Speaking of WLW...

[Nickolas Noseworthy]

Having done a school project on WLW, I couldn't help but bring it up. If in fact WBZ had gone to 500K watts, the coverage area would be  ENORMOUS. Powell Crosley had the same idea, and he was able to accomplish it on April 17th 1934, when he was granted permission by the FCC to use 500k watts, experimently during regular hours with the WLW calls. 50,000 watts was not enough, so the most enormous beast of a transmitter RCA, GE, and Westinghouse had ever built was installed. The transmitter was fifteen feet high and sixty feet
wide. Each modulation transformer weighed 35,700 pounds, including 725 gallons
of oil. The three parallel power amplifiers used 12 PA tubes. Two 33 kV power
lines came to the transmitter building, 2300 VAC entered the building. A 75 foot
square pond held the water used to cool the transmitter, which needed something
like 10,000 gallons of cool water a minute. 
What was really amazing is the 831 foot Blaw-Knox Tower, which still survives at the radio station today. Even though it was shortened a tad, it is still one of the most amazing radio towers in the country (i think anyway).  The closest thing here in New England is the WFEA Blaw-Knox tower in Merrimack, which is a spectacle every time you take the turnpike! 

Theres a lot of sites on the web that give the history of WLW, but if theres anyone out there who has any pics or info from the old days that ISNT online, that would be great. This stuff just fascinates me, a LOT. 

Thanks!
-Nick
Merrimack NH

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