WOWO Radio

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

There was a station in NY that played Big Band music back in the late 90s, somewhere around 1560. I think it might have been WQEW, but I could be wrong. Disney ended uo buying them and turned it into a child's station with tunes from Disney movies.

Then I discovered 830 WCRN Worcestor/Framingham playing Big Band music, so I felt better. A coupla years back, they changed to a moldy-oldies format, which just didn't give the push-pull audio on the SX-28 or -62 the same workout. Now they're a talk radio format.

Does there exist anywhere, a webpage or list of AM stations still playing Big Band Classics, Oldies, and so on? I recall discussing this years ago with someone on QTH.net to build a users list, but it never came together.

I did hear on the news recently that XM (maybe it was Sirrius) wasn't doing so well with subscriptions. Maybe there's still hope for the traditional AM stations?

[Jim KF2SY]

Todd,
I found this website that can do any kind of radio station/format search you wish.
here is a quick search for US AM stations only that have an oldies format.


http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?call=&band=AM&freq=&freq_exact=Yes&city=&state=&country=u&format=old&owner_search=starts&owner=&scope=&count=20&is_lic=Y&is_cp=Y&is_unl=Y&is_ful=Y&is_lp=Y&sort=Call&sr=1&sid=

Jim

[W2JBL]

KB2WIG- don't know your name, but i believe that's "beat me Daddy eight to the bar", as in boogie, right? Bruce- maybe one of yoooze guys in the broadcast biz could get ahold of the techs at 740 in Huntington and get that audio straightened out with a nice and friendly call or Email? it's a damn shame hearing it like that. my old Ranger/linear setup on 1610 back in the day had a way better air sound than that and i'm only a two way guy...that 740 signal looks like a CB rig on the 'scope!
Phil- i'm cool with Gospel back on WLIB. they are doing a great lineup of artists and the audio is good. country would have been nice though, and it's not just a white guy's format. do you have any idea how many transplanted southern black folks around here like country too? it might surprise you to know that those people buy moonshine (easily found in NYC) and listen to country, but they really do.

[W2XR]

Hi Chris,

I'm not in the broadcasting business, but listening to the terrible audio of WNYH 740-AM certainly does tempt me to call the station and offer my services in getting the xmtr, etc., straightened out there. Plus I think it would be great fun to work at a commercial AM BC station on a very part-time basis (such as weekends only), especially since the rig there is a big 50 KW xmtr throttled back to 25 KW output. It's something I have'nt done since the early '70s when I worked at that stations predecessor, WGSM-AM, summers while going to college.

It's really a shame; the station sounds awful, but the program content is really great, with Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, the Skyliners, among other 50's-60's rock and country artists featured. Another station here on Long Island that plays great music, but of a different genre is piss-weak 1 KW daytime-only WALK-AM, 1370; they play a lot of jazz, big band and show tunes; music that I would'nt be caught dead listening to 25 years ago, but that I really enjoy and collect now. Incredible talent such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Etta James, et al,  really are wonderful to listen to after all!!! In agreement with the HUZ-man, my folks were right; that is great and timeless music, and in my middle age I have acquired and love their listening tastes. BTW, the old Gates BC-1F from WALK-AM, where so much of that music emanated from, is now reincarnated and recycled as part of the W2XR xmtr.

I've got the feeling that in the broadcast engineering field nowadays, there is no such thing as "very part-time" work, and I have a very full-time job in a completely different aspect of the electronics industry. I'm sure that Phil, K2PG can comment on this.

73,

Bruce

[W4WSZ]

Back in 1969, I built a KW station here in North Florida on 1090 kc.  We were daytime only in order to protect KAAY, Little Rock, Ark.   We thought we were big time protecting the 50 KW GIANT.

As you say......those were the days when commercial radio was fun.

73,

Bob,W4WSZ

[Tim WA1HnyLR]

Bacon,

Remember when WGSM Huntington would shut down after critical hours, and CBL Toronto would come blasting in on 740 AM? They ran 50 KW on that clear channel frequency.

I have'nt heard CBL in years; any idea what happened to them?

Funny, I had a landline conversation with Eric, WB2CAU this evening and the subject of the BC-1F and the BC-5P at WGSM came up.

Hope all is well with you!

