[BC] How the KOB decision affected WABC

[Dan Strassberg]

Mark Durenberger wrote about former Class D AMs on 770 that he thinks now
interfere more with WABC than they did when KOB was fighting to have WABC
downgraded to a Class II.

Mark mentioned Minneapolis, St Louis, and Miles City.

I don't think Miles city arrived until after all of the former Class IA
channels had been opened to Class II fulltime stations, but as for KUOM and
WEW, they are both still daytimers. KUOM runs 5 kW-D ND-D, and like all
Class B daytimers on ex-IA channels, I presume that it signs on at New York
sunrise--probably with with 500W. I think it was licensed for 5 kW well
before the KOB case was finally decided, which means well before the
breakdown of the IA channels. WEW may still be operating with 1 kW-D, the
facilities it has had for many decades. In January 2004, WEW applied for
(and has since been granted) a CP for 10 kW-D/205W-N DA-2. I don't know
whether the improved facilities are on the air yet. I gather that the owner,
Birach Broadcasting, opted for the low night power because any more power
would have necessitated a change in the station class to Class B. With such
a change would have come the requirement to deliver an NIF signal to at
least 80% of St Louis. That would have greatly increased the cost of the
project--assuming that a suitable night site could even have been found. It
is interesting to note that WEW's 10-kW D pattern protects only WBBM; there
is no critical-hours protection to WABC. So yes, when WEW's new signal goes
on the air, WABC may suffer a small amount of new daytime-skywave
interference, but its hard to ascribe that to the KOB decision--except to
the extent that the KOB decision was an antecedent of the breakdown of all
of the ex-IA channels.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg at att.net
eFax 707-215-6367