Re: [IRCA] Clear Channel article

["Rene Tetro" <rene@xxxxxxxx>]

The comments about interference and listenership are interesting.  They 
definitely evoked some images in me.  I get at least 3-4 emails or voice 
mail messages a week from people complaining that they can't hear one or the 
other of our stations due to "static."  It used to be that AM stations their 
normal coverage area to be the 0.5 mV/m contour:  and, in fact, this is what 
most stations use on their coverage maps.

Noise and static has become such an issue, however, that in many cases a 
station can be barely heard, if at all, at the 0.5 mV/m contour.  Nowadays, 
it's much more likely that the 2.0 mV/m contour is a more reasonable 
estimate of a station's listenability...even though their actual signal 
travels much farther than that.

So, who's to blame for all this noise?  Poor maintenance by power companies, 
phone companies, cable companies, and so on are major factors -- but mostly 
the blame can be  placed squarely on the population at large.  Our gadget 
oriented society has produced so much poorly designed and shielded equipment 
that leakage into power and phone lines - and into the atmosphere itself - 
is just horrendous.  Light dimmers, computers (anything with a 
microprocessor, really), the increased use of fluorescent bulbs in the home, 
poorly designed RF devices (cordless phones, etc), and so many other things 
all combine to make noise across the LW-MW-HF spectrum an almost 
insurmountable issue.

I hold little hope that things will get better.  At the risk of seeming 
pessimistic, it would seem that man-made noise will only get worse as the 
preponderance of gadgets increases in the coming years.  The only thing that 
will help is stricter regulation of devices that have the potential of 
creating noise or RF emissions.  Better maintenance by utilities would also 
be needed.  None of this will ever happen, however, because big business who 
make the devices, deliver the power, and largely self-police their designs 
and construction techniques, controls the purse strings.

73,
Rene'

Rene F. Tetro
Chief Engineer
Salem Communications - Philadelphia
WNTP-AM / WFIL-AM
117 Ridge Pike
Lafayette Hill, PA  19444
Phone:  610-828-6965  Ext. 41
Fax:  610-828-8879
Email: rtetro@xxxxxxxxx

"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." 
(Matthew 5) 

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