Because Hey! It’s digital, therefore it must be better!
I found this faulted HD Radio exciter on my weekly site visit for WFAS-FM. I have no idea how long it was in the fault condition. The radio station received zero calls about the HD Radio being off. When I looked at the fault log, it stated that it was unable to ping something or another. However, the reason for the exciter shutting down was… wait for it… the fault log was full.
I rebooted the unit, it came up without problems and there appears to be no lingering communications issues.
At least these things weren’t terribly expensive… Oh no, wait, they were.
Well, at least people are getting enjoyment from their wonderful sounding digital radio, except, no: People don’t seem to know about it, or care.
So, the radio stations must be making tons of money on this thing, right? What? No?
I found this box of bumper stickers at a transmitter site the other day. And you might say “A box of bumper stickers, wow.” which would be nearly identical to the reaction I had. But then I started looking through them and realized that many were from the eighties and early nineties.
It is sort of like a way-back radio promotions time machine. On the back of most of these bumper stickers, there is some type of offer; 10% off, $2.00 off, etc from different local businesses. You remember those things; tire repair shops, miniature golf, non-chain restaurants, and fast food places, retail stores that aren’t Walmart, and so on. There were several that had bumper sticker spotting contests, including one, where if the bumper sticker was spotted covering another radio station’s bumper sticker, they would stop you on the spot and give you $1,500.00. Now that is exciting!
I picked a few of the more interesting examples:
Radio Station bumper stickers
Being an engineer and coming upon new, unknown data, I decided to quantify it. Therefore I made a spreadsheet of all the different radio stations and any other information I could find on the back of the bumper sticker:
Call Sign or Identifier
Frequency
Location
Date
92 MOO
92 FM
??
??
94.9 ZHT
94.9 Mhz
Colorado
1998
B.Rock
97.7 MHz
?
?
B96
96 FM
Chicago, IL
1990
CFX-95
95 FM
Central Michigan
??
FM 96
96 FM
Montreal, QC
1985
Groove 103.1
103.1 MHz
??
??
KAKS KISS 108
108 FM
??
??
KATD
95.3 FM
??
??
KAT-FM
92.9 MHz
??
??
KATT
100.5 MHz
Oklahoma City, OK
1988
KBBY
95 FM
??
??
KBOO
90.7 MHz
Portland, OR
1986
KBPI
105.9 MHz
Colorado
??
KCFO
102 FM
??
1984
KCFX
101 FM
Overland Park, KS
??
KDKA
1020 KHz
Pittsburgh, PA
1986
KEDG
103.5 MHz
Kern County?
1993
KENO AM Stereo
1460 KHz
Las Vegas, NV
1988
KEGL
97.1 MHz
??
??
KFMG
107.9 MHz
San Diego
1983
KGBX
1260 AM
??
??
KHIP
93.5 MHz
San Francisco, CA
Early 80’s
KHTR
103 FM
St. Louis, MO
1983
KIIS
102.7 MHz
Los Angeles, CA
1988
KISS 108 FM
108 FM
Medford, MA
1992
KLBS
1330 KHz
??
??
KLZX
93 FM
??
1989
KMEL
106.1 MHz
CA?
??
KMEL
106 FM
CA?
1990
KMET
94.7 MHz
??
??
KMGX
104 FM
??
??
KMJI
100 FM
Englewood, CO
1986
KNCI
98.5 MHz
??
??
KOMP
92.3 MHz
Las Vegas, NV
1986
KOUL
103.7 Mhz
??
??
KPXI
100.7 MHz
??
??
KRKO
1380 KHz
??
1990
K-Rock
1310 AM Stereo
Albuquerque, NM
1989
KRQR
97.3 MHz
San Francisco, CA
??
KSHE
95 FM
St. Louis, MO
??
KSHE
95 ?
St. Louis, MO
1995
KTAR
620 KHz
Phoenix, AZ
??
KTYD
99.9 MHz
??
1984
KUFO
98 FM
??
??
KVIL
103.7 MHz
??
??
KXOJ
100.9 MHz
??
2000
KXXX
105.3 MHz
Dane County?
1990
KYMS
106.3 FM
CA ??
1986
KYNK
1430 AM
??
??
KYST Radio Alegria
920 KHz
??
??
KZOK
102.5 FM
??
??
KZST
100 FM
Santa Rosa, CA
??
KZZP
104.7 MHz
??
1989
Pirate Radio
100.3 MHz
??
??
Pirate Radio 100.3
100.3 MHz
??
??
Power 104
104 FM
Huntsville, AL
1986
Power 106 FM
106 FM
Los Angeles, CA
??
Q-105 & 1380 AM
105 FM/1380 AM
Tampa, FL
??
