One year anniversary of WGBH shuffling off classical to weak-signaled WCRB

[Eli Polonsky]

I just checked out the patterns for WGBH-FM and WCRB on www.radio-locator.com

WCRB has its tower only a few miles from the New Hampshire border in Andover. That's good news for Classical fans in New Hampshire, where the pulbic radio network has elimniated Classical music and concentrates on News, Talk and a little Folk and Jazz on weekends... But the primary signal misses much of the Boston market to the south and southwest, including Worcester, Plymouth, Franingham, Foxboro, etc.

So I can understand how many Classical listeners south of Boston feel disenfranchised by WGBH's switch to News-Talk and Jazz

It's not just south of Boston, but also Boston proper itself. The coverage map doesn't take into account the interference in Boston proper caused by intermodulation from the seven full-power Class B FM's on the Pru wreaking havoc on reception of any relatively weak or distant signal within the city on all but the most excellent tuners. That interference is not represented on the coverage map. It's drawn showing the theoretical coverage of the station ONLY, without any acknowledgment of other sources of interference. A station may be unlistenable in reality in an area that appears to be within its primary coverage on the map if nearby interference sources are effectively stronger than the station in that immediate area, and those are not shown (they're variable with receiver quality anyway).

WGBH with ~100kW from Blue Hill did a much better job of cutting through intermodulation interference from the stations on the Pru in Boston proper than WCRB's 27Kw from Andover does.

 

[AckDX]

When it was on 102.5, WCRB could be heard on Nantucket, albeit somewhat fuzzy but it still came in nonetheless.

 

[wcozBoston]

What if WCRB purchased WQRC, 99.9 down in Barnstable? WQRC's power could be reduced to allow for WCRB to move from 99.5 to 99.7FM with their transmitter moving closer to Boston. Spacing requirements for WPLM would not be as much of an issue as they are at 99.5, being the same as those of WBZFM. WCRB would also would have work out an arrangement to move WEAN's frequency from 99.7 to 99.5. Would that be possible?

 

[DanStrassberg]

What if WCRB purchased WQRC, 99.9 down in Barnstable? WQRC's power could be reduced to allow for WCRB to move from 99.5 to 99.7FM with their transmitter moving closer to Boston. Spacing requirements for WPLM would not be as much of an issue as they are at 99.5, being the same as those of WBZFM. WCRB would also would have work out an arrangement to move WEAN's frequency from 99.7 to 99.5. Would that be possible?

The class-minimum spacings have to be honored. From what I've been told, those spacings, and not the location of the actual contours, govern the permitted transmitter locations. Apparently, the pertinent spacing is the second-adjacent (from WPLM-FM to WCRB). If the actual contour locations were the issue, WCRB could conceivably take advantage of the fact that WPLM-FM, though licensed as a full Class B, has less than full B facilities. (When normalized to 492' AAT, WPLM runs only about 38 kW; WPLM's actual values, IIRC, are 50 kW and 445'.) By downgrading from a full Class B to a B-1, WCRB could move to one of the WRKO (AM) towers in Burlington and would protect WPLM even if WPLM were to increase its HAAT to 492' (just about impossible, as a practical matter). WCRB would have to substantially reduce its ERP, though. (IIRC, a B-1 at 492' is limited to ~11.5 kW ERP, which is the equivalent of 25 kW @ 328'.) I don't know how much, if any, coverage WCRB would gain in Boston proper and areas south of Boston. Most of the current coverage of Southern NH would be lost, however. Seems that listeners who are having trouble receiving the 99.5 signal in Boston and MetroSouth need to purchase HD receivers or tuners and tune them to WGBH-FM HD-2, because it appears that a B-1 from Burlington would not be able to overcome the receiver-overload problems caused by the plethora of strong signals that transmit from locations in downtown Boston. It has been suggested that WCRB might obtain a waiver that would allow it to downgrade to B-1 and move to the old 100.7 tower at 75 Concord Ave in Lexington. That location is short-spaced to WPLM, however (albeit not by a whole lot), and the FCC has rarely granted such waivers. Supposedly the signal in Boston would be better than the current signal but it is unclear whether it would be adequate to overcome the Pru interference.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

