Strange Doings At WNTN-AM 1550 Newton, MA

[daniel strassberg]

Don't forget "in New England, home of some of America's worst soil condutivity." If this were North Dakota or someplace like that, you might expect 3W at 1550 to be audible 30 miles from the tower. Also, I believe I read somewhere that 1550 in Windsor ON is back on the air but not as CBE and not being operated by the CBC.

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Dan Strassberg
e-fax 707-215-6367
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Laurence Glavin 
  To: boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org 
  Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2014 4:16 PM
  Subject: Strange Doings At WNTN-AM 1550 Newton, MA


  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.