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WLW: America's 500,000 watt radio station (2015)
- vonzeppelin 7y agoHome of the Reds. Been listening to it my whole life.
- gullywhumper 7y agoThe last couple seasons were difficult for me to listen to Marty calling games because I thought he came across as very negative and embittered, but then his final season (this last season) was so much fun as he seemed to be enjoying it again even though it wasn't a good season for the team. I listened to games a lot more throughout the last season and then listened to parts or all of his last 20 or so games and it was so much fun. Really glad we still have the Cowboy. Baseball is such a great sport for the radio if you have good announcers.
- jawilson2 7y agoI'm from Cincinnati, and growing up my dad and grandfather would tell us how you could pick up WLW across the country on a good day. In the 90s we took a vacation to the Rockies, and were able to pick up WLW a few times, even though the power had been reduced by then. I can get it regularly and clearly in Chicago as well. That's the cool thing about AM radio; since it is transmitted at a lower frequency, it can travel longer distances, and even reflect off the atmosphere in the right conditions.
- mschwar99 7y agoWas randomly recommended a video on YouTube a few weeks ago which was a recording of a tour of the WLW broadcast transmitter facility. You get to see the high power equipment in detail accompanied by lots of history about the facility. Was a fun watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbHjcwIoTiY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbHjcwIoTiY
- bitexploder 7y ago> People living near the transmitter site often got better reception than they wanted; some lights would not turn off until WLW engineers helped rewire houses. Gutters rattled loose from buildings. A neon hotel sign near the transmitter never went dark. Farmers reported hearing WLW through their barbed-wire fences. That is pretty amazing. I wonder if there were any health impacts from that level of ambient power just buzzing through the air. Still, quite a feat of engineering to think about. I also took some interesting lessons from the story as an entrepreneur. Crosley's obsession with radio reminds me of my own obsessive periods with a particular technology. Then he took his existing business knowledge and manufacturing skills (and capital...) and acted on it. Such a great little story of being in the right place, at the right time, and having the right obsessions.
- phreenet 7y agoI wonder how that much power would affect someone with metal fillings in their teeth.
- jagged-chisel 7y agoSounds like a short story I read as a kid ...
- lb1lf 7y agoI believe Lucille Ball claimed she helped zero in on a Japanese spy during WW2 as her root filled teeth chattered with the morse code sent by the nearby clandestine transmitter. Just a tall story, of course.
- skykooler 7y agoFat Men from Outer Space?
- jagged-chisel 7y agoI recall that it had been written in the 1950s. My memory could be wrong. I read it some time in the early 1980s. Having aged a few decades since, and experiencing much comedy and fiction in that time, I have come to discover this must have been a common theme from whatever era it was written. The details I recall from the story are: 1) boy gets a tooth filled with a new alloy. 2) Soon discovers he can tune into different radio stations but adjusting his jaw. 3) Proves this to his friends by telling them what's on which stations, which they verify by tuning the radio. 4) Looses the ability quickly (days, perhaps?) - can't recall if by re-visiting the dentist or some other reason. I don't recall that the plot of Fat Men From Outer Space (remove all junk food) was involved - seems like it'd be a fairly large plot to miss, but I admit the human brain is a strange thing.
- simmons 7y agoThe station’s once groundbreaking transmitter is long retired but preserved, on-site, beside its modern counterpart. I wonder if they ever offer tours. It would be neat to see some of this history the next time I'm passing through the Cincinnati area. On a related note, it looks like there's a "National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting" just down the street from the WLW site.
- hongseleco 7y agoI don't know if they offer tours at the WLW site itself, but I do know that in the VOA museum there is a lot of detailed info/history and items pertaining to WLW.
- geerlingguy 7y agoIt's not quite the same scale, but another of the nation's 'mega AM stations', KMOX in St. Louis, has a few interesting articles covering the history of their transmitter / tower and associated gear: https://www.stlmediahistory.org/index.php/Radio/RadioArticles/a-technical-look-at-kmox https://www.stlmediahistory.org/index.php/Radio/RadioArticle... https://www.stlmediahistory.org/index.php/Radio/RadioArticles/kmox-the-voice-of-st.-louis-engineering-history https://www.stlmediahistory.org/index.php/Radio/RadioArticle... https://www.stlmediahistory.org/index.php/Radio/RadioArticles/new-kmox-transmitter https://www.stlmediahistory.org/index.php/Radio/RadioArticle... I used to work as an engineering assistant there, and went to the tower site a few times. The amount of RF energy in that 50,000 watt tower was enough to cook snakes, rats, etc. which got close enough to the gear. The tower itself is energized to the extent you wouldn't want to be within at least a few feet; see https://thenextweb.com/shareables/2016/02/11/what-happens-if-you-short-circuit-a-radio-tower-is-amazing/ https://thenextweb.com/shareables/2016/02/11/what-happens-if...
