WUNR/WRCA/WKOX construction progress, December 2007

We have chronicled the ongoing saga of the project to upgrade the facilities of WUNR (1600 Brookline), WRCA (1330 Waltham, to be Watertown), and WKOX (1200 Framingham, to be Newton) on a couple of occasions before, in March, 2006, and in April, 2007. The new five-tower array will eventually give WUNR, the site's owner, 20 kW-U DA-1 (using all five towers); WKOX's new signal will be 50 kW-U DA-2 (using the three towers in a line closest to the transmitter building), and WRCA will get 25 kW-D, 17 kW-N, DA-2 (using all five towers during the day and towers 1 through 4 at night).

This effort has been in the works for a very long time, and finally received local zoning approval late in 2006. Endangered-species issues slowed construction significantly, but all five towers were erected by April, 2007, and by December the renovation of the transmitter building and the installation of the new ground system were nearly complete. A week before Christmas, the transmission lines to WUNR's old two-tower array were relocated to temporary antenna-tuning units attached to two of the new towers (numbers 1 and 2, which were sited at the same relative bearing and spacing as the old towers), making it safe to demolish the old towers and finish installing the ground system.

By December 30, 2007, most of the interior work had been completed on the transmitter building—not to mention the replacement of the old flat roof with a new peaked roof—but progress was once again stalled, this time waiting for a permanent power hookup so that the three new transmitters can be tuned up and tested. We hope to be back there in the spring when all three stations are on the air from their new transmitters.

Thanks to Grady Moates of LOUD&Clean Broadcast Science, engineer for WRCA and WUNR, for the tour.