Acquiring and maintaining a valid FCC license requires quite a bit of paperwork. The occasional typo happens, it's Murphy's law. Usually these are found immediately through engineering reviews and the two dozen sets of eyeballs that see any change in capitalization. This one lasted a little longer than usual... over a decade.
In 1991, Princeton University’s 103.3 WPRB moved it's tower site to a tower just off Route 1. But the devils typo worked it's way into the text. It left the FCC thinking that
WPRB was about 720 feet away from its actual tower site.In the grand scheme of thing 720 feet isn't a big deal. If that was a change in HAAT that'd be a huge issue, but a lateral move of less than 1000 feet is normally minor. Except that WPRB is short-spaced to 103.5 WKTU and 103.3 WARM. It reminded engineers and all of radioland exactly how precarious this short-spacing is.
WPRB’s correction slightly decreases it's distance from WKTU but when WKTU moved to the Epire State Building they actually increased the distance. So you could say that PRB is scooting up on Manhattan but in reality the 1st adjacent stations are already overlapping well-into their protected contours. WPRB first went on air in 1940 as WPRU, WKTU in 1948 as WNNJ. It shouldn't have been licensed. But Princeton wasn't defending their turf.
The WARM short-spacing is equally nefarious only coming on air in York PA in 1986. Sharing the 103.3 frequency their short spacing can't be handled as delicately. Where PRB and KTU are actually listenable in their areas of overlap WARM and WPRB have an either/or relationship. And in the worst areas of overlap you hear nothing but interference. Boxing in a College radio station with dance music and Soft AC is a cruel joke but that's what you get when you don't file a petitions and watch local engineering changes.
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Hola, Jose!
ReplyDeleteJust for the record - WKTU actually came on the air circa 1958 as WGLI-FM out on Long Island. WNNJ is a separate station on 103.7 in Newton NJ (far northwestern NJ) that also plays into the whole short-spacing mess. And WARM-FM has been on the air since long before 1986 - it was WSBA-FM before that, and signed on sometime in the fifties.
Still a freakin' mess, no matter how you slice it,
I don't know how I could have read that FCC call history wrong.. but maybe so. If there's anyone that'd know.. it'd be Fybush.
ReplyDeleteHere to serve...and someday, if that mythical thing called "free time" ever surfaces again, I'll actually finish the history of NYC FM radio that I've been threatening to complete for the last six or seven years now!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the commentary. As a member of the WPRB family, I just wanted to add some additional comments on its technical history.
ReplyDelete1. The 54dBu contours of WPRB and WARM never overlap. At the closest points, those contours have 20-25 miles of separation, with West Chester, PA roughly in the middle. There's some limited destructive interference (from personal experience in my car), but the impact is minimal since each station would be fading out in western Chester County anyway.
2. As Scott noted, the WPRB/WKTU/WNNJ shortspacing triple-play has been the source of significant discussions and workouts over the years. WPRB's move to the New Jersey Public TV tower off Route 1 (the source of the "typo" discussed here) resulted from WKTU's original move to the World Trade Center. That move occurred in the days before common GPS availability, and it turns out that everyone (including NJPTV) had misstated the tower coordinates. WPRB was likely the last co-located licensee to correct the oversight.
3. Finally, WPRB is not (and never has been) owned or operated by Princeton University. The station was founded by Princeton students in a dorm room in December 1940. The FCC licenses (first AM, then FM starting around 1955) and broadcast facilities have always been held by Princeton Broadcasting Service, Inc., a NJ non-profit corporation that is wholly separate from the University.
Sean Murphy
Treasurer, Princeton Broadcasting Service, Inc.
At wprb.com, contact skmurphy
1. I can state from personal experience the WARM/WPRB area of interference is much greater than that.
ReplyDelete2. Your Typo is not their fault. It's just a typo man... it's ok man. nobody is persecuting your fine station over a tiny typo.
3. Oy vey.. one typo and the kids get all testy. So glad I went to a state school.