[BC] How the KOB decision affected WABC

[PeterH5322@aol.com]

>I'm curious about the history of the Grand Junction 1100 signal.  I believe 
>they were authorized in the 80's...?
>
>They're 50kw/36kw/10kw; 3-tower in-line, south of Grand Junction in dry 
>hilly country and their signal doesn't seem to have much of a wallop.
>
>Peter, what's going on there?

KSWS went on-air with 50 kW days and 10 kW nights into three towers, 
protecting KDKA.

KSWS sent a magnificent signal into Los Angeles, which made any possible 
future upgrade to KGBS (1020, 50 kW DA-1, L-KDKA) tenuous at best.

Storer paid for KSWS' 50 kW night DA, three more towers, and reportedly 
some additional financial consideration, and which directionalized KSWS 
away from KGBS, but still sent at least 10 kW, equivalent, towards every 
direction in the southwest.

The letter, but certainly not the spirit, of the "Clear Channel Solution" 
was thereby maintained.

(Class II-As MUST operate with at least 10 kW nights, just like Class Is, 
but may operate with as little as 0.25 kW days).

KSWS' modifications, paid for by Storer, certainly made KGBS' upgrade to 
50 kW DA-2 feasible, and, as KTNQ, it presently has one one of the best 
signals in the L.A. metro.

Similar situation with 1100, where KFAX (ex-L-WTAM) reportedly paid the 
Class II-A station to install a DA which protected KFAX, as well as WTAM.

Because this is 10 kW nights and is an in-line array, the resultant 
pattern is not as highly bastardized (distorted) as is Roswell's.

Grand Junction could easily meet the WTAM protection requirement, and the 
10 kW night minimum power for a Class II-A, with only two towers.

(Hell, Casper's Class II-A does 50 kW DA-N with only two towers).

Money talks!

Note that both of these payoffs and resulting breakdowns of Class II-As 
were effected before the wholesale licensure of low-power (usually 10/1 
kW) stations on all U.S. clears, everywhere. And, with Canadian and 
Mexican use of U.A. Class I-A clears.

A breakdown of a (Class II-A) clear ... after a breakdown of a (Class 
I-A) clear ... oh, the American way!

With respect to dates, this wholesale licensure probably coincides with 
"Rio", which was indeed in the '80s.

KSWS' breakdown occurred in the mid 1970s.

As with all Class II-A stations, authorization, per se, occurred with the 
publishing of the Class II-A List, in the early 1960s.

Licensure took a little longer, with KSWS being the first to be 
constructed, in 1965.

I believe the last to be constructed was 890 in Utah, in the 1980s.

660 should have been on the Class II-A List, but somehow escaped (880 was 
on the original List while 770 was added to the List as an afterthought, 
and was used for KOB).

660 was later used for KTNN, as a Class II-B, NOT as a Class II-A, where 
its 50 kW DA-N signal (two towers!) certainly provides adequate service 
to The Navajo Nation (and to most of the southwest).