[BC] Day/night separated sites

[Paul Christensen]

> WAPE was very popular with the kids all along the beaches even as far 
> north
> as Myrtle Beach, SC and Hilton Head.  I remember in the mid 60's all the
> kids radios on the beach were blasting the Big Ape.  At sunset, it 
> vanished.

The 690 kHz WAPE (now WOKV) night pattern is still highly directional and 
uses 6 towers in a 3-over-3 broadside array.  The pattern is so tight that 
when one ventures just to the north or south of the Duval County lines, the 
signal almost completely disappears.    When I was there in the mid-'90s, we 
installed a Harris DX-10 and a Phasetek phasor cabinet.   Dave Gorman and 
team had done some great work for us and Al Warmus conducted the proof.  A 
CP is now pending for 25KW DA status.  It needs it.

Shortly after the DX-10 installation, I recall having a show-down with 
Prism's leadership team.  After the removal of the home-made 50KW "Brennan" 
transmitter, we had inherited an abused Continental 317C1 for WAPE that 
simply could not be counted on when we switched from the six-tower Baldwin 
site to the 50KW ND day-time site in the early AM hours.  More often than 
not, we would switch to the Continental 316 aux during the day as repairs 
were made to the 317.  The 317C1 was consuming vast engineering resources in 
both time and operating expense.  The DX-50 was installed during the spring 
of '95 after making a "no brainer" cost v. benefit analysis and presenting 
it to Prism.

The 50 KW Orange Park site currently suffers from low radiation efficiency 
and I suspect that the ground system has been compromised over the years. 
The site is still located on Route 17, on the shores of the St. Johns River. 
The water at that section of the river is brackish - roughly half salt, half 
fresh-water.  Moreover, the tower height is 125-degrees, and just does not 
have the improved gain and vertical radiation profile that a 190 degree 
radiator offers.  We had pushed for a tower upgrade in the mid-'90s, but AM 
revenues could not justify the cap-x improvement.  Today, it would be nearly 
impossible to upgrade for many reasons.

There are endless stories of the former home-made 50 KW Brennen transmitter. 
Anyone fortunate enough to have witnessed that transmitter in operation will 
never forget it.  The water-cooled walk-in transmitter, cooling ponds and 
pumping system certainly rivals the WLW transmitter site in terms of its 
uniqueness.

In its heyday, WAPE was quite the party station.  In the '60s, a swimming 
pool and water slide occupied the front area of the studio property and was 
eventually filled in due to the obvious liability issues.  I had never 
confirmed this legend, but others before me indicated that at one time, the 
outside pool extended into the inner station lobby.  The legend seems 
incredible, but based on other mysterious designs of the studio/transmitter 
building, the legend is certainly plausible.  I wouldn't be surprised if 
Dave Hultsman was there when the cement was poured.

Paul


====================================
Paul Christensen, CPBE, CBNT
LAW OFFICE OF PAUL B. CHRISTENSEN, P.A.
3749 Southern Hills,  Jacksonville, Florida 32225
Office: (904) 379-7802   Facsimile: (904) 212-0050
pchristensen at ieee.org