Quincy Ma

[Dan.Strassberg]

The WMCA/WNYC site in S Kearney is one of the GREAT AM sites for soil
conductivity. It abuts the former sites of the old WNEW (AM) 1130 (now
WBBR) and WAAT (AM) 970 (now WNYM). Both of the other two sites moved
north--WNEW to (I think) Lyndhurst--but who can keep track of the town
lines in the Meadowlands?--when the S Kearney land was taken by the
Jersey Turnpike maybe 50 years ago. WAAT moved to Hackensack
(originally, I think, as WJRZ) when the station changed its CoL from
Newark to Hackensack and increased its night power from 1 kW to 5 kW.
That move enabled 970 to cover a lot more of the New York market than
was possible from S Kearney because the 970 station has to protect the
co-channel station in Portland ME and from S Kearney, the deep null
toward Portland made nighttime coverage of northern Manhattan and the
Bronx impossible. Of the three sites, the WNEW site was, with little
doubt, the best for AM propagation.

Over the years, these sites have been flooded out repeatedly. Around
1950, WNEW lost two brand new 50-kW AM transmitters in a flood and
completely rebuilt the transmitter building as a much taller structure
(maybe three stories). A decade or so later, the Jersey Turnpike
Authoritiy paid for WNEW's northward relocation to the present site
and the transmitter building there is at least two stories high.

Gotta hand it to WMCA for keeping that site on the air with only
minimal interruptions through repeated floods and to WNYC for having
the guts to move to such a star-crossed location. WNYC could have
moved to the WBBR site when it moved from 830 to 820. Had WNYC done
that, not only would it have been the beneficiary of the WBBR site's
not being as prone to flooding but it would have avoided a big mess
with re-radiation from the Pulaski Skyway bridge, which abuts the WMCA
site. Not only did the re-radiation problem keep WNYC from completing
its move for more than a year as the engineers struggled in vain to
bring the array into compliance with the CP but it resulted in WNYC
being restricted to 1 kW at night. WNYC's original CP for 820 was for
5 kW at night, which is really necessary to cover the five boroughs.

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul B. Walker, Jr." <walkerbroadcasting@gmail.com>
To: <ecps92@earthlink.net>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2011 4:16 PM
Subject: Re: Quincy Ma


>From InsideRadio.com:

Water and wind silences some stations. <http://www.insideradio.com/>
While much of the East Coast is saying Hurricane Irene could have been
worse, rising flood waters and high winds have caused headaches for a
handful of stations from Virginia to Massachusetts. Rising waters at
their
co-located transmitter site has taken New York Public Radio’s WNYC
(820) and
Salem’s religious WMCA (570) off the air. Principle Broadcasting’s
Boston
market ethnic WJDA, Quincy (1300) has lost its tower.



On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 2:05 PM, ~Bill <ecps92@earthlink.net> wrote:

> Just ran out to the Car, rain/wind let up for a bit, and 1300 am is
> all
> static, No signal  :(
> In the house only had analog dial, so I couldn't tell if it was on
> 1300 or
> not.
>
> The days of my listening to WJDA went away when the Asher family
> sold it
> off
> and the format was no longer English
>
> Bill Dunn           N1KUG
> Cruise Ship Frequencies
> http://scanmaritime.com/
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org
> [mailto:boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org] On
> Behalf
> Of
> Scott Fybush
> Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2011 2:48 PM
> To: boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org
> Subject: Re: Quincy Ma
>
> On 8/28/2011 1:10 PM, ~Bill wrote:
> > According to the Scanner [Quincy Fire] reports the  a 100'+  Tower
> > in the
> > marsh at the Intersection of Sea and Palmer St has gone down.
> >
> >
> >
> > The old Taxi Cab Bldg had a tower, but google earth shows that now
> > as
> > Condo's.
> >
> >
> >
> > Could it be the WJDA Tower?
>
> It certainly sounds like it - though the WJDA tower was considerably
> more than 100 feet.
>
> > Was this still in use? or had they moved the Transmitter to a
> > newer
> site???
>
> Still in use. Sister station WESX had moved to a new site and
> removed
> its old tower in Marblehead, but WJDA was still using the tower near
> Sea
> and Palmer.
>
> Anyone hearing a signal on 1300?
>
> s
>
>