- fignews 7y agoHere is a tour on YouTube https://youtu.be/CbHjcwIoTiY https://youtu.be/CbHjcwIoTiY
- jacquesm 7y ago100 KW tubes, those are monsters. Watercooling?
- caymanjim 7y agoOf course, for most broadcasters and regulators debating these broad delivery systems, “listeners” meant Americans who were white and middle or working class. Programming reinforced presumed middle class values. While some local stations offered programming targeted to ethnic groups, occupations, and even political beliefs, black Americans and other minority groups were largely left out of national radio, except as caricatures—usually played by white people—in comedy programs. Why is this paragraph in the article? Do we have to make everything a wokeness contest? The article is about engineering, and this paragraph is a non sequitur plopped in the middle of it for no reason.
- scblock 7y agoThis is a history article, not an engineering article. It's published on the Magazine for the National Endowment of the Humanities. The article spends time discussing the perceived cultural potential of radio, as below: "Since radio’s beginnings in the early 1920s, industry and government leaders promoted it as the great homogenizer, a cultural uplift project that could, among other things, help modernize and acculturate rural areas." The paragraph you take such objection to follows that statement, and is entirely relevant in the context of the article.
- at_a_remove 7y agoIt's the Magazine of the National Endowment of the Humanity publication, so there you go.
- danharaj 7y agoDovetails nicely with the previous paragraph, I think you doth protest too much. "In the early days of broadcast development and regulation, Crosley and WLW sparked debate about what radio should and could be. Could a few clear-channel stations adequately serve—and acculturate—entire regions of listeners? Or would a national network system with local affiliates better target listener needs and interests?"
- LesserEvil665 7y ago"The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities" How is this excerpt not relevant to the stated mission of the publication? The article goes beyond the scope of mere engineering.
- Udo 7y ago> enough power to supply a town of one hundred thousand coursed through an 831-foot tower That would mean 5W per inhabitant. In 2020, this would barely be enough to charge a phone, and in 1934 that would have been a light bulb per 20 citizens.
- donarb 7y agoThe power input to the transmitter is much larger than the power coming out of it. All those tubes generates a lot of heat.
- jacquesm 7y agoFrom experience with much smaller tube based end stages about 25% efficient.
- Udo 7y agoSo let's say this is 10% efficient, that means 50W per citizen. Clearly, there is something I'm not getting. Do power companies really budget 50W per user? I mean it's possible but that seems very low to me.
- dredmorbius 7y agoIn 1934, electricity use was limited, and still fairly novel in many places. Utterly unavailable in much of the rural US (look into the rural electrical cooperatives). Principle household uses would have been lighting and refrigeration, possibly a few clocks, a radio, and perhaps appliances. Averaged over a day, draw per person could well have been only a few tens of watts. 50W per person for a household of four would be about 150 kWh per month, which sounds roughly reasonable. The 2018 US average was 914 kWh/mo: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3 https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3 In 1930, direct electrical use was only 1% of total household energy consumption. Coal was 69%, fuelwood still 23%. Expressed as kWh/mo (the source below has graphs giving nationwide trillions of BTU/yr electrical equivalent) the number looks closer to 80 kWh/mo, or 110 watt constant, about 28 watt/person assuming a family of four. https://aceee.org/files/proceedings/1992/data/papers/SS92_Panel10_Paper17.pdf https://aceee.org/files/proceedings/1992/data/papers/SS92_Pa...
- viggity 7y agoFor point of reference, the max power allowed in the US is 50kW
- andrew_n 7y agoI don’t believe this is correct; when I look up the details of transmitters, they’re often 100kW+, e.g., https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid=62331 https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid=62331 for an arbitrary example in Montana
- jcburns 7y agoFM power and AM power are different.