Q-106.5
106.5 Mhz
St. Louis, MO
1989
Q-94
94 FM
Cookeville, TN
1983
Rock 103
103 FM
Memphis, TN
1984
Rock 105
105.9MHz
Nashville, TN
??
Rock 107
107 FM
PA
1983
Top 106 FM
106 FM
??
??
TV-69
Channel 69
Gainesville, FL
1986
WAAF
107 FM
??
??
WAIL
99.5 FM
Key West, FL
1987
WALK
97.5 Mhz
Long Island, NY
1992
WAPE
95 FM
Orlando
??
WAZY 96 ½
96.5 MHz
??
1990
WBAP
820 Khz
Dallas, TX
1986
WBFG
97.7 MHz
Effingham, IL
1987
WBT
1110 KHz
Charlotte, NC
??
WCBW
105 FM
St Louis, MO
??
WCCC
106.9 Mhz
Hartford, CT
??
WCKX
106.3 MHz
??
??
WCNX
1150 KHz
Middletown, CT
1984
WCUZ
101.3 FM/1230 AM
Greenville, SC
1987
WDVE
102.5 MHz
Pittsburgh, PA
??
WGN
720 KHz
Chicago, IL
1986
WHHU Y-102
102 FM
??
1988
WHLY
106 FM
Orlando, FL
1986
WHTZ Z-100
100 FM
New York, NY
Early 90’s
WIYY
98 FM
??
??
WIZN
106.7 Mhz
Burlington, VT
1990
WJMX
106 FM
??
??
WJZM
1400 AM
??
??
WKLH
96 FM
??
??
WKVT
92.7 Mhz
Vermont
1992
WLIZ
98.7 Mhz
Detroit, MI
1985
WLLZ
98.7 FM
??
??
WMAS
95 FM
Springfield, MA
1990
WMAS
1450 AM
Springfield, MA
1990
WMJQ
102 FM
Gainesville, FL
1993
WMLI
96.3 Mhz
Dane County ?
1989
WMMQ
92.7 MHz
Lansing, MI
1985
WMMS
100.7 MHz
??
??
WNEW
102.7 FM
New York, NY
1989
WNFI I-100
100 FM
Ormond Beach, FL
1984
WOVR
103 FM
??
WPSC
88.7 (TV-6)
Wayne, NJ
??
WQUT
101 FM
??
1986
WQXM
98 FM
Tampa, FL
1983
WRKT
104 FM/1300 AM
Broward co, FL
1984
WRO
95 FM
??
??
WRQK
107 FM
1986
WRRO
1440 KHz
??
??
WRSI
95.3 FM
Greenfield, MA
1985
WRX
103.7 Mhz
??
??
WSHO SHO Radio
98.3/103.5 FM
Schenectady, NY
1989
XX FM 95
95 MHz
Honolulu, HI
1986
Y-95
95 FM
St. Louis, MO
1988
Z-100
100 FM
New York, NY
??
Zeta 94.9
94.9 FM
??
1987
Right.
Well, if anyone is interested in any of these, contact me off line. There were some other, generic stickers like “Good times, Great Oldies” that did not have any identifying information.
This picture reminded me of something that happened early on in my radio career:
WDCD three-tower array, Albany, NY
This is another view, looking across from the roof of the transmitter building before the former studio building was removed:
WFLY STL antenna, circa 1992
The story dates back to 1990 or so. In the second picture, one can see two Scala PR-950U Paraflector antennas. These are the STL and TSL antennas for WFLY. They are on wooden utility poles because of the WPTR 1540 KHz antenna system is behind the poles, out of the picture to the left. As you can see in the second picture, these poles were immediately behind the studio building, known as the “Gold Studio, ” the name itself being pure propaganda.
Also, in the second picture you can see behind the poles, a pair of poplar trees. The reason for the second, taller pole was because across the street, out of the picture to the right, there was a stand of poplar trees which were growing up into the path of the WFLY STL system.
When this was noticed, then General Manager, John Kelly, tactfully approached the property owner and asked if the radio station could cut the “popular” trees down. Of course, the property owner wanted much money to do this. There were many telephone calls and discussions on how to kill the “popular” trees and other, not-so-ethical solutions to this growing problem. Finally, it was decided that it would be simple and less expensive to install the taller utility pole.
Thus, Northeast Towers found the utility pole and came to install it. In this area of Albany, the soil is a sandy loam, which required many hands digging and back bracing in the hole before they placed the pole in the ground. As it is a seventy foot pole, a good 12 feet was placed in the ground and the hole was backfilled with concrete. That is why the pole still stands today.
