DOT-FM Re: WXZO format change to oldies?

[Scott Fybush]

Paul B. Walker, Jr. wrote:
> The transmitter might not be making full power anymore.
> 
> The transmitter might not be modulating anywhere near full tilt. A
> transmitter not operating at the 125 percent maximum will have static but no
> audio.
> 
> I have personally seen, at one station I work for, the difference between 30
> percent modulation and 125 percent modulation. The signal difference is
> almost night and day.

That's one possibility, yes...but it's also likely that the ground 
system around the WEAV towers has deteriorated over the years. Copper 
corrodes away after a few years in the ground, if it's not stolen first, 
and a station without a working ground system is really using only half 
an antenna.

A directional antenna system such as WEAV's needs to be kept in 
tolerance, too - over time, components can drift and the nulls and lobes 
can start falling where they shouldn't be.

I'm not saying any of those things are true specifically of WEAV - I 
know their engineer and he tries hard to keep all the balls in the air - 
but any time you've got one guy responsible for seven stations, six 
transmitter sites on two sides of a big lake (including a directional AM 
and a mountaintop high-power FM), and a studio complex, well...it's a 
long way from the stop I made at WEAV one Saturday afternoon in 1995, 
when the old guy who answered the door was the station owner himself!

s