73,

Bruce, W2XR

Hi Bruce,

Yes, the Toronto 50KW station on 740KHz used to ID as CBL, Toronto.  When I worked at WGSM 740 in Huntington, I double-checked frequency by turning on the exciter and listening to the beat against CBL.  The Toronto station is still on there, but evidently it IDs as CBC now.  I listen once in a while, it plays some old 1940 and 1950 classics.  It comes in very well around Washington DC at night.

I liked the BC1-F at WGSM.  It really sounded good, although I could see some curvature on the trapezoid pattern.  WGSM on omni with the BC1P was great!  I think that the three-tower directional array was OK, but the four-tower array that replaced it when they went 25KW daytime had some odd sidelobes, and on the north side of the beam, receivers really had to be tuned carefully for it to sound OK.  That four-tower array went up after some dopey kids cut the guys to one tower of the three-tower array (crashing the tower), and then got caught because their car wouldn't start.  They're lucky the tower didn't come down on top of them.  The four-tower array had a frequency-selective pattern to protect WACE 730 in Chiopee, Mass (I used to hear WACE come on the air in the early morning just before WGSM-740 back in the early 60s).  The antenna may have been changed since then, though.

The BC5-P at WGSM always sounded awful compared to the BC1-F.  The 5-P did not have nearly the clarity of the 1-P, and it was not as loud, because its audio phase distortion prevented the Volumax from controlling modulation peaks well.  I tried to modify the negative feedback on it to improve the audio - but it failed one day, and I got canned.  Oops... it was not mine to play with.  Gotta remember that.

I think it was Timtron who told me that the 5-P was really a 2.5KW transmitter that was pushed to run 5KW.  I can believe it.

When I worked at WGSM around 1970, they came on at dawn with 1KW non-directional, then a few hours later they went to 5KW directional with the three tower array.  It may be that the three-tower directional array with the phasing networks did not help the sound, but I don't think so.  I sneakily tried the BC1-P on the 3-tower array one day, and as I recall, it still sounded good.  The four-tower array and the 25KW transmitter sounded fine out along Long Island, but in northern Huntington off the beam, it wasn't so good.

WGSM was running some awful low-power during the nighttime back around the 1980s, but I couldn't hear it more than about a half mile away from the transmitter.  Maybe to the east (on the beam) it did better, but not much.  In the late 80s, I listened from Patchogue (out east, on the beam), and I could really tell when they kicked to high power directional in the morning!  What a difference!  Sounded good, too.

In the 90s it was bought by Radio Disney, and my mom complained about the splatter on WOR 710.  Then I think WHLI 1100 (Hempstead) bought it and used it as a more westerly outlet.  Maybe I have this sequence backwards.  I went to the transmitter site and looked at the towers, and I found one of the old abandoned concrete tower bases from the three tower array... wow, it was broken down.  That's when I began to realize how many years had gone by.

The last I heard, the 740 KHz station in Huntington, NY changed callsigns and went off the air except for some tests, but maybe someone bought it and put it back on the air.

 some years back there was a devastating fire at the WGSM transmitter site. Many years later when I was working for Armstrong transmitter a crusty burnt Harris MW50 showed up It was WGSMs transmitter. It was to be fixed up as a 20Kw transmitter to go to Brazil. The 4CX35000 modulator and PA tube were replaced with 4CX15000 tubes. The industial voltage in South America is 360v 3 phase . That worked well with the oil filled plate transformer that was designed for 440-480 3 phase being that the needed  B+ required was about 18-19Kv . It took a whole summer to rebuild it. The panel meters were melted out of the panels along with the wiring harness.It was a long process. The end result was a very efficient 20Kw transmitter. 20 kw is a popular power assignment in Central and Southe  America. I imagine the transmitter still lives to this day  a monument to WGSM   .But I do have one piece of my own. A somewhat scorched Delta OIB-1 rackmount impedance bridge. Allan Weiner has it now . I need it to measure tower base impedance. Allan has a 4Kw daytimer on 710Khz which has a CP to 780Khz at a full 5Kw with 60 watts nitetime power. I am rebuilding the old RCA 5F for service using brick shithouse technology. Perhaps a digital photo presentation when completed. It is too bad that the Clear Channel AM broadcast channels have gone the way they have. I did like WLIBs island music format that they had before air amerika came along. also the demise of WWKB when they dumped their nostalgia rock format in favor of another insipid talk format. Oh well such is life in the slowlane of broacasting. De TimWA1HnyLR