WHEB-750, BANGOR 750, 1240-CAPE COD (was:I guess holiday music works)

[Peter Q. George]

All in all, the shutdown of WHEB/750 back in '91 was probably one of the most stupid blunders in modern broadcast history. That was ONE beautiful signal. It covered so much real-estate from the White Mountains to Cape Cod and beyond. It was on the air since the 1930's.  The FM (WHEB-FM, ex-WPFM and again WHEB-FM) was an afterthought since the day it signed on back in '64, until they went to a AM//FM Top 40 format in the early 70's.  WHEB (once affectionately known as "Webby" back in the early days) was one of the charter stations running "American Top 40" back in 1970 as was WJTO/730 in Bath.  If only Knight saw the WHOLE picture, the AM could have survived and quite possibly would have been part of a trimulcast of WJIB!  Those lowly 1000 watts on 750 were quite effective for decades.  If I had the money, I would have bought it. I miss that 750 signal! (*sigh*)    


 
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
"Scanning the bands since 1967"

radiojunkie3@yahoo.com
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--- On Sat, 1/9/10, Jibguy@aol.com <Jibguy@aol.com> wrote:

> From: Jibguy@aol.com <Jibguy@aol.com>
> Subject: Re: WHEB-750, BANGOR 750, 1240-CAPE COD (was:I guess holiday music works)
> To: hykker@wildblue.net, boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org
> Date: Saturday, January 9, 2010, 1:14 PM
> In a message dated 1/9/2010 11:16:55
> AM Eastern Standard Time, 
> hykker@wildblue.net
> writes:
> 
> Again, even if the CP could be had for a song the actual
> (1) buildout 
> and (2) operating costs of a signal that would likely serve
> a lot of 
> moose would be prohibitive.  Haven't seen the proposed
> pattern, but 
> like most new AM allocations, I'd guess that it avoids most
> human 
> population centers.
> -----------------------------------------------
>     True, it is a worthless CP, and I understand
> it has been up for sale 
> for awhile now. One thing Bangor does not need is a 50kw AM
> station.   I do 
> not believe it can be moved to the coast with high power
> since WJTO-730 would 
> be in the way.  750's 2.5mv/m cannot touch WJTO's 25
> mv/m. So if 750 were 
> moved to the coast east of Bangor, that's a
> possibility,  but there are few 
> people there.  If 750 were moved south or southeast to
> the coast, then WJTO 
> would be a big problem, and so would 760-Worcester and
> 740-Cambridge.  If 
> anyone were to ever construct 750-Bangor, they better plan
> on doing it as a 
> tax-loss.
>     Then there are those who might say "moved
> WJTO-730 to 750." While that 
> would help nighttime service (virtually non-existent now on
> 730), moving it 
> to 750 would still have the same restrictions with 740 as
> 730 now has in 
> daytime. Presently, WJTO-730 has a killer signal in
> Portland, and quite good on 
> Cape Cod, so best to leave it as is.
>     Around 1990, the then out-of-state-owners
> (James & Hunter 
> Communications) of WJTO filed an app with the FCC for 10kw
> days and 500w at night, using 
> 5 towers; all crammed onto the then-11-acres WJTO property
> on the ocean 
> inlet. FCC accepted it, but local zoning folks would not
> have approved it.  
> James & Hunter went into bankruptcy around the same
> time (the JTO app probably 
> helped in that regard) and WJTO and WKRH-FM were both off
> the air for 11 
> months.
>     As to WHEB-750; true, the tower came down in
> exhange for a taller FM 
> tower. However, 750 could have stayed on the taller tower
> with skirting along 
> the FM tower... something that the then-owners figured was
> too expensive and 
> not worth it at the time. Cost for that would have been
> around $25k; 
> something that I certainly would have been willing to do.
> But then again, I see 
> more value of AM daytimers on low frequencies than most
> bigger operators do.
>     As to 1240 on Cape Cod, it went up for sale
> for $200k back in the pit 
> of the 90's recession. No bites, therefore Ernie Boch
> figured he'd donate it 
> to BU. I thought that price was way too high.... had he
> just wanted $50k for 
> it, I would have bit. Would be nice to have a WJIB repeater
> on Cape Cod.  
> But rebroadcasting WBUR on it, as is being done presently,
> is a superior use 
> for the 1240 station too.
> ---------BB
>