90.5 "The Night" WBJB Question...

[mdamico23]

Hi Folks,

I was reading on another board that WFUV/90.7 in New York City is contemplating adding IBOC and adding separate programming if and when their IBOC service begins. If WFUV were to go IBOC would this impact the signal of WBJB/90.5 "The Night" in Lincroft, NJ? I've heard people complain alot about IBOC on adjacent channels, so I am wondering if this would have any impact in 90.5's service area, especially to the north? If it does, it would mean more of a contraction for WBJB's signal where a decade ago, you could hear it almost all the way down to the City of Brotherly Love, before they lowered their antenna (or power, forget which one) to focus more on Monmouth County.

-Mike

 

[nd2023]

> Hi Folks,
>
> I was reading on another board that WFUV/90.7 in New York
> City is contemplating adding IBOC and adding separate
> programming if and when their IBOC service begins. If WFUV
> were to go IBOC would this impact the signal of WBJB/90.5
> "The Night" in Lincroft, NJ? I've heard people complain alot
> about IBOC on adjacent channels, so I am wondering if this
> would have any impact in 90.5's service area, especially to
> the north? If it does, it would mean more of a contraction
> for WBJB's signal where a decade ago, you could hear it
> almost all the way down to the City of Brotherly Love,
> before they lowered their antenna (or power, forget which
> one) to focus more on Monmouth County.
>
> -Mike
>
Obviously if an adjacent station gets IBOC, the station will drown in IBOC hash. It usually leads to a retaliation in which the station being interfered with gets IBOC. 90.5 The Knight is a high school station in Flemington, NJ. There is another station also on 90.5 in Monmouth county.<P ID="signature">______________
17-year-old radio geek
Location: Princeton Junction, NJ
AIM: KewlDude471</P>

 

[Spozate900]

> Hi Folks,
>
> I was reading on another board that WFUV/90.7 in New York
> City is contemplating adding IBOC and adding separate
> programming if and when their IBOC service begins. If WFUV
> were to go IBOC would this impact the signal of WBJB/90.5
> "The Night" in Lincroft, NJ? I've heard people complain alot
> about IBOC on adjacent channels, so I am wondering if this
> would have any impact in 90.5's service area, especially to
> the north? If it does, it would mean more of a contraction
> for WBJB's signal where a decade ago, you could hear it
> almost all the way down to the City of Brotherly Love,
> before they lowered their antenna (or power, forget which
> one) to focus more on Monmouth County.
>
> -Mi


90.7 WFUV already is IBOC. WFUV shouldn't be a problem in Monmouth County.

 

[mcmannors]

>>90.5 The Knight is a high school station in Flemington, NJ. There is another station also on 90.5 in Monmouth county.<<


You are incorrect, my good man. 90.5 "The Night" is WBJB in Lincroft, N.J. (owned by Brookdale Community College) which is in **Monmouth County**. 90.5 in Flemington is WCVH, which is owned by Hunterdon Central High School.

 

[radiogmars]

As the engineer responsible for the power change AND for testing IBOC at WBJB-FM "The Night" with lucent back in the 90's, let's see if I can answer a few questions.

1. The Power issue - yes back in the 90's you could hear WBJB almost to Philly - but you couldn't hear them in Colts Neck (the next town over). That's because WBJB was pumping 11 KW ERP into the swimming river reservior - actually from about a 160 high antenna but most of it went into the ground. FM being a "line of sight" signal, we couldn't get over the little hills and valleys and cover our county (Remember - Brookdale Community College - The County College Of Monmouth is the license holder). That Signal you were hearing down in Philly was way outside of our licensed "protected" contour, and, today, would be killed by the new LPFMs and and other stations that have squeezed in between the protected contours over the last few years (Let's ehar it for diversity). Because we are short-spaced with Ch 6 in Philly and WFUV in NY, WBJB could not increase it's power and thus increase it's contour coverage and provide a better signal into the local area. But it could go up higher on the stick and reduce power. This would provide better coverage in it's "protected license" area getting over the hills and knolls while reducing operating costs (less electricty/less cooling needed). Yes, WBJB lost some "fringe" coverage but that coverage had never been protected anyway. If you look at all the new Stations in the area (1st adjacent, 2nd adjacent, etc) it's doubtful you'd be hearing us there anyway now if we didn't change. Drive the Parkway and hear 90.7 Manahawkin come slamming over the top of WBJB - and that was before the power change! Doesn't matter now or then - it was outside the protected contour.

Now, IBOC. One of the reasons Lucent chose WBJB for intital IBOC testing was exactly for the reason you're asking about. Would there be a problem with WFUV being so close? A lot of testing was done and I can assure you there is no problem with IBOC, WFUV and WBJB. In fact, WBJB is already broadcasting in IBOC and I believe so is WFUV. In any case, were an HD signal to interfere with a "protected" ANALOG license contour, that IBOC station would have to cease operations until it was fixed. By rule, the HD signal can go no further than the licensed FM signal. So if the analog isn't causing a problem neither will the HD - unless there's something wrong with the HD transmission system.

Now - that licensed signal (or protected contour as I call it) is not the distance you go from the station unitl you can't recieve the station anymore. It's the point on the map the FCC has said "this is as far as the protected signal will go." Yes, the signal may actually go further, and in fact often does - but outside that contour that the FCC set it's not protected from interference.

Hope that helps.

George Marshall
CE
Z100 NYC

 

[westlife]

> In any case,
> were an HD signal to interfere with a "protected" ANALOG
> license contour, that IBOC station would have to cease
> operations until it was fixed.

Tell that to Philadelphia's 95.7 WBEN-FM, whose IBOC signal is hashing all over 95.5 WPLJ, well within WPLJ's protected service contour. Try listening to WPLJ in the western half of Bridgewater, NJ, for example. Despite Bridgewater being much closer to NYC than it is to Philly, all you get on 95.5 is a loud, constant hiss from WBEN-FM's IBOC sideband, even on a highly selective car radio which would have no problem separating these two stations if they were both transmitting plain analog FM. And you can expect WPLJ's ratings in Trenton to continue to plummet, as WBEN-FM's IBOC signal totally murders WPLJ throughout that area -- as do all of the Philly IBOC stations transmitting adjacent to NYC stations.

On both AM and FM, IBOC is a mess, and it will end up hurting the big stations just as much as it does the small ones.

<P ID="signature">______________

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