Naturally, all of this work is taking place on the hottest day of the year. Also, it stands to reason, the guy in the hole doing the manual labor is the oldest, most out-of-shape person on the crew. After lots of grunting and swearing, our man comes out of the hole looking whiter than the driven snow and sweating profusely. He kind of staggered into the back door of the building and collapsed on the floor just inside the back door. At this point, he was in full cardiac arrest. The promotions director, whose office was closest to the door, called the ambulance.
Fortunately, the board operator on WPTR was an EMT with the local fire department. After his pager went off, he ran out to his car, got his EMT bag and arrived on scene within seconds. He was able to start CPR quickly. In the mean time, a crowd had gathered out in the hallway. John (the General Manager), hearing the commotion, storms out of his office and down the hallway. He gets to the edge of the crowd and yells:
“WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING HERE? DON’T YOU HAVE JOBS TO DO? AND WHAT IS THAT GUY DOING LAYING ON THE FLOOR?”
The good news is, the guy survived, thanks in no small part to the quick action of the board operator.
My first job as Chief Engineer was at WPTR and WFLY in 1991. I was young and it was a learning experience. The WPTR transmitter was a Harris MW50A, which reliably went off the air every six months. The transmission lines going out to the towers had fallen off of their wooden support posts, trees were growing up in the antenna field, and sample lines were going bad. In short, it was a mess. Even so, the station was well-known and well-liked in the community. One could still see echoes of greatness that once was.
When Crawford Broadcasting purchased the station in 1996, they put much money and effort into renovating the facility. Replacing the Harris transmitter with a solid state Nautel, replacing the phasor and transmission lines, cutting the trees from the field, painting the towers, renovating the old transmitter building into a new studio facility, and finally removing the old Butler building that formerly housed the “Gold Studios.”
Then the depression of 2008-20?? hit. Once again, the place has fallen on hard times. WDCD-AM has been silent since last April. The cost of running the 50 KW AM transmitter being too much to bear in the current economy. Formatically, the station drifted around for several years. According to the STA to go silent:
WDCD WILL SUSPEND OPERATIONS FOR A PERIOD DURING WHICH IT WILL DEVELOP AND PREPARE TO DEPLOY A NEW PROGRAM FORMAT AND REPOSITION ITS VOICE AND IDENTITY IN THE COMMUNITY.
They may need to do something slightly non-religious to survive.
While we were waiting for the utility company to turn the electricity back on after yesterday’s fire, I took a short walk around the WDCD-AM site and took some pictures. The transmitter disconnect thrown, fuses are pulled, it is kind of sad to see the Nautel XL-60 dark:
Nautel XL-60 AM transmitter. WDCD Albany, NY
I apologize greatly for the blurry picture, it was taken with my cellphone camera, my good camera being back at home on my desk. Radio stations, when they are on the air, seem like they are alive. Machinery hums, fans move air, meters move, and there is a sense of purpose. Silent radio stations give me a sense of foreboding like something is terribly wrong.
WDCD three tower array, Albany, NY
View of the towers without Butler Building. The towers are 340 feet tall, which is 206 electrical degrees on 1540 KHz. The site was constructed like this to suppress skywave signals toward ZNS, Nassau, Bahamas. ZNS is the only clear channel station allotted to the Bahamas by NARBA. The other station WDCD is protecting is KXEL, Waterloo, IA. During the 90’s, I received many QSL requests from Norway/Finland and even a few from South Africa. I know that the station had a large following in most of New England.
WDCD tower base, tower one (furthest from building)
Tower one tower base. This IDECO tower had to have the top 60 feet replaced after it was hit by an airplane in 1953. The tower base also had to be replaced in the late 1980’s as it was crumbling and falling apart. To do this, Northeast Towers used railroad jacks and jacked the entire tower up off of the base insulator. They re-formed and poured a new base, carefully letting the tower back down on a new base insulator about a week later.
WDCD towers looking back toward the transmitter building
Antenna field looking back at the transmitter building. If you work at radio transmitter sites, I encourage you to take pictures of all these things, as someday, they will all be gone.
WDCD bomb shelter
The “bomb shelter” and 220 KW backup generator, constructed by FEMA in 1968 as part of the BSEPP. This used to have an emergency studio and enough diesel fuel for fourteen days of operation. Now, the bomb shelter has a kitchen and bathrooms. The underground storage tank no longer meets EPA standards and has been pumped out.
WDCD Onan generator
The Onan generator is conservatively rated at 220 KW, surge rating 275 KW. These things were way over-constructed, so it is likely it would easily run 225 KW all day. It has an inline six-cylinder engine with a massive flywheel. When the engine is stopped, it takes about twenty seconds for the generator to stop turning.
Three phase service
National Grid, 3 pot, 480 volt, 3 phase service, original to the 1947 building.
