worst terrain?

[bobdavcav]

Question for the engineers on this board, what do you think is the market that has the worst terrain for fm? I'd have to nominate my own market, Seattle-Tacoma. On channel boosters don't work here, and there's multipath from hills all over the place, but very little room for translators. I've also heard San Francisco, Denver, and Salt Lake City are pretty bad, but with the exception of Denver, don't those markets use boosters and make them work pretty well?

 

[frankberry]

San Francisco is really bad. That's why AM ratings are high in the SF market.

 

[davideduardo]

Question for the engineers on this board, what do you think is the market that has the worst terrain for fm?

If you mean by "market" the Nielsen Metro Survey Area, the absolute worst is Puerto Rico.

The entire 100 mile by 35 mile Island is s single market. It takes a minimum of 3 full FMs to cover it all, even with the help of translators.

Terrain is very rugged, with only the narrow coastal areas and the Turabo Valley being relatively flat.

 

[semoochie]

San Francisco used to be absolutely abysmal! You had to keep changing stations. I don't remember having that problem in Seattle but I haven't been up there very much since everyone moved to Cougar and West Tiger.

 

[davideduardo]

San Francisco is really bad. That's why AM ratings are high in the SF market.

True. While in just slightly smaller Houston, AM listening is about 9%, in San Francisco it is 17%.

Houston = flat
San Francisco =//= flat

 

[bobdavcav]

Re: Seattle
No, I don't think Seattle has ever had that problem, but there's really no place to transmit from in the market where you don't have multipath from hills. David, that's an interesting point about Puerto Rico. How much of that is size and how much is terrain? What do you think is the worst on the mainland?

 

[bossbill]

When I worked in Seattle some 40 years ago, my prediction was that FM would never work in Seattle due to the hills. Okay, I miscalculated.