[BC] Dead air or no air...

[Broadcast List USER]

This reminds me of something that happened to me in the 80s.  I was  
moving my 1924 Farnsworth radio.  The dial cord fell off a pulley.  I  
finished what I was doing, restrung the cord, then turned on the  
radio.  I found something loud, local and strong.  Now, I was working  
Top-40 in a city with THREE FM Top-40 stations, and this AM, WAGE,  
Leesburg, VA was also Top-40.  I found it astounding.

Anyway, when I identified the station, the jock was doing a contest,  
with an impressive list of albums to be won.  I put the pointer on  
1200 kHz, and figured I would see how busy their phones were.  I  
called and the phone rang.  Now, it had been SEVERAL minutes, and he  
was taking the first caller, but what the heck, I'll ask how many  
calls he got.

"HELLO, you are the WINNER!"  Cool, about a dozen albums!  He got my  
contact info, then told me I had to pick up the prize at the studio  
DURING BUSINESS HOURS.  FIne, a dozen albums for a 12 mile drive.   
Then the question, "Which album do you want?"

"You mean I have to drive to Leesburg for ONE album?  Thank you, no.   
Go ahead and give it to the next caller."  "But, there never are  
callers.  Can't I get you to come get your prize?  I never get to  
announce a winner on the air."  "I have a job, in a different  
direction."

Well, fast forward 20-25 years.  They are currently 5 kW, ND-D, and 1  
kW DA-N.  The 1 kW signal is mostly east, where the people are, and  
nearly as good as day in that direction.

They have a CP for a change to 1190, 50 kW, but days only.  Yes, they  
cover DC, and a bit of Baltimore, BUT DAYS ONLY!  What the heck are  
they thinking?

I would rather be live, local and really serve my county 24 hours a  
day, than to cover five counties days only, especially in the Winter!

Thank God it will likely never be built.  I will be able to read by  
the tower lights at night.  They will need them.  The CP location is  
under 5 miles north of the THREE north-south runways at Dulles Airport!

--chip

On Mar 11, 2009, at 9:49 PM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

> Message: 15
> From: Art Reed <areed21774 at aol.com>
>
> When I was the chief engineer at WARE and WDEW in Massachusetts,
> the PD of WARE received two complete sets of Beatles albums... to use
> as prizes.  The contest to win the prize required listeners to  
> write down
> every Beatles song played over a weekend, in order. [...]  WARE got
> hundreds of entries, and the winner got every song, except one, right.
> WDEW received NO entries.
> [...]
> Art Reed