Follow-up To NERW Piece On W221CH

[Laurence Glavin]

Those of you who read Scott Fybush's Northeast Radio Watch every Monday are
aware that Costa-Eagle just went through the gyrations of Laocoon to place a 
translator for WNNW-AM 800 in Lawrence on that station's tower.  A week ago, I
posted an item on radio-info.com observing that after three days of work, 
riggers had installed an FM antenna on the tippity-top of the tower.  On Friday,
February 27th, testing of  the new facility on a frequency of 92.1  had begun.
>From my location several miles due north of the tower, the signal was not very
impressive, and by moving my antenna a little, I could pick up WPHX 92.1 in 
Sanford, ME (There was no receivable signal from WFEX, COL Peterboro,
NH, transmitter atop Pack Monadnock, NH.)  But today, Saturday, the signal is
much better, so originally they may have been running at less than the authorized 250
watts, directional antenna seemingly oriented southeast although the data 
points at fcc.gov show the full-power at zero degrees, i.e. due north.  Anyway
on my car radio, it now blasts into South Lawrence and Andover and splatters all 
over WUMB-FM 91.9 from Boston.  Now, although Scott allocated a fair amount 
of verbiage to this outlet, it may appear that it's a lot of hoo-haw about a
"translator" to fill out an AM signal, especially at night.  But remember,
when 93.7 was on that tower, its HAAT was about 440 feet, and the antenna up
there now appears to be 20 or 30 feet higher, so what we have here is a 
fairly serious signal...again 250 watts H&V at close to 500 feet.  It appears
that cities and towns where people buy more ketchup than salsa will be the
beneficiaries of the signal after WNNW is put on it, but it will definitely
reach more people than the pirate and licensed stations in the area  (99.1 and
99.9 respectively).  And since WNNW-AM has been broadcasting in IBOC for a 
long time, it's definitely FM-stereo ready.
One question:  will the station ID be: "WNNW, and W221CH, Lawrence" or WNNW AM&FM, Lawrence"?



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