WAVL has gone silent… temporarily at least
August 27, 2015Tom Taylor reports this morning that WAVL (910 Apollo) has gone silent, but the move appears to be temporary. The station has been operated by the Evangel Heights Assembly of God for years, but the manager recently retired and the board of directors decided to take the station off the air and sell it. They have hired Ray Rosenblum as the broker. The station is 5000 watts by day and a mere 69 watts at night. The calls stand for Apollo, Vandergrift, and Leechburg.
69 watts doesn’t seem to be a bad night power, most stations with a provision for nights under 100 watts have a lot less. I’d estimate they could get a 5 mile radius with that and the midband frequency.
I tried to look at their pattern on Radio-Locator, but being ‘currently off air’ they’re not showing coverage maps for the station. I wish they’d kept it up for reference or for stations that are really gone, have a legacy section of the site, I’d sometimes like to look at the old stuff.
I wonder if this change could open the 910/1360 swap that had been in the works. It seems unlikely with both stations in rough times, but it was something that was being worked on at one time. Here in the West Hills 910 was always was always a weak, near fringe signal.
Boomer
WAVL is directional against Pittsburgh, protecting 910 in Parkersburg and probably 920 in Fairmont, as well as others of which I may not be aware. It has a decent daytime signal in Westmoreland County.
Renda’s project to swap 1360 for 910 and build out the latter as a full-time signal was a multi-million-dollar proposition. I don’t see that being resurrected by anyone.
Hopefully WAVL will go to a new owner that will serve the area with good local programming, but AM radio is a tough row to hoe these days.
I Believe the 69 Watts is Directional. I was Able to Listen to WAVL At Night in the Aspinwall VA Parking Lot on A Delco Truck Radio. July 14 1947 WAVL Applied for 100 Watts Night Along with WPFB Middletown Ohio, WAVL Was Denied the 100 watts sept 1951, But WPFB Was Granted it. To This Day WPFB is 1kw day 100 night Non Directional
Same pattern day and night.
See http://www.fccinfo.com/CMDProFacLookup.php?sCurrentService=AM&calls=wavl&tabSearchType=Call+Sign+Search
I was looking at BCMapII, the AM antenna pattern from Tonne, and it does seem that 920 from WV would be the big problem for 910 in Pittsburgh. I wonder if they could have switched to 900 in that case? It seems there would be room for something there that’s less directional.
Boomer
910 could move to 1510’s tower in Penn Hills that would put them 92 miles from 920 in Fairmont. WANB is on 1210 WKST is on 1200, They are 98 Miles Apart Both 5 KW Day Non Directional. I Get Both Signals in North Hills Clear No crossover.