750 CP's

[Dan.Strassberg]

The WRKO site sits atop the wells that constitute the water supply for
the Town of Burlington. My understanding is that covenants in the deed
prohibit ANY further construction at the site. I even wonder whether
it would be permissible to replace an existing tower, should that ever
become necessary because of age and normal wear and tear. But if you
want to ignore the realities of the situation and speculate on the
technical feasibility of a 680/750 diplex, the frequency separation,
9.33% of the higher carrier frequency, is right at the lower edge of
what is considered feasible for an AM diplex. The rule of thumb used
to be that the stations' frequencies had to differ by at least 10% of
the higher carrier frequency. That rule is none too conservative, but
it has been violated before--and by high-powered directional
stations--so technically, a 680/750 diplex could work--as long as the
citizens of Burlington had no objection to having their town become
the Sahara Desert of the East;>(. Remember, though, that if WRKO had
to make any significant modifcation to its facilities, the FCC would
invoke the ratchet rule, which would result in loss of coverage to
which Entercom would object. As I understand it, the combination of
the deed covenants on the Burlington site and the invocation of the
ratchet rule put the kibosh on an 850 move to Burlington, which
American Radio Systems, then owner of 680 and 850, actually began to
work on a decade or more ago. Were it not for the ratchet rule, such a
move would have been beneficial to 850 everywhere except in the
Wellesley-Needham area at night.

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <markwa1ion@aol.com>
To: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 8:41 AM
Subject: 750 CP's


> Couldn't a 750 (or 720) station in Boston be a more profitable
> venture than one in Bangor ?
>
> Existing WJIB-740 would be bought out and taken dark and the 750
> signal might be operable out of the WRKO Burlington (or WWDJ
> Lexington ?) site with existing or added towers.  Pattern would beam
> all to the southeast at the city.  Not sure if 680 and 750 are too
> close in frequency to diplex; 680 and 720 likely are.
>
> Or one could look into such a station in Manchester, NH with the
> same pattern out of the existing WGIR-610 site.  50 kW day / 10 kW
> night out of there would certainly deliver a reasonable signal
> through most of the Merrimack Valley and a chunk of north suburban
> Boston bounded by the NH border on the north, Route 128 on the
> south, Route 1 on the east, and Route 3 on the west.
>
> Portland, ME would be another possibility though both 730 WJTO and
> 740 WJIB may have to be bought out.  The transmitter site would have
> to be north or northwest of the city as the signal would have to be
> maximum between 90 and 180 degrees.  This would deliver a smokin'
> signal to Cape Ann and outer Cape Cod as well.
>
> Mark Connelly, WA1ION
> Billerica, MA
>
> <<
> Dan.Strassberg wrote:
>> Anyone have any info on the status of their CP for 750 kHz 50
>> kW-D/10
>> kW-N DA-N in Hampden (Bangor) ME? Technically, this appears to be a
>> very sound application and the facility, along with WGAN and WZON,
>> would certainly become one of Maine's top three AM signals. (As
>> Maine's only 50 kW daytime AM signal and only 10 kW nighttime AM
>> signal, it could be claimed to be the Pinetree State's BEST AM
>> signal.) According to the application, the NIF would be just 9.99
>> mV/m. This CP seems rather far along--the FAA has assigned ASRN's
>> to
>> the four towers. However, only a little over six months remain
>> before
>> the CP expires on 12/13/2009--if it is not tolled.
>>>