WMEX Boston Missed An Opportunity

[DanStrassberg]

WMEX held their ground for a good number of years against WBZ and WRKO.  With 3 towers stuck in the mud of the mighty Neponset River at Quincy, MA.  5,000 glorious watts of power vs 50,000 watts for their competition.

The night array (previously the DA-1 array) in Squantum was always two towers. The third tower did not materialize until the daytime power increase to 50 kw. At that point, WMEX became 50 kW-D/5 kW-N DA-2. It still used two towers day and night but only one of the three towers was common between the day and night arrays. The night pattern used the north and south towers and the day pattern used the south and east towers. The original plan was to use the north and east towers by day, but the state took the land on which the east tower was to have been built and the east tower instead had to be built south of its originally planned location.

Although the construction of the State St South office complex just west of the site utterly decimated the 5 kW night signal, the 50 kW day signal remained pretty good. Anybody in his right mind would have said the day pattern was ridiculous because all of the signal went out to sea but the guy who designed the day pattern knew what he was doing. I don't think that the 50 kW day signal was anywhere inferior to the old 5 kW day signal. It covered inland a pretty good distance--particularly to the north of the site. There were thus many places where the 50 kW did a world of good. However, once the office complex went up, a new night site became mandatory.

[DougD]

It just occurred to me for the first time that Boston, a city of 600,000 (give or take), has five 50,000-watt AM radio stations (WRKO, WEEI, WBZ, WXKS, and WWZN, and I suppose --- though as a Worcester County native I would never concede this --- one could throw in WCRN as well), which ranks it right up there with Chicago (six) and New York (six).  I'm impressed!

[DanStrassberg]

It just occurred to me for the first time that Boston, a city of 600,000 (give or take), has five 50,000-watt AM radio stations (WRKO, WEEI, WBZ, WXKS, and WWZN, and I suppose --- though as a Worcester County native I would never concede this --- one could throw in WCRN as well), which ranks it right up there with Chicago (six) and New York (six).  I'm impressed!

New York has eight: 660, 710, 770, 880, 1010, 1050, 1130, 1560. Of these, all but two (1010, 1050) are Class As. Boston has only one class A (WBZ). In fact, there is only one other Class A AM in all of the six New England statews (WTIC). Chicago has five Class As (670, 720, 780, 890, 1000).

[DougD]

I stand corrected.  I had forgotten 1010 and 1130 in New York, and had remembered 1160 but had forgotten 1000 in Chicago. 

BTW:  I understand that at one time, around 1940 or thereabouts, Travelers Insurance made noises about wanting to relocate WTIC to Boston.  I don't know what the rationale was behind that, but I believe the FCC nixed it.  What with WBZ and WNAC having the city's two NBC affiliations sewn up, I can't imagine what Travelers thought it would have gained by the move, except perhaps for speculation that NBC might prefer a Class A 50-kw 'er for its Red Network.

[DanStrassberg]

I stand corrected.  I had forgotten 1010 and 1130 in New York, and had remembered 1160 but had forgotten 1000 in Chicago. 

BTW:  I understand that at one time, around 1940 or thereabouts, Travelers Insurance made noises about wanting to relocate WTIC to Boston.  I don't know what the rationale was behind that, but I believe the FCC nixed it.  What with WBZ and WNAC having the city's two NBC affiliations sewn up, I can't imagine what Travelers thought it would have gained by the move, except perhaps for speculation that NBC might prefer a Class A 50-kw 'er for its Red Network.

For certain, had WTIC moved to Boston, Boston radio history would be a lot different. Not all that high on the list of the various differences ranked by importance would be that there would be no WILD or WQOM. Maybe WQOM would be licensed to Worcester. Would Garabedian have been interested in building it if it could not have become, in effect, a Boston station? Higher on the list, would CBS have bought the old WEEI 590? WTIC, with 50 kW, might have become the CBS affiliate. Hartford radio history would also be a lot different.

