WCOP (was: Boston Radio Studios)

[Dan.Strassberg]

The biggest upgrade of the 1150 facilities that I know of took place
when Greater Media owned the signal and was doing a lot of
long-neglected maintenance in preparation for a sale. I guess that
when the work was complete, the station was sold to American Radio
Systems, the progenitor of today's American Tower Systems, which no
longer owns the AM station but still owns the land, the buildings, and
the towers, including the currently unused 100.7 FM tower. I do know
that when 1470 moved in, there were big-time problems, which took more
than a year to resolve. I think those problems related to reradiation
of the 50 kW 1510 signal, which originates from 411 Waverly Oaks Rd in
Waltham, only a mile or so to the east, and is only 40 kHz from 1470.

Where I live (about a mile northeast of the 1150 site), the most
easily noticed improvement that GM made was the installation of NRSC
filters. For years, 1150 had occupied a good half of the AM band--from
around 950 to 1600. The filters reduced this to the point where 1120
became audible--at least during the daytime. There were also obvious
problems with the beacons, which were not illuminated for months on
end--a bad situation in a densely populated area not from Hanscom
Field.

Other improvements included replacing all of the windows in the Tx
building. The frames had mostly rotted away. And generally sprucing up
the building. Today (and for quite a few years now) all the
radio-related stuff in that building is in the basement and below. (I
think the building has a sub-basement as well as a basement and I
think that, at the rear of the building, the sub-basement is at
ground-level.) The first and second floors are rented out as office
space to companies whose business has nothing to do with radio.

I too had heard that the patterns were wildly out of whack. I thought
that the FM tower created a major part of that problem, but I can
certainly believe that the ground system was in serious disrepair.

-----
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 02, 2010 12:04 PM
Subject: WCOP (was: Boston Radio Studios)
>
> A friend of mine, Bob Isenstein (KN1A) said he did some consulting
> for the 1150 operation in the '80s because measurements were
> indicating that the nulls north and northwest weren't anywhere near
> as tight as they were supposed to be (though northeast, southwest,
> and due west still seemed reasonably suppressed).
>
> The result of his investigation showed that parts of the ground
> system were corroded and, in some cases, completely disconnected.
> How long this condition had existed I couldn't say (but maybe as far
> back as the '60s?).  After the necessary maintenance work was done,
> nulls became much closer to what they are supposed to be.
>