Back to Index2

Explanation of columns:

HAAT is in meters; ERP in watts.
All stations are circularly polarized;
horiz. and vert. powers are identical unless otherwise noted.

Old Call Sign is that station's call in 1966.
Sign On is the year the station signed on (when known).
A question mark in this column means the station was on the air in 1966 but the year they first signed on isn't known.
Blanks means the station wasn't listed in 1966.

A plus sign after the sign on year means the station's ERP has *increased* since 1966.
The 1997 call signs were picked up from the 17th Editon of Bruce Elving's FM Atlas.
Except: the Utica NY listing (ex-WKGW) which is still WFRG in 1999-2000. This was confirmed in an e-mail from Peter (no last name) a student in Utica, NY.

Other notes are:
a On 92.5MHz in 1966.  Apparently swapped frequencies with KEBR.
c 100kW was a CP in 1966.  (they were 50kW)
d 300kW in 1966.
f 230kW in 1966.
g 165kW in 1966.
h 214kW in 1966.
i 500kW in 1966.
j 186kW in 1966.
k 300kW in 1966.

A few thoughts about this listing....

The FCC has divided the USA into two zones;
Zone I is essentially the Northeast, Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, and most of California.
Zone II is the rest of the country.
In Zone I, new FM stations are limited to 50,000 watts effective radiated power; in Zone II, the limit is 100,000 watts. This restriction has existed for many years, but it hasn't *always* been there.

A number of FM stations, licensed for powers in excess of the current limits and as high as 320kW, are still in operation with this "superpower".

This is an attempt to list these "superpower" FM stations. The list is from FCC records, and lists only those stations that, today, are using ERPs in excess of the current maximum for their zone. It may not list stations whose antenna height is in excess of the maximum (about 150m in Zone I; about 600m in Zone II) and have therefore been required to reduce their ERPs below 50/100kW.

I know of two stations that are, in fact, "superpower", but aren't listed for this reason- WERN Madison, Wis. and WFMT Chicago, Ill.
I'm sure there are others. Also, Canadian stations aren't listed- although I know there are several "superpower" stations in Winnipeg, and believe there's a handful in the Montreal area as well.

It's interesting to notice the diversity in signon dates; some of these stations are listed as having signed on as late as 1963-- others were on for several years but weren't yet "superpower"-- and two didn't even exist in 1966! My suspicion is that these stations had actually been licensed in the late 40's/early 50's, gone silent when FM went bust, then reactivated in the 60's..

Signon dates of "superpower" FMs:
pre-1950: 15, or 42.9%
1950-1955: 2, or 5.7%
1955-1960: 6, or 17.1%
1960-1965: 8, or 22.9%
since 1965: 2, or 5.7%
unknown: 2, or 5.7%

Total: 35, or 100.0%