Strange Doings At WNTN-AM 1550 Newton, MA

[Laurence Glavin]

For many years, WNTN-AM-1550 in Newton, MA had been not only a strict daytimer even though they could have
operated with flea-power (a la WJIB-AM 740 in Cambridge, Ma for example) at night, but in the spring and summer, they
went off-the-air at 5:00 pm or so when local sunsets were much later. I've observed a few other datimers that stayed on a little
longer in the evening after wintertime but nonetheless pulled the plug early in June and July, but WNTN just seemed to call it quits at 5:00
no matter what. Then I read that lately the station has been broadcast with a mighty THREE watts overnight, so I figured that
as the hours of sunlight increased, they'd keep running at 10,000 watts until local sunset. But no, at exactly 5:00 pm since the
start of Daylight Saving Time, WNTN seems to start running at its nighttime authorization of THREE watts! What's surprising to
me is that when I caught them doing that, I was in my automobile on route 93 North just before the Merrimack River in Andover. That means I must
have one of the most sensitive AM sections on a car radio in the US to be getting an audible THREE-WATT AM station high up
on the dial from thirty miles away.