WCOP

[Scott Fybush]

Garrett Wollman wrote:

> The expanded-band allocations were made on the basis of identifying
> the stations which, if they moved, would provide the greatest
> reduction in interference to other stations.  

Which, incidentally, goes a long way toward explaining why the northeast 
in general and New England in particular drew so little in the way of 
X-band allocations. Being on the edge of the country, few New England 
stations on regional channels are major contributors to interference to 
stations elsewhere. I'm surprised 930 in Rochester qualified; it's 
easier to see how 980 in Troy did, given the interference it generates 
to stations such as WCAP and WTEM (WRC).

> Most of the X-banders that have been successful were built under the
> "WJDM rule" -- a loophole put in by Congress giving an X-band
> allocation to any daytimer which is the only AM facility licensed to a
> city of 100,000 or more people.  WWRU was one of these.

I believe that loophole actually specified "only broadcast facility," 
which might explain why WJIB couldn't use it - WMBR and WHRB, as well as 
WLVI, also being licensed to Cambridge. (I believe, also, that the 
loophole has since been closed; I had an idea a few years back about how 
it might have been exploited in another location and found it wasn't 
workable.)

s