LAX TIS System Dials Up the Juice

Don’t you wish you could crank up your power by 1,000%? One broadcaster in the Los Angeles area can do so, and it’s perfectly legal.
We hasten to point out that the “station” started with a pretty low power level.
The FCC has granted a request by Los Angeles World Airports to increase the authorized power for Site 2 of a traveler’s information station, WNHV296, from 10 to 100 watts. It operates at Los Angeles International Airport at 530 kHz.
The authority argued that, while the need for a power adjustment was evident prior to the terrorist attacks of 2001, “the adjustment is now essential to facilitate the airport’s efforts to provide emergency communications to the traveling public in the event of a terrorist attack.”
The waiver request was supplemented with a copy of an article from the Los Angeles Times reporting that LAX is the location in California most susceptible to a terrorist attack.
The FCC cited the airport’s “unique or unusual circumstances” in granting the waiver, stating that LAX is at a notably higher risk of terrorist attacks than most other airports or major attractions that might operate TIS systems.
“LAWA also has demonstrated that grant of its request would be in the public interest because it would allow LAWA to modify Station WNHV296 to cover a wider area. LAX is by far the nation’s busiest airport as measured by originating and terminating passengers,” the FCC wrote.
No other airport has anywhere near the number of passengers using local roadways, the FCC noted. And in the event the airport is closed or operations are restricted during an emergency security episode, federal officials have said, the authority would need to disseminate information over a wider area than that served by other airports’ TIS stations.