I was in my car last night. It was well past sunset - around 7:00 p.m.. WDGY was still on air and broadcasting in HD. Any ideas why?
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WDGY AM HD
- Thread starter pattywells
- Start date
Most likely an error in the "timing" setting or clock on the transmitter controller. There is no additional revenue from such an error so most likely they don't know it's happening. In fact it is costing them extra on their electric bill. If you notice it again, to them a favor, contact them on their web site, app or an old fashioned phone call. They should thank you.
WDGY broadcasts on 740 AM, a Canadian clear channel frequency reserved for CFZM Toronto (formerly CBL). WDGY is a daytimer. 5,000 watts by day but it's supposed to go off the air at night. However, it has two translator stations, so the programming continues around the clock on FM. But the AM frequency shouldn't be broadcasting at night to avoid interference with Toronto.
I wonder why WDGY never got a direction pattern like 1010 (also Canadian clear) in NYC has away from Canada 24 hours a day.
That station did not exist prior, IIRC, to 1983. WINS goes back to the 1920's, and it got to share its frequency through the international negotiations with the NARBA nations going back to the 30's and 40's.
By the time the current WDGY was granted, night operation on Canadian clears was pretty much frozen. And today, even if granted, building a useful directional system that would cover the market while protecting a bunch of heritage 740 operations is not going to be financially feasible.
The bigger distinction is this: 740 in Toronto was a class I-A clear, which means it's protected from interference to its skywave signal out to the 0.5 mV/m contour. I don't believe there's any way, even with a DA, to protect CFZM from interference at night from a 740 in Minneapolis with anything more than the most minimal power.
CFRB had lower status to begin with, and still does. And WINS was a very special case in the NARBA negotiations, with the US and Canada carving out a deal that allowed it to be a full-time on 1010 instead of a daytimer on 1000, which is where it first landed in 1941.
CFRB had lower status to begin with, and still does. And WINS was a very special case in the NARBA negotiations, with the US and Canada carving out a deal that allowed it to be a full-time on 1010 instead of a daytimer on 1000, which is where it first landed in 1941.
Thanks for the more detailed and specific explanation.
For Mr Secondchoice,, it is very important to know the history of a station and frequency.
Why does one of America's oldest AMs, the university's station in Madison, WI, remain a lower power daytimer after 102 years, while Nevada got three 50,000 watt fulltime stations around 50 years more recently?
Or why did the magnificent KFSB on 540 in San Diego, with a great signal on the "best" AM frequency available have to move up the dial to 760 with lesser coverage?
There are no one-size-fits-all explanations to many of the differences in frequency, power and hours of operation and Scott's explanation is one of the situations that can affect stations.
My favorite restriction is the one where Canada has permanently closed a number of full "clear" channel stations, yet maintains international notification of them. So US stations restricted by those allocations must still protect stations that don't exist! Example: Moncton on 1070.
I didn't realize 1010 had a "convoluted" history. I guess there wasn't enough pull for somekind of "deal" for the Twin Cities.
The dissenting of 1070 between Birmingham, Chattanooga and Greenville SC (each with 50 kw daytime) shows what engineers without computers could do 60 or 70+ years ago with the aid of really bad soil conductivity. I just wonder about any directional daytime AM.
IMHO If you are going to spend big bucks for a directional plant you should be able to get 24 hour service. Hopefully the original owners paid their investment back with intrest
The dissenting of 1070 between Birmingham, Chattanooga and Greenville SC (each with 50 kw daytime) shows what engineers without computers could do 60 or 70+ years ago with the aid of really bad soil conductivity. I just wonder about any directional daytime AM.
IMHO If you are going to spend big bucks for a directional plant you should be able to get 24 hour service. Hopefully the original owners paid their investment back with intrest
Yes, I heard the same thing. I live in Minnetonka. I also noticed that the AM signal was sort of in and out for a few seconds every couple of minutes. It made my wife crazy so she forced me to turn it off. I wish the Borgen family could buy a 24 hours AM signal in the area for WDGY. I don't know if Salem is selling any of their frequencies - but I sure would like to see 980 as WDGY.
