WLAW claim

[A Joseph Ross]

Well, WBZ and WLAW both were at 50,000 watts, so I suppose by that 
measure, they were equally powerful.  Both had directional arrays, so 
maybe one or the other had a more powerful signal in some direction than 
the other.  The difference between a Class I and Class II station wasn't 
necessarily power, it was in how many other stations in North America 
there were on the same channel.

I don't remember ever seeing an explanation of the difference between 
Class I-A and I-B, but from looking at which stations were which, I 
noticed that Class I-A stations had no other co-channel stations 
competing with them anywhere in North America, while Class I-B stations 
might have one other, on the other side of the continent.


On 7/23/2019 12:25 PM, Jim Hall wrote:
> Just browsing through some Broadcasting Magazine yearbooks at
> americanradiohistory.com. In the 1949 yearbook (page 149), WLAW Lawrence has
> a full page ad proclaiming itself as "New England's most powerful radio
> station". On what basis did WLAW make this claim, considering that even with
> 50 kW from Burlington, it is still a Class B (old Class II) station, with
> WBZ and WTIC as Class A (Class I-A and I-B)? Now, where I live in Andover,
> 680 is much stronger than 1030 given the distances involved and the
> radiation patterns, but is/was 680 really "New England's most powerful radio
> station"?
>
>

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D. · 1340 Centre Street, Suite 103 · Newton, MA 02459
617.367.0468 · Fax:617.507.7856 · http://www.attorneyross.com