> People living near the transmitter site often got better reception than they wanted; some lights would not turn off until WLW engineers helped rewire houses. Gutters rattled loose from buildings. A neon hotel sign near the transmitter never went dark. Farmers reported hearing WLW through their barbed-wire fences.
That is pretty amazing. I wonder if there were any health impacts from that level of ambient power just buzzing through the air. Still, quite a feat of engineering to think about.
I also took some interesting lessons from the story as an entrepreneur. Crosley's obsession with radio reminds me of my own obsessive periods with a particular technology. Then he took his existing business knowledge and manufacturing skills (and capital...) and acted on it. Such a great little story of being in the right place, at the right time, and having the right obsessions.
That is pretty amazing. I wonder if there were any health impacts from that level of ambient power just buzzing through the air. Still, quite a feat of engineering to think about.
It's very common, and becoming more common.
WLW was a special case because it put out so much power it affected homes a fair distance away. But even stations as low as 1,000 watts have to deal with this today.
I worked at close to a dozen different AM stations in a previous life. It's very common for AM transmission towers to be located in flat, moist areas. I'm not an electrical engineer, but from what I remember, flat is preferred so the groundwave signal travels farther, and marshy for electrical reasons.
The problem is that when vast majority of AM stations were built, they transmitters were in the middle of nowhere. Since then, the suburbs have surrounded these facilities with homes, sometimes building houses right up to the property line, and people get interference in their electronics. And they're not happy about it. If they're close enough, everything with a speaker in the house only broadcasts that nearby station. Radios, TV's, even things that don't have "speakers," but are able to pick up the radio waves and resonate.
It's like when people build a house next to an airport, and then complain about all the damn airplane noise.
For reasons I don't understand from an electrical standpoint, it was particularly bad at one 1,000-watt station where I worked in the mid-90's. The General Manager's attitude was along the lines of, "Why would you move next door to a radio station? Didn't you notice the 300-foot-tall red-and-white tower with all the blinking lights out front?" Of course, that's a wholly unsatisfying answer to a new homeowner.
Since I left radio, I've read that there are a number of AM stations that have gone off the air simply because of the angry neighbors. They get the local politicians to pass zoning regulations that end up forcing the AM stations to move their towers, but the stations have nowhere else to go for three reasons: First, because they have to be located within a certain area to fulfill the coverage requirements of their license; second, depending on the station's transmitting characteristics, they may need a pretty large piece of land for multiple towers; and third, because AM radio doesn't make a lot of money, they may not be able to afford new land. So for some, they just go dark.
It isn't just radio stations and airports. I've seen plenty of people move out into the country and build right next to a large hog or dairy farm. The first summer they find out they can't use their backyard or open their windows so they sue their neighbor! It got so bad that here in Michigan they passed a law know as right to farm act to protect the farmers.
However when they wrote the law it never occurred to them that people would be farming in existing urban areas so they exempted them. That has caused problems in Detroit where people wanted to create commercial farms with all that available land (as well as city water for irrigation) but were denied the same protection.
> The General Manager's attitude was along the lines of, "Why would you move next door to a radio station? Didn't you notice the 300-foot-tall red-and-white tower with all the blinking lights out front?" Of course, that's a wholly unsatisfying answer to a new homeowner.
Money, the land is usually cheap. Also one of the problems with the leukemia studies and the lack of proper controls as it more often than not inhabited by low income residents and more often than not riddles with (chemical) waste. Which are both difficult to compensate for.
>It's like when people build a house next to an airport, and then complain about all the damn airplane noise.
Not really. Buying near an airport requires explicit acknowledgement that you're doing it and that's why homeowners don't really have a leg to stand on when they complain to their local government. IIRC last time I looked at a home near a bunch of transmitters, there was no such disclosure required.
Oh, people complain about airport noise all the time. You even hear about it in the news: so-and-so investigating 10,000 complaints about noise. Interestingly (though in retrospect unsurprisingly), the vast majority of complaints come from a very small handful of squeaky wheels. For example, of 8,760 complaints about DCA, 1 home was responsible for 78% of them!
Source: https://www.mercatus.org/system/files/dourado-airport-noise-...
Disclaimers notwithstanding, noise abatement requirements continue to become stricter and stricter across the U.S.
>The risk of childhood leukemia was higher than expected for the distance up to 6 km from the radio station (standardized incidence rate = 2.2, 95% confidence interval: 1.0, 4.1), and there was a significant decline in risk with increasing distance both for male mortality (p = 0.03) and for childhood leukemia (p = 0.036).
I've lit up full size neon tubes at ~150 meters with about a kilowatt into a highly directional antenna. Not the most efficient way of transferring power but quite a neat effect and wireless to boot.
Wireless power transmission and things like Tesla coils are basically magic to my brain. I "know" how they work, but seeing it happen is kind of amazing. Our little home made Tesla coil was one of our most popular gadgets we built. I should build a more reliable one... we live in a dry place now.
I recall that it had been written in the 1950s. My memory could be wrong. I read it some time in the early 1980s. Having aged a few decades since, and experiencing much comedy and fiction in that time, I have come to discover this must have been a common theme from whatever era it was written.
The details I recall from the story are: 1) boy gets a tooth filled with a new alloy. 2) Soon discovers he can tune into different radio stations but adjusting his jaw. 3) Proves this to his friends by telling them what's on which stations, which they verify by tuning the radio. 4) Looses the ability quickly (days, perhaps?) - can't recall if by re-visiting the dentist or some other reason.
I don't recall that the plot of Fat Men From Outer Space (remove all junk food) was involved - seems like it'd be a fairly large plot to miss, but I admit the human brain is a strange thing.
I believe Lucille Ball claimed she helped zero in on a Japanese spy during WW2 as her root filled teeth chattered with the morse code sent by the nearby clandestine transmitter.
That is pretty amazing. I wonder if there were any health impacts from that level of ambient power just buzzing through the air. Still, quite a feat of engineering to think about.
I also took some interesting lessons from the story as an entrepreneur. Crosley's obsession with radio reminds me of my own obsessive periods with a particular technology. Then he took his existing business knowledge and manufacturing skills (and capital...) and acted on it. Such a great little story of being in the right place, at the right time, and having the right obsessions.