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1030 WBZ DX reports

R

radiojay1

Thanks to everyone for replying to my last topic, but now I am curious about WBZ's daytime coverage. Their transmitter is located a few miles east of Boston, in the peninsula town of Hull, which is mostly surrounded by ocean water. Can I get some daytime DX reports of WBZ from anyone along the east coast, or in eastern Canada along the coast? Also I am curious how far inland, the WBZ signal can reach. Thanks
 
I've heard WBZ at high noon as far west as Albany and as far east as the Confederation Bridge between New Brunswick and PEI.

When I worked there, we regularly heard from listeners all along the Maine coast and up into New Brunswick and western Nova Scotia.
 
Raider57 said:
Ive heard you can receive WBZ along the Jersey Shore, but fades as you shortly get inland
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Yes, I'm one of those who personally has heard that first hand. Once you reach the mainland after crossing the causeway from Long Beach Island, it's completely gone.
But right on the beach in Beach Haven, it was a decent signal. Of course, that was in the 80s. Don't know if there are now closer stations on 1030 that could jam the frequency.

For what it's worth, I can often hear WBZ here in Tampa at night in the background of whatever Spanish station rules that frequency.
 
I can confirm WBZ on a car radio in New York City, but that was years ago before they started messing with IBOC. I suspect their daytime coverage is degraded - they used to be all over Texas at night once KCTA shut down, and you could null KTWO Casper. Ever since they started IBOC - nothing. Spanish language chatter and traces of KTWO.
 
I hate IBOC spill over. Can't they just let AM alone so we can hear it as it was meant to be and concentrate all that High Def stuff on FM and TV where it belongs?
 
As a teenager in August 1964, I snagged WBZ on a GE clock radio in a hotel room in Flagstaff, AZ. Surprisingly good signal.

As far as "inland" reception goes. I normally start picking it up on a car radio shortly after getting onto the Mass Pike from the NY state line. This doesn't take into account winter daytime skip, when it's a fairly regular catch in eastern Ontario and Quebec.

As for current nighttime signal...IBOC and all....I'm two miles from WNVR's stick, and hear 'BZ underneath all the time. (That is, whenever WNVR decides to broadcast at night).

"Awake in the morning, swingin' all day, and alive at night! That's the bright exciting sound of tomorrow. W (snap) B-Z, radio (snap) 1-0-3"
 
I once heard WBZ clearly at night from Park City, UT - under KTWO - in 1987.

As for groundwave, I have heard it during the day along the southern Jersey shore in Longport. However, I had the same experience as gar fla in that it was lost when I crossed from that barrier island to the mainland at Somers Point. It comes in quite well along the Maine mid coast region during the day and well eastward from there. Inland, it's audible into western CT and the Albany, NY area and at least to the White Mountains but not too far beyond those areas. Poor ground conductivity in those inland areas.

My bet is that you could hear it during the day in Yarmouth, NS but I have never been there to confirm that. They do have a great signal.
 
WBZ used to be a regular, albeit weak, daytime catch in Floral Park, NY, Long Island, just over the border from Queens. IBOC hash from WINS 1010 has, unfortunately, snuffed out the daytime signal here.
 
One early winter evening in 1965 I turned on my small five transistor portable radio tuned to a local daytimer on 1020 kHz, now off.

I heard a weak New Mexico station and sideband splash from a station on an adjacent channel.

I tuned up to 1030 and heard the end of a commercial, two gentlemen finishing up their show

and IDing loud and clear as " WBZ, Boston". It was the start of a great DX night. ( here in Los Angeles )
 
I have picked-up WBZ in the Detroit area in the daytime on several occasions - most recently several weeks ago. Station sounded a little fuzzy but you could hear what was being broadcast. There was some fade in and out.
 
Wthom100 said:
I have picked-up WBZ in the Detroit area in the daytime on several occasions - most recently several weeks ago. Station sounded a little fuzzy but you could hear what was being broadcast. There was some fade in and out.
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Unless the 5000-watt daytimer on 1030 in the Detroit area (WUFL Sterling Heights) has gone silent, that seems unlikely.

I have some tapes from the mid-90s of WUFL signing off, with a rock-solid WBZ coming in right behind it as soon as the carrier dropped, though.
 
Wthom100 said:
I have picked-up WBZ in the Detroit area in the daytime on several occasions - most recently several weeks ago. Station sounded a little fuzzy but you could hear what was being broadcast. There was some fade in and out.
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From hearing all the various reports of daytime land catches, I'm starting to think that winter time DXing in those northern areas almost always involves some skywave activity no matter what time of day it is. When I first discovered DXing as a kid near Philly, I noticed I could sometimes get WKBW Buffalo in the daytime too, though not nearly as good as the night time signal.
 
In the last 20 years, during the winter, I've heard WBZ two or three times mid-day (within an hour of noon) here in Lexington, KY. As a teenager in Southern California in the early 1960's, WBZ was a nightly regular with WLS, WHO, KDKA and many others. All the Chicago Class 1-A CCs were regulars in California back then (WMAQ, WGN, WBBM). Then, for some reason, The FCC decided to clutter up the AM band and DX like that is really tough these days.
 
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