What if WCRB purchased WQRC, 99.9 down in Barnstable? WQRC's power could be reduced to allow for WCRB to move from 99.5 to 99.7FM with their transmitter moving closer to Boston. Spacing requirements for WPLM would not be as much of an issue as they are at 99.5, being the same as those of WBZFM. WCRB would also would have work out an arrangement to move WEAN's frequency from 99.7 to 99.5. Would that be possible?

WCRB is owned by WGBH. Would they want to purchase this commercial station on the Cape? Would the owners want to sell WQRC? Isn't it quite successful with soft AC in the Cape market?

 

[radioskeptic]

A question for Eli Polonsky:

Why didn't you buy your mother an internet radio instead of an "HD" radio?

With an internet radio, she could listen to the streams of WQXR, WFMT, WRR, WCPE, KING-FM and many others from all over the country, and abroad.

And the audio quality of a 64k web stream is much better than that of an HD-2 -- which is, at best, 48k, and more likely 32k, and which uses Iniquity's inferior proprietary codec (and no, the "n" in "Iniquity" is not a typo!).

And an internet radio need not be tethered to your modem if you have a wireless router.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

A question for Eli Polonsky:

Why didn't you buy your mother an internet radio instead of an "HD" radio?

With an internet radio, she could listen to the streams of WQXR, WFMT, WRR, WCPE, KING-FM and many others from all over the country, and abroad.

Because she doesn't want to listen to all those stations. She had been a listener of classical on WGBH/WCRB for decades, and she wanted to continue to listen to them. She doesn't want more choices. She simply wanted to hear the local station that she's familiar with and enjoys clearly without static and fading, which was no longer possible on analog radio in her location since the WGBH format change, but is possible on WGBH HD-2.

And the audio quality of a 64k web stream is much better than that of an HD-2 -- which is, at best, 48k, and more likely 32k...

My mom is not an audiophile. She has always listened on table radios, portable radios, and a small bookshelf stereo, in the background of her activities at home. The audio quality of WGBH HD-2 is fine for her. At 82 years old, I doubt that the upper frequency range of her hearing is still acute enough to tell that difference.

 

[jlehmann]

What if WCRB purchased WQRC, 99.9 down in Barnstable? WQRC's power could be reduced to allow for WCRB to move from 99.5 to 99.7FM with their transmitter moving closer to Boston. Spacing requirements for WPLM would not be as much of an issue as they are at 99.5, being the same as those of WBZFM. WCRB would also would have work out an arrangement to move WEAN's frequency from 99.7 to 99.5. Would that be possible?

WCRB is owned by WGBH. Would they want to purchase this commercial station on the Cape? Would the owners want to sell WQRC? Isn't it quite successful with soft AC in the Cape market?

WQRC has been a Hot AC for a few years now, but is still doing well. The same company also owns 107.5 WFCC, 104.7 WOCN, and 103.9 WKPE. I hardly doubt they'd sell 99.9.

 

[HHH]

How about Harvard's WHRB (95.3) which runs Classical music weekdays from 1PM to 10PM, some on Saturday, and Sundays 1PM to midnight? The station broadcasts from an antenna right in downtown Boston.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

How about Harvard's WHRB (95.3) which runs Classical music weekdays from 1PM to 10PM, some on Saturday, and Sundays 1PM to midnight? The station broadcasts from an antenna right in downtown Boston.

In the case of my mom, she is, in general, not a fan of opera, which WHRB sometimes plays. Though I'm not much of a classical listener myself, I understand that there's very little opera in the regular weekday format of WCRB//WGBH HD-2.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

How about Harvard's WHRB (95.3) which runs Classical music weekdays from 1PM to 10PM, some on Saturday, and Sundays 1PM to midnight? The station broadcasts from an antenna right in downtown Boston.