[Eli Polonsky]

For certain, had WTIC moved to Boston, Boston radio history would be a lot different. Not all that high on the list of the various differences ranked by importance would be that there would be no WILD or WQOM.

I certainly wouldn't say that WILD was always not important. It isn't anymore, but for a few decades from the '60s until its long decline, it was a very important station to Boston's African-American community. What happened to it over the past decade or so was a shame, but it would have been much more of a shame if it had never existed.

[HHH]

WMEX held their ground for a good number of years against WBZ and WRKO.  With 3 towers stuck in the mud of the mighty Neponset River at Quincy, MA.  5,000 glorious watts of power vs 50,000 watts for their competition.

The night array (previously the DA-1 array) in Squantum was always two towers. The third tower did not materialize until the daytime power increase to 50 kw. At that point, WMEX became 50 kW-D/5 kW-N DA-2. It still used two towers day and night but only one of the three towers was common between the day and night arrays. The night pattern used the north and south towers and the day pattern used the south and east towers. The original plan was to use the north and east towers by day, but the state took the land on which the east tower was to have been built and the east tower instead had to be built south of its originally planned location.

Although the construction of the State St South office complex just west of the site utterly decimated the 5 kW night signal, the 50 kW day signal remained pretty good. Anybody in his right mind would have said the day pattern was ridiculous because all of the signal went out to sea but the guy who designed the day pattern knew what he was doing. I don't think that the 50 kW day signal was anywhere inferior to the old 5 kW day signal. It covered inland a pretty good distance--particularly to the north of the site. There were thus many places where the 50 kW did a world of good. However, once the office complex went up, a new night site became mandatory.

Yes, I remember that the WIMMEX 50K day signal from Squantum was a big improvement in many areas.  For the first time, you could hear station on Cape Cod and in Portland, Maine in the daytime.  Unfortunately, WNLC New London prevented any gain to the southwest, so they still nulled pretty badly that way.  The night signal was always pretty rough, squeezed in between two 50KW blasters from Washington and Buffalo, but -- as Dan says -- the new building made it go from bad to worse.

I know that 20/20 is hindsight, but they should have had Waltham as just a night site, and kept the Squantum site for day.  Now with WNLC gone, they could have probably gone 50K non-D daytime from Squantum which would have probably had fabulous coverage.

[DanStrassberg]

I know that 20/20 is hindsight, but they should have had Waltham as just a night site, and kept the Squantum site for day.  Now with WNLC gone, they could have probably gone 50K non-D daytime from Squantum which would have probably had fabulous coverage.

Except that the 50 kW ND operation would have to be limited to non-critical hours. WWZN's non-CH D pattern, which was made possible by the deletion of WNLC, sends toward Nashville a signal roughly the equivalent of 50 kW ND from the shorter towers at the old Squantum site. During CH, however, the old Waltham D pattern remains in effect and, though it is not nearly as restrictive to the southwest as is the night pattern, it is a pretty tight cardioid with a radiation maximum centered at around 60 degrees and minima to the southwest (around 240 degrees) equivalent to only about 1 kW ND.

Given the location of the Waltham site (northwest of downtown Boston), the high-on-the-dial frequency, and the poor soil conductivity around Waverly Square, it's really kind of amazing that WWZN gets out to the southwest as well as it does during CH. I think the CH coverage to the southwest from Squantum, where the conductivity is better, was at least as good. And don't forget that 1510 could diplex with WMKI during daylight hours (CH and non-CH) getting around the problems caused by the State St South office complex, which was west of the old WMEX site but is--I guess--more or less east of WMKI.

Someone had commented on the effect of the tide cycle on WMKI's night pattern. I believe that problem has been successfully addressed at other stations. One of them is the AM 910 in Oakland CA, whose two-tower array is actually in SF Bay. I believe that station (ex-KNEW) used to run 5 kW DA-N (maybe it was DA-1--not sure) but within the last decade or so increased to 20 kW-D/5 kW-N DA-2. I've been told that they use a float rather like the one in a toilet tank to adjust the phasor parameters as the tide comes in and goes out.