice-over Flubs

[Dan.Strassberg]

I never heard that. As far as I know, prior to the 1957 transfer of
the license from Northern Corp (Pote' et al) to Richmond Bros, the
only application that WMEX filed for improved facilities was to
increase day power to 10 kW ND (no change in night facilities). I
believe that app was filed in the early 50s and was denied by the FCC
because it would have caused daytime skywave interference to WLAC.

Around 1969, WMEX did increase to 50 kW D/5 kW-N DA-2 (again, no
change in night facilities). This CP, which would have involved adding
one tower to the Quincy site, was granted before the Commonweath took
part of the WMEX land for a bridge over the Neponset River. As a
result of the land taking, WMEX lost one of its two existing
self-supporting towers as well as the part of the land on which would
have stood the new third (guyed) tower (to be used daytime only). It
then became necessary to add two guyed towers to the one remaining
self supporter. Through all this, there was no change to the night
pattern nor to the not-yet constructed day pattern. The day pattern
seemed like a joke; it was a modified cardioid aimed northeast--out
over open water. The engineer who designed it was crazy like a fox,
however. Although a lot of enegy did indeed go out over open water,
the signal along the coast and for several miles inland improved
significantly. Both WLAC and WNLC were protected.

Amazingly, WNLC's 10-kW day pattern, a broad, somewhat asymmetrical
modified cardioid (three towers) was actually aimed TOWARD WMEX, a
mere 77 miles away!

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Hall" <aerie.ma@comcast.net>
To: "'Boston Radio Interest'"
<boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 8:38 AM
Subject: RE: Subject: Voice-over Flubs


>
> I'm not sure about CJRS, but wasn't the *reason* WNLC was allowed to
> move
> from 1490 to 1510 because WMEX delayed repeatedly, with construction
> permits
> expiring more than once, installing 50 k in Quincy? I think CJRS
> must also
> have upgraded similarly because of WMEX *not* upgrading during this
> time
> too. I doubt WMEX would have come in so clearly in Montreal if it
> had been
> protecting at that time a station in Sherbrooke (barely 70 miles
> east of
> Montreal).
>
> If CJRS and WNLC had not been upgraded, then WMEX would really only
> have had
> to protect WLAC and KGA. I vaguely remember someone on WMEX calling
> their
> counterpart at WLAC on the air discussing their respective signals.
> I
> believe WLAC used to hear from WMEX listeners at night wondering
> where WMEX
> was. I think it might have been Larry Glick calling WLAC...I think
> it was
> early in the morning our time, when Glick was still on and the
> morning man
> at WLAC was just starting.
>
>
>
>>I remember back in the '60s when WMEX was running at 5 kw, and had a
>>terrific signal not only on the North Shore but well up into south
>>coastal
>>Maine.  I agree: after everything was changed over, it wasn't
>>(isn't) as
>>good as it was originally.  -Doug
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
> To: "Boston Radio Interest"
> <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 8:08 AM
> Subject: Re: Subject: Voice-over Flubs
>
>
>> Absolutely not! A night power increase for 1510 required a move to
>> a
>> more northerly location because of CJRS in Sherbrooke--the station
>> that, as you put it, taught Woo-Woo to speak French. Sherbrooke is
>> essentially due north of Boston and it had to be protected. As you
>> know, the French you heard in Quebec on 1510 was NOT WMEX; it was
>> CJRS. And yes, the Red Sox did indeed leave 850 for 1510 at some
>> point. The move to the much weaker signal (around 1976) was bad
>> enough
>> but the timing was even worse because it coincided with the
>> construction of the State St South office complex just west of the
>> old
>> 1510 transmitter in N Quincy. The new steel-frame buildings
>> decimated
>> 1510's already-execrable 5-kW night signal, making the station
>> completely unlistenable even in close-in western parts of the
>> market--including most of Newton, Waltham, Lexington, Arlington,
>> Belmont and other places. You didn't have to go to MetroWest to be
>> out
>> of range and out of luck. WMEX (or maybe it was WITS by then)
>> installed a new ground system to no avail. They next applied to
>> slightly relax the pattern of their daytime 50 kW during
>> noncritical
>> hours. Not much of a relaxation was possible because of WNLC.
>> Various
>> temporary stopgaps were tried, such as simulcasts of Red Sox night
>> games on 107.9 and 1330. Finally, there was the problem-plagued
>> move
>> to Waltham and 50 kW-U. The move cost millions and the big increase
>> in
>> night power coupled with the tall towers helped a lot in Newton,
>> Waltham, Lexington, Arlington, and Belmont but was no help at all
>> in
>> Westwood. In addition, the day signal along the coast--on the North
>> Shore, for example--suffered greatly. The old 50 kW day signal from
>> Quincy reached coastal areas over a clear salt-water path; the new
>> signal from Waltham had to travel over at least 15 miles of rocky,
>> low-conductivity New England soil.
>>
>> -----
>> Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
>> eFax 1-707-215-6367
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: <kvahey@comcast.net>
>> To: "Eli Polonsky" <elipolo@earthlink.net>
>> Cc: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@comcast.net>; "Dan.Strassberg"
>> <dan.strassberg@att.net>; "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>;
>> "Todd
>> Glickman" <radio88@radio88.net>;
>> <boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 7:23 AM
>> Subject: Re: Subject: Voice-over Flubs
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Did 1510 ever get 50K at night from Quincy?
>>> I suspect they must have because I can't fathom the Red Sox
>>> leaving
>>> HDH for a 5 KW signal. I don't understand why they left WHDH to
>>> begin
>>> with. The change happened after the 75 regular season with the
>>> playoffs on 1510. Was it simply money? Yawkey will still alive so
>>> I
>>> doubt that was a factor. Something else must have happened to
>>> anger
>>> the team.
>>
>