In the case of my mom, she is, in general, not a fan of opera, which WHRB sometimes plays. Though I'm not much of a classical listener myself, I understand that there's very little opera in the regular weekday format of WCRB//WGBH HD-2.

To be precise" there is NO opera on WCRB. Not many people know it, but many composers of symphonic, choral and operatic music have also written songs. On Friday last, WCRB played two songs by Gabriel Faure, a lesser-known composer whose most famous piece is a setting of the Roman C

 

[Laurence Glavin]

The crazy computer wouldn't let me add more lines to a 'quote' than the post above, and immediately went to the board with what I had written. As I was saying, WCRB on Friday (11/26) played two songs by Gabriel Faure, a lesser-known composer most famous for his setting of the Roman Catholic Mass of the Dead, usually called Requiem. Songs by Franz Schubert, a composer who is sometimes confused with Schubert: Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms are frequently played on WCRB now. These are usually short, and with piano accompaniment. Songs with orchestral accompaniment by Gustave Mahler also appear, as well as some French-language songs by Joseph Cantelolube, called Songs of the Auvergne (pronounced Oh-Vairn). Once in a while, WCRB will play an aria or ensemble (duet, trio, etc) from an opera, usually very popular ones.

 

[Don Juannn]

How about Harvard's WHRB (95.3) which runs Classical music weekdays from 1PM to 10PM, some on Saturday, and Sundays 1PM to midnight? The station broadcasts from an antenna right in downtown Boston.

In the case of my mom, she is, in general, not a fan of opera, which WHRB sometimes plays. Though I'm not much of a classical listener myself, I understand that there's very little opera in the regular weekday format of WCRB//WGBH HD-2.

To be precise" there is NO opera on WCRB. Not many people know it, but many composers of symphonic, choral and operatic music have also written songs. On Friday last, WCRB played two songs by Gabriel Faure, a lesser-known composer whose most famous piece is a setting of the Roman C

I thought I head some opera this Morning (Sunday) around 10:30? Or was it some other choral thing that is not considered opera?

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto) and musical score.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

How about Harvard's WHRB (95.3) which runs Classical music weekdays from 1PM to 10PM, some on Saturday, and Sundays 1PM to midnight? The station broadcasts from an antenna right in downtown Boston.

In the case of my mom, she is, in general, not a fan of opera, which WHRB sometimes plays. Though I'm not much of a classical listener myself, I understand that there's very little opera in the regular weekday format of WCRB//WGBH HD-2.

To be precise" there is NO opera on WCRB. Not many people know it, but many composers of symphonic, choral and operatic music have also written songs. On Friday last, WCRB played two songs by Gabriel Faure, a lesser-known composer whose most famous piece is a setting of the Roman C

I thought I head some opera this Morning (Sunday) around 10:30? Or was it some other choral thing that is not considered opera?

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto) and musical score.

They may have some different specialty programming on Sundays. I was talking about their usual weekday format.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

According to 995all-classical.com's playlist for November 28th, at about 10:30 am they played a song by Gustav Mahler, followed by his Fourth Symphony. The last movement of this work features a vocal solo for soprano over orchestral accompaniment.

 

[Dick's History]

How about Harvard's WHRB (95.3) which runs Classical music weekdays from 1PM to 10PM, some on Saturday, and Sundays 1PM to midnight? The station broadcasts from an antenna right in downtown Boston.

As a former WGBH as well as WCRB listener, I would say right now WHRB has the most interesting Classical Music selections in the area. As well as good jazz earlier in the days. WCRB was once a superb station but became sort of humdrum after c. 1993, well before the WGBH/WSSH deals. They currently have some good stuff on but driving around yes it does in certain places cut out or disappear which is a disappointment. But I thank God I was able to enjoy them all as long as I did. There were some very dedicated people running those stations once upon a time. and really for many years. I miss all of them. Ted Jones, Dave MacNeil et al. I swear I can remember the latter broadcasting football games live on WCRB AM many years ago.