"Bill Damick" wrote in message
...
Doug Smith W9WI wrote in message
...
Greg and Joan wrote:
1) Didn't PJB, 800 khz, Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire) run 500Kw?
Do
they still do so today? I used to be able to pick them up in
Massachusetts

Yes and no.

(the night before my brother's wedding in Traverse City, Michigan PJB
was BOMBING into my motel room. I mean, they were louder than the
Chicago clears less than 200 miles away. Things must have been auroral
that night.)

My understanding is PJB's power plant (they had their own...) burned
down. When they rebuilt they decided to settle for 100kw and a
directional antenna favoring northern South America. (Venezuela &
Colombia)

Trans World Radio (PJB) still operates from Bonaire with 100kw and
still on 800 khz MW. About 3 years ago (not in the late 80's as
someone else mentioned),

My impression, born out by field strength readings by the engineer at
WKVM-810 in Puerto Rico, was that the station had ceased to run 500 kw,and
was using the big rig at lower power since sometime around 1995 or 1996.

TWR decided for reasons of cost to replace
the old faithful unit with a new solid state transmitter. Tubes for
the old 500 kw MW unit got increasingly more expensive to rebuild when
they failed, and the costs of fuel to run the deisel generators higher
and higher. With a reassessment of the need to "boom" into its former
coverage, TWR decided to focus on the Caribbean and northern parts of
S. America only as we are able to serve many of the areas further
south by program distribution to local Christian stations.

At least it happened finally, although too late for some of us. I owned an
AM on 805 AM in Ecuador when TWR went on the air. It nearly destroyed the
station untill I could change frequency. A friend's station in Bucaramanga,
Colombia, was driven off the air by TWR's misguided religious zeal that
caused it to stomp on the coverage and signals of over a dozen radio
stations on 790, 800 and 810 in the NE South American zone.

People here complain about arrogance as demonstrated by Clear Channel; TWR
is the supreme example of arrogance for a "cause" with no thought for all
the people injured due to their actions.