Paul Thurst – Page 70 – Engineering Radio

WROW

WROW 590 KHz, Albany, NY is another one of those successful AM stations. They have a music format, which I would characterize as a blend between nostalgia and oldies. They do well in the Albany book and most importantly; make money. The Wikipedia entry is a little dated, as they have had a music format for over four years now. The low dial position helps, as I can get the station up near the Canadian border and most of the way down to Poughkeepsie during the daytime pattern operation, which is better than across-town WGY, 50,000 watts non-directional.

Here are a few pictures of the transmitter site:

Broadcast Electronics AM5E, WROW, Albany, NY

WROW main transmitter

WROW transmitter room; main and backup transmitters, phasor, equipment rack, etc.

The former backup transmitter for WROW-AM. This was moved from the original transmitter site, located a few miles north of the current transmitter site in Glenmont, NY. The current transmitter site was constructed in 1974.

Backup power

WROW antenna array. The station transmits with 5,000 watts daytime and 760 watts night time. The towers are slightly tall at 105 electrical degrees. It is hard to do tall towers at the low end of the dial because the towers get very tall. These are 149 meters (488 feet) tall.

Nautel V-10 repair

Not exactly sure how it happened, but one of our Nautel transmitters malfunctioned! It is a pretty rare event, so I thought the exclamation point was needed. One of the PA pallets went bad and the transmitter lost 1/2 a PA module. Since the TPO for this particular station is 7 KW, they remained on the air at full power. In the interest of staying on top of things, we fixed it anyway.

Diagnostics were simple:

Fault lights on the front of the transmitter observed
Press the status button to find out faults, which were Module D failed
To to module sub-menu, find Module D and discover Q1 disabled, and Q3 shutdown.
The problem is with Q3, order a new pallet from the manufacture

Upon removing the module, I did not see the damage at first:

Nautel V series FM transmitter PA module

It is board A3, which for this particular flavor transmitter is a Nautel Part number NAPA16-B. Once I replaced the defective module with a new one, I discovered what looks like a symptom of the greater problem:

Over to the left-middle-lower section of the board, R10 and R8 are burned open. These are surface mount 2-watt, 20-ohm resistors. A glance at the schematic shows that these are part of the bias supply. A quick set of measurements with a DVM shows that Q1 seems to be intact and not shorted. Interesting…

The question is: Is it worth trying to fix this board or should I just trash it an buy a new spare?

Update: Schematic diagram as requested:

Pai says “No fighting!”

In the putsch to revitalize AM, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai advises that it would be best if we did not argue about solutions. Actually what was said was this:

On the other hand, if too many broadcasters allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good, our efforts could be doomed by infighting.

That is well and good, so long as the proposed solution does not make things worse. I would posit that worse is already the enemy of the good, so any proposal that would make things worse should be protested vigorously.

I have written quite a bit about AM, its relevance, and possible revitalization. There is no size fits all solution to the problems facing AM broadcasters. In the final equation, stations should be judged on their viability as a business and service to the community. Those that fail to measure up should turn in their licenses.

Update: And so it begins. The narrative is already being shaped, as Darryl Parks (original post has been removed) has found out. After posting in his blog a few comments on the FCC’s revitalization efforts, he was excoriated by several high-profile broadcasters calling his comments “Beyond not helpful.” For those not versed in double speaking, that means it is harmful. While Parks may not have gotten all the technical jargon exactly right, his points are valid and are in agreement with the widely accepted laws of physics. I know, I know, quoting science is dull and boring, something that conspiracy theorists are well practiced with.

Now, SHUT UP AND GET BACK IN LINE

Somewhere, a community has lost its radio station

I am sure that this has happened in more places than one. WZAD 97.3 MHz was licensed around 1990 as part of the 80-90 drop-ins. The 80-90s were the beginning of the end for viable douopoly operations is smaller markets and triggered the huge wave of consolidation that began a few years later. WZAD started out as a community-oriented station, with a free-form format. DJs often brought their own records to the studio and spun anything from classic rock to jazz to disco or whatever. As such, the station never really caught on. Listeners would tune in to hear their favorite Led Zeppelin song but here “Ernie’s Classic Polka Show” instead.

A few years later, the station was sold to somebody that changed formats to a satellite oldies format.

The station was sold again and again and again before finally ending up with a major consolidator.

There is a lesson there for all the would-be LPFM applicants: Nail down your programming ideas now, float ideas out among the community, and see what will work and what people are interested in.

This is the WZAD studio now:

When was the last time anyone from the station was here or set foot anywhere near the community of license? The front lobby of the studio is full of garbage and an old dot matrix printer. It looks like there has been a leak and all the ceiling tiles have fallen down.

The station is being programmed out of the Poughkeepsie studio cluster with an automated country format called “The Wolf.” There is a live morning show, or at least there used to be, I don’t know anymore. How is this station serving as a public trustee?