WHYL

WHYL
City Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Broadcast area Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Branding Good Time Oldies 960
Frequency 960 kHz
First air date 1948
Format Oldies
Power 1300 watts (day)
22 watts (night)
Class D
Facility ID 74556
Transmitter coordinates 40°17′23″N 77°08′10″W / 40.28972°N 77.13611°W / 40.28972; -77.13611Coordinates: 40°17′23″N 77°08′10″W / 40.28972°N 77.13611°W / 40.28972; -77.13611
Callsign meaning Initials
Former callsigns WLXW
Owner Harold Z. Swidler
(WHYL, Inc.)
Sister stations WIOO, WCAT-FM

WHYL (960 AM) is an oldies music formatted radio station licensed to serve Carlisle, Pennsylvania, consisting of a 2 tower array broadcasting on 960 kHz. This site was lost and the station now operates from the site of WCAT-FM with a omnidirectional_antenna at reduced power. See FCC letter cited in Signal coverage and power levels below. WHYL was referred to as "while in Carlisle'. The call letters are the initials of Richard F. Lewis, Jr.'s wife, one of the station's former owners. The call sign was shared with an FM sister station, WHYL-FM, broadcasting on 102.3 MHz from an antenna on the south tower, later moving to Sterret's Gap. On April 26, 2002 the call sign was changed to WRKZ-FM[1] (the call sign was changed again on February 17, 2004 and is currently WCAT-FM).[2] WHYL is an affiliate of Citadel Media.

As of January 1st 2014 the station was off the air and no carrier signal was being broadcast. The station had filed for bankruptcy in 2012. Longtime morning host Ben Barber left the station in late 2013, at which time other programs, including the John Tesh syndicated midday show, were also discontinued. The station broadcasts were fully automated after this, and there were some periods during which a carrier signal was broadcast without any programming. In June of 2014, Harold Z. Swidler purchased the station, and will return it to the air as soon as possible.

Signal coverage and power levels

The directional array that was used forms a dual lobe pattern extending East-West from around Morgantown to around Everett. The current antenna is a single element located on the tower with WCAT-FM Red 102.3. It is a temporary antenna and the station is operating on an FCC Special Temporary Authorization requested December 19,2014 and granted March 10, 2015. This allows operation at the station's daytime nondirectional (omnidirectional_antenna) power of 1.3 kilowatts and a nighttime power of 22 watts - the request was for 27 watts and reduced by the FCC to 22. FCC Letter of 3/10/2015 authorizing return to operation The WCAT-FM tower is located at 40° 17' 23.00" N Latitude 77° 08' 10.00" W Longitude (NAD 27).

As a Class D station, WHYL is required to lower its power at sunset and even lower during the nighttime because of skywave interference to co-channel stations. Between sunrise and sunset , the station is permitted to operate at its full 5,000 watt power level. This was retuced to 1.3 kw by the STA mentioned above. During months where sunrise happens later than 6:00am local time, pre-sunrise authorization allows the station the raise its power to 500 Watts beginning at 6:00am. Post-sunset authorization allows the station to broadcast beyond sunset at a reduced power level in steps starting around 100 watts and ending up at night time power of 22.3 watts.

Format

Promotional publication, dated August 19, 1967 (page 1)
Promotional publication, dated August 19, 1967 (page 2)

Note that the newspaper article Dated 6 December 1948 Monday refutes the information from Fabulous Fifty web site dated 1967 which is the basis for mos of the other information here. As a side note, I lived in the area from 1943 to 1967 and it conflicts with my recollections of the era. See the clips attached. According to them the station went on the air as WLXW on December 4, 1948 and one of its first broadcasts was Santa coming to Carlisle. The station operated out of the building just south of town along Rt 34. Quoting the article - The owner is Col. Phillip Matthews, State Democratic (sic) chairman, and was placed in operation here Saturday Morning. The 1000-watt station is operating daily from sunrise to sunset on a frequency of 1380 kilocycles. (Note: The term kilocycles is correct for the era. The unit name is now kilo Hertz.) Jerry McDevitt, formerly of Altoona, is the manager of the station. The Rev. Harry Lee, Carlisle and Vincent Shafmeister, Camp Hill, a student at Dickinson College, are full-time announcers. Dave Taylor, also a Dickinson student is a part-time announcer. The station is located on the Mt. Holly Pike, one-fourth mile south of town. It is contained in a one-story structure, which has two studios, control room, newsroom with teletype, a record library and five offices. The 187-foot antenna is on the same plot of ground. End article. A more exact location for the station is on the east side of the Mount Holly Springs Pike about 1/4 mile south of where Interstate 83 crosses PA 34. The station's original frequency and call sign was WLXW/1380 which was moved to WHYL/960 in the early fifties, approximately 1952 or 53. I am currently looking for a cite on this. I can find no evidence other than the Fabulous Fifty that the station ever operated from Camp Hill PA. The original 187 foot tower works well with the frequency 1380 - one quarter wave is 178 feet. The frequency of 960 has a quarter wave of 256 feet. Antenna design Section 2, Omni Antennas(Conversion frequency to Feet) For efficiency quarter wave antennas were common at that time. The Evening News 6/12/1948 The News Chronicle Shippensburg PA 12/3/1948 End Note....

References

  1. Fybush, Scott (2003). "Northeast Radio Watch, Year in Review 2002". Retrieved 2007-01-09.
  2. Call Sign History
  3. Fybush, Scott (2004-03-08). "Northeast Radio Watch". Retrieved 2007-01-09.
  4. Fybush, Scott (2005-02-15). "Northeast Radio Watch". Retrieved 2007-01-09.
  5. Fybush, Scott (2005-11-28). "Northeast Radio Watch". Retrieved 2007-01-09.
  6. Fybush, Scott (2005-12-05). "Northeast Radio Watch". Retrieved 2007-01-09.
  7. Fybush, Scott (2007-01-22). "Northeast Radio Watch". Retrieved 2007-05-01.
  8. "Federal Communications Commission". 2008-01-09. Retrieved 2008-02-09.
  9. Fybush, Scott (2008-01-07). "Northeast Radio Watch". Retrieved 2008-02-09.

External links

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