wibg radio 99

[Sam Lit]

Lets not forget the old WAMS during the 60's, a wasted 5kw daytime signal, with no coverage to the north, living in Philly they were unlistenable daytime, used to listen in Chester PA at that time and barely...and they were a good alternative to WIBG before WFIL came on in 66.  Its funny now piggbacking on WILM's tower with less than half the power non directional they make it into Philly why couldnt Farley see this and rectify it....

Because WAMS had to protect primary sharetimer 1380/WAWZ Zarepeth NJ, & 1380/WBNX NY.

[oasisrulz]

But it seems now with 4500w less daypower then they had and 980w less nightpower then they had, they seem to get into Philly so much better than in the old days, even at night they are listenable in the Philly area. Granted, they only use one tower instead of the strict 5 tower directional in the old days at Mt Cuba, which was closer to Philly, then the WILM site used now.  DelDot has a great signal to the Northeast in fact they kinda gear to the Northeast....go figure...

[jimwalsh2001]

Speaking of Chester...WEEZ/WQIQ at one time had an arrangement where they were 770w by day and 1000/directional by night.  Yep...they actually RAISED power at night.  Don't ask me how it worked...

[Starbucks]

Easy...you can reflect a signal no matter how much power it is....but omni directional it just travels all over. That's why you have to reduce power.

[DanStrassberg]

Speaking of Chester...WEEZ/WQIQ at one time had an arrangement where they were 770w by day and 1000/directional by night.  Yep...they actually RAISED power at night.  Don't ask me how it worked...

Nowadays, lots of AMs run with higher power at night than by day. I'd be surprised if the number of such stations in the US were smaller than 100 and I wouldn't be surprised if the number were several hundred. The first station to use higher power at night than by day may have been the AM 1330 in Youngstown OH. (I think it was WHOT at the time.) Back then, WHOT also had the distinction of having separate day and night transmitter sites, one of which had six towers; the other had five. All that for a station that ran 500W by day and 1 kW by night.

Higher power at night is now relatively common on the six graveyard channels (1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450, 1490) because there are very few DAs among the Class C AMs on those frequencies and the adjacent-channel protections are more stringent by day than by night. Although the day/night power differences among the Class Cs are usually small (the cited 770W-D/1 kW-N would be fairly typical), they can be a lot more extreme among Class Bs. KFMB San Diego, for example, runs 5 kW-D/50 kW-N DA-N. Going directional by day would not allow KFMB to increase its day power. Its daytime power limitation is due to a daytimer, second-adjacent KBRT on Catalina Island.

[jrobert]

I used to work at WAMS back in the early 70's. Their Day power and pattern was a mess, with a constant change to "Critical Hours" pattern whenever WAWZ 1380 in Zarapath, NJ signed on in a shared frequency agreement with 1380 in NYC. We'd have to change patterns every 2 hours on weekends. During critical hours service, WAMS' northern and eastern limits were brought in considerably.

The reason you can hear them so good now, is that WAWZ no longer exists on the AM band to protect anymore. Had Rollins continued broadcasting, they'd probably have quite a good signal these days. But instead of selling the station to another broadcaster, Rollins turned in the license to 1380 in Wilmington, knocked down the 5 towers, demolished the building and sold the land to condo developer. What a shame. They were such a great little rocker just south of Philly. We certainly had our share of fun running it.