I can get the Canadian 740 on my Realistic AM receiver most nights after 8 PM in the winter. It used to be known as ZOOMER RADIO - not sure about today.
I'm sure most of the listening is via the FM translators. The 740 signal was never even close to successful in its entire 41 year history. But they seem to be doing well after adding the translators and the HD2 on KTMY.
Unless the 740 5kw signal strength allows a translator with 60 db more than 25 miles, from the AM tower(s), I am surprised that they haven't downgraded to a 1 KW or less signal one tower closer to down town Minneapolis or their COL and sold some land. 740 is a relatively lower frequency with long wave length multiples bound to be a decent amount of real estate at their site
Some AM radio listeners think "If a station is hundreds of miles away, another station on its frequency here won't cause much problem." Just try listening to 1010 or 1050 at night around Upstate New York and New England.
Some nights you'll hear WINS and WEPN in New York. Some nights you'll hear CFRB and CHUM in Toronto. And most nights, the Toronto stations and the New York stations will be fighting it out with nobody a clear winner. All four stations got authorized for 50,000 watts, despite the two cities being only 400 miles apart.
As David says, the NARBA pact and other subsequent agreements weren't perfect. As with all human endeavors, there was politics involved. Some owners had better lawyers or elected officials who could influence the outcome. (Apparently nobody was making a case for WHA Madison, WEW St. Louis, WDZ Decatur and KUOM Minneapolis--originally WLB, some of the oldest stations on the dial that remain days-only or with minimal nighttime power.)
And in some cases, engineers only knew so much about the nature of radio waves and how they travel.
I believe each of the intended markets for 1010 and 1050 are being served with decent signals 24 hours a day.
After Television:
Skywaves lost a lot of value.
Another station that didn't have legal and lobbyist help was 990 in Knoxville TN.
You'd be surprised. Remember, the issue isn't what happens outside each market. It's what skywave interference incursion from outside the market does to an in-market signal at the edges of the signal.
This is why Westinghouse spent a LOT of money in the 1990s to improve WINS. It really didn't do well at all across a large swath of northern New Jersey (Bergen County, especially) and up into Rockland County NY, areas that are squarely within the NYC radio market, and this was a time before streaming or FM simulcasts were available to make up for a bad AM signal.
By purchasing and shutting down 1010 in Little Rock and moving WRNJ from 1000 to 1010 in western NJ, and by renegotiating interference with CFRB, both WINS and CFRB were able to let out their directional patterns to provide a more solid groundwave signal over more of their own home markets. The result, ironically, is that there's more interference between the markets, but neither WINS nor CFRB care how they sound in Rochester or Syracuse or Binghamton.
Even so, WINS is still difficult to hear really well in Rockland County, which is right along that line between the WINS site in NJ and the CFRB site west of Toronto.
So, no, WINS still doesn't serve all of the NYC market with a "decent signal," which was part of the motivation to add 92.3 to the mix.
So amazing that WINS took silent a station in Little Rock, more than 1000 miles away, to improve its signal. And I'm sure you meant that WRNJ relocated from 1000 to 1510. WINS didn't want another AM station one spot away on the dial in Dover NJ.
It's true, WINS and CFRB don't care how they sound in Syracuse. But as you said, WINS cared about how it sounded in Rockland County. And I'm sure CFRB cared about how it sounded in Oshawa.
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I believe WINS was programmed for New York City (Maybe not by choice). They survived. WCBS's 50kw non directional covering the whole market didn't. One could assume the outlying counties population wasn't enough to offset the City. The FM didn't happen until recently. Didn't some one recently try all news on FM in NewYork and it failed.
Distant reception of AM stations declined not so much due to TV but more to the huge increase in stations on the air after WW II. Places that had no station and depended on distant reception suddenly had local stations, often several of them.
WHUB (at that time 250 watts on 1400) claimed to have a sponcer in Arkansas in 1940.
There were multiple stations on 1400 in the way between TN and Arkansas.