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Three Or More FM Stations In Michigan Using One Tower

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k8jd
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Re: Three Or More FM Stations In Michigan Using One Tower

Post by k8jd » Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:21 pm

So is the 102.7 old WBRB, Mt Clemens, site coming down? I recall it was right next to a shoping center that kinda grew around it.
Once, way back in the 60s, there were 3 towers for the old AM station and FM on the taller middle stick.
I visited there to work on a Wide area RF paging system a few times.



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Ben Zonia
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Re: Three Or More FM Stations In Michigan Using One Tower

Post by Ben Zonia » Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:08 pm

I would think they would have plenty of tower rental possibilities near Pitko. The WDKL AUX is on the tower.

https://www.fccdata.org/?lang=en&qmenu= ... n=-82.9019

WBRB 1430 is still in the Canadian Database. There were five towers, 3 in a line Day, and a 3 tower slight dogleg at Night, one tower in common.

https://www.fccdata.org/?call=WBRB&ccod ... DN&lang=en

After moving from Hayes Rd. near Hall Road to the Pitko St. site area circa 1960, there were three towers, and the center tower was later built to be 400 feet high to support the FM antenna when it increased the HAAT and reduced the ERP to 17 kW. More information on the History Cards.

Later they built a separate 400 foot, and then a 500 foot tower South of the AM towers.

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Ben Zonia
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Re: Three Or More FM Stations In Michigan Using One Tower

Post by Ben Zonia » Sat Jun 12, 2021 2:56 am

As far as vfrmap.com, I find that it does give you a rough idea of what the terrain is like, and you can also look to see what the elevation is where many towers are located, by subtracting the tower height in parentheses from the AMSL of the top of the towers. It's good for casual consulting, since the price of good allotment software has gone sky high. The fcc.gov website has some good utilities though, though a few are a little difficult to use, like using FM Query and a copy of CFR 47 Part 73.207 handy. I wish that the ASRN utility would plot out all the nearby towers on a single map though.


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k8jd
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Re: Three Or More FM Stations In Michigan Using One Tower

Post by k8jd » Sat Jun 12, 2021 12:06 pm

Well I did not know there were all those towers. When WBRB AM went dark, I was sure they took down all but the tower with the FM antenna on it !
I am a West sider and did not get to the Mt Clemens area much.



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Ben Zonia
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Re: Three Or More FM Stations In Michigan Using One Tower

Post by Ben Zonia » Sat Jun 12, 2021 1:15 pm

One Night in the early 1980s, I went out there near the WBRB towers after dark and walked near the FM Studio building and they had all kinds of sensor flood lights. It was shortly after they went full time.

I went near the transmitter building after walking around the AM towers and trying the make sense of the arrangement. There was an open door to the transmitter building and I swear I saw somebody walk inside. I probably shouldn't have, but I went in to see if it was a station engineer. I found no one inside, and wondered if there was someplace to hide. I don't think he thought I was just some radio geek.


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k8jd
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Re: Three Or More FM Stations In Michigan Using One Tower

Post by k8jd » Sat Jun 12, 2021 2:13 pm

One of the times I was there working on some Motorola gear , an old ham friend was there working on the FM station transmitter, had a nice chat with him.



k8jd
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Re: Three Or More FM Stations In Michigan Using One Tower

Post by k8jd » Sat Jun 12, 2021 2:18 pm

Recalling WBRB had a daylight only, "sister" that went on the air in Garden City that started out as WERB ! maybe in the mid '60s !
Now still going strong, Night time op and more towers added along the way. maybe took the call WCAR.



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