November 28 - December 5, 2001
The Big Travelogue: Part Thirteen
There's nothing like a good road trip to get a feel for the
state of radio these days. From June 23 until July 7, your editor
(accompanied by Boston Radio Archives creator Garrett Wollman)
hit the road to see what's on - and in - the air across a broad
swath of mid-America.
For the next few installments of Site of the Week, we'll be
recapping the many highlights of what we like to think of as
The Big Trip, 2001 edition. Come along...
 Click
here for part one
Click
here for part two
Click
here for part three
Click
here for part four
Click
here for part five
Click
here for part six
Click
here for part seven
Click
here for part eight
Click
here for part nine
Click
here for part ten
Click
here for part eleven
Click
here for part twelve
Thursday, July 5 - It's just a short bridge crossing
over the Mississippi from St. Louis, Missouri to East St. Louis,
Illinois, as we leave "K" country behind and return
to "W" land, beginning with a glimpse from the highway
(I-44/55/70!) down to the single sticks of KSTL (690 St. Louis)
and WESL (1490 East St. Louis) amidst the tangle of ramps on
the east side of the river.
But we're headed just a mile or so away, to check out...well,
see for yourself!
Yes, that's twelve towers in this photomontage, as we look
north from the truck stop parking lot along Route 203 just north
of exit 5 of I-55/70. The eight in the foreground, arranged in
two rows of four, belong to KATZ (1600), running 5 kilowatts
day and night with a sort of "mitten" pattern southwest
towards downtown St. Louis and a "thumb" pointing west-northwest
up the river.
The four sticks behind KATZ and off to the east (to the right
in the top image) are the city's second-best AM signal, the 5
kilowatts on 550 long known as KSD, then as KUSA and now as KTRS.
It's non-directional by day, while the night pattern forms a
stretched-out paralellogram to give some protection to other
old-timers on the channel such as WGR Buffalo and KFYR Bismarck.
And then, along an unnamed road that stretches east from 203
a half-mile or so north of 550 and 1600, we come to the three
towers of the old KXOK. Back in the day, this station was the
top-40 voice of St. Louis, running 5 kilowatts day and night,
pointing east-southeast and west-northwest (away from downtown,
ironically) by day and then south-southwest right into the city
at night.
(Missouri radio historian Mark Roberts has traced, far better
than I'm able, the history by which this station traded its earlier
facilities for the 630 frequency that had been in use at KFRU
Columbia, now on 1400.)
In any event, this station's rock-and-roll days are long gone;
it was sold a few years back to a religious broadcaster, and
a rather right-wing one at that. In its new incarnation as KJSL,
the "Salt and Light of St. Louis," it's hard to imagine
anything more different from the old days at 63 on the dial...
 Another
couple of miles north on 203 and east on 162 and we've arrived
at the St. Louis signal we've been listening to for years back
east - the mighty 50 kilowatts of KMOX 1120.
The building looks like it has some good history to it, but
the tower looks brand new, with the much smaller (18 inch) faces
typical of new towers, rather than the big 24- or 36-inch faces
of the thirties and forties-era sticks.
We'd been told that KMOX was using a tower that once belonged
to its sister station in Chicago, WBBM -- but apparently that
tower finally ended its career sometime in the last few years.
 So it's north we
go again, up I-255 to its northside junction with I-270 (where
255 continues north as an Illinois state route).
Just alongside the interchange on Chain of Rocks Road sit
the four towers of WGNU 920, licensed to Granite City and focusing
on local service to the Illinois side of the market. (Local...imagine
that!)
From WGNU, it's just a few hundred yards down the road to
the site that's perhaps the most interesting in the St. Louis
market. KXEN (1010) is licensed to the suburb of Festus, Missouri,
clear on the opposite side of the city from its tower site up
here near Mitchell, Illinois.
 The six towers on
the left side of the frame (the west side of the site) are KXEN's
original daytime array, sending 50 kilowatts to the southwest
towards the city of license. (And if they just happen to
blanket St. Louis along the way, well...)
But a year or two ago, KXEN added night service, building
three new towers to the north and east of the original array
to transmit a 500 watt signal in a pattern sending signals southeast,
south-southwest (over St. Louis), west-northwest and north. This
array is far enough from the day towers that KXEN is considered
a two-site operation on the FCC's books!
 From here, we head
south again on 255, with one last stop to make before pointing
the NERW-mobile across Illinois and off to our overnight destination
of Evansville, Indiana (which you'll see next week in Part Fourteen,
followed by Louisville on December 12 and the conclusion of the
Big Trip in Lexington December 19!)
Our final destination is clearly visible at the interchange
of I-255 and I-64, a couple of miles south of the 550/630/1600
tower farm.
Remember our look at WEW's quaint little studio last week?
It feeds the station's big-band programming across the river
to this single tower on Bunkum Road just north of I-64 in Washington
Park, Illinois.
Look very carefully at the base of the tower and you'll see
the "WEW 770" logo on the trailer that houses the transmitter;
you can see this quite clearly from I-64 and I-255 as you drive
by, too!
I-64 is our chosen route across southern Illinois, and the
St. Louis signals slowly fade out of range as we approach our
intermediate stop in Mount Vernon, Illinois.
 This small city is
home to, among other things, two competing newspapers (our first
two-paper town since Chicago, unless you count the college-run
daily that competes with the "town" daily in Columbia,
Missouri).
And it's home to WMIX (940) and WMIX-FM (94.1), stations that
were using those call letters long before anyone dreamed of calling
a radio station "Mix 100.5" or "Mix 98.5"
or anything else.
The WMIX folks knew they were on to a good thing, though;
they've made "WMIX" a federal trademark, which came
as quite a surprise to stations like WWMX in Baltimore in the
mid-eighties when they began using the name "Mix 106.5."
 (The
Baltimore folks decided they would actually call their station
"WMIX" on the air, except for one brief legal buried
at the top of the hour; they soon learned that that approach,
while technically legal in the eyes of the FCC, just wouldn't
pass muster with the trademark folks or with Withers Broadcasting
in Mount Vernon. We've also heard that WMIX has been offered
very respectable sums over the years to give up those calls,
but they're not interested.)
WMIX(AM) is a news-talk station, with a two-site facility
bookending Mount Vernon. We see the night site first; in fact,
it's impossible to miss as you approach the city from the west
on I-64, with five towers flanking the south side of the highway
just east of Woodlawn, Illinois. Another Withers station, WDML
(106.9) has its tower about three miles west of here on the south
side of 64.The studios are on Broadway, the main east-west drag
on the south side of town.
But the really interesting site is north of town on Illinois
37, at the corner of -- well, just look at the sign! This big
old stick is home to WMIX-FM and the day facilities of AM 940,
which also include a second tower visible at the far left.
 
From here, we leave Mount Vernon and head to our final destination
for the day, Evansville, Indiana. You'll see that next
week in part 14.
 Meanwhile...you
can still enjoy the Big Trip's lovely KFAB view and eleven more
favorites from Tower Site of the Week all year long, if you order
the Tower Site 2002 Calendar!
This full-color, 8.5-by-11 inch, glossy calendar features
a dozen exciting tower images, and it can be on your wall for
just $15, postpaid! (NY residents include sales tax; US$20 postpaid
to Canada).
Click here to see a sample
page!
You can have yours for the holidays - and our ordering deadline
has been extended, so it's not too late to send your check or
money order, payable to Scott Fybush (that's me), to 92
Bonnie Brae Ave., Rochester NY 14618.
Your purchase of a calendar helps keep Site of the Week coming
all year round...thank you!
|