- texasexile 7y agoDifferent power levels for different frequencies/services. Your arbitrary example is an FM station broadcasting at 94.5 MHz. AM broadcast stations are limited to 50KW. The FCC regulates ERP based on a number of factors including minimizing interference with other frequencies and a frequency's propagation characteristics. For example, UHF TV full-power transmitters power limit is one megawatt.
- mmhsieh 7y agofor national security it would be best to shut this puppy down because it is broadcasting our position to extraterresterial civilizations, not all of whom may be friendly.
- ClumsyPilot 7y agoMilitary radars, su h as early missile warning systems, might achieve higher power signals, and their signals are much, much better focused.
- mmhsieh 7y agothat is a very good point. we should also shut down BMEWS and send a manned constellation up there to spot ICBMs visually. this is a good billet for the space force.
- electronWizard 7y agoICBM launch detection has been done since the 60s with satellites using infrared sensors to detect the heat emitted by the rocket engine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Support_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Support_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-Based_Infrared_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-Based_Infrared_System
- Waterluvian 7y agoThey'll hear the War of the Worlds prank broadcast and come rushing to our defense.
- paulirwin 7y agoAt AM radio frequencies, most of the radio waves are reflected back to earth or absorbed in the ionosphere. Same concept as how amateur radio HF/MF propagation allows individuals to communicate with people around the world, past the horizon. (The 160m ham band nearly backs right up to the top end of the AM radio band.) You can even sometimes hear your own echo, apparently, as the signals travel the entire way around the earth, although I've yet to experience this. (Recent Extra class licensed ham radio operator here. 73.) Higher frequencies, on the other hand, are not reflected back by the ionosphere and go straight out into space. That's why you typically use VHF frequencies (30-300 MHz) for things like EME "earth-moon-earth" or "moonbounce" communication, or communication via satellite. So if your concern is about radio waves making our planet a beacon for aliens, you should be more concerned about FM radio towers than AM ones.
- Ballu 7y agoCurrent most powerful is 2000 kW in France. How these modern ones are different from old times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roumoules_radio_transmitter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roumoules_radio_transmitter "..The longwave transmitter at Roumoules, which was inaugurated in 1974, transmits at 216 kHz (until 1988: 218 kHz) with a transmission power of 1400 kW (until 1976: 2000 kW)...."
- Pigo 7y agoI drive past this transmitter every day on my way to work, passing through Mason. Several times my son has asked what would happen if someone snapped on the support cables.
- EvanAnderson 7y agoI grew up in western Ohio listening to WLW, and to this day, when I drive down I-75 and pass the Mason exit I say (to myself, or whoever is in the car w/ me) "Home of the transmitter" (as was the wont of 700 WLW personality Bill Cunningham to say any time Mason was mentioned on-air).
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- gullywhumper 7y agoGrew up listening to the Reds on WLW - it's current slogan is "The Big One" and it used to call itself "The Nation's Station".
- gregoryseattle 7y agoI go camping once a year at the base of a 1.2 Mega Watt transmitter (It is a Navy Camping ground). Not AM, and at a Very Low Frequency, but still impressive! So far, I have not noticed any ill effects. Fingers crossed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Creek_Naval_Radio_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Creek_Naval_Radio_Station
- dang 7y agoRelated from 2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11095038 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11095038
- atsjie 7y agoCan't remember ever closing an article I was interested in reading simply because I had difficulty processing the font. The narrow font face on the white background just makes it unbearable to look at, it's so narrow. It actually hurts my brain after a while.
- noarchy 7y agoOn a related note, here are actual recordings from WLW on the day of John F. Kennedy's assassination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J75BAx4W3Zo&list=PL0O5WNzrZqINoVDIEsnoZvorXVcc8MRSF https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J75BAx4W3Zo&list=PL0O5WNzrZq...
- rmason 7y agoFor those of you too young to remember the Crosley automobile: http://www.classic-car-history.com/crosley-cars.htm http://www.classic-car-history.com/crosley-cars.htm I remember in the sixties and seventies people dropping a small block V-8 into them to use as dragsters.
- dredmorbius 7y agoI came across a Crosley Shelvador, mentioned in the article, the first refrigerator with built-in shelves, apparently. Built in the 1950s, by the early 1990s, the unit was 1) still functioning, 2) in absolutely beautiful condition, and 3) as or more efficient than modern "energy-efficient" refrigerators.
- wglb 7y agoA tour of the WLW faclility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=CbHjcwIoTiY&feature=emb_logo https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=CbHjcwIoTiY&...