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WKDN 950

B

Big Weed

Family Radio on the am . I admit it, I do listen to them at night sometimes . I live northeast 10 /12 miles as the crow flies from the towers and post sunset, it’s weak . It never used to be this way. When they were 95pen’ ( remember Mike St. John); and then sports , their signal fanned out pretty good . Driving up the New Jersey Turnpike a few years ago and it was still coming in near New Brunswick Exit . Jersey, Trenton , and the outlying suburbs now are a lost cause . It’s still strong during the day, though .
They can’t have that many listeners and since they rely on donations I wonder how it’s possible that they’re still on . Maybe Oakland Corporate keeps it afloat . Or maybe they do carry their weight . The Quiet Hours is actually pretty good if you want to be jolted out of your daily stressful lives . I realize it’s not everyone’s taste and it’s not always mine , but there it is...
It would be nice to have one am rocker in this town though .
 
They have a construction permit to drop the nighttime transmitter site and only run 650 watts nights from the daytime site, maybe it happened? Going from 21,000 watts to 650 watts would surely be a coverage hit, but probably made sense financially over running two transmitter sites.
 
Big Weed said:
Family Radio on the am . I admit it, I do listen to them at night sometimes . I live northeast 10 /12 miles as the crow flies from the towers and post sunset, it’s weak . It never used to be this way. When they were 95pen’ ( remember Mike St. John); and then sports , their signal fanned out pretty good . Driving up the New Jersey Turnpike a few years ago and it was still coming in near New Brunswick Exit . Jersey, Trenton , and the outlying suburbs now are a lost cause . It’s still strong during the day, though .
They can’t have that many listeners and since they rely on donations I wonder how it’s possible that they’re still on . Maybe Oakland Corporate keeps it afloat . Or maybe they do carry their weight . The Quiet Hours is actually pretty good if you want to be jolted out of your daily stressful lives . I realize it’s not everyone’s taste and it’s not always mine , but there it is...
It would be nice to have one am rocker in this town though .
Click to expand...


An AM rocker.. what decade are you living in? LOL
 
650 watts yeah that sounds about right. Used to be 45000 days and 20000 nights .
I sent them an email about a year ago asking about it, never heard back. There were nights I was getting Carlisle at 96 .
And RadioGuy , I AM. stuck in the 70’s . But you know I probably wouldn’t listen lol. I remember WIBG the week it was shutting down and I was driving home from Harrisburg . I didn’t even have it on . But I should have .
 
I was going to ask about those two separate transmitter sites until DXingRadio pulled up the issue.

As the older WPEN and as the newer WKDN, that facility was *never* going to be able to send any signal west- or northwest at night. And if I believe right, during the nighttime WPEN's Standards audience would have been domiciled in those nulled directions. WWJ Detroit already owned that turf.

650 watts omni from one stick sounds doable. I believe WPEN got like a 5.0 share in the ratings around 1989 without having any signal in those directions.

* * * * * * *

And what's with this 'reply to thread' and 'post quick reply' hangup? That's a recent development. I had to enter the button for 'reply with quote' this time.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
650 watts omni from one stick sounds doable. I believe WPEN got like a 5.0 share in the ratings around 1989 without having any signal in those directions.
Click to expand...

Diary survey, and almost all listeners over 50. Those same listeners are now over 80 if they are even here.
 
My point was, David, that the Standards station WPEN *did* have that high share -- back when the listeners were sixty. That's a distinct measure of success even if the directionally-excluded nighttime audience was watching 'Murder She Wrote' or 'Matlock'.

The diary method certainly had its quirks. For example, how would Howard Stern show up with the PPM? We'll never know, because he left terrestrial before the PPM methodology. Yet, as clumsy as the diary method was, the playing field was somewhat levelled for every station.

Long Island's WHLI underwent the same rollercoaster plunge. Things started to go permanently down the tubes when WHLI's PD Dean Anthony passed away, and when WPEN's Joe Niagara passed. Both those greats did afternoon drive. Anecdotally, I'm a rock-and-rolling 60's punk, yet I thought that WPEN's presentation and that of WHLI was appealing. The afternoon-drive shows at those stations were crammed with commerce and activity. WHLI was a strict 'daytimer', too, much like the full-time WPEN was, in effect.

All I'm saying it that 'WKDN's' newer 650 watt signal at night is not a factor and never will be. So why not cut back on the light bill?
 
I just happened to be coming back from the shore yesterday , heading through Pemberton toward Burlington . It was 820 , still daylight and I hit the station . It came in strong. I was crossing the Burlington Bristol when the transmitter cut out for a second at 830. Little difference in the signal strength afterward . So I don’t know what they’re pushing out .
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
650 watts omni from one stick sounds doable.
Click to expand...
WKDN's construction permit for a 650-watt nighttime signal is not omnidirectional. It is 3-tower directional with a deep null towards WWJ.

But it's not aimed as much like a blowtorch towards the southeast like the 21 kW signal from their separate 4-tower nighttime site, so it is possible that some areas towards the north and west might see some minor improvement in nighttime reception, despite the large reduction in output power.
 
Did WKDN give up on reducing their nighttime power to 650 watts? They were granted a construction permit for the change in 2018, but they never applied for a license to cover before it expired in January 2021. So they're still currently licensed for 21 kW nighttime with the separate transmitter site for it.
 
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