[BC] WKOX site

[Dan Strassberg]

Many towers have been constructed at that site and all but two of them have
come down--the majority, I believe, involuntarily. I wonder which
Boston-area AM site has had the largest number of tower collapses: WKOX,
WRCA, or WXKS (AM). All have had more than one tower collapse. In WKOX's
case, two 440' top-loaded towers were erected in 1985 when WKOX moved from
1190 to 1200, increased day power to 10 kW-ND, and added night service with
1 kW-N DA-N using the two towers. Within a few months of WKOX's sign-on from
the new towers, one of them collapsed in fringe winds from a hurricane and
had to be replaced. I've heard that a bonding agent used in one of the guy
anchors failed under conditions well within its ratings. In 1997, WKOX was
joined by what were then WJLT 1060 and WRPT 650, both daytimers, at the time
operating ND with low power. WJLT is now WBIX and runs 40 kW-D/22 kW-CH
DA-2-D from both towers; WRPT is now WSRO and still runs 250W ND-D but has
added low-power night serivce with 9W-ND. WBIX has also added night service
from a separate site in neighboring Ashland. John Garabedian originally
built that five (540')-tower site for the station in 1981 when it was WGTR.
The site was subsequently (mid 90s, I think) taken over by what was then
WBMA 890, now WAMG, which uses it full time. At night, WBIX now also uses
the site, running 2.5 kW-N DA-N. Major reconstruction of the facilities at
the tower bases was required to implement the diplex. Both 890 and 1060 have
very demanding array specifications.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg at att.net
eFax 707-215-6367