Re: [IRCA] Help please from Salem and Vancouver tower historians

[Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Says Earl Higgins:

> Of course, as you correctly point out, BY doesn't seem to have started including
> transmitter coordinates until 1991. KSLM's location is given in that issue as 44
> 56 32 N 123 04 17 W (what you would type into Google maps:  44.9422,  -123.0714);
> this is several miles south of the current FCC listing of  44°    59' 43.00" N  123°
> 04' 15.00" W  (what you would type into Google maps:  44.9953,  -123.0708).
>
> If you look on Google maps, the "old" (1991) coordinates map to an address on a
> street curiously named "Tower Drive NW" but clearly now a residential
> subdivision. In fact, it is within 2/10 of a mile of the address you have for
> the tower site in the 1950s. It's likely the 1950s site you have, and the 1991
> site Broadcasting Yearbook has, are in fact the same site. So there you have
> reasonably definitive evidence that it was probably there in 1976. Incidentally,
> you can see their now single tower located in the corner of some kind of orchard
> or farm by typing in the current coordinates.

Here's one more resource you can bring to bear on the issue, just to be 
even more certain:

Go to FCCInfo.com. Type in "KSLM" into the "Historic Call Sign" box 
(second from top). A list will pop up of all the stations that have used 
the KSLM calls, and the one we want is the last one, now KWOD 1390.

Click on the call letters in blue, then click on them again on the next 
page that pops up - and then click on "Other KWOD Applications." This 
brings us to the FCC's Application Search Results page (it's quicker to 
get there from FCCInfo.com than from the actual FCC page!)

This brings up all the apps that have been filed with the FCC since 
about 1978 for this station. We can disregard most of them - any of the 
ones that start with "BR" are license renewals, "BTC" and "BAL" 
represent station sales or transfers of control, "BZ" are requests for 
direct measurement and "SMOV" is a dummy record for an X-band allocation 
that never happened.

That leaves just a few files of interest that start with "BP," "BLSTA" 
and "BL."

"BP" is an application for a construction permit to modify KSLM's 
facilities, and we can see that the only BP- record since 1978 is dated 
5/30/1996. "BLSTA" is the Special Temporary Authority that was 
apparently granted while KSLM was moving facilities, and the lone BL- 
record, dated 1/21/1997, represents KSLM's license to cover its new 
facilities at its new site.

While a handful of FCC records have been lost from the electronic 
database over the years, we can now say with near 100% certainty that 
KSLM did not move between at least 1978 and the coordinates in the 1991 
Broadcasting Yearbook, and that it did not move between then and 1997, 
when it arrived at its current coordinates. Combined with Earl's "Tower 
Road" find, this gets us to at least 99% certainty that KSLM in 1976 was 
at the same location as in 1991.

> Now, on to CKWX. The 2002-2003 Edition of Broadcasting Yearbook, the most recent
> one available on the site, lists CKWX 49 09 22 N 123 04 00 W (what you would
> type into Google maps:  49.1561, -123.0667). Looking at Google maps satellite
> view, you can see there are indeed 2 towers at this site, and both
> http://www.radio-locator.com/  and  http://topazdesigns.com/ambc/  agree that this
> is the current site of CKWX. So we can assume that it was there in 2005 as well.
>
> So one could say, with a pretty high degree of confidence, that KSLM, at
> -123.0714 degrees west, being further west than CKWX's -123.0667 degrees west,
> is your furthest west catch.

And having visited CKWX in 1999, I can confirm that it was at the same 
location in 1999 as in 2002-03 and now...and thus in 2005 as well. Of 
the Vancouver AMs, only 1040 and 1410 (and of course the new 1200) have 
built new sites in the last decade or so.